Round The World

The next morning on Fraser was so much better for me. I woke up feeling well, not sick, and not hungover. We all had breakfast and then loaded the truck. I offered to drive and everybody agreed. It was so much fun driving the jeep around on the sand. It was a Toyota Landcruiser which my dad has but it was driving that off road which was so much more fun.

Our first stop that day was Lake Wabbee (Probably spelled wrong) and it was a good hours drive away.

When we got there, we realised that we had to walk for another 30 mins at least to get there. The walk was across sand dunes with no vegetation and it was literally like walking through the desert. Once we got to the top of each sand dune, I had great fun throwing myself off the top and down the other side of it.

It was serioulsy hot that day and we hadn't any water with us for the walk but eventually we got there and wow.....

It was another lake completely surrounded by sand, completely fresh water and after a long walk in the sun, it was very appealing.

Everyone got in for a swim this time, and the water, though it was cold was nothing like it was in Lake McKenzie the time before. We hung around there for only a little while because we all agreed we wanted to go back and see Lake McKenzie while the weather was nice.

I drove this time aswell and this time was along the beach which was really fun aswell. Sometimes you would have to squeez through a gap in the beach before a wave came in and completely covered it up on you.

When we got there, it was a different picture from the last time. The sun was shining down and the beach was a lot more crowded than before too. The water was not as cold as the previous day but it did still take a little adjusting to. Most people got in here again for a little swimming, and it was really, really nice.

We knew we were pushed for time though as we had to catch the 4pm ferry back. Myself and J went up to prepare lunch while everyone else finished off their swimming. While we were up there, there was a dingo sitting looking at us. We had been told never to feed them so we didnt but to me they are just like your average pet dog.

We all had lunch and then it was time to hit the road but this time at speed. Emer wanted to drive but because we were so pushed for time she gave me back the keys and told me to cos she didnt wanna crash.

This trip was the best by far as we were in a huge rush to get to the ferry. J put on some music in the jeep. He chose the song Highway to Hell and when it came on we just looked at each other and I put the foot right down on the pedal. We were really flying and the jeep was sliding from side to side. The people in the back were banging their heads every couple of seconds but everyone was laughing and we all knew it was necessary at the same time.

We were not too sure of the route to the ferry and a couple of times we missed our turn and had to reverse back up the road, as they were neer big enough to actually turn around on. But we got to the ferry in the end right on time and everyone was happy.

I only had to drive onto the ferry forwards this time but I knew I would have to reverse it off when we arrived at the other side. I managed to do both without any problems and when we reached the other side, we were greeted by the man from our hostel.

I followed him back to the hostel but I have to say it was nowhere as nice driving the jeep on the normal roads as it was in the sand.

That night, we all agreed we would use the food that we had left over and all have a meal together. We needed to cook the food between 3 different rooms as the cookers were not big enough but we all sat down together, had dinner and a great laugh. We got the drinking games going after that and they were absolutely hilarious. I was even voted the best driver of the trip with Emer getting the best chef award.

We went down to the nightclub after that and fell home in the early hours of the morning. Fraser was definitely the best part of my trip down the coast, and the people we met there were really great, and the main reason the whole thing was so good.

The next morning when I woke up, I heard that Matt and his girlfriend had to go sleep in the truck because I had been snoring so bad...oops.

Then I realised why.......more bad luck had struck me.

My throat was all swollen and I was having trouble breathing. I remembered having this before and that I had to go to the doctor for antibiotics. I began to panic then. I was on this island, pretty much the middle of nowhere, and I needed a doctor.

The guys were loading the truck about to head off on the second days driving so I went to ask the Aboriginals would they drive me down to the dock to get the boat back to the island and they hesitantly agreed.

I told the other guys to go ahead and that I was going to be heading back to the mainland and I would see them when they got back. However, after they had left, the aboriginal guy cae to me and told me that I would have to pay $300 for him to bring me to the boat as the truck he had belonged to his wife and she would not let it go there for less than that due to the price of petrol and the wear and tear on the truck from driving across the island.

I could not believe it. Not only were they not going to bring me to the boat but now the other guys were gone and I was stuck at the aboriginal camp with nowhere to go.

