Well well well, only three days left in Australia, and three days to close another chapter on my travels abroad. In ten days I will have been away for half a year. A lot has happened in 6 months and so far I am not ready to end it so soon. Hong Kong next where I will be stopping off before I head out to South East Asia. Time for some family time, eating, and leering at trainers that I can ill afford.
It's been a busy few weeks since my last post from Melbourne. My race up the east coast has taken me through Byron bay, Brisbane, Noosa, Fraser Island and until this morning, Airlie beach and the Whitsunday islands. I shan't go into detail too much about each but its been a great time so far. My travels with fellow backpackers Steve and Kyra whom I met in Byron have been eventful to say the least.
One adventure happened only days ago in Agnes Water/Town of 1770. I say adventure, I mean yet another near death experience. I am nursing injuries having fallen off a Chopper Motobike at 60kph (Yeah, I know, Kph just isn't as sexy as Mph). The irony of which was that it was my second time on the Scooteroo Tour in as many days. A convoy of bikes basically wind thru the town of 1770 to see Kangaroos and an incredible sunset, acting like a very, very mild version of the hells angels (minus the leather chaps and murdering). Well, there I was slowing down from 80kph to 60 kph -thinking about my dinner (A rib eye steak, no less)- when I went round the bend, over the gravel, all front brake, sans back, and rolled the fucker on the car park. Apparently the fall was reminicent to how Puff Daddy falls off his bike in "I'll be missing you", and more accurately from the guy behind me as [quote]'Pathetic'. Feeling springy from the adrenaline, I got up dusted myself off and rode on into the gorgeous sunset point feeling like a right double-hard bastard. I was even overtaking people! Not so pretty when I swabbed the cuts with TCP a hour later. I wanted my childhood blanky, "Clown Cover" to bite into and smell.
Fraser island was another adventure. If you call torrential rain and storms an adventure. We got hooked up with an ace group, a half of whom were Irish-not-from-Dublin. Shout out to your man for a great craic in spite of it raining hard, and basically not seeing an awful lot of the biggest sand island on the planet. The tents were soaked but we had a great time at the back of a 4x4 drinking goon, singing songs and craicing (sic) jokes. It could have been worse. One of the groups returned having rolled their vehicle on the beach. Each of the 12 people in the vans were skinned for $400 for the priviledge of nearly dying. Thats the east coast for you, the money grabbing vultures.
Airlie Beach has been a great sight to behold too. My time wasn't as good as Steve or Kyra as I was feeling the limitations of my injuries. When I snorkled, the sea stung the hell out of my lacerations and abrasions(heh, they're in actual fact scars and wounds, ladies). Couldn't swim much due to a busted knee either. Still, the Whitsundays are incredibly beautiful, especially Whitehaven Beach, a gorgeous swirl of blue raspeberry ripple ice cream but instead with sand and sea. The weather was perfection, and as its low season there were only 4 passengers on board. I even got a green pesto recipe from the cook who made the best pesto I have ever tasted. We even had the skipper playing an acoustic guitar set for us last night ending aptly on a highly competent version of "Hallelujah".
Hallelujah indeed,
Speak soon, friends.
Much love,
Michael
