Well been in mullet heaven for 3 weeks now and my my possums what a lot we've done, you should see the state of our credit card...
We've packed in white water rafting on the river Tully, visited a crocodile farm, been on a Skyrail over the Queensland rainforest, reunited with Guinness for St.Pats Day, explored and swam in freshwater pools and waterfalls just North of Cairns, been sea kayaking, spent a week chilling out in a caravan pretending to be in Home & Away in a place called Airlie Beach and sampled their infamous wet t-shirt competition (unfortunately I wasn't allowed to enter) & foam party and on the same night stumbled back to our hostel only to enter the wrong room and burst in on an Irish couple (drunken apologies all round).
Spent a few hours in Sydney before flying up to Cairns for one of the highlights so far - The Great Barrier Reef, we were happy to snorkel but managed to get on a trip that gave you an optional 5 minutes introductory scuba dive for free so being very cheap people we thought we'd take that and then carry on snorkelling, so got all kitted up with the gear and headed below the surface of the boat, resurfacing 5 mins later. Jessica our tutor noticed our big grins, that we were fine with the breathing apparatus and that Groover looked pretty fit in his skin tight wetsuit (think Sean Connery in Thunderball...) and cut us a very reasonable deal.
Absolutely amazing 1/2 hour down in amongst the reef, all the colours in the world, feeling the different textures of the reef and best of all messing about with a Maori fish called 'Wally' (almost the size of Beth), soooo friendly, like a dog letting you pat & stroke him. A truly memorable day.
Had a very memorable birthday too, ventured 100 miles into the outback to Namoi Hills Cattle Station in Dingo!! Water shortage in Dingo means the key saying is "if it's yellow let it mellow, if it's brown wash it down, if it's black stand back!!" black refers to spiders lurking in the bog, I'll let you figure out the rest for yourselves...
With my blonde hair (yep summers here already) I was the campest and worst cowboy they'd ever seen, fortunately Beth proved she can crack a whip outside the bedroom as well as in as we tried our hand at whip cracking, boomerang throwing, playing the 'didge' and even firing a rifle!! before being given a tour of the grounds which are 50% bigger than Belgium!!
The night was brilliant, the arrival of an Oz Experience (company we've booked up with, we're heading south) coach heading north meant loads of friendly rivalry in drinking games, line dancing and a tug of war where the losers have to moon to the winners!! not much of a winning prize but meant we bared our arses along with 30 others!!
There were rumours of Groover laying on the bar having tequila poured over him and being licked off by a complete stranger as well as dancing on the table with a multi-coloured wig covering my modesty but I couldn't possibly comment...
Next day we headed further into the bush (no need to say it, you're all thinking the same thing!!) on an overnight horse campout, not the first time Beth has had something big & powerful between her legs I can tell you!! (and called Fred...) first time I'd been on a horse, but it was great fun, beers & BBQ round a campout fire, before crashing out under the stars in a swag, terrific fun.
Developing a bit of a love/hate relationship with fellow backpackers, loads of wanker lads who think it's Ibiza, but everything else has been brilliant, may have spoken too soon about the Thin Groover thing though as the 3 dollar backpacker special of an Aussie pie floating in a jug of beer is proving too tempting...
Heading down to Hervey Bay on Saturday to get to Fraser Island, can't believe we've only got four weeks left, back on Thurs 2nd May to coincide with a messy return weekend!!
Groover
& Beth - The Messy Travelers