There was another family staying further up the camp so I went to see if they could help me. They seemed a little bit strange but I hadn't exactly got a lot of options so I went up and asked the father if he could give me a lift to the dock. He asked me would the aboriginals not bring me and I told him they had agreed to bring me originally but had since changed their minds. He said he would have to talk to his wife about it and walked away.

I realised he was not walking in the same direction as his wife, but rather up to the hut where the Aboriginal (Joe) was living. When he came back he said that Joe would look after me. Joe came out to me a few minutes later and again told me that he could not bring me to the dock and that all he could do was drive me down to the beach and ask one of the passing tour buses if they were headed that direction and if they would take me with them.

I was getting seriously annoyed and upset by this point so I made my own way down to the beach. There were lots of trucks on the beach with guys fishing there but none of them wanted to take me for less than $300 either. I stopped 3 tour buses as they passed but two of them were full and the other just wouldn't take me aboard.

I was getting desperate, I could not eat with my throat all blocked and every now and then it even stopped me breathing. Panicking wasn't helping my case either im sure. I had been told before hand that planes landed on the beach too so I went looking for one of them. I eventually saw one landing and I ran over to see if the pilot would take me with him on his way back. He said that he would, but then asked for $300. I couldn't believe the money they were looking for from me, I wasn't looking for a thrill ride, I just wanted to get back to the mainland to get my throat looked after.

Completely disheartened, I went back to the camp. Joe came to me and said there was nothing else he could do but he would make me up some drink to help my throat and that I should just go and lie down. I went back to the bedroom and a few minutes later, Joe came in with the drink for me. It tasted like a lemon drink but really strong. I drank it down and fell asleep. I woke up a few hours later to the sound of a plane landing nearby and so I jumped up to go see if I could get a lift.

I never found the plane but while looking for it, I realised that my throat had gotten almost completely better. I was so much happier and I put it down to the drink Joe had given me of course. With that, I stayed down on the beach just chilling out, listening to the noise of the waves crashing and looking at the people fishing.

By this time it was after 2pm and I knew the guys would be coming back to camp fairly soon. I stayed on the beach to wait for them as I knew I would be able to see the cars turning off the beach and up towards the camp. About 30 mins later I saw them go by and so I went back up to the camp to see them.

They couldnt beleive it when i walked in on them because they all though I was long since gone. Again, they were all really nice to me and so I was then more than happy to stick out the duration of the trip. We were scheduled to go back on the 4pm boat the next day so I was determined not to waste any more of the trip.

Again, we cracked open the beers and sat around chatting. I hadn't missed much on that days driving, or so they told me but that was comforting none the less.

Another two groups of people arrived in the camp around the same time as that and they attempted to camp in the hut where we had stayed the night before. There was mattresses and everything in there. We told them that we were in there and they would have to sleep in their tents. They didnt believe us at first but then Joe made it clear that they could have the hut the following night when we were gone.

A lot of the other group were Canadians, there were some English who I had already met in Hervey Bay, but no Irish in that group. All that they had brought with them was hot dog sausages and bread. They did not buy anything else for food. That night while we were preparing our dinner, they sat around the fire cooking their hot dogs and having them on bread. We were preparing a pasta dish with chicken. We made absolutley loads of food again and had a smashing big meal. There was some left over again and we offered that to them as we knew they would still be hungry and they jumped at the offer.

After dinner, Joe and his mates came around to do their Aboriginal show. They were all dressed up and painted and everything so it was really cool. They showed us some of their native dances and the songs to go with them and then they asked us all to join in. They were singing the song that they had taught us the night before so we had an advantage over the other groups. It was hilariously funny and I still find myself singing the songs to this day.

After they left, we were all sitting around the campfire drinking. The Canadians spent the whole time telling us how much they loved drinking and were really good at it and how they were not like Americans at all. The fact that he did so much talking and shouting and was so very cocky, led me to believe they were exactly like Americans, well this group were anyway.

After all of their bragging about drinking, it was them who fell first, leaving us at around 12 midnight to reach for their beds. Carly and Mel had not joined us that night and Kevin and Michelle went to bed about 2 as well as Matt's Girlfriend, so it was just J, myself, Matt, Emer and Fez left holding the candle. We started some drinking games and had sing songs. Before we knew it, it was almost 5 in the morning and we had to leave camp by 9 the next day. I hadnt drank that much because I wasn't 100% and didnt wanna risk any more problems. Emer almost fell into the campfire that night during one of our drunken songs but thankfully she managed to fall beside it rather than into it.

