Day 148

I got on the bus to Agnes water at around 12:00am. I hate over night buses. Can never sleep. Also nothing to look at, just darkness. 10 hours later and i was back in Agnes water. I had missed it. Arrived back at my hostel. The owner, my old boss, was happy to see me and said i could stay for free. He gave me my old job back and said i could have a few days off. Gonna be staying here for 2 weeks roughly. All the old people who worked at the hostel has left. I don't like the new people. It used to be a relaxing hostel, now its really loud. Went to sleep as i hadn't gotten any on the bus. Slept nearly all day...

Day 147

Brown Snake


Highly Venomous
 
Bites from this species have caused human fatalities. In fact the Eastern Brown Snake accounts for more fatalities than any other Australian Snake. A nervous, ready biter it will defend itself if threatened. Maintains a strong defensive "S" shaped posture. The second most toxic land snake in the world and the most venomous in South East Queensland. Bites from this species should be treated immediately and attended to with correct first aid.

It was my luck that i found myself no less 30 cm away from this snake. I was waiting at the hostel. Watching a film outside on the lawn with the rest of the hostel. I turned my head to the plant next to me and found myself staring face to face with a Brown snake. At the time i didn't realise how dangerous it was so i just looked at it and told people there was a snake next to me. The owner freaked out at told me to get away from it and then knocked it out of the plant with a broom. It was about a metre long and now it was pissed off. It coiled itself and jumped for peoples feet and then slithered off into the bush. Sometime later as i was sitting back in my chair i hear a women scream behind me and turn to see the same snake on the arm of my chair. I dont know why he kept coming after me but i was annoying to say the least. Was trying to enjoy the film. Knocked it off my chair with my arm and it coiled itself again when it hit the floor. The owner gets his broom again and starts whacking it. Doesn't go away. Got to admire the snake. It didn't want to leave. Maybe it was watching the movie as well. Anyway long story short. Saw a venomous snake today...

Day 146

Booked my bus to Agnes water for tomorrow. Will be nice to go back. Bus isn't till 11:45pm so have to wait the whole day. Today just went around the shops and chilled. Rained allot today. Not as much as usual. The rainy season must be nearly over.

Was considering buying a didgeridoo as a souvenir. They are bloody expensive. Cheapest ones are like $200 and a good one cost twice that. Went to a shop to check them out and they had free lessons. I'm not very good. Haven't got the lung capacity to make a beat. Can barely hold a tune. Still want one. Strictly ornamental. The shop had a great deal. Buy a didgeridoo and they will give you free air mail to wherever you want. Too bad i cant be throwing around money at the moment. Will buy one when i get back to Sydney...

Day 145

Spent most of the day in bed or using my free internet. Always happy when i have internet. I havent changed much in the past 5 months. Still glued to my laptop whenever i get the chance. Went out in the evening and played goon pong and kings cup, two drinking games i have become very accostomed to. We actually didnt have any ping pong balls so we fashioned a ball out of a mushroom and a plastic bag. Classy. Kings Cup is my favourite game. Especially as the rules change for everyone. My friend always has to drink the kings cup in the end. He gets pretty drunk and then picks fights with bouncers. Not the best. Especially as i have to take care of him and then apologize to the bouncers...

Day 144

Headed to Airlie Beach in the evening. Couldn't get to Agnes Water. The whole town is cut off from the rest of Australia by flood waters. That's gonna be a problem. Even if i do get to it there is a chance i could get stranded. Don't want that. Staying here tonight and tomorrow. See if the floods have subsided by then. Its annoying the one place i want to go is off limits. On the plus side Ive run into 2 people i met in Cairns. Gonna meet up with them tomorrow. Also can actually have a lie in tomorrow as i don't have to be on a coach or check out early. First time in a week, maybe longer. Happy days...

