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Arrival at Airlie Beach .
After the 24h journey from Maryborough to Airlie I finally found my host Jo's boat in the Marina at Able point. On the first view the boat looked really nice and romantic but as soon as I went inside I had to find out that there was abig mess, caused by Jo's recent repairs and vanishing works. However, I just wanted to sleep and so I did until i got woken up by Jo and Georgina, another traveler and friend of jo's. After buying some beer Jo asked us to come to a hidden tropic waterfall in the forests and of course we agreed. In fact, this turned out to be a great idea! We had some delicious wraps and swam in the fresh water. Also, Jo showed me how to climb behind the waterfalls. It was amazing to feel the water stroking your head and after sitting there for a few minutes i slightly slipped away until I broke the sort of monotonous natural noise by jumping thru the falls into the water. As 4 metres were not high enough or maybe because of the beers;); anyway I wanted to go for the 20 metre jump. Splash !!! and my uncontrolled body hit the water. Unfortunately I landed on my bum, that i realised immidiately. However, the morning after it was not my bum that hurt but much more the bloody bites from the sandflies or any other buck that was in the bed I'm not quite sure. There were at least 50 bites I've never seen or felt sth. like that before and they didn't let go on me for the next 10days.
Thursday 26.01.12 AUSTRALIA DAY ! "Do you come from a land Down under ,where beer flows and men chunder!... I asked him do you speak my langugae, he just smiled and gave me a vegemite sandwich" - Men at work
A public holiday to celebrate the first settlement, which is for the Aborigines probably more a day of mourning rather than celebration. Anyway, Aussie-land is turned upside down... beer ,flags, shirts to express patriotism! In fact, I liked it especially because I had the chance to go for my first sailing adventure which was also a memorial race for a member of the surfing club that passed away 2years ago. Nevertheless, we had a great time and they even allowed me to change the sails which is indeed hard than I thoought. In the end we got second with the catamaran that is owned by scott a guy who hast the highest degree in shipping and leads the biggest ships of the world thru the reef. In the evenning we went to the surfing club where I had typical Australian sweets and took part in a Thong-throwing competition! On that party Jo introduced me to Bernie Leonie and her husband Gerald who invited us to their house the next day.
On that day I got up early and went on a ocean-rafting tour to see Whithaven beach,the Whitsundays and to go snorkeling in the reef. After avoiding all of the tourist tours so far I had to give up on that cause there is simply no other way to see the Islands unless u know someone; and Jo couldn't take me cause he had to do work on the boat. Finally,it was still too expensive but nonetheless it was a really good experience and anyway money doesn't matter when u have the chance to see the whitest beach in the world that is made of silikon which is so clear that people use it to make telescopes such as the hubble space telescope. Before going to that bech we went snorkeling which was awesome as well, but only after I found out the difference between snorkeling and diving;). However, the litres of salt water did not bring me down and I was looking forward to the nice meal at Leone's house in shute harbour. So far the day was simply amazing but there was coming next was just out of this/my world!
Villa Il Paradiso and that name is 100% justified!
Their Villa is located at the back of shute harbour hill and the view on the bay and the islands is marvelous! In addition, they have the biggest private pool I've ever seen and the food and meal was really perfect too as it was cooked by Georgina who works as a cook on ships. After the meal we sat beside the pool playing the guitar and sang songs till late. Still we did not go to bed but went into the pool listened to very nice songs from Stu Larson& Passenger and watched the shooting stars in the nightsky.!
Moving on now, I felt over the moon when they asked me to stay for 2 nights which became three in the end.Not only because of the nice house but mainly because I didn't have to sleep in a tiny bed full of bucks at 40degrees. However, I enjoyed my time on the boat and the next days were mostly chilling and swimming in the pool which is nice after the travel stress before.
Anyway I had to leave after 3 days in order to catch my flight from Cairns. So i started hitching another roughly 800ks which went quite well this time but again it became another adventure, unfortunately not a very nice one this time. As a matter of fact I got a lift till Cardwell which is 2h south of Cairns and then I was picked up by a Father and his 5 y.o son. At first they looked totally normal but then I found out he was into weed smoking. However, he was a truly friendly and kind person but when he wanted to start smoking while driving I was a little bit shocked, fortunately he did not due to my reaction. The ride went on and then something really weird and sad happened.
He stopped because of a phone call and after he came back to the car he told me that one of his best mates has just passed away. In fact, i didn't have any words for that and was totally overwhelmed...
Finally I got to Cairns save and stayed the night in a hostel. Now I hope to find a host for the last 3days in Down Under...
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