Matt wanted to stay up until the others got up because he thought it would be really funny but his girlfriend came out and asked him to walk her to the toilet (which was down a long dark path) and so when he was gone, the rest of us snuck off to bed.

So, with Fraser looming, it was at this point that the group we were travelling with became good friends of mine. I hadn't got much to bring with me and so I was kind of thinking of pulling out. The Japanese guy had already gotten his money back and cancelled his trip out of frustration of bein robbed.

The group rallied round me and offered me all of their own stuff to replace mine and to help make sure I still went to Fraser. I borrowed some shorts off J and then brought two t-shirts that I had remaining (the ones i was originally leaving behind because I didnt want them to get ruined). The guys on the trip were really nice to me and encouraged me to go and im glad they did.

We still had all of the food and beers for the trip of course so all was not lost. So we all climbed aboard our 4X4 and headed for the docks.

There were only 4 people on the trip that had opted to be drivers. I was unable to drive that morning, and so the other guy, Matt, offered to do it and of course everybody accepted because nobody wants to be the first to make a mess of it. When we got to the boat he realised that he would have to reverse the jeep down a big hill and onto the boat. It certainly didnt look easy but he managed it fairly well.

While we were on the ferry, I was really feeling bad, both hungover, and now realising the extent of what had been stolen on me. Nearly everything I had was gone, and there was no way of getting it back.

The ferry arrived at Fraser, and it was back into the jeep and onward to the big adventure. Fraser Island was formed completely by sand, covered by trees, and great fun to drive on. Once we came off the ferry, the road was literally sand. There were some tracks there from cars that had gone before but that didnt stop the jeep from sliding around on it, and it was still seriously bumpy.

There were a few other cars that had gotten off the ferry ahead of us so we were mainly following them down the track until we got out on the open beach. At this point Mel was driving and had her friend Carly as the co-pilot. She done really well driving on the beach. There were areas that were completely covered with water and took a bit of skill to navigate through. Then there was the deep sand where we saw quite a few jeeps dig in and get stuck.

We did manage to get stuck at one point along the beach but we all jumped out and began to push and we were out of there in no time.

The seats in the back of the jeep were lengthways, meaning we were all sat facing each other, and the drive was so bumpy that we were literally thrown into each other and the roof, many many times.

Our first stop on the trip was Lake McKenzie. This was amazing. There was sand leading up to the water like a beach but then the water was fresh water so it was strange to see. The water was so pure here that it was drinkable and it was very easy to see to the bottom. This was a nice change from what I was used to.

Of course, I was seriously hungover so I thought the best way to handle that would be to run straight in and jump in the water, so thats exactly what I did. To my surprise, the water was unbelievably cold, so it wasn't long before I was seen running straight back out of there. I was also the first to test the tour guide's theory that the water was drinkable. It really was. Not quite a bottle of Ballygowan but better than most kitchen taps.

The weather was not so great that day so Lake McKenzie and the surrounding area did not look as impressive as we had hoped. We swam again for a little while, and noticed the cliff edge that loomed under the water there. i got a lend of some goggles and had a look. It was amazing. About 25 feet out from the start of the water, the sand formed a cliff face, leaving nothing but a drop down to about 25ft under.

It was time for lunch...There was picnic areas around Lake McKenzie so we headed up there and unloaded the truck for lunch. We had bought food for sandwhiches for our lunches so we prepared some salad, ham and turkey, and we made some sandwiches using the cheap rolls we had gotten in the shop the day before.

2 Minutes after I ate, I was sick. The beer had gotten the better of me and I couldnt hold on anymore. But the good news is that I felt great afterwards and was ready to take on the next part of the trip.

The next stop was a shipwreck called the Maheno. This was built before the Titanic in Belfast to be the fastest ship in the world but it ran aground on Fraser Island. It was pretty cool to see but most of it was lying underneath the sand and not visible to us. One of the guys on the trip, Fez, had a brilliant camera with him with a professional lens and he got some great snaps here. We then hit the road one last time to head for our overnight camp.

