Days 20 and 21 - You better run, you better take cover!!

Day 20 begins with a bit of a sore head... I wake up at 1pm after not getting to sleep until 4, so I've got to cram a few things in, in quite a short amount of time today! I go for a wander down to the lagoon, which is a public swimming area on the sea front! I get a text from Liam the lad from the hostel in Darwin asking to go for a pint, so I meet him at the lagoon and we head back into town to pj o'brian's (Irish pub in case you hadn't got that...) we get sat outside in the sun with a few pints and before we know it it's nearly 5 o'clock! So we head back to our respective hostels, I get back to the room and everyone is in, Ellie says she's going out for tea with a couple of girls she met by the pool and asked if I'd like to join them, I oblige and we head to 'the pier' for $5 pizzas, they're delicious!!! Best food I've eaten since I've arrived in Australia! Although that's not saying much as I've completely lost my appetite since I've got here, I don't feel like eating anything most of the time... I think it's the heat! Anyway, I get chatting to these girls and it turns out they're from Bridgend in Wales and are also familiar with a couple of ex harper folk! Lots of weird coincidental meetings happening!! It's too loud in this place for decent conversation and we head back to gilligans to sit by the bar there and listen to some live music, it's slightly quieter here and the conversation is better! After a while we all decide to call it a night as they're heading off tomorrow and I'm not having another late one so we turn in ahead of going to the cairns botanical gardens tomorrow!!

Day 21

Day 21 begins with a much earlier morning and we head out for a spot of breakfast, since my appetite is so poor I plump for a croissant and some iced tea but I barely have the desire to eat that!! Anyway we head back to the hostel for a bit and then head out again to try and find a bus stop which'll take us to the botanical gardens! After a while of walking around we eventually found out where it is and it's right next to where we bought breakfast... So we get on the bus and its about a five minute trip followed by a five minute walk through a 'rainforest boardwalk'. This is a great little jaunt through the trees seeing all sorts of wildlife from spiders to skinks and plenty of loud Aussie birds, not kookaburras but still loud! We get through the boardwalk and cross the road into the botanical gardens where we see much of the same things we saw on the boardwalk but with slightly more variety! It's gorgeous, we have a bit of a wander through the gardens and back out into the boardwalk and along to a freshwater lake and a saltwater lake, we wander around these taking a few more photos and head back to the bus stop! After a spot of late lunch we're back at the hostel in time for a bit of a sunbathe and a swim in the pool! Ellie and I have a bit of a chill in the room after this and then head for the free tea, which is roast chicken and mash, it fills a hole that isn't really there and we head up to another room for a bit of drinking, the tipple for pre drinking in this place seems to be 'goon' which is a box of cheap wine... So it's quite a potent scoop!! Ellie goes to bed as she's off snorkelling on the Great Barrier Reef in the morning and I stay in these English guys' room for a few drinking games (arrogance, some ring of fire, that sort of thing, I try and teach them tractor, trailer, combine, bailer (doesn't fly)) after this I head downstairs to try and catch the England v Australia rugby match, but to my distress they're playing man city v Aston villa instead!! Eventually they put it on and I'm obviously disappointed by the result so I have a couple of drinks called 'kryptonite' I have no idea what this drink is but I know it helps ease the pain of losing to the damn Aussies!!! One of the guys from the room we were in earlier and I sit watching the football until its time for a slice of pizza then bed!! I've got a long day tomorrow of trying to build up enough courage to tell the skydiving people I'm coming to do it! This is bearing in mind I can't even go up a step ladder let alone jump out of a plane at 14,000 feet!!! Oh well, I'm going to bed to mull this over now!!!

Thanks for reading!

Will