2 Crazy Sheilas

Today was the start of Miranda and I’s journey down the coast, and let me tell you I never thought it would come and now that its here I’m wondering where the time has gone!

Today was a rocky morning as Miranda and I took part in the 5 drinks for $12 dollars Tuesday night deal at a bar in the city center of Cairns named the Woolshed. It was a fun night as we both got our moneys worth and had a lot of fun with our Dutch friend Rody who we met in the Red Center and met up with again. We had a lot of laughs at the bar last night, as Miranda and Rody purchased auctioned goldfish and took part in a goldfish race with about 6 other contestants. The fish Miranda bought, named the Dutch Dike, was a dud, as it lost the first race and therefore was taken out of the braket in the first round. While Rodys fish, The Drunken Irishman, rallied all the way through to the finals, where he got completely comfused and refused to swim the right way down the water raceway. It was quite funny as some of the other fish contestants were Sushi from Japan, George W. Fish from the States, and a few others from Canada, Australia, and Sweden. I have never seen a worldwide goldfish reace in my life, let alone a goldfish race at all! It was quite fun and something I’ll always think of when I think of my last night in Cairns.

The next day we had to wake up VERY early and head to the city center and wait for our Oz bus to pick us up and take us to Townsville and over to Magnetic Island. As Miranda and I waited and waited for the bus to arrive, Miranda grew weary that we may have been in the wrong spot. I myself just sat tiredly and waited for Miranda to figure out if we were at the right pick-up place or not. While Miranda was phoning the STA headquarters I realized I had missed a call from the bus driver wondering where we were. Turns out we were in the wrong place and luckily the driver came back and picked us up. A rocky start to our adventure down the coast could have been off to a bad start! Once we were picked up from the Oz bus we headed south down the coast of Australia on our way to Townsville for the night. Along the way we stopped at a crocodile farm where we were able to hold numerous animals, including an olive python, a baby corocdile, some sort of lizard, and a cockatoo! After taking time holding each of the animals we were taken to the back where we hand fed kangaroos and gt to see the croc experts feed the huge prehistoric looking crocodiles! We were also able to see some wild boars, dingoes, emus (as well as a male emu incubating the females eggs) and even a cassowary from behind a fence. I had never seen a cassowary before, which are relatively the size of emus, but have a very colorful face and head with a wierd fin like think on the top of their heads. We learned that cassowaries are actually very dangerous and protective, and that they have a really big middle toe, whereby which they disembowel you if you get too close and cause them to be defensive. I didn’t really realize how dangerous they were until the trainer put his boot up to the fence and suddenly the giant bird flicked his claw almost immediately and let out a very intimidating hissing noise! I didn’t see the trainer put his boot up to the fence so it scared the crap out of me!

After the fun visit to the croc farm we hopped back onto the bus and headed to Townsville. In Townsville Miranda and I decided to take a ferry to a small island just off of the coast, Magnetic Island. On the way to the island we watched the most beautiful sunset and by the time we arrived it was dark. We headed to our hostel, which was the nicest hostel I have stayed in thus far, as it was right on the beach and equipped with a swimming pool, hammocks, a really spacious deck and a good bar. Mirand and I checked into our small A frame like houses and went and had some dinner on the deck and listened to the crashing waves before we headed to bed for an early night.

The next day we woke up and grabbed some breakfast before we hopped back on the ferry and arrived back in the city of Townsville where we boarded our bus and headed for Airlie Beach. The bus ride and day was very uneventful.

As Miranda and I arrived in Airlie Beach we found that our hostel was out of town, and when we arrived we found it to be the dirtiest, trashy hostel we have even stayed in before. The dirty carpet was littered with trash and out beds, which were not equipped with sheets, were full of holes. Seriously, we may have been better off sleeping in a cardboard box with the homeless! The second we arrived at the hostel we decided to take a walk into the city and grab some dinner, a drink, and reserve a room at another place for the following night.

After an early night in the dingiest hostel in history, Miranda and I checked out of our hostel and headed into town to another nicer place to lay our heads. We had the whole way free in Airlie Beach and what a better way to spend a nice sunny day than to spend money! Ha let me tell you spending money on this day was not the idea I had had in mind, but as the day drew to a close and a purchase of some jewelry and a digeridoo loomed on my credit card we decided to grab a cheap dinner and head to a bar that had drink deals. The night was a really fun one as we shared $8 pitchers of sangria and chatted with a new Irish friend and laughed at the drunken male dancers to the front of us, who busted a move to tunes like Living on a Prayer and YMCA. It was hilarious to see these men who were so drunk they didn’t realize just how rediculous they looked. I swear they pulled every bad move in the book, including the twist and the shopping cart. One guy couldn’t even raise his hands for the YMCA! But hey they were having fun, dancing like maniacs and thinking they were the best looking bunch in the bar! After laughing so hard that my stomach hurt at the dancers and a few glasses of Sangria Miranda and I decided to head to bed.

Tomorrow we’re off to the Whitsunday Islands on board the Derwent Hunter!

~Claire