Oaks Anchorage Townsville

... the side of us, watching us as we watched it! It was so elegant and did not seem bothered by us at all and was not at all threatening. This must be one of the most amazing experiences of our whole dive careers! It was tempting to stay here for the whole dive but after hanging around for a while watching it we eventually moved on, finning against the current down to the other end of the boat. At times the current was so strong that it felt as though we were putting in all ...

Today I got on the bus with Nadia, heading up to Cairns. I got off at my stop at Townsville and got the ferry to my destination, Magnetic Island! This place is a slice of paradise, beautiful palm trees, 23 bays, plenty of sunshine and amazing wildlife. It's a beautiful island, full of lush rainforest and a national park. After some confusion with my accomodation I arrived at Base hostel, a pretty cool hostel right on the Nelly Bay ...

... off ( we were lucky).
That night we had a BBQ with some great stakes and after another big drinking session and catching up on the past we went to bed hearing the ocean coming in.
The next day we were treated on a tour around town by Ross and he showed us all the spots we wanted to see. A lot of people don't know but Townsville has some great places around the water and they are improving still, not a bad spot with a good climate ...

Discovered this morning that our screen on our laptop has a huge crack in it so not usable.....doh! So spent the day going around electrical shops finding out our options for a new one. Apart from spending lots of money the other option is buying a cord to ...

... the beach on my bum with Jamie, Ben, Ben and Bernadette waiting for me and filming me on the digital camera. This was absoloutely amazing ans best thing i had ever done.

As this was our last night at Mission Beach me jamie and the gang plus Kate and Mike who we met at the hostel that evening decided to have a pissup and camp fire on the beach. WE headed to the beach just before sun set armed with our booze and sticks, logs, lighters ready for the fire. I bought some 'Goon' which is ...

... Island bei Townsville. Komischerweise hob mein Flugzeug genau 24 Stunden nach dem tragischen Flugzeugunglueck einer AirFrance Maschine bei Brasilien ab, was natuerlich auf dem Flug Gespraechsthema Nummer 1 war! Ich kann euch nicht sagen wie oft die Stewardessen gefragt wurden, wie warscheinlich so ein Absturz den sein koenne. Jedenfalls setzte hier zum erstenmal seit ich in Australien angekommen bin diese ...

... the last country I expected to see racism with everyone coming from various cultures really..... but the relationship between aboriginals and white people is unreal... I heard so many chocking comments (I won't go in the detail now but will write about it one day)... because the girl who robbed me was of aboroginal origine... I have since learned a fair amount behind both cultues and it is actually quite sad. I do wish for re-integration there. And I am sure most people do deep down...

... heights...or a great storyteller. We then scramble down to the idyliic and seemingly secluded Rocky Bay. Not that secluded however as we quickly realised we'd stumbled straight onto a nudist beach - see the evidence! Obviously not a care in the world! The following day we took the local bus to the opposite side of the island - Horseshoe Bay - and took the scenic walking route via Balding Bay, Florence Bay, Arthur's Bay back to Nelly Bay which ...

... of small tacky shops but not many pubs, restaurants or attractions to grab your attention. I found myself drifting towards the nearest cinema and somehow watching Shopaholic, which is basically my most damning indictment of a place. (Going to the flicks generally, not just watching that specific film. The film was good!) From there I moved on to Townsville, coincidentally Steve's hometown. I really, really like it here. It ...

... games of other continents.

At the 3rd tree platform, we were well and truly up in the canopy of the rainforest, and it was just beautiful up there. We could even see the sea!



Even Katie was loving it ...