Day 143

So come sunrise i think i had managed an hour shut eye. I didn't feel good. The coach arrived and we set off. 5 hours later we had to turn back due to flooding. 5 hours return and then i was back where i started. Still hadn't managed to sleep. In the past 48 hours i have managed to sleep 1 hour. I have bags under my eyes which is actually warping the skin on my forehead. The worst part is I'm staying up to blog about how tired i am. Do you see the irony? Well at least i think that's irony. I was never too good with the whole irony stuff. Booked a small hostel for the night. I have decided to take the flooding as a sign and not go to Alice springs. Its too far and too expensive for what it is. A big red rock. Granted it is the most famous big red rock but as you are not allowed to climb it, i think spending $400 getting to it and the even more flying back, its somehow not worth it. Instead I'm gonna spend my last month in my favourite spot in Australia, Agnes water. Gonna work for 3 weeks. Save some money then fly to Hong Kong for a little under a week and then head back to beautiful London...

Day 142

Had to wait for my bus in the evening. Spent all day with my other Canadian friend who I'm sure is the biggest slut on the east coast. No, that's cruel. She is pretty promiscuous tho. And if she is reading this I'm just joking. Laugh out loud. But seriously. She then made me go shopping with her for friendship bracelets so "i wouldn't forget her" which is still the most boring and ever so slightly gay thing Ive done in Australia. Which includes being chatted up by a gay guy in a bar. Which still disturbs me even now. Mainly because I was way out of his league.

My bus journey was about 5 hours long and then to top it all off i had to wait for my next bus for 7 hours, in the middle of the night, by myself, outside, on a hard bench i couldn't even sleep on, by myself. I know i said by myself twice but i was literally by myself. I didn't see another human for 6 hours. Felt like a zombie apocalypse. When i bored i like to plan my escape routes and survival tactics in case a zombie apocalypse did occur at that very moment. I think i went a little bit insane. Found a deserted  trolley and spent an hour just skating around on it. Then when i got really tired i just sat there and looked out into space. Not the greatest part of my trip...

Day 141

Was supposed to leave today but i got a call saying the bus wasn't leaving. Flood waters have been closing off lots of roads recently. Just great. On the plus side the sun came out today. Bad thing is, its now too hot. Like I feel nauseated its so hot. Didn't pay for another night in the hostel. Screw that. Just asked my mates if i could crash in there room. Such a rebel!

Day 140

Recovery day. Did nothing. Nada. Watched films. That's it...

Day 139

Great Barrier Reef, or should i call you Barrier Reef. Yeah it wasn't so great. Rained the whole day. Everyone got sea sick and was throwing up over the side of the boat. The snorkeling was shit. We had to stay in a group. I prefer to go off by myself and explore. In a group you hardly see anything as your too busy trying to avoid other people as they seem to always be in your way. One girl didn't know how to swim, which isn't even necessary when snorkeling. Your body float on the surface even if you don't move, like playing dead. Plus we were wearing life vests to keep us buoyant so why she also needed a Life ring and then had to be dragged about behind the instructor is beyond me. She was just floating about like a giant orange turd. I'll be it far more annoying. She wasn't disabled or anything. I think she was just lazy.

Visibility was shit in the water. Saw a turtle which i have seen before so no big whoop. Also held a sea cucumber which did actually look like a giant sea turd. Felt like holding a really big slug. FUN! Then the diving started and once again i couldn't do it. I don't like diving. Its just not me. Its not natural. Its the water pressure and the fact I'm trusting my life to a guy with a ponytail. You know what they say about a guy with a ponytail? lift up a ponytail, find an arseholes. I live by these words. Anyway didn't dive. We then went to an island, which at the time i was almost certain was located in Australia. I mean we hadn't travelled that far on boat. The whole island was swarming with Asian people. It was like a resort exclusively for Asians. Seriously you should have seen the place. I think i know where all the missing asian people, whos bodies where never recovered after the tsunami a few years back, are located. They just got swept up there and decided to stay. Anyway, in total a very bad day. Very upsetting. But my Whitsunday tour was amazing. So take the good with the bad...

