Mission Beach- Mission Keep Dry!

Following a 3 hour greyhound journey with the world's most talkative bus driver (he insisted on pointing out every peice of cyclone damage along the way!) we got dropped off in what seemed like the middle of nowhere. It turned out to be the "centre" of Mission Beach!

Mission Beach itself is a 15km strech of beautiful beach, completelty undeveloped and lined with palm trees and mangroves. We were staying in Wongaling, which is one of the small hamlets which follow the length of the beach. Our hostel backed straight on to the rainforest and the noise of the insects and frogs was deafning at times. But on the plus side, Mark and I landed a 6 bed dorm to ourselves! The hostel was far from luxerious but did have a plus side, a PS2, which was a lifesaver on the first day. The continual rain and complete lack of civilisation (except for the obligatory drive thru bottle shop!) forced Mark and I to stay pretty much glued to the sofa for the majority of the first day (though we did venture out to buy supplies!)

Basically the sea is full of v.nasty killer jellyfish

The following day something very strange happened, the sky turned this funny blue colour and wet stuff stopped falling (basically the sun came out at last!) Mark and I packed a picnic and spent most of the day on our very own strech of paradise. We saw 3 people the entire day, bliss! Only problem was you could'nt go in the sea, as it was stinger season (basically the sea's full of v.nasty killer jellyfish!) Another peice of beautiful timing!But we had great fun meandering up the beach, trying to break into coconuts and generally laziong about. But, the beautiful sky was'nt to last and as the grey clouds gathered in again, we decided to return to the hostel. Good job, as that night we witnessed our first ozzie thunder storm, I've never seen rain like it!

Anways, we were soon on our way again, back on the big red bus and onto our next destination.