Jumped on the 7:30am pick up with the latest driver being a chap named "Beaver", i think all these characters are just University Student Union Entertainment managers who never want to settle down and just want to spend as long as possible getting pissed up, trying it on with their passengers. It's all quite disturbing really but i guess they say they're having fun, if that's the case though they should just get themselves over to Asia and they'd be in their element.
The bus drove for about an hour before reaching a 'town' called Bowen; this place was famous for two things: tropical fruit, thanks to the climate here and the fact the film 'Australia' had been shot here. They'd let the latter get to their heads it seems, a 'Bowenwood' sign had been put up with a complete lack of irony and when the town learned that the films premiere was to be held in Darwin, they all signed a petition in protest. It took a simple response of "Er, mate you need to have an actual Cinema to hold a fiml premiere". Yeah, Queenslanders certainly hold up their reputation as being a bit 'different'.
Afew hours later we arrived in the 'Dry Tropics' of Australia (320 days of sunshine) and I jumped on the Ferry to head to a spot called Magnetic Island; so named as Captain Cook's compass went a bit haywire while trying to navigate round it. Much as I had predicted earlier, I ended up yet again staying at a Base Hostel thanks to my laziness. This one wasn't like the rest thankfully and was very nicely situated on the beach with shacks replacing the prison cells of other Bases. It wouldn't be Base though if it wasn't overpriced on everything from the beer to the net to the dorms, there's no shops around either so they really love to monopolize those prices.
My first day was spent struggling online to get my flight home sorted and just hearing nothing back; I'm adding travel companies to banks and phone shops on the list of things I can't abide (although since I have found out my agent had broke her hand, hence the silence. Still that's what automated e-mails are for). For the first time since leaving Sydney there were no familiar faces on the bus, so it was nice to hear someone shout my name from the picnic table, however thanks to my blindness i didn't have a clue who it was until I was about two feet away from the table to find it was Katie and Charlotte; I really must make some strange faces when i'm doing that. The evening was spent with a group of us having a few drinks down on the Beach (me on the Diet Coke) and then I relatively early hit the sack. Well, tried to at least but the Swedish girl above me kept making incredibly odd noises and getting up all the time, this is to be expected in hostels but these ones were just a bit disturbing. I awoke in the night to what sounded like a bird being caught in the room, manically flapping about for an exit and yelping.....turns out it was just the girl. She jumped off the bunk, ran out the room at 4am and it all just came to stop, then she came back three minutes later. All very, very strange.
The next day was greeted with an early rise and after an good old English breakfast, Charlotte asked if I would like to join them on one of the bush walks so I thought I may as well with my lack of plans. We were meant to leave at 11:30, then 12:00 and then finally just about managed to get on the one o' clock bus. Katie and Charlotte had come up the coast together but as the day unfolded it became apparant that the other four lads weren't just from the same area but they were all friends from back home and a couple was even amongst us, I don't know how i missed that one the night before. I knew within a second they were all Rugby boys too, they really do stick out incredibly and you know my thoughts with me having dabbled in it before.
The walk up to the Forts took a few hours and had some Rather nice views over looking the bays, ocean and surrounding hills. Townsville was used as the last line of defense for Australia in World War 2 so the Island was perfect for lookout spots, forts and gun placements. The gun placements were very much the same to the one found in South Shields but the view was just a little bit bet dare i say. Unfortunately we didn't come across any Koalas but did have a meeting with a Death Adder, I'm sure they live up to their reputation thanks to the potency of their venom but visually they were a bit shit, more like a worm. After a brief stop at horseshoe bay with me getting stranded from the rest thanks to fish and chips I headed home.
I then finally managed to get my flight back sorted or should I say me Da did, it's a right pain trying to get anything done on the phone here due to the cash and time difference but it would appear that STA travel are full of shit thanks to the ease my we managed to get it sorted back home. Thirty pound to change a flight had suddenly become eighty five as well.
Yet another night of nothingness was had but thankfully the next day i met a rather odd girl (Joke!) called Ellie who was actually capable of speaking and could hold a conversation, i was a bit stupefied when she later told me she thought i was French initially. I get this a lot, French and Irish, all the time. We had a bit craic on and it turned out she'd went o Northumbria so we talked about all the bars back home etc when suddenly my camera started working after being out of action for days. There wasn't much here so I thought i may as well take the opportunity to get photos of the place, so headed off to do as many walks as possible and be snap happy. The day before no koalas were to be seen, so i'm sure the girls would love to hear it took me all of 3 minutes to find some in the wild this time round but no snakes this day, I also got to see a bit more of Horseshoe bay (not that there was a lot) and once again headed back.
Ellie invited me for drinks with her and Jared (whom i met briefly at Magnums) and we started straight away hitting ring of fire hard before being joined by a rather odd guy and then moving onto to play giant Jenga. Thankfully this was a lot more fun then that awful night at Leeds festival where me and Stev went to the "chill out tent" at 5 am and wanted to die, the bass nearly broke my chest bone and 7ft Jenga was not what i needed to seea t that point. We were not chilled out. The weird guy randomly wandered off while some dick spilt Jared's drink and didn't get him another, i hate that shit. In the end it was Ellie's smugness that cost her ar losing Jenga and the three of us randomly ended up in a hammock before roping in another two people to drink with us, a southern yank girl and a German girl this time. Despite the twelve o'clock finish time at the bar a good night was had, we all did pretty well, Jared and I discussed our mutual love for Hall and Oates and Chromeo but unfortunately the DJ didn't share it.
A s standard since Airle beach i was hanging quite a bit the next day but thankfully there was no Oz bus to catch so i could just laze about(as well as get basically being used as a punch bag by Ellie) before getting the Ferry back to Townsville Jared left in the morning and then after seeing Ellie off on the Greyhound i arrived in the "City" for aboiut three.
16. Townsville
Now they say Townsville is the capitol of North Queensland with a population of 150,00 with a large of that being military thanks to its history. Now i'm sure this is true on some days but everyone literally must have been on leave as there was nobody at all about. Noone walking the streets, the shops were shut and they weren't even any cars on the road, it was a very strange sight almost lie 28 days later and ever so slightly unsettling.
I didn't have a reservation anywhere but soon stumbled across a place called Reef HQ that Charlotte and Katie recommended so checked in there. Checking in was quite the experience mind, the man in front of me was one of those ppompous, southern english types who walks about with a stick up his arse, literally nothing at the hostel was to his satisfaction at all. In fairness the lady on reception was quite a character herself, she really didn't have a clue what she was doing and you just couldn't help but feel sorry for her patheticness. I don't think she was even computer literate so it was no surprise when she muttered "eeee, you can tell I only work one day a week can't you?".
I had just one night here so thought i'd may as well do the usual and see what was on offer, I didn't expect much thanks to my initial thoughts but probably got less than that really. The only places open was a subway and what appeared to be far too many bars and Rugby League Clubs for such a dead place. As you can tell from my photo's there's not a lot going on, Hugh E. cracked me up for some reason at least. As I walked down the street some Aboriginals cornered me asking for money and what not, it really is a shame how many of them end up like that given their rich culture but it happens all over the world i guess and i get more hassle off whites during the day in Sydney asking for cash really. You just don't see the other side of Aboriginals as a backpacker which is a shame. Wandering around aimlessly pretty much sums up the rest of my day as there was fuck all to do, thankfully there was plenty of fun round the corner in the last of my east coast trip....
Son for the Day : The Rolling Stones - The Streets of Love
This would have been massive in another time.
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