Day 133 to 138

Haven't updated recently as nothing much has been happening. Literally been raining non stop for the past 5 days. Been hanging out with friends in the hostel. Watching films and running to the shops in the pouring rain. Not complaining. Been a good laugh. Made some really good friends. One of my closest friends in Cairns left yesterday. St Patrick's day was great. Went out on a party bus and went to all these clubs. Had themed tattoos stuck on all over my face and neck. Still haven't come off properly. Good night. Tonight they had a wet t-shirt contest at the hostel. As i had assumed the girl with the least self respect won. Stripping down to everything but her underwear. Not complaining but give the other girls a chance. She was American so that would explain the lack of dignity. Tomorrow have diving in the great barrier reef. Will be leaving for Alice Springs Wednesday. Sad to leave the East coast. Excited to see somewhere new however...

132

Not sure if i should extend my stay in Australia any longer. I was only gonna stay longer if i found a job and that's not looking to good. Going to head to Alice springs next. Getting bored of the coast. Its too commercial. Might have a better chance of finding work in a less crowded area. Alice springs is fairly secluded i believe. Being in the heart of Australia. Making a few stops on the way there. Should be there pretty soon. Its a shame i already booked in for 5 more nights in Cairns. Ah well i can keep on with my job hunt...

Day 131

Rainy day. Didn't do much. Job hunted for the better half of my morning. Went for a walk around town. Pretty boring around town actually. Have some Swedish roommates who are too loud and annoying. They just talk really loud in a language that can only be described as retarded. Cant do anything as it s raining so am confined to the hostel or any indoor areas. Not good...

Day 130

Bungee jumped today. Scariest thing ive ever done. Your basically fighting every human survival instinct ever. Do not try and kill yourself. Do not go up higher than you need to. Do not jump off things higher than your head. Do not do all of the above backwards. Obviously im making these up, apart from the do not try and kill yourself thing.

The first time i jumped i wasn't scared. I got tied in. Waddled over to the platform. Looked over (my stomach dropped a little. 50 metres is very high) Then 5,4,3,2,1 i jumped off. Now i had decided not to think and just do. This is what i did. However, after you jump you think, and then you panic, and then you are overwhelmed by sheer unadulterated fear. I had never felt so afraid in my life. For those 3 seconds your in free fall you don't feel the rope on your legs. You don't see the rope. Your too busy watching the water come up to greet you with a big smile which says 'your mine now bitch'. For those 3 seconds i thought i was gonna die. Then the rope tugs and you slow down. Your hand scrapes the top of the water 'not today bitch' and after your stomach catches up with the rest of your body, you are overpowered by this sense of euphoria. Like you survived to live another day. Obviously this feeling is over in a second. You realise you were never in real danger. All that's left to do, is do it again, to get that same adrenaline rush. So that's what i did. I did it again. Backwards.

Second time was much harder. I had to wait for countless victims to chuck them selves off the platform. Then it was my go. I had wanted to do a roof jump. They tie you in to a harness instead so your legs a free. That way you can run and jump of the edge. Sounded much more fun. Its cost double so i didn't bother. My mate talked me into doing it backwards. I wasn't too thrilled but we both decided to do it. I was first. Now if its hard to go to the edge, look down and then leap off its even harder to go to the edge, turn around, lean back with the guy holding onto you and then watch his hands let go. I wasn't ready, the guy holding me knew i wasn't ready, the people in the Que knew i wasn't ready. In that 0.5 seconds after he let me go i think i shouted every curse word i had in my vocabulary and some words i just made up. All of them aimed at the man who had just let me die. I watched the platform rush away from me and again i felt like i was going to die. And like last time, the sudden rush of adrenaline swept over me and i was once again safe and sound being man handled into a boat. Easily the scariest thing Ive done, ever! that includes skydiving which is a peace of cake in comparison. Next stop is the 233metre bungee in Macau. Nearly 5 times what i just did...