This was an aboriginal camp. There was lots of facilities there for us too. We had a cabin for sleeping in which was protected by mosquito nets and we had a kitchen where we could prepare our food and eat. There was even showers and toilets there for us too.

When we got there, I took the opportunity to get my head down and catch up on some overdue sleep. I was down for about an hour and when i woke up, everyone was just chatting in the kitchen so I jumped up and joined them. We sprung open some of the beers, and then made a start on dinner.

We were all gettign to know a bit about each other at this point and this is what the group consisted of:

Myslef and Jason....who you know by now
Carly and Mel, two English girls who eventually trusted us all enough to tell us that they were a couple :o)
Fez, this was a friend of Carly and Mel.
Kevin and Michelle, another couple, from Ireland.
Emer, a friend of Kevin and Michelle's.
Matt and his girlfriend (sorry, name forgotten) who were also from England but his girlfriend was living in Australia and he was just on holiday visiting her.

Everybody chipped in making dinner. We were having potatoes roasted in the open campfire, a large salad, corn on the cob (BBQ'd) and of course.....Steaks.

It was quite a feast we prepared for ourselves and there was even food left over but it was time for drinking by then..

Dessert was marshmallows toasted over the fire, and whatever alcahol you brought with you. We all gathered around the campfire with our beers, telling stories of what we had all done on our travels so far. The Aboriginals came down to talk to us for a little while and they taught us one of their songs and told us that they would be performing for us the next night when there would be another two groups of people there and that we would have to sing the song for them.

We were all pretty tired that night so by midnight everyone had filtered off to bed.

We left Rockhampton the next morning but still had a 6 hour drive ahead of us. As part of our Whit Sundays trip, we had booked a self-drive trip to Fraser Island. This consisted of two nights and three days on the island, driving a 4X4 with 8 other people, camping out at night and driving round the island during the day.

The trip included 2 nights accommodation with Fraser ESCAPE backpackers, so that was where we headed. Hervey Bay was absolutely over crowded with shops, shopping centres, and so I was expecting it to be a pretty lively town when we arrived. However, that wasn't really the case and there was onlya couple of pubs, which closed early and one night club which reminded me of a bad version of Good Time Charlies, and that really says something.

The hostel was probably one of the strangest we had seen. It was a converted caravan park, so a lot of the rooms were actual caravans, and the others were like mobile homes you would see down in Wexford and that. There was only 4 beds in the room, and we had our own bathroom and kitchen unit so that seemed ok. There was an aussie guy living in the room when we got there, and he was the skinniest guy I have ever met. He had been travelling around for a long time living off the dole, and basically eating nothing.

The first night that we were there, we headed down the beach front to find a bar for a couple of drinks. There was two bars but they closed at 10:30 and the only other place was a nightclub that opened at that time and went until 3. When we got to the nightclub, it smelled really bad so we weren'too keen on staying there. We bumped into a Scottish girl that we knew from travelling around so we stayed for a couple and then headed home for a fairly early night.

I have to add this bit here so that the story makes sense a little furhter on. In our room, there was a ocked door. We just put this down to being a closet or something, but the next day we found out that it was actually a double room, within our room but there was nobody staying in there.

The next day we had our meeting for Fraser Island. This was where we met everyone who was going to be on our trip. There was 3 couples (one lesbian, which of course we only found out while on the island)myself and Jason, and one other girl and guy. They all seemed really nice on first impressions so we were looking forward to a good trip. We all put money into a kitty so that we could bulk buy the food for the trip. We were setting off at 8 the next morning so everyone, except myself an J of course, headed to bed for an early night.

After packing our bags for the next day, we went into the bar of the hostel and had a few drinks. The bar girl in there was getting drunk herself and seemed to be a little bit crazy. She was letting everyone smoke inside the bar (which is not normal for Queensland) and she was drinking shots while she worked. She even came out to play pool against us at one point. While we were talking to some of the people in the bar, about our sky dives, they asked could they see the dvd's. We asked the bar girl if that would be ok and she agreed so I went and got the discs, and went in behind the bar to put them on. There was a mass of equipment in there and I spent ages trying to figure out how to get it working but I failed miserably. However, I was already in behind the bar at that point, so I stayed.

