Nov 2007

After leaving Bowen we headed to Airlie Beach. It was a really nice looking place, it had quite a buzz to it. Really busy with lots of shops and stuff. We decided to do a sailing tour of the Whitsundays so had a bit of a trail through the booking centres, tour companies and tourist infos of which there are many! Finally decided on one which offered two days and one night away and only took 12passengers. We didn't want to go on a really busy trip with more than 40other people plus with this one we go two full days instead if the half days the two night trips offer. We had a few days to kill before sailing so we lazed about the lagoon, did a bit of shopping, wandered round the markets and William fished of course. He caught a beautiful big parrot fish from the pier at Shute Harbour. He put it back though as we weren't sure if it was a protected reef fish. The day before our sailing trip we went out for a drink and ended up hooking up with a local and had dinner with him. Got very drunk...oops! Had to be up the next day at 7am to be at the boat for 8am. Didn't help that we got a phone call from Dale R at 3.30am (he got mixed up with the time difference, thanks Dale.) We did manage to get up and drag ourselves to the boat and once we were out on the water the sea air did us good. It was the most gorgeous calm day so we had to use the motor to sail as there was absolutely no wind at all. It was beautiful. We sailed past North Molle, then in between Hook & Whitsunday Island. Spotting dolphins along the way. There were twelve passengers and two crew. Everyone was so friendly and we got on really well with them. An Irish couple, an American couple, a German brother and sister & 4 Koreans. We stopped in a cove off of Whitsunday and went snorkeling which was awesome. The water was so clear and the colours were amazing. We then went to Whitsunday National Park and got to see famous Whitehaven Beach which looks exactly like the postcards if not better. The water was incredibly blue and the sand was so white. We went down from the viewpoint to the beach and had a bit of a sunbathe and a swim in the sea. Back on Iceberg (our boat) we anchored for the night in a small bay and had dinner. We then had a few drinks with our hosts, Tristan & Jesse (skipper & crew) . They were a great laugh and I would totally recommend doing a trip on Iceberg. We all told a few stories before heading to bed. Had a fairly restful night.

Day 2- We went over to a small beach on the dingy, got to aquaplane, much fun!! We saw a few manta ray and stingrays, they were swimming close to where we were wading through the water. We had the whole beach to ourselves. Very secluded. William managed to knock a coconut out of the palm tree and we all had fresh coconut juice. Delicious. Back on the boat we saw whales and a huge turtle. As we were sailing back we saw a mother & baby whale along with a few other whales breaching. Amazing. One of the whales got so close to the boat we though we were going to collide. We did a bit more snorkeling before lunch then got down to some serious sailing back towards Airlie Beach. The boat was on it's side, it was so exciting. William was loving it. We all had to sit up on the edge of the boat that was out of the water. It was quite high up out of the water. We saw loads of dolphins on the way back. We also all got to help with the sailing e.g. hoisting the sail and holding all the many ropes that are involved in sailing. We all got a job at some point which was fun. Before we knew it we were back in Airlie Beach. We had had an amazing trip. At night we all got together again to say goodbye. We went out for dinner and drinks which ended up being lots of drinks, drinking games then cubbing. woohoo!! Great way to end a great couple of days. We stayed in Airlie beach one more day before getting on the road again.

Got down to Bowen and headed straight for the tourist office to see if they had info on fruit-picking and farm work in the area. Figured we should work a while seen as we had been away for 11weeks! They had loads of info which was good and advised us to drive round the farms and ask if they had work or to check out the local notice boards in town. We also got to see the 'Big Mango'. Feeling quite optimistic we set about going round the farms. We drove up to quite a few only to discover they didn't need any labour. It was mostly tomato picking at the time of year we were there and apparently the season had been terrible and there wasn't much work!! Just our luck. A couple of them reckoned if we waited until the weekend we might get something then. We decided that was a good idea seeing as we'd been round so many in one day with no luck, chances are the rest would be the same. Therefore we few days chilling out, exploring the area, fishing. All the usual stuff. It was quite a nice town and it had beautiful beaches. We got booked into a campsite, pitched our tent and we were all good. One of the days we were at Queens Beach and William caught a massive stingray. Very exciting. He cut his line though as he didn't want to get to close.

The weekend came and we headed of on our job hunt again. Passed a few farms that didn't need labour. Then we came upon this big farm and went in to ask. Turns out they needed staff in the packing shed and could we start the next day. Ye!! All good, especially since it was inside as the picking of tomatos is back breaking work bending down in the hot sun. Turns out it was a corn packing shed and our job would be working on a line to feed the corn into a machine to cut it to size (had to feed 60 a minute), stripping the dirty leaves off the corn (strip 20 cobs a minute) , then packing it in the small plastic trays to go to the supermarket (pack 15trays a minute). It was long days, in the first week we each did 66 1/2 hours. And were very sore by the end of it. 6 days on out of 7 with 10-12hour days starting at 7am. However, it wasn't to be as Williams hayfever flared up and he got a really bad rash. Not good so it wasn't feasible for us to stay any longer. We did two weeks and made some money which was all good. Although, the swollen legs, sore back and aching arms and legs weren't so good. We did meet loads of great people though. The line we worked on was a good one and we made friends that we will probably always stay in touch with. We also attended a few nights out with our workmates, one of them was a charity hawiian party which william wore his kilt too and caused quite a stir. We also had a bit of a leaving do as there was another couple who had been there for 4months leaving the same day as us and they had a big night out planned with the staff which we also got invited to. It was a good night.