Day 129

Didn't do much today. Went out in the evening with the guys from my room. Good night even though i wasn't drinking. Have a bungee jump in the morning so decided its best not to. We have a huge club downstairs. Its always popular and  you can feel the bass in my room, 2 floors up. Instead of going to this club we went to a small pub. It was actually better. We arrived and they had a band playing and one drunk aboriginal women was dancing in the middle of the dance floor. Its sounds shit but it wasn't. Had a really good time. Played pool with the pubs local champ. Lost. Got a few helpful tips however.

Aboriginal people are really nice. Had a few bad encounters, for example a drunk aboriginal couple asked me to buy them beer in the street the other day. Well i thought that's what they wanted, i could hardly understand what they were saying. They were trying to talk whilst holding back the need to vomit. So was I. Also another drunk aborigine asked for directions. Had no idea what he was saying either. Regardless if these are the first aborigines you meet then your opinion on them isn't gonna be the best. Any who, it turns out that when Aborigines are not drunk, which is not that often (i forgive them tho, It was only in the 70's that the government took away peoples license to hunt them. If they need a drink, let them) They are actually really friendly people. I still find it hard to understand them, but its easier when they're not drunk...

Day 128 - Skydive

Skydived today. Got up early and headed over to the pickup spot. Went over the safety and such and made us fill out forms. They had the option of videoing the fall and it was $149! i thought that id never skydive again so id get the overly priced video. The guy interviewed me with the camera. Dont know why. I wasnt in free fall so get the camera out of my face. Guy thought he was a fucking director. Got to the plane and took off. Wasnt nervous at all. Just excited. At 10'000ft 2 people jumped out. The reality of it hit me then. There would be no touchdown sequence and people hurrying to get there luggage from the over head compartments like im so very used to. I would be leaving mid air at 14'000ft. Eventually it was my go. It all went so fast i had no time to be nervous or scared. I just got to the edge and then over. Most incredible feeling ever. Nothing else compares. Its hard to describe. Even though your falling at 200kmh you feel like time is slowing. I almost forgot about the parachute. If i had been in charge i would have just casually plumeted towards the earth and splat. All over in about a minute. Definitley worth it. Although ive had a fucking headache all day now.

Day 127

Cairns is nice. Nothing special. Hostel I'm in is good. Roommates are cool. Went out to a job agency to find work. It was pretty useless. Just told us to give our name and number and we would get back to you. Thanks for nothing.

bought a new phone. I have a new number so if you need me call me on 0450353358. only cost me $20 and it a flip phone. I like flip phones. There a lot cooler than normal non flip phones. What i don't understand is why all phones don't come with snake. I loved snake. It was so simple. Now they try too hard and bring out these games with colour and better graphics which suck. Stick with the classics phone people!

Went out for a drink with 3 guys from my room. Ended up in this tiny pub participating in a  pool tournament. Still had a good time. Went back to the hostel as i had to be up early. Sky diving in the morning...

Day 126

Left for Tully in the morning. Didn't arrive till 3:00pm. 8 hours! Watched rush hour. Its still a funny film. Also watched Sherlock Holmes. The town of Tully was a hicktown if id ever seen one. Not that its bad, just full of strange people. Headed to the hostel and they had no places. She said if id arrived earlier i would have got a place. I wanted to slap her with her computer monitor. I didn't need to know that. Booked the next bus to Cairns. Waited 2 hours in that tiny boring town and then was on my way to Cairns...

Day 125

Last day in Airlie beach. Decided to download a few films for the road and then headed out to buy some stuff in. I'm going to a farming town called Tully. Its tiny but its famous for banana picking. As my phone is still not working (Ive lost my charger) i couldn't call ahead, so i decided to show up and hope for the best. My bus is at 7:00am. Got a new book, some shirts on sale. I don't like my new shirts. They have designs on them. Id much rather of got a plain shirt but they are more expensive somehow. I also bought new headphones. I'm always listening to music and i just lost the rubber thingy for my headphones so now i only have one ear piece. Bought some over ear headphones and they are amazing. I cant even listen on full volume and i like my music loud...