I had the bar girl show me how to pour proper drinks, and make cocktails. J went to bed at this point but another Irish guy stayed in the bar with me. I was making lots of different cocktails, and any one I didn't like, I just threw straight down the sink and started again. The bar girl didnt seem to care how much alcahol was getting wasted so myself and the other Irish guy were having Baby Guiness shots in between each pint.
I fell back to bed at some point in the night, not even managing to get my jeans off.

I was woken up by Jason asking me what I had done with our bags that we packed for the trip. I was so hungover, I just told him to stop messing and I rolled over and tried to go back asleep. There was a Japanese guy in our room that night too and he was part of our Fraser Trip. His bag was gone and he was really concerned. Jason suggested that maybe the people had put the bags on the truck for us, and we were all happy with that idea for a minute until the whole thing hit home.

Nobody was going to come and load the bags for us, the bags were no longer in the room, my head was absolutely pounding and thats why this all took so long to process but........

WE HAD BEEN ROBBED!!!

I got a sick feeling in my stomach then as I remembered everything I had packed for the trip. iPod, digital camera, all of my toiletries, most of my underwear, my favourite t-shirts, my brand new sandals, my medication, pretty much everything I had.

Jason ran outside, when he came back, he had his bag in his hand. I was so relieved, I then thought that they had been playing a trick on me, and that nothing had really been stolen. That just wasn't the case. Jason's bag wasn't locked so they were able to open it and see what was inside. Realising that it was just clothes, they scattered them around the caravan park and threw the bag aside. My bag, and the poor japanese guys bag, were not so lucky. The zips on our bags had been locked, and so the dirty scumbag thieves, had to take the bags away somewhere else to find out what goodies were inside.

I ran out to the reception wearing just my jeans to tell them that we had been robbed. What I was expecting was a shocked face and an Oh My God, I can't believe it moment, but what I got was......You should have locked your door, thats what we say here....Lock it or Lose it. So I demanded that they call the police. It seems they already had so I went back to the room to wait for them.

While we were waiting on the police, we started to piece together what had happened. The door to the room was locked that night so we didnt understand how we had been robbed. The secret double room that was there had to be the answer. It turned out that while we were at our meeting the day before, two guys had checked in there. Bit strange for two guys to take the double room we thought. They then checked out at 5am while the rest of us were sleeping, and on their way out, they picked up our bags and took them with them. The hostel was really crap for security and they only ever took peoples first names at the desk when they checked in and never even asked for passports.

When the police arrived, they spoke to each one of us and took down the details of what was stolen. I knew they couldnt really do anything but at the same time it still gutted me when they said, enjoy the rest of your trip, im afraid there's nothing we can do. They took our mobile phone numbers and said they would contact us if anything came up, but alas, we've not heard anything yet.

With all of this going on, there was still a major problem for me, I had no clothes.....and I had to leave for Fraser in 30 mins.

Ok, this had to be the trangest/funniest journey we had on the whole trip. It was also the start of a long run of bad luck for me. I as till kinda sick from the sailing trip, had a temperature and stuff so i was planning a nice earlly night after the drive. A fe hours into the journey. The car bgan overheating, and we had to stop. Then after about another hour, I was too tired so I passed the wheel to Jay again for a bit and I got some sleep.

He woke me up about 120k later as we needed petrol and we pulled into the next station on the route. While we were fillin the car, an aussie man came over and started talking to Jay. He asked him where we heading to Rockhampton or Rocky as he called it. This was where we had plnned to make the stop over on our trip so we told him that we were heading there. He then told us that his car had run out of gas and he needed to get there, and asked us would we towe him. We weren't about to leave him stranded in the garage, so we agreed straight away. We knew Rocky was about 120k away from where we were and it was almost getting dark out so I knew it wouldn't be easy.

When we went to tie the cars together and we realised that he didn't have a proper towe rope. All that he had was just a couple of fairly worn ropes that he had tied together. The distance between the two cars was very little when he had attached the rope. This meant that I would not be able to brake without causing him to come into the back of us. We set off from the garage and within 5 seconds, the rope snapped. He tied the two broken ends together and with that, the rope and the distance between the cars, was now smaller again. I was not totally comfortable then and it had gotten very dark very quickly, and it had even began to rain.

