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5th August 2009
Friday 31st July: This morning we got up early for our day out to the Great Barrier Reef. Got some free brekky at the hostel (just toast but hey it was free) and made our way to the marina. Once we were on the boat and we were moving they warned us it was windy and the sea was rough and there were sea sickness tablets available and they had lots of sick bags if anyone needed one or a few. I’ve been travel sick plenty of times but never seasick but on the way out and on the way back I felt so awful and lots of people were out on the back throwing up, it was lovely! When were out there though it was totally worth it to see all the fishes in the sea (don’t ask me what kinds!) and the guys that worked on the boat were a great bunch and totally made the day. When I was getting into the sea with the scuba diving gear the man helping me in the water told me to name the mouth piece of the tube from the oxygen tank (I’m sure there must be a technical name!) cos it was going to be my new best friend so I named it after him. And then every time he told me to put Todd in my mouth or told me to not let Todd out of my mouth or anything similar I couldn’t help but crease up with the giggles. I know, I’m childish, but he was really yummy!! And he found it funny too.
Back at the hostel we got chatting to a couple of French Canadian girls staying in the same dorm and then later that evening they introduced us to some Italian and French backpackers. For most of the evening I was sat in the middle of two conversations, one French and one Italian and not understanding a word of either however hard I tried!
Saturday 1st August: Started out as another cloudy day and had some rain but it dried up a little bit in the afternoon so managed to spend some considerable time on the beach – hurrah! I made sure I put sun tan lotion on but should have known better than to laze on a beach cos by the evening I was very pink in the face (have a good laugh at the photo from Saturday night!) and my back was sooo painful where I hadn’t managed to reach :( the girls at work tell me that is when I should have found a hot man to put it on for me, why didn’t I think of that??!! I really should have done!! And I can’t have spent any more than an hour on the beach. Damn my pale skin.
Saturday night we joined some of the other backpackers back at the hostel for some drinks and then went into town for a few more. There is only one place that is open past midnight but it was pretty good and even though Francesca had gone to bed at this point I had a great time with the others. On the way back at 3am (kicking out time) I was guided to the bakery, nope it’s not officially open at that time of the morning but since they’re in the kitchen baking the food for the next day they leave the back door to the kitchen open and if you walk down the alley way next to the bakery to the door they sell sausage rolls and pies for the drunks on their way home – absolute genius! And I think all bakeries in England should adopt a similar policy.
Sunday 2nd August: Didn’t make it up before 9am for the free breakfast unfortunately but didn’t wake up hungover yay!!! Because the weather had been so poo the previous few days Francesca and I hadn’t planned to do anything just in case but it turned out to be really sunny. However since I had burnt on Saturday I was scouting out ever little bit of shade I could get to. I didn’t go to the beach again, but on Sunday’s Port Douglas has a market and it was full of lots of weird and wonderful things, including a stall selling coconuts carved into comical faces (again, see photo) and was a great way to spend the afternoon.
Because it had been raining on Saturday all the mosquitoes came out to play and by the end of Sunday the parts of my body that weren’t sunburnt (luckily) were bitten to death and it seems that nothing I put on them can stop me from scratching! I’m wondering why out of all the countries in the world I could have visited I decided on Australia where obviously my skin and blood will not survive the summer!
I had to go to bed early that night cos I had to be up at 3am Monday morning!!! Ahhhhh!!!! My airport transfer was at 3.15am, I made my way through all the drunks on their way back home to the bakery for breakfast, my flight got in to Brisbane at 8am and I got the train straight to work. Man that was a hard day! Francesca went straight back to Sydney that morning (though not at quite such an unreasonable hour) but hopefully I will see her again soon.
Interesting fact no 2: For every person in Australia there are 4 kangaroos!
PS if you have noticed the photos from the night out in Brisbane, yes I was very drunk, and yes I was seriously hungover the next day. I’m ashamed to say I didn’t make it out of bed until 9.20pm on Sunday! And then proceeded to do the skankiest thing and go to the newsagent in my pyjamas to get some milk and bread……
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