We shall have happy and not so happy memories of our cron packing shed work. We also now know good and bad corn, dirty leaves, long stems, over-trims, if the corn has been water deprived etc...haha. We shall not miss the earplugs, rubber gloves and hair nets

We spent a few more days in Bowen with some good friends we had met who were on the same campsite as us before moving south again.

Arrived in Townsville during the day and had a bit of a nosy about. At first glance there didn't seem to be much to do. Went down to the esplanade to discover the big pool was being refurbished and was out of use. Continued along the strand which was quite pretty and discovered that there was a cultural festival to be held over the next week. Excellent! We had a drive up Castle Hill which from the top offered great 360degree views of Townsville and out to sea. At night we went to an Irish pub for drinks and food. Sitting at the bar William reckoned he recognised the girl at the end of the bar. She wasn't familiar to me but then he decided he had heard her say Pitlochry and so went over to ask! Turns out she was from near Dunkeld and they knew some fo the same people. Small world!!! She was doing the same as us. It was so good to hear a familiar accent.

Over the nest few days we went to the reef headquarters aquarium which was really good although not as good as snorkelling in the real thing. It is the largest indoor living reef in the world. We also spent some time down at the waterfront fishing where Willie caught a big catfish. Pretty ugly looking thing. It got chucked back in. The cultural festival was really good too. we got to see dancing, entertainment & singing from lots of different cultures. One group called the Suwon Korea Cultural Group were excellent. They played music while dancing and birling long ribbons attached to there hat around there body. They were something else!! Also got to see a big carnival with lots of fancy floats associated with the festival. And try different foods from around the world...mmmm.

On our last day there we went to say bye to Lorna from the Irish pub before heading South to Ayr then Bowen thinking we should get some work.

We left Mount Isa in the morning, william with a bit of a hangover from the rodeo, and headed towards the coast. (about 900kms away) Found out that Crocodile Dundee's pub was a detour of 200kms off our journey so decided to go and pay it a visit. So off to McKinley we head, nothing but long straight roads and flat land again. Got to McKinley in good time as there was hardly any traffic on the roads. The only thing there is the walkabout creek pub and a few houses. Very Outback! Glad we went though. Its got lots of photos of the filming taking place at the pub inside. After we took some photos we headed back to the overlanders way to drive to Julie Creek (the next town). About 20kms from Julie Creeks william heard an unuasual sound from the van. We had a puncture and were losing daylight fast!!! He managed to get it changed just before the sun had completly set and we decied to stay in Julie Creek for the night instead of going on to the next rest area so we could get to a garage on the morning to replace the flat tyre. Stayed in the worst caravan park over-run by beasties of all sorts!! No Like it!

Up early the next day and away from the park asap, we got the tyre replaced so all good. Back on the road towards the next town of Richmond, famous for dinosaurs. Richmond is a very good place to go fossicking being the 'fossil capital of Austrlia' but we decided to give it a miss and kept on going to Hughenden. It was a nice wee town. There was a national park only 70km North of the town which is descirbed as the small grand canyon of Australia so we thought we go and stay there for the night.

The drive was on unsealed road but it was ok just a little bumpy! The camp ground was very basic but it was all good for one night. William got up during the night needing the toilet, torch in hand he ventured out into the darkness only to discover a scorpion!!!! Mental!!! The next day we were up early and headed on a bush walk down into the gorge. The scenery was spectacular. Once down at the bottom there is a huge pyramid shape which is the rock face of the gorge side. It's amazing. The colours of the rocks were like we had never seen before. The climb back up almost killed me but it was worth it.

The next couple of days we drove to Charters Towers, nice looking plce, then onto Townsville. We made it back to the coast in one piece having throughly enjoyed the Queensland outback and meeting lots of friendly peeps.

Made it to Mount Isa and managed to find accommodation which was pretty lucky as the town was almost fully booked for the Rodeo. It was really nice to be in a big town again after being in the outback for a week. Once settled in we got ourselves to the tourist info for information on the forthcoming rodeo which we quite fancied going to. Also bought the obligatory cowboy hats (which william has had on huis head since!) Turns out it is the biggest rodeo in Australia and was on Fri, Sat & Sun. Found out that Sat & Sun were the best day as all the events before that were qualifiers. On the Friday night they had a huge carnival with around 50floats which made their way through the town to the rodeo grounds. They also had lots of fireworks, stalls & show rides. It was a good night.

On the Saturday morning we were up early to make our way to the rodeo grounds to get good seats in the arena. Donned in our cowboys hats, william in his kilt and me in my jeans. We sat with a family we had met on the camp ground which was great. They told us about the events and what was all happening. They were really good company. The arena was massive. We got to see cowboys on bulls and horses, bareback riders on horses, rope & tie, barrel races, steer wrestling and the awesomely hilarious wild horse race. It wasan amazing event where teams of 3cowboys have to catch a wild horse in the arena, saddle it , then one of them has to mount it and ride over the race line to the finish. Soooo funny. The rest of the events were brilliant to watch too. Who knew 8seconds was so long to stay on a bucking bull or horse. Its ages!! The cowboys looked like little puppets being flung about trying to hold on with one hand waiting for the 8second buzzer. It was such a good day we went back on the Sunday for all the finals. It proved to be just as good a day, if not better. We sat with sharon, dave and family along with their friend laboure. Had a few drinks and stayed at night with laboure to watch The Bostocks band play. Had a bit of a dance before heading back to the camp ground. William is in so many photos as the aussies were quite taken with his kilt.

It was a great week and great experience. After sad goodbyes with our new friends we got back on the road again deciding to head back to the East Coast to Townsville.