Right...3 weeks of update, here we go;

Ive been on the move quite a lot since i got to Oz, mainly for the fact that apart from the obvious tourist hot spots there isnt too much to do and see in the cities. I started in Darwin as youll know from my last blog. Initially, i got there and wondered where everyone was? its the state capital of the Northern Territiory though after 5pm everywhere was closed and the streets were deserted. It turns out though that this is a recurring theme basically everywhere but Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.

Anyways, I moved into my first dorm room of the trip and was not impressed! to be honest i dont know waht i was expecting but having arrived from bali i found myself paying twice as much to share a room with 13 other people, no lockers and not really enough room for everyones bags but you learn to live with it and compared to other places ive stayed it wasnt too bad at all.

My initial views of Darwin were right, its pretty boring for me personally. Im looking for somewhere lively with atmosphere etc but darwin just seems to be a pretty coastal town with not much to offer apart from humidity. The big attractions are the national parks which are roughly 3 hours from the town. I was due to leave with 2 english girls who had hired a car, but my haste to leave darwin turned into my downfall as there was no return bus from kakadu on sunday so i didnt actually make it there which was a shame but at least it saved some money.

Not being able to go though led me to meeting german after german. Im not sure but i reckon i may have some schnitzel secretly planted in my bag as i dont really seem to meet anyone but germans but thats ok with me as everyones been cool etc. After catching a couple of buses with my new deutsche freundes we went to your classic free culture museum which wasted my last few hours in darwin along with my first introduction to goon, the cheapest drink surely in the world. 4 litres of what they call wine in a bladder bag for roughly 5 pounds. not nice but it does the job!

Leaving Darwin, i headed to brisbane, im not really sure why as id have to be making my way past it again at soem stage but i wasnt willing to let go of more money when buying the ticket so thats where i headed. Brisbane was much more lively and was just a labyrinth of crossroads and traffic lights. Some nice foreground botanic garden views with towering skyscrapers in the background took the edge off my worst hostel yet on this trip: Palace Backpackers. Crowded, basic, plain, rubbish kitchen, right next to the street, expensive and having to hire your own dinner sets did not impress! THe people in the hostel were nice but as most people were working ehre and basically living here (somehow), they all knew eachother so it wasnt as friendly as other places so after a couple of days of seeing and bathing on the artifical beach i headed onto hervey bay, the route to fraser island.

Having already organised plans with steven (kind of step-brother) i didnt have time to book my trip to fraser but will definitely be returning on the route back to sydney as everyone i met who was coming an dgoing said it was immense! Hervey was really nice itself, again quiet but reasonably so as its just the boarding gate for fraser island. I did manage to do some shark diving at the local acquarium which was cool, though it was actually snorkelling i did swim under a totally submerged cave where there roughly 10 sharks in this compact space (the largest being 1.8m apparently) and also a few massive things, one of which is in the pic above, pretty scary!

Sunday night i went aboard the bus for another 10 hour or so bus trip up to mackay to meet steven and more of the howe family! i arrived early mornming on my birthday YAY! and after unpacking and meeting everyone steven, sam (youngest one) and I went to finch hatton gorge to jump off some 10m cliffs into freezing refreshing water. It was amazing how clean it was, infact you could healthily drink it though by the time you realise this possibility your already paddling towards the rocks to get out of the water and fry in the sun. We moved around to another couple of water places including a string rope and rapids which were both good fun. After unimpressing the guys with my backflip come rotation and belly flop from about 5m we hewaded back towards mackay to go for the first of our many trips to BOWLING! its amazing how quickly you can improve but from getting roughly 80 each time i ended up getting 149 as my highest with 5 strikes in a row (over 2 games or some unimportant factor like that). The ladies of mackay loved it as well, flashing the scoresheet out of the window to passing by cars.

Sunbathing and chilling were the focus for the next few days and that was accompanied by roughly 8 fast food meals which completely took away the refreshing exfoliating effect that the water at finch hatton gorge had. Also i must make a point that my beautiful, stunning brown body made steven jealous so he rather unmasculinely invested in some tanning oil! I think a natural tan is always best though!

Its amazing how a few home comforts and luxuries can be so good but even sleeping on a mattress in a room with one was just sooo good and not having to worry about my possessions...although my phone charger went missing so maybe i should investigate! I think i may have become too relaxed as my natural slobbish self began to impose itself on the room meaning that i had to try and persuade sue (the mum) to not enter the room for her sakes proabably as well as mine. I also did something i havent done in a long time...work! 2 days 'hard' graft for spray on tiles was good for the body and wallet. I learnt a few things and have been invited back to work a few more days so seeing how im pushed for time i may be back there at some point!

After a couple of nights of goon with Luke (middle brother) and sambuca and ice cream with Dale (oldest) it was soon time to move on to townsville where i currently am now. OOO i must not forget the shisha that was used unmodestly during my time there and i think my lungs have taken affect from it as i was barking like a dog for the entirity of last night although that measures to nothing compared to the chinese girl in my room who was panting and moaning sexually for roughly 3 hours on the bed above me which to be honest wasnt exactly what i was looking for after another 7 hour joy fest on the greyhound!

Right, that keep everyone roughly up to date. I need to go and book my trip to magnetic island for the next few days, and then i plan to head to cairns before heading back south as i am actually starting to run out of time considerign i still have cairns snorkelling, whitsundays and airlie, fraser island, surfers paradise, byron bay and sydney to do!!!

Hopefully these experiences will help give me a better opinion for short term travellers to australia as its too expensive to stay here and not earn, i guess i should be thankful that it was my birthday half way through my stay here.

Update soon, and enjoy all the pics ive uploaded. Check out the mackay ones to compare my tan to stevens! HAHA!