Chapter 14: Every G'day has it's Dawn

Still heading north we reached Airlie Beach, where Rich informed me we had a whole day of the Whitsundays coming up, so naturally I stocked up on toilet paper and reading material. As it turns out, he was referring to a sailing trip and not tummy trouble. There are many beautiful islands, beaches and sandy plains. Feast your eyes...

...The Whitsundays

On route overnight to Cairns we had this absolute pleb on the bus. Rich had previously identified him as he just chats complete bollocks about the least interesting things as he fails to chat up girls. Half an hour into his ramblings to a Swedish girl he said "Yeah yeah yeah. Do you know England? I'm from a place called Milton Keynes". Ah. The penny drops. As luck would have it when he finally shut up he rested his head on the back of my already reclined seat. Like a spider in it's web I waited for my opportunity. Around 2:30 am when I was sure he was asleep, one quick release of my chairs recliner handle catapulted him forward, bashing his head on the back of my chair and then bounced back into his seat. "Oh sorry mate. Didn't realize you were leaning on my chair". He he he. Dons 1 Franchise 0.

From Cairns we had one of the most memorable experiences of the trip. Diving at the Great Barrier Reef. As we are both now qualified divers we could just hire the stuff and go do our own thing so we had 2 half hour dives exploring the underwater world and all it had to offer. Having a lovely time swimming round amongst the plant life, fish, turtles, etc. Then He appeared. Row after row of razor sharp teeth, eyes as black as the mouth of Hell and the unmistakable dorsal fin of nature's killer of the deep. Pre-dive I assumed that should I see a shark in the water I would 'Whitsunday' myself and swim away as quickly as possible whilst screaming like girl, but that didn't happen. Instead just marveled at its grace and elegance. Breathtaking. The sea was quite choppy so the boat that took us to our dive sites was full of vomiting Japs. Those guys don't eat much, but man can they fill a bag!

We returned to Sydney for the last few days of Oz. Spent a lovely afternoon walking around the Botanical Gardens with Tina, a girl from our hostel. Pretty trees, birds, etc and all was well with the world. Then I found out her surname was 'Cuse'. "Hey", said I, "Do you know what would be really funny? If you broke both your legs, then died in some hideous accident then your tombstone could read; Here lies Tina. Just a lame ex-Cuse". One of us found it hilarious whilst the other looked mortified. Once again Tina, I am sorry.

Our final few nights in Australia were never going to be anything but alcohol fuelled. Found myself with a kangaroo on a balcony.

The Best of Friends

A familiar face in Jenene met us in Sydney so with Andy on board as well a small representation of Trowbridge went out to see what trouble we could get ourselves into. The World Bar in Kings Cross supplies some potent pots that very much do not contain PG Tips.

More Tea Vicar?

I woke up the next morning with my face and hair covered in flour. I still don't know who or why. Our final day in Australia was a classic - surfing on Bondi Beach. As it was my first time Rich kindly gave me some pointers but as he put it himself it really was the blind leading the blind, but what fun we had!

Wipeout

And from the beach to the bar with the remainder of our Sydney Massive. Andy, Dan, Paula, Jenene, the Josti Dutch girls, Rich and myself got drunk, had a dance and then an emotional goodbye. We will miss you all.

Team Sydney, Class of 2007

So the sun has set on our time in Australia. A country so diverse you could be here for a hundred years and still not see everything. So with a tear in the eye we look forward to the next part of our adventure. Destination Fiji.