Townsville night market 3rd August 2007

We drove in to the centre and found it a lot bigger that expected. We went up to Castle Hill (but no castle). The views at the top were very picturesque, you could see for miles, looking over to Magnetic Island and the city.
We found our new campsite and relaxed round the pool. Later that day we drove to the city night markets. As we walked around there was a cool breeze and festival feel. We bought some homemade fudge, looked at all the stalls and Hannah got a really nice necklace.

A Sad day 2nd August 2007

We got up at 630am and took Emma down to the harbour for her ferry. We waited until her boat came in, we gave her a hug and waved her off, as she sailed out of the harbour. Hannah felt really sad that Emma had gone and there was now a empty seat in our camper. We'd all gotten on so well considering we were all in the little camper, Hannah said it was a sad day, but the journey must go on.It was the first time Hannah and I had been in the camper as just the two of us. We said our good bye's to Jason and Sheridon and started driving north to Misson Beach.
On the way up we stopped for lunch and decided to stay in Townsville for the night. In Townsville that night we planned to stay another night so we could have a good look around and go to the night market the following night.

Emma''s Last day 1st August 2007

A sad day as it was Emma's last day. We had our brekkie and sat outside. We drove down to the harbour for Emma to pay for her ferry. We went on a walk that the guide book said was good. It said a short walk up to see the best views of the Whitsunday Island. We had lunch before we started and started the 2.4km walk up. We strolled along, through the forest hoping no croc's, snakes or spiders would jump out. It was a long winding walk up the hill. As we walked my foot hit a rock and Hannah nearly jumped out of her skin, as she thought it was a frog of something. Which also scared Emma.
We got to the top and the views were great. On our way down we went a different way, following a road. We found out down the road it was a private road for the local tele communications people. We carried on and found the main road to the harbour. We then walked back along the road for another 2km in the heat. It was getting to everyone, but the camper had a nice cold drink waiting for us. `
We drove to get some things and had a beautiful BBQ for Emma's last night, we text Ali and Jess to see if they wanted to go for a drink and twisted Emma's arm saying we wouldn't be late in and we invited Jason. At the pub we chatted and drank for a while then said our goodbye's and had to go home early start tomorrow. Jason came back to the camper and we had a few more beers and chatted til 2am.

No falls in Creek falls 31st July 2007

Today we decided to have a lie in and later go shopping for bits for the camper. We got 2 chairs, some food and we drove to Creek Falls, which didn't have any falls. We have some lunch and drove on to Conway Beach. The tide was out so we didn't stay long, plus a sign said there were croc's about. We saw some strange letter boxes, some made from old microwaves.
We drove back and went to the lagoon, were we relaxed and had ice cream. Back at camp, Emma decided it would be easier to fly locally, instead of driving back to Cairns. Plus she got an extra day in Airlie Beach, which she really wanted, as she didn't want to go home.
That night we went out for something to eat and went for a drink. We didn't feel the love tonight so we went home and had a beer instead.

This is the Twelve Apostles on The Great Ocean Road.

Hangover from Hell 30th July 2007

Hannah woke up wondering why Emma was next to her.............she awoke again to find her gone and found a huge headache in her place. I opened the back of the camper, while Hannah was still in bed.
There Emma was with a bottle water in one hand, looking a little rough, but we all were. Hannah laughed as she told Emma the stories of last night, trying to get her out of the bar, getting home, as she didn't remember very much. Emma laughed and said she'd had a great night. We sat around the campsite for most of the day, our plan was to drive to Misson beach today, but plans changed and we booked in for another night. To help Emma feel a little better she opened a beer (freak). We laughed most of the day, mostly about nothing, but what ever nothing was it was funny. I think we were all, still a bit drunk.
We went to KFC for lunch at 3pm, then walked around the shops and sat by the lagoon, sunbathing. That night we ordered in pizza, Emma did the ordering for some reason in an American accent. Emma couldn't stop laughing, Jason heard them and asked what they were doing. He thought they were drunk again. They invited him around for a drink and we played "ludo" and "snakes and ladders" and went to bed about midnight.

Turtle eating a jelly at the Great barrier Reef. 29th July 2007

The generator started at 5:30am, and with the smell of toast we went up on to the deck. The sun had just started to rise from the dark ocean to revel all the beautiful colours of the blues in the ocean and the reds, yellow and blues in the sky. The fisherman's boat had gone from the night before, Brent said it left about 4am. After having breakfast we moved to a different spot on the reef, were Brent it was his favorite place to snorkel This was because the water above the reef was only about a meter deep, so we'd be able to see lots of different fish, turtles and only last week he said 3 girls were diving and a hump back whale swam straight over their heads (Wow). So we jumped in to the dingy, excited and ready to snorkel. Brent dropped us off near the reef,Hannah and Emma held hands while snorkeling. The coral was amazing, lots of different types, different to yesterday. more plate coral and brain corals. All the corals are named after the things they look like. e.g. plate coz it looks like a dinner plate. Hannah and Emma spotted lots of big fish , 2 followed them along the edge of the coral, they saw a huge blue sea star and just had a brilliant time. I saw a little shark in the reef hiding and then I head some noise coming from over near the girls. I popped my head out of the water and saw Hannah with her snorkel still in her mouth shouting me over to them and pointing down. I swam over and they were both looking down so I had a look. They were both watching a massive turtle, only 1 meters from them, he had a jelly fish in it mouth and was bashing it against the coral wall and with its legs. Hannah was using the hand signals from her diving yesterday to show Emma and talk to me, I heard the that noise again and found it was Emma laughing underwater. She was laughing that hard she had to surface for air (as in Finding Nemo " it was so cool dude!!" ).
We heard the whales songs again and it was great to hear them again, then it was time to get out of the water and back on the boat. We started back to Airlie, chatted to Brent and Andy. Did some sun bathing on the deck and just relaxed. We all felt a little sad that it was going to finish soon. so we tried to bride Brent to take us out again, but we didn't have enough money between us. As we got back to the harbour we gathered our things and said or thanks. We know its something that we will never forget. One of those things that will be talked about forever. They crew had booked a table at the Beaches bar in town for a drink tonight. We decided to go and rang Jason from the campsite as he said he would come get s after our trip.
We got chatting to him and arranged to meet him and Sheridon (his sister) at 7:30pm. We got ready, had some beers and vodka and went to meet them. We got a cab into town and went into Beaches. There was a table reserved in the name of Kiana, but nobody else had turned up, as we had expected. We sat down and had a few jugs of beer and then went to another bar up the road. There was nobody else in but the staff. About ten minutes later we got chatted to an English couple, Ali and Jess and they were both in the Navy.
They ended up coming with s to the next bar and we all started chatting and getting drunk. Jason got us all a pint of something that got us all on our way. We all ended up really drunk at about 3am. We exchanged numbers, emails and they said for us to stay with them in Portsmouth.
Emma ended up with Jason and was so drunk she didn't want to go home. It took Hannah 30 minutes to get Emma out of the bar, by this time the staff were cleaning the bar and ready to home. Hannah sent me to the pie shop, while she and Jason pulled Emma out of the bar. We all got a taxi back to Flametree, Emma fell asleep in the taxi and fell out when we got there. We went back to the camper and fell asleep.