End of The East

Quite a bit to get through on this one as I have left it so long so long in fact that I have even left the East coast and embarked on the next leg of my Australian odyssey.

We completed the Fraiser Island trip alive and with a quite a few acquaintances that we would carry on meeting all the way to the final destination some of these were nice people some drained the life out of me but it was good to keep seeing them, we headed for Bundaberg which is famous for its rum and upon looking at the town I figured they must have all been drinking it whilst in pregnancy as every other person looked like they should be on that special blue bus to school. We did a tour of the rum factory it showed us how they made and stored the rum they also gave us free samples. We decided not to stay the night here as we wanted to get as close to Arlie beach as possible so we carried on driving and ended up in a place I think was Rockhampton but I cant quite remember the good thing about this place was the owners were friendly and the dorms were clean and comfy just what you need after a prolonged period of driving, this place was only a stop over so in the morning we grabbed our shit and headed for Arlie….Arlie beach is the launching point to get to the Whitsundays which are a group of islands in front of the great barrier reef which have been voted best beaches in the world and you may even remember Hamilton Island as this was the job Australia opened to the world to become the caretaker and earn a stupid amount of money to live and work on a beautiful island. We arried in Arlie Beach on Good Friday GREAT we thought we can have a good night and see one of our friends off, NO we cant Queensland rule is on Good Friday you can only be permitted into a pub/bar if you buy a meal and then you are only allowed in there for 2 hours, now can you imagine this rule anywhere in the UK? You thought the Poll Tax riots were bad this would be like the end of days Threshers and Oddbins would be trashed but like I say some parts of Oz are 15 years behind the UK like only buying alcohol in specific licensed places where in England you probably could pick up a six pack in a garden centre now.

The Whitsundays turned into the Wetsundays was the weather was awful for us and the group was not quite as good as the Fraiser group but there were some gems among the people, I had to brave the rain as for the first time in my life I was sea sick on this sailing boat so my choices were sit down in the cabin where I would all likely of thrown up or don the rain jacket and sit on deck……I chose the deck where instantly I was not a fan of sailing. Why spend so much money on a boat to work to get it where you want it to go? I’m more the type who would rather be on a yacht with a few Victoria’s secret models on board sipping Mai Tais. We saw the Whitsundays and Whithaven beach which was nice looking but as the weather was so awful I didn’t really care for it. Some of the crew were great on this boat but one of the skippers in training was a bit full on for some people and you have to remember this was a sail boat with all mixes of age and to be roll called in the morning to “GET UP YOU MOTHER FUCKERS” was not everyone’s idea of Earl Gray! It was quite funny reading some of the peoples feedback comments but we all knew they would sift through them and remove them but one of the people actually went down and complained to the office. We had an after party which I thought would not be as good as it turned out but the obnoxious crew member turned out and started asking why we had complained and actually tried to start a fight on the person who complained to his boss……..long story short he got arrested that night and then lost his job.

Sometimes the best parts of the trips are gambles our mission was Cairns but we had to stop off on the way as nothing is near each other in Australia why couldn’t they have built it all in one corner? We stopped off in Townsville which was a massive dump and the place we stayed in was basically for down and outs. The next morning was the choice to head further North to Cairns or go to Magnetic Island putting us off was the cost of 80 bucks each way to get the car over but we decided what the heck and headed off via ferry 8kms later we were on Magnetic Island and probably one of my favourite places on the East Coast it had a mix of Thailand and Middle India as the Island was quite tropical with lots of boulders scattered along its shores. Becoming one of the best places on the East Coast needs every element to work in its favour, we had the beautiful Weather we stayed in a great hostel and we had the great nights. Overall we won 150 bucks worth of free beer and I think in the end they were glad we left as we were so dominant kind of like Liverpool in the 80s and Manchester United in the 90s we took every competition seriously. First night was Ladyboys night where all the men who dressed up got free ‘Champagne’, I put Champagne in inverted comers as it was more like Goon wine with orange juice. We headed to the Op Shop (Charity shop) and bought our outfits with the intention to win and headed back and got some Norwegian girls to do our makeup……..well we were by far the prettiest of them all and Oli who was dressed like Big Bird from Sesame Street won first prize which gave us our first taste of victory. The next competition was Bar Wars where teams have to compete in a series of bar games to win the prize, we sent out secret weapon OLI into the battlefield. Let me tell you why he was our secret weapon he has duel nationality and is getting job seekers allowance from the Australian government despite never paying taxes over here so when something was free he was all over it like priests on school boys. Oli ran amok in the musical chairs even enjoying it this won us 50 bucks, the egg catching event we put a girl in and needless to say girls cant catch the next was clothes line which we did ok but the sex positions in one minute we sent Oli back into the battlefield and he won that giving us 1st and another 50 bucks.

Next stop Carins and to be fair there is not really that much going on up here its just drinking and diving. I did do a 11 dive live aboard on the great barrier reef which was so tiring but I got to dive with Bull Rays, White tip reef sharks, Giant sea turtles, Nurse Sharks to name but a few, the highlight was the night dive however as it was my first night dive I had to dive with the learning group who kept crashing into me and kicking me as they did not know what they were doing but other than that it was one of the best dives of my life as we were surrounded by sharks point the light away and they would come closer point it at them and they would go away if only Chief Brody had taken a torch when trying to get Jaws it would have been a lot easier. We had a good time in Cairns and this is the place I had to say goodbye to my friends as this is their last stop but its one of my first.

To conclude on the East Coast my favourite places were Sydney, Coffs and Magnetic Island but what I was disappointed with on the East Coast were the travellers if I can actually call them that many of the people are 18-20 and have chosen the East to travel as it is pretty piss easy as its all English so to me they are not real grubby open travellers, a lot of the people especially the girls have brought their arrogant ignorant views and social skills with them where as in Asia people were much more open to being approached and making friends. I have been told by people that the West coast is lot better in regards to travellers as they are the people who actually want to see stuff and not get drunk every day they are also a bit older in the 24-26 bracket.

Well that’s all for now I’m leaving Eastside and heading Westside via central and north and as a sneak peek for the next one I am travelling with 3 girls in the car now probably not much difference to the Eastside crew but it will either be really good or really bad. Made it half way to Alice Springs lets hope the next half is just as uneventful!

Till the next time.