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After leaving the heat of Melbourne we headed to the floods of Cairns and Northern Queensland. When we arrived the weather was awful and the roads were all blocked, and they expected it to stay that way for at least a week. We stayed in quite a nice hostel, but Cairns itself was pretty dead. You couldn;t swim in the sea because of deadly jellyfish and crocodiles, but there was quite a nice swimming lagoon that was free. Because of the weather the water visibility was poor, and so we decided not to do a snorkelling tour to the great barrier reef, which was a shame. The weather did eventually improve after a few days, and somehow we managed to get on the first bus down the coast to Townsville.
We stayed at a really nice guest house hostel, which was cheap and the owner was really friendly. Townsville is supposedly Australia's best kept secret, but we think it should stay a secret for a while longer, as it didn't leave much of an impression on us! The weather was sunny though, and in the sea we were able to swim in the netted off area, so that was a novelty. One thing that has been cool has been the birds, like parrots and others we don't know the name of! Then we caught the bus down to Airlie Beach, to start our Whitsundays sailing trip.
It was absolutely roasting for the 3 days on the boat, and at night with 22 people in the non-air-conditioned cabin it was unbearable. It was the hottest conditions we've ever slept in, so both nights we went on the deck and put a towel over us as a blanket and stayed there until it rained (both nights there was a storm). The scenery was pretty nice, and the snorkelling was great, but everyone was disppointed that in 3 days of perfect conditions and good wind, we only sailed for half an hour. The rest of the time we just motored round so slowly, and quite a few people agreed that one night would have definately been enough. The 20 second shower allowance in 3 days was pretty gross too, and we properly stank by the end! The snorkelling was over the edge of the barrier reef and some fish were giant and bright. From the boat we saw a couple of turtles and some dolphins and loads of bat fish! For the money we spent, we thought it was a bit of a rip off and annoying that we had to swim and snorkel in wetsuits because of the jellyfish, but after Fiji we're probably a bit spolit for good islands and beaches.
We went down to Hervey Bay on an overnight bus, which wasn't too bad actually. Hervey Bay was just suburbia basically with nothing much to do. Our hostel did have a class pool and was nice and cheap, so 2 days there was cool. The other day we caught the bus down to Noosa, which is the start of the surfing beaches, so we paid a little more for a hostel that included free surfboards. Of course when we got there the surf was nonexistent, but swimming in the sea was so nice for once and the temperature and weather was ideal. Noosa was the nicest town we've been to so far in Australia, and had lots of nice, swanky restaurants for us to press our noses up to the windows of, before heading back for our omelletes. Today, we've come down a bit further to a place called Mooloolaba, where the hostel is a bit cheaper, and the town seems nice enough, with a similar beach to Noosa. Again, there's no surf but this afternoon and tomorrow it's meant to increase to at least ankle high waves...wow! So the plan is to spend 2 nights here, then go down to Brisbane for 3 or 4 days. Hope Jan and Aus had fun skiing, and Dad and Theresa are enjoying Amsterdam, and Cyn and Iain are getting ready for Aus and NZ!
Speak soon, Mike and Rose.xx
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