The Rest of the Gold Coast!!

The Lagoon in Airlie.
see all photos »

So with a heavy heart we left Airlie Beach on saturday afternoon, this was after tom and ted had been quad biking, michele and jes went horse riding and me and alf slept in and checked out of the camp site. Alf was feeling the effects of alchol/diving and was not in a good way!! We drove (slowly) into town and parked up to wait for the others to return from their various activities. Alf stayed in the van and tried to sleep some more and i went off to use the net.

After an hour or so i returned and he was still not good, made some lunch and then the others came back and we headed back into town to go to the man made beach and lagoon in the town to splash around and take in some rays. However before we got there tom got a call from the quad place saying he had trashed their quad and they wanted $390 out of him for the excess, doh!! Well it worked out that the lady from the quad place came in to meet us and show us he had damaged it but as they hadnt pointed it out to him then and there she would be happy with $50 from him, which seemed like desperation on their part but he paid up and we went to lagoon it up!!

we headed up to a town called mission beach, which is a small town on the sea but ted said had amazing fish and chips,

The Shark in Airlie!!
see all photos »

After a few hours there, we headed back to the van where alf had been ill but was feeling bit better. We headed on our way, stopping to have our photo taken with a big shark on the way out of town. We had all enjoyed airlie and i will definately be coming back here at somepoint!! We were planning to drive for about 4/5hours and get someway past Townsville, the next biggest town on the map!! We did even better and got halfway up the road to the Wallaman Falls (Australia's Highest falls) and parked up in some random layby in the middle of nowhere, where no one would hear us scream!!

Wallaman Falls.
see all photos »

We woke early the next morning, no screaming needed and set off for the falls. Very spectacular, falling from the top of the rainforest to the pool below, they were probably not at their highest water level but still looked ace. We then did the 2km trek down to the pool below, which in these conditions was tough, we were all suitably sweaty by the end of it all!! But it was worth it, very stunning from down below too, they kicked up alot of spray which made climbing to get right underneath them not possible as the rocks were so god dam slippery!! the asscent back up was not as bad as expected but we were all glad to sit down and get on the road again if not just to rest our limbs for a bit. From here we headed up to a town called mission beach, which is a small town on the sea but ted said had amazing fish and chip, and being that we were all hungary it sounded like a good call. He wasnt lying, they were ace so we had some of them and messed around on the beach for a which before leaving and driving another 30/40km's up the coast to a town called Innisfail where we found a campsite for our last night in the Van!!

Josaphine Falls!!
see all photos »

After an emotional last night in our little van we set off for Cairns, via the Josaphine Falls which are a small mutipul drop falls just off the highway in the rainforest and they had a few little pools for swimming in too. 45mins were spent there where alf and tom swam and me and ted raced sticks!! haha. A pretty cool little waterfall and got some good photos of it. Cairns was another hour away and we arrived in the city around 1.30 and went to find out hostel, Tropic Days Backpackers. A nice little place, bit out of the centre but friendly clean and well run, however we couldnt check in until 4 so we drove into town and had a walk around and alf, michele, tom and jes booked a diving/snorkelling trip for friday/saturday. We had to drop the van off by 4 as well so about 3.30 some of us were left at the hostel with the bags and tom and ted went to drop our van off.

Bye Bye to the Van!!
see all photos »

The rooms at the hostel were clean and nice and comfortable. We decided to stay at the hostel for their BBQ that night and were not disappointed, for $10 we got kangaroo, croc, Emu, Makeral and lots of salads etc, very very good food. We then caught the free bus into town for a night out at a few pubs and bars. A game of 21 ensued and some hilarious phrases involving ted and michele and various other people came out, comedy.

The next morning we had to be out of the hostel at 10am and we had booked ourselves into an appartment for the next 3 nights as the other wanted some luxury, and at $36each per night it wasnt too bad. so we got a cab there and dumped the bags and again went to explore cairns until we could check in at 2pm. Ted hired himself a little bright Yellow Scooter to bomb around cairns on so off he went and the rest of us did a bit of shopping and then went back at 2, checked in and lazed by the pool for the afternoon. Jes informed me today that she was going to go home early as she didnt fancy working in australia and was missing people back home. Altough dissapointed I think i'm ok with being on my own as initially was going to do it that way anyhow. We then went shopping for some bbq food for that evening and some beer (obviously!!) and came back and me and ted cooked up a feast poolside on the free bbq. We while the evening away back in the appartment (which is very nice by the way) and played some cards etc before going to bed about 11pm.