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We woke early to a extremely heavy tropical downpour. we were worried the building might wash away at one point. Our two roomies were fab - I didn't here them come in or snore! I got up at 7.30 and had a nice hoit shower before having breakfast...although the staff were rather late putting breakfast on from all the free wine the night before. Whist the handful of us were having breakfast, a commotion occurred on the balcony over the reception because a Cassowary had rocked up out of the rainforest! It was beautiful but ugly at the same time, and the fact it stood outside the hostel reception made for a great photograph! This German guy followed it to get a close photo but it started chasing him and he was soon up the stairs back with us. At one onto we thought the cassowary might try the stairs... But it didn't! Phew!
We left and started our 550km journey down to Arlie Beach. We took tuns driving but the sun decided to come out and I got pretty hot at points. :(. After a few hours the terrain changed noticeably, despite the continuation of the sugar Cain farms the rain Forrest was gone and we were back to the gum trees and more typically 'Australian' bush. The weather was also pretty crazy. At one point it rained so hard we thought we might need to pull over as we couldn't see anything and at other times it was so hot I had to go into a supermarket and stand by the fridge to cool down!!! (It's almost more random than the UK!
We stopped at McDs where we ate our ham sandwiches for lunch and got our 30c ice creams before heading off again. As we arrived in the Whitsunday area Garth developed another headache so we stopped to buy some pain killers.
Our hostel was a bit of a joke in that it was more like a backpacker factory. It must sleep nearly 1000 people!!! We feel quite old here and it's very much the stereotypical Caucasian party goer out for a good time sort of place. Garth was a bit unhappy has they were rude on check in and charged us an extra $14 for parking and one device wifi. Garth showed and I went for a walk to unwind from the hot drive. I even managed to get pooed on by a bird on my coastal walk!
Arlie Beach is a nice and small town. It has a beautiful harbour with blue waters and green rolling hills. The main high street is small and quite tourist orientated. Despite the beach being very rocky and having stingers in the water, they had built a lovely 'lagoon' (a sand coloured concrete swimming pool) where people could safely swim and relax.
We ate 100% beef burgers and some beans for dinner in an extremely over crowed kitchen. We had to give a cash deposit of $20 just to hire one set of cutlery!!! Everyone was clearly all dressed up for a night out on the town...so I spent the evening researching more hostels for our trip. Garth skyped his mom as its Mother's Day in South Africa and Australia tomorrow!
I tried to turn my iPhone on out of my bag of rice and it i seemed to work okay...but the light was still on...so I put it back if or another day :( :( :(
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