17/06/02 - 28/06/02 Cairns -> Hervey Bay

G'day Bruce's and Shelia's... well there's been a fair bit of road covered
over the past week or so.. sometimes eventful.. sometimes not...read on and
give charitable laughs where they are due...

17/06/02 - The day after
Well.. what a night.. it had it all..almost.. we could have and should have
won. Spain were good at breaking us down for an hour but for the last hour
it was all Ireland. I brought 'big and' along for the last match. Both of us
were deflated afterwards. The result got me.. a cigarette got 'big and'.
Poor Bloke !! Made a solem promise never to eat a spanish onion again..
Kelly was happy!
As we had been ripped off at every waterfall we'd been to in Asia we decided
to take Berti to the Tablelands, which lye to the west of Cairns. The
pictures and reports looked and sounded great and we were due a decent one.
There's a 23km circle of waterfalls you can drive to and im glad to say they
were all great.
THe first one we reached was too inviting not to get in.. so i did.
Swam across the river and over to the falls, climbed up underneath it and it
and sat on the rocks looking up at the water spilling overhead. What a sight
!!
I would have sat there for a good while longer but as i was waving to the
camera i spotted something stuck to my hand. A leech!! I jumped straight
back in and swam. Visions of "stand by me" came to mind. it wasn't the leech
on the hand that worried me, it was the others that i couldn't see that did.
Quick check for my own leech and all was well.. decided not to get back in
though! For family reasons.

Spent the latter part of the evening in the medical centre with Kelly's
swollen ankle( and Kelly also), courtesy of a reaction to mozzie bites. I
was getting away with the bites... couldn't work out why.
Joined by a scotish couple in the medi-centre i think we had more belly
laughs since i can remember. It was great and it didn't even get a mention
by the tourist board. We're tempted to start hanging around medi-centres all
the way down the coast !!

18/06/02
It was time to leave cairns today ... 3 weeks was ling enough and not that
ireland are out we have no excuse to hang around for the world cup
atmosphere.
Discovered a number of things on the way to Townsville
#1 is that mozzies dont like vitamin B in the bloodstream and thats how im
getting away with the bites. Kelly wont take the tablets because she doesn't
like the smell of them.. neither do the mozzies !!

#2 dont stop to look for crocodiles!!.. because you wont see any and when
you get back in your car you may find that your tyres are warped because you
parked on an uneven surface.#3.. dont park on an uneven surface.
One of the tyres heated up so much that it took the shape of the grass when
it cooled. Took a while to work out why Berti was rattling at 20kmph.

Got to townsville ... took an instant dislike but had to stay till tomorrow
to get post and also some rest.

19/06/02
Not all post arrived.. had to wait another day.

20/06/02
Still not all here.. can do without it. Outta here and on to Airlie Beach.

21/06/02 - 24/06/02
Airlie Beach ..aptly named by the Aussies because there isn't a beach in
site. The name may mislead you but the place itself doesn't. There is a man
made lagoon which you can swim in 24hrs a day and everyone hangs around
here. Everyone that is including Canadians. I hadn't formed a hate for them
until here, but now it's firmly planted... and the reason.. they're a bunch
of toss*rs.
They have an inherent need to be heard and when there's a 'herd' of them
it's like a competition and believe me there are no winners here.. only
losers !! " Woo ! Yeah ! i just got a mail from my mother... high five me
bro"... "Woo ! Yeah ! I just replied..."
There should be a warning sign of a species that forgot to evolve ahead, you
know like " wiggers may occupy next town"

Moving away from the bad points and on to the Whitsundays which are just a
(very long) stones throw away. Tropical Islands, sand like snow and the
Barrier reef.
Jumped on a one day tour of the Islands which included snorkling around the
reef. For someone who was afraid of fish when getting into the water, i
couldn't get Kelly out of it. She ended up actually chasing the fish around
and shouting at them under water. I had to get out because the water was so
cold, and there i sat watching kelly circle the reef like an indian about to
feast.
After this it was on to Whitehaven beach which is meant to be the 5th best
beach in the world. It's hard to see how there are 4 better but i would like
to see them. The whitest sand and the bluest sea.. but is it better than
silver strand i ask ???
I think we would have still been at Airlie Beach today but we got up to go
on a drive on the 24th and forgot to come back. Stopped off at another
waterfall and just kept on going after that in search of another town like
Airlie.

24/06/02 - 28/06/02 Mackay -> Rockhampton -> Gladstone -> Town of 1770 ->
Agnes Water -> Bundaberg -> Childers -> Hervey Bay

All the above mentioned towns were passed at the speed of light. There was
nothing of interest to make is want to stop and so this may not keep the
reader awake... sorry about that !!
There's a good bit of coast covered here ( if you want to check out that
map). There were some Kangaroo's, Wallabies, Kooala Bears, Emu's along the
way and... we didn't see any of them. Except for the roo's of course, they
were both dead and alive at the side of the road.

And so here we are at Hervey Bay, stepping stone to Frazer Island. Reported
as the hightlight of the Oz trip by everyone we've met so much to look
forward to.
Last night the locals provided the entertainment. Mullets everywhere without
a licence. Inbreeds sitting in one corner, jiving OAP's with nice ricket
legs in another, beside is were two arguing hillbillies. Man and Woman. The
man was a real pyscho looking freak and was pulling the maddest angry faces.
I was sure he was going to pull out a gun and shoot her or something. You
can tell that he gives her 'love' every night though, as thats what he has
tatooed on his knuckles.

And so for tomorrow..the trip to frazer Island