Happy new year!
Hope that everyone had a good xmas and new year. New year here was a 70's party down at The Tree pub next to the beach in 1770. This place isnt a pub as we know it, its more of a bottle shop with a couple of wooden benches on the front. Apparently it only used to be a take out bottle shop so people used to drink their beer under the tree over the road (which is how it got its name).....
The weather has been a bit brighter and much hotter since new year, which is nice. Just been working here at the hostel and been down to the beach a couple of times. Had quite a scary experince being caught in a rip the other day. Bad times....One minute i was between the flags and the next i was being dragged off - somewhere???? i got really disorientated, it was the strangest experience, i couldnt work out where the beach was or where i was in relation to anything else. the best of it was i wasnt even out of my depth and i was probably only about 10m from the shore. the current was so strong that i couldnt put my feet down. I nearly had to be rescued by the lifeguard, but as they were approaching a huge wave washed me up to the beach - phew! (near miss of yet another embarrssing moment there, hey davis?). now i dont go into the ocean past my knees and keep both feet on the bottom at all times.
The bitten legs have now returned to normal apart from a few scars. However i had a massive bite on my toe and the skin just started falling off in two places - nice! wonder what bit me that time? but that seems to be healing nicely now. It did put a stop to my jogging routine for a few days as i couldnt get my socks or trainers on. Yes, finally lack of exercise has depressed me so much that i started jogging along the beach in the evening. Tried to run in the mornings but its way too hot even at 7.30am. Its much cooler in the evenings and i have also seen the most amazing sunsets along the beach.
I think we will be here for about another week. We dicovered a tiny local museum just down the road from here all about the history of the area. It was really interesting and had heaps of stuff to do with English history (obviously) and even had a photo album of Whitby and places in North Yorkshire, which was quite odd seeing all these places from home here in such a remote place. Rich actually wants to go back there to read more about the artefacts since he discovered that Captain Cook was a Yorkshireman - the first one to land here at (and in) 1770 - and Rich is probably the second.......ha!(i think Rich feels some kind of connection)......
Im hoping to get back out to the great barrier reef as this is the last place we can see it travelling south, so heres hoping that the weather stays good. The coral itself wasnt that impressive off Cairns and its meant to be really beautiful here.
Yesterday we hired a motorbike -an old Yamaha - and went exploring the local area which was good. Found a seafood stall by the beach and ate some things called 'bugs' - Moreton Bay 'Bugs' apparently - a bit like massive scampi tails. We saw lots of kangaroos and Wallabies out in the wild too. Apparently there are dolphins in the waters around the coast here and they are seen quite frequently but i havent seen any yet.
Thankyou for all of your emails and messages on the board its lovely to hear from everyone. Sorry about the lack of recent photos we have had problems uploading them but i will try and get some on soon.
*Additional taxes/fees: sample fares posted on www.statravel.com are per person and include the booking fee. Fares are subject to additional charges including, but not limited to: September 11th Security Fee of up to $5.00 for each flight segment originating at a U.S. airport; Passenger Facility Charges of up to $18, depending on itinerary; Federal Segment Fees of $3.50 per segment; and foreign and U.S. Government-imposed charges of up to $400 per international round-trip flight, depending on routing and destination. STA Travel is the world's largest student, youth and budget travel organization specializing in cheap flights, hotels and hostels, student travel insurance, and the International Student ID Card (ISIC).
© 2009 - STA Travel, Inc.
