Airlie Beach: Day Thirty-Nine (27 November)

We spent last night in a Backpackers' Hostel (but we had our own room with en suite bathroom!) Here I am in Airlie Beach which is the jumping off point for exploring the Whitsundays. Look at the colour of the sea -).

From here we caught a ferry to South Molle, which is a tiny island with a self-contained holiday resort. Every afternoon they feed the local rainbow lorikeets with fruit and guests can help. Lorikeets are a kind of parrot and they are like flying rainbows with red and blue feathers on the underside and green on top: very pretty.

Like all parrots they are also very noisy and the ones on South Molle came a bit close for comfort.

Barnaby

Townsville: Day Thirty-Eight (26 November)

Today we are being proper backpackers and catching a bus to Airlie Beach. But first the kind people, who gave us a lift yesterday, picked us up from our motel and showed us more of Townsville. We went to the Tropical Museum and saw a very interesting exhibition about HMS Pandora, which pursued the mutineers from the Bounty.

Then our friends gave us lunch in their traditional Queenslander house - built on stilts to keep it cool in the summer - before giving us a lift to the bus station.

Townsville is also where Morris and I discovered Tim Tams (chocolate biscuits a little bit like Penquins) so we stocked up for the journey.

Barnaby

Townsville: Day Thirty-Six (24 November)

Today we went to the Aquarium in Townsville, which is called Reef HQ. It is brilliant: you are even allowed to put your hand in the water and touch some of the exhibits. We learnt about sea turtles, saw lots of reef fish (including clown fish like Nemo) and even watched people feeding the sharks.

Afterwards we relaxed at the Rockpool on the Strand and enjoyed a chocolate and macadamia icecream. Macadamias are a kind of nut, which grows in Australia. They taste especially nice covered with chocolate (doesn't everything :-).

Barnaby

Cairns: Day Thirty-Two (20 November)

We picked up the tickets for our trip down the coast this morning. It turns out the train isn't running on the day we want to go to Airlie Beach so we have booked to take the bus instead (like proper backpackers).

In the afternoon we went for a walk in the rainforest, which was lovely apart from the marsh flies.

Barnaby

Cairns: Day Thirty (18 November)

Far North Queensland does not have Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter like we do; it has a tropical climate with a dry and a wet season. November is during the wet season so it was not surprising it rained again today. There was also a cyclone out at sea, which is why we have not been able to go to the Barrier Reef yet.

But we did visit Cairns' Botanic Gardens with Miss Berry and had a nice lunch in its cafe.

Barnaby