Day 124

Spent most of the day in bed. Have free wifi which reaches my room and a serious sunburn on the top of my legs. Must have forgot to put sunscreen on there because usually i never sunburn. Especially not this bad. Oh well. Got groceries and now i can recover from my Whitsunday tour...

Day 123

Last day of the tour. Went to the favourite spot in the Whitsundays. If you were going to see a sea turtle anywhere it would be here. I was really excited to see a sea turtle so i started snorkeling really quickly. I didn't see any. Looked for a good hour. When i got back to the beach everyone else had seen at least one. I didn't give up. looked for another 30 minutes. I was just about to give up hope when one swam right past me. It was huge. At least a meter long. It swam right under me and i followed it. It came up for air and i was so close i reached out and touched its shell. Very cool moment. Swam with it for about 5 minutes before it headed off into deeper waters. Even tho i only saw one it was still an amazing experience.

Headed back to land. Everyone went to the pub after. Had a few free beers provided by the tour company and then headed back to the hostel. Truly tired...

Day 122

Went to a popular diving and snorkeling spot. Snorkeled for an hour. The it was my groups turn to go diving. It didn't go to well. I felt really uncomfortable in the breathing mask and decided to do it. Its just I didn't want to have any problems or decided to go back when we had gone any deeper. Also when i dived down even a tiny bit my sinus would erupt in pain. A few other people back out too. I was more than happy snorkeling. Much less restricting. Snorkling in the over coral reefs are incredible. Its like floating over an alien world. Very hard to describe. Went to another coral spot later on in the day and snorkled there aswell. Just as amazing.

In the evening the chef made steak which was really good. Then we stayed up playing drinking games. Stayed up late playing 21 questions. Note to self: when playing with a scottish lad who is rough as a badgers arse and two guys from essex, dont expect them to know who Ellen Page is. We were there for a good hour. They mainly picked footballer which sucked for me...

Day 121

Arrived in Airlie beach at 7:00am. Had to be at the port at 8:00am for my trip. Not much time. Luckily got picked up from the bus straight to the hostel. Put my stuff in storage and got dropped off at the Port just as the check in was starting. Got given wetsuits as the waters contain stingers (jellyfish) sometimes boring non lethal Jellyfish. Sometimes the blue ones which will leave you in much pain for 4 hours and sometimes Box jellyfish which will leave you in much pain then death.

Got on the boat around 9:00am. Nice day. Met the crew. Got talking with some people on the boat. The crew went over safety rules etc. Then we headed to the most famous beach in Whitsunday. The beach was amazing. The sand was so white it looked like snow. Also the water was amazing. No jellyfish but had my swimsuit on anyway. Saw a huge stingray. Swam right past me. They left us there for about 5 hours so i started getting bored. Too sunny to stay on a beach that long. We got picked up in the evening and dinner was ready. Food was really good. The chef knew what he was doing. Everyone stayed up drinking and playing games. Tomorrow going diving...

Day 120

Spent the last day with a bunch of people from my hostel at there friends house, just outside of town. Great place. He had a pond you could swim in. The water did look stagnant however. A maze. I say maze it was just a bunch of plants following a maze pattern. You could easily walk through the walls if you wanted too. When i heard there was a maze i was hoping it would be like the maze from Harry Potter. He also had lawn bowling. Spent most of the day there then headed back. Said my goodbyes which were a bit harder than usual. Didnt really want to leave but im running out of time to finish all the trips ive booked. Spent all night on the overnight bus. 9 hours. Next stop Airlie Beach...

Day 119

Trained the new girl. Dint take me long. The jobs not hard. Booked my Bus ticket and sailing ticket on the computer. Have a 3 day sailing tour around the Whitsunday Islands. The last day in Agnes water i downloaded a ton of films for the road. Not leaving till 9:00pm tomorrow so still have the whole day to say my goodbyes...

Notice

Gonna be on a sailing trip for the next 3 days so will be out of signal range for a while.