We managed to get going the second time and got up to 100k an hour. It was very dark on the road though and I could no longer see him in my mirror to see if he wa even gesturing at me at all. He was literally right behind us because the rope was so long so we both had to brake very gently and at the same time to try to avoid breaking the rope or colliding. As his car ran on gas,which wasn't available at every petrol station, I didnt try to stop at the next garage we drove by because I could see that they did not sell gas. He did turn however causing the rope to break violently, and scaring the cr*p out of me at the same time.

I pulled into the forecourt to see what he was doing and he went in to see if they had gas. Of course they didn't and he had now completely ruined the rope that we were using. This was when he began to tell us the long story. He had no money to his name but the 80 dollars in his wallet. He had only put 20 dollars of gas in his tank thinking it might be cheaper somewhere else on the route. Little did he know, it was unavailable at most stations along the way. We told him he would need to buy a towe rope in the garage but he didn't even want to spend the money on that which was $8. He began trying to tie up the old rope again and trying to re-use it. It was ridiculously short at this stage so it couldnt be used again and he eventually gave in and bought the rope.

This rope was a lot more stable and longer. As he was tying it up, he told us how he was on his way to Rocky for a blind date. He had posted an add in the paper, saying that he was seeking a woman and that he was 6'3", blonde hair, and blue eyes. He had received lots of responses, not surprisingly with that description, he hadn't mentioned the fact that he was in his late 40's and hadn't aged particularly well.. He was going to see two women in Rocky but had a preferred one because she had lots of money, and the other had a kid. We were getting pretty concerned about the whole thing at this stage.

It was only about another 40k to Rocky though so we told him we would towe him the rest of the way and jumped back in the car. We got there without anymore problems, although there were some scary hills and things that had me worried for little periods. We got to Rocky safe and sound though and sent him on his way. What a relief it was. We then found a motel and booked ourselves in for the night. I was so tired I fell asleep straight away, and was out for the count for the whole night.

We had two free nights accommodation in Magnum's becaus we had booked our sailing trip with them. We pretty much went straight to bed that day cos we were wrecked and not feeling very well. Our room mates this time were pretty interesting...One of them was a crazy Aussie guy and the other was a Gay German DJ. We had some interesting conversations in the room that day but by the next day we wre feeling ok and went to the bar in Magnums for a pool cometition. prize money this time was $100 and I managed to win it. The aussies really dont like losing though so there was a little bit of aggro when i did.

We were back on the road then, the next destination was Hervey Bay. That was where you stay before taking the trip over to Fraser Island. It was a very long drive though, 13 hours so we had to split it over two days. We had no idea what was ahead of us though.

Well, on the day of the trip, we were running a little late and thought we were gonna miss it, everyone else had gone on ahead and so we couldn't find the boat as there were hundreds of them there and we hadn't a clue what to look for. Eventually, after getting some directions (yes I know, men asking for directions, what next), we found it and jumped aboard. Running to catch the boat was made all that more difficult by the fact that we had 2 big cases of beers, and some other drinks too.

Knowing that we were slightly prone to sea sickness, we had already bought ourselves some sea-sick tablets in the chemist the day before and they absolutley worked a treat.

On the first day, we just headed out to where we were going to anchor for the night, as the boat only left about 4pm. After that, we had our dinner, and of course, opened some cans and started the party nice and early. There were two groups on the boat really, the Irish, and the other Europeans which included some Germans, French and an Austrian. The Irish girls were the first to crack open the beers, followed closely by myself and Jay of course. But the others were very reluctant and sat quietly in the corner talking amongst themselves. After a little while there was some mixing of people but not much. We didnt really stay up late that night but we had a good laugh with the girls so we still managed to have a good night.

Unfortunately, we were rudely awoken by the raising of the anchor the next morning, which literally was pulled up right beside our bed and made a frighteningly loud noise waking me up with fear at.....wait for it.......6am. This was not nice. After the noise had passed, I was looking forward to getting back asleep but the crew came around and dragged everybody out of their beds. Breakfast was cereal and toast and then at about 7:30 in the morning, the boat came to a stop at one of the islands. The place we were at was called White Haven Beach. We were told this was the 4th nicest beach in the whole world, and having seen it now, I would not try to argue that. It was continuous white sand as far as the eye could see, with crystal clear water. It being so early in the morning, after a quick swim, everybody just crashed on the beach and done a little sun bathing. We had about 2 hours there before we had to head back to the boat so it was really nice.

