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Feb 6th 2006
Finally managed to get all my pics on - took me 2 hours so far but all done now! so ud better all have a look!
So after my adventures on Fraser Island I headed futher up the east coast to 1770, its not actually a town itself - the town is Agnes Waters, 1770 is a peninsula about 7km long and 2km wide. It was the 2nd place on the east coast that Capt Cook stopped at and so thats why its called that! It has bustard bay on one side and the pacific on the other, there are only 80 residents in 1770 and 110 houses!! The two places are right next to each other and are described as queenslands best kept secret!! Kinda like byron bay before it got all commercial, this place is totally chilled out and relaxed and just so unspoilt it was great!! The hostel i stayed at Cool Bananas i would recommend to anyone! It is the most relaxed and welcoming place I have ever stayed at, I can see how people decide to stay for a while! Theres lots to do too, surfing, kayaking, acrobatic flights and the famous scooter-roo tours where u go up in the mountains and round the bay on a litlle scooter or mini harley and its all so so cheap too! A few of us did the walk from Agnes to 1770 along the beach, word of warning, its a long way before u get to the pub at the other end!
After a couple of days relaxing there it was time to head up to Kroombit Cattle Station where we would stay for the night. Its in the middle of absolutely nowhere!!! The bush range surrounding the station is huge, a plane crashed there in the 1940's and it took them 49 YEARS to find it, thats how big and dense the bush is!!! The ranch itself was as you'd expect, smelly dirty and full of bugs and real cowboys! Pretty cool retreat and touch of real aussie bush life! We were given the option of horse riding for a couple of hours to help muster up the horses and goats, i was a bit scared, dont like horses but gave it a go!! It was ok but i was happier when i got off the horse and it was pretty cool rounding up all the animals and getting them into their pens!
After that it was time for the goat rodeo where, in teams of 3, someone was the catcher, someone the milker and someone the drinker, then we had to go in the pen full of goats, catch one, milk it and drink it!!! It was crazy chaos and each team was timed. Some groups had a few probs wen trying to milk only to discover theyd picked a male ..... (i'll leave it up to ur imagination!) i was the milker in our group but luckily we got a female!! it took us 1min 30secs in all which wasnt the best but not the worst! We had a group of trainee oz bus driver with us and they got into the pen to introduce themselves before getting hosed down and floured ha ha!
Then we practised lasooing before we had a go at clay pigeon shooting, the gun was almost as big as me!! I managed to do the fastest shot of the whole night out of everyone though and smashed the clay into pieces woohoo!! I missed the other 4 times but good fun, shoulder ached after tho, those guns have got some kickback!
After our big barbie dinner we we taught how to crack a whip cowboy style, i couldnt quite get mine to crack and then we all got the chance to ride the mechanical bull, people getting thrown off like rag dolls! It was a lot of fun at the ranch and a new experience for sure!
So yesterday left on 10hr bus trip (everything in oz is so far away from each other!) up to airlie beach. We had 'forest' as our driver tho and he kept us well entertained with stories, loadsa bus games, videos and we had a big bus too so all got a double seat to ourselves, cool! We crossed through the Tropic of Capricorn that separates the temperate region from the tropics, im in the tropics now, humidity here we come!! For those of u that didnt know, theres a massive cylcone due to hit towards Cairns at the end of this week and its caused absolute havoc where i am and northwards. Everywhere is really badly flooded, ive never seen anything like it. Buses couldnt move and people were getting stuck in random places for days. Its still bad now north of here and im yet to see how much its gunna effect me, been lucky so far. Next sun tho im due to go to magnetic island and u need to get off at Townsville for the ferry - this town is currently underwater and no-one can get past so have to wait and see!!!
So right now im in airlie and checking in today to do my 3 day sailing trip from tomorrow, fingers crossed we're still going, lots of trips have been cancelled cos of the weather. Its cloudy at minute but humid and we're still getting short n sharp tropical showers on and off, welcome to north queensland!
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