End of Oz Experience

Trip Start Sep 01, 2005
1
46
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Trip End May 11, 2006


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Saturday, February 25, 2006

Well I've made it to Cairns. In the last couple of days I spent a night at Magnetic Island, so named because Captain Cook's compass is said to have behaved erratically when he sailed past; and Mission Beach which was named after the mission Captain Cook set up for Aborigines there. Pretty much everything on the east coast is named after or by Captain Cook, there's even a town called 1770 (the date Cook set foot on land there).

On Magnetic Island we stayed at a great little hostel right on the beach front- still no swimming in the sea due to jelly fish but the hostel had its own swimming pool. I can't get my foot wet anyway so I just spent the afternoon reading by the pool or in one of the hammocks in the hostel grounds- it's a hard life but someone has to do it. At Magnetic Island some people jumped off the bus and others jumped on, including the unlikely couple of a huge fat ginger guy and a tiny pretty blond girl, both just 18 01-View from hostel on Magnetic Island
01-View from hostel on Magnetic Island
 . They sat behind me on the bus and we got on well, both really sweet people. Most people I've liked but not related to that much, the majority of them were the Nuts/Who reading type; and some of these people teach our nations children. I worry for humanity. I did meet a couple of Canadian guys who I really got on with, they're going to be in Bangkok at the same time as me so we're going to meet up there.

I left my credit card (behind the bar) in Mission Beach and it's been a bloody mission getting it back. Anyway I got it back yesterday-suppose it serves me right for putting it behind the bar.

On the way up to Cairns we stopped in this tiny town which I can't recall the name of. The bus parked up opposite this old garage that looked interesting. I went to check it out and found an old guy in there surrounded by junk. Everything and anything everywhere. Old news papers and magazines, phones, clocks, old cars, army trucks. I thought it looked really cool and asked him if I could take some pictures. We got chatting and he told me how he had been running the garage for 38 years. I told him I worked in computers, he pointed to a stack of papers and joked his was under there.

I'm looking forward to getting out of Australia. It's eating up my money. I don't want to think about how much I've spent here and in New Zealand. I probably could have lived for 6 months in South America on the same amount. I think Indonesia will be a bit more of an adventure unlike Australia which is more like a package holiday.
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