When we got back to the boat, we headed off for our next destination, which was where the diving was going to take place. We were doing another intro dive here. The beach they dropped us at was all stoney and not the most comfortable for hanging about on so we got our gear on, and got into the sea pretty much straight away. The dive was pretty amazing again, not quite as amazing as up in Cairns but we did see a lot of cool fish there too. I had a couple of panic moments on this one though as my mask filled up a few times and blinded me causing me to rush for the surface.

After the dive, we done some more snorkling, which I think is my preferred method for seeing the reef as its a lot less scary. It was cool there again and we saw lots of fish. There was a guy in a boat there throwing food around us so that the fish would come in really close to us.

After this, we set off again to where we were going to anchor for the night. Again, the Irish girls were the first to craic open the beers along with us. We had a couple of hours before dinner was served and then after dinner, the other group began to break out their beers. There was still a lot of segregation so the crew decided that drinking games was the way to sort this out. We all moved inside for a bit to the table and played a few different drinking games there. What they involved was everybody giving out a certain number of drinks to everyone else, depending on what cards you held in your hand. At first, their group kept making us drink and so we got revenge when we could, but eventually everyone warmed up to everyone else and we all got along great in the end.

Back out on deck then, the crew had a game for us to play which involved picking up a box from the ground with your mouth without using your hands at all (not even to touch the ground). Jason fell on the first attempt, and I only lasted a couple more but the crew being experts kept going for a long long time and were in the end, picking up a tiny bit of cardboard from the deck and still not even falling over. It was hilarious.

The captain had a guitar with him too and he took that out for a little while and played a few tunes for us all to sing along to. I think I probably did most of the singing, being drunk and all, I didnt really care how bad it sounded. But they all cheered in the end so it was great craic. The Irish girls had some crazy drinking songs too, some of them even had actions and they had us all up doing them, even the crew. It was so funny, boat moving, everyone pissed, and trying to do some crazy dance that we were learning for the first time.

Eventually people began drifting off to bed, it must have been after 1 at this stage and we were to be up by 7. But of course the trusty Irish didnt start wilting until about 3 or 3:30. The captain came back on deck then to see that we were ok and when he found out we had run out of beer.....no, he didnt send us to bed, he got us some more. So J went off to bed about 4 and myself and one of the other girls managed to make it until 4:30 before the eye lids got too heavy. The captain had let us put on our iPod through their speakers toward the end of the night so we got to choose whatever music we wanted to listen to and that was great too.

The next morning, we were all woken up early again, not by the anchor this time but by the crew as breakfast was served again. The weather that day was terrible. It was pouring down and the wind was really strong too. We were not looking forward to being left on a beach for a couple of hours but the crew would not let us stay on the boat as they had to clean it with acid and stuff.

So they ferried us over to another stoney beach that morning, and we all sat there hung over, with our towels wrapped around us, really not wanting to be there. A couple of people were doing another dive that day so they didnt mind as much, but the rest of us looked none too happy. Eventually, after about 40 mins, the crew began to feel sorry for us and brought us back onto the boat and into the comfort of our beds.

We headed back for port, had a spot of lunch on the boat again, but the weather was too bad to enjoy anything else that day. We got back about 2pm and everybody went their seperate ways. I then realised, I had caught a bit of a cold on the boat so ran to the chemist again before checking back into Magnums.

There was an Irish bar in Airlie Beach too of course and we drank in there a couple of nights. It was in there that we got to see Dublin throw away their chance at an All-Ireland final. The bar was pretty good and was open until 3am every night. After that it was across the road to Mama Africa's which was even later and stayed open until 5 or 6 in the morning.

This was great for us as we had been staying in quiet places before this and we really wanted a good night out. While we were staying in Magnums, we booked our trip for the Whit Sundays. It was a sailing boat called New Horizon, and it was for 3 days and two nights on board. We found out just before we left that our room mates (2 German girls) and 5 other Irish girls that we had bumped into when they were very drunk on Maggie Island were gonna be on our boat so we thought it should be good craic.

It was leaving on the Tuesday and so we had another night in Magnums where we went out with the American lad who was in our room, and got seriously smashed drunk as he was just buying and feeding the drink to us all night. After that, it was off to the Whit Sundays.

So off we went towards Airlie Beach. It was a 300k drive so we made a small stopover in a town along the way. It wasn't quite as backward as the last one we had stumbled across though and its main feature was a huge Mango, which we got a quick pic of while driving past.

I was very tired on the next leg of the trip, so it was time to call in the Stand-by driver. That's right!! It was Jayo's turn. He'd never driven before and had no licence but I was simply falling asleep so I called on him to drive. The car being automatic and the rodas being fairly wide and open, I knew he'd manage it no problem.

He drove for 120k and while he was driving, I managed to get some sleep. Unfortunately, the car overheated towards the end of our journey and we had to drive the last 20k at about 30k an hour. This annoyed quite a few motorists who had to overtake us on the way, but sure we had no choice so we just kept going.

We arrived in Airlie Beach and headed for Magnum's backpackers, which we got from the Lonely Planet book. They had rooms available and so we checked in to an 8 bed cabin with en-suite. These rooms were pretty cool, as they were fairly large and came with a fridge and own bathroom. unfortunately again, I only managed to get a top bunk...this had been a pain in the ass in the other hostels as it meant climbing up a stell ladder which really hurt, and the beds would always make loads of noise when you were trying to get into it. Thankfully though, these bunks were nice and low and you could just hop up onto it from the floor. Our room mates were two German girls and an american lad who loved Irish people because he was such a big drinker and they were the only ones that could keep up with him. We were fairly tired then, so it was off to bed for a quick nap.

So after the thrill of the jump, it was back in the car for our next trip which was to a place called Townsville. From there we were getting a ferry over to Magnetic Island. Can't even remember how long this drive was, think it might have been about 4 or 5 hours but I managed to do all the driving on this trip. We did manage to make a quick stop off on the way though for some food and we were in a small little town with some crazy people, especially the woman who served us our lunch.
On the way, we passed a National Park so we drove in there for a look. The main feature was a rock pool and waterfall. We got some cool photos in there, alas, gone forever, but we also had to put the car through some tough terrain tests. Every so often there was a ruffle in the bushes too but we werent sticking around long enough to find out what the hell was doing it. We managed to see a few small animals in there which was cool though.

We got to Townsville without any problems, it looked like a really nice place but we weren't staying there, we were just parking up and getting the evening ferry. The town was focused around the marina and there were pklenty of impresive yachts docked there. We were going to be on Maggie island for 3 nights so we were parking the car up for a while, the parking meters only took coins though so we hadn't got enough. We left a little note in the window to say we hadn't got enough coins and we begged them not to towe or clamp the car and that we would pay when we got back. A little worrying but it worked and the car was safe.

Maggie island was a really quiet place too, and the nightlife didn't exactly last long. The place we stayed at was called Base. The rooms were huts with 8 beds in them and they were fairly squashed too. The showers and toilets were communal here, and there was lockers provided in our room. We shared the room with an English couple, a Swiss girl, German girl, and some annoying Israeli people but they left on our second day. The view from the bar was pretty amazing to be honest, like something you would only see in the movies.

At night, there was always something happening in the bar, but it was never really that busy and there wasnt much else on the island to do at night. We were fairly cut off from everything too with a 30 minute walk to the nearest shop. We ventured out on our last night to see a football match in a sports bar on the island, which meant getting the bus there. We watched Liverpool beat West Ham and even picked up a Scouse season ticket holder on our way there. We knew the last bus home was 11:50 which was just as the match was ending so we ran out to get it, and it was just after pulling away. We didnt know at this point, but it was Saturday night, which is the busiest night on the island for taxis, and the best part......There was only 4 of them on the whole island. We began the long walk home on roads that were completely pitch dark, but eventually, and thank god for this, we saw a taxi picking up a couple a few hundred metres ahead of us on the road. Luckily enough, he waited for us and we all shared the cab back. The night before in Base, was a Karaoke night so that was pretty cool, but again, it all finished up relatively early by our standards.

As part of our trip we had booked snorkling gear and a kayak so we managed to kill some time on the island with these activities. The snorkling was nothing like it had been before and the reef looked colorless and dead when we were out. It was still pretty cool to be snorkling in clear water with some cool fish still on view.

After the three days, it was back on the ferry to Townsville, and off on our next adventure to Airlie Beach, 300k from where we were.