Well it's been an awfully long time since I last wrote anything on here. Firstly because there wasn't much to report whilst I was working away in Port Douglas! I finally left Port Douglas after a stay of about 7 or 8 weeks, ready and financially backed up to start heading down the East Coast towards Sydney. Hooray! I spent the final week in Port Douglas in a state of luxury accommodation wise - a friend of mine had been living in a holiday apartment with some other girls, and since they had now moved on she was looking for someone to share with again temporarily. It worked out pretty well for both of us, so for seven happy days I enjoyed sharing a private and spotless kitchen, bathroom, living room, TV and free laundry facilities! Rather nice.
It was a shame that Annika and I were suddenly overcome with waves of car sickness on the windy bus ride back to Cairns, because before that we'd been bopping out to the funky tunes from our ipods on the back seat, totally excited to be on the go again and not cleaning hotel rooms or serving pizzas to tourists! So on arrival at our hostel in Cairns we looked a bit green (getting in the spirit for Halloween I guess!) but it was soon forgotten once we reunited with some friends that we'd met in Port Douglas, and got shown around our new pad! Calypso Hostel was a million miles better than the Parrotfish in PDouglas. Oh my days, we had been living in a slum compared to this, and paying more for it!
We had a great time in Cairns that week, immediately being introduced to a whole bunch of friendly faces, and enjoying some nights out, as well as a brilliant Halloween party at the weekend. I managed to fit in a day of volunteering at a print workshop just outside of the centre, which prints work for aboriginal artists. I helped with etch plate printing which was really good, great for the CV too I hope!
Annika and I did a bit of research and booked ourselves up for some treats down the East Coast, successfully playing several travel agents off against each other to get the best price we could for a Greyhound bus ticket and some sailing trips! Our first stop after Cairns was Mission Beach, where we both did our long-awaited 14,000ft sky dive!!! Hip hip hooray! We didn't really sleep much the night before, and the 7.30am pick up was quite uncomfortable! I was bouncing with excitement as I got geared up with the harness and onto the bus to the airport, but once we took off, rose above the clouds and knew that I was the first one out of the plane (from a group of 10) I was, well, pooing my pants. The tandem parachutist was rather abrupt with me when he was telling me to swing my legs out of the plane and all I could do was instinctively grab onto the other people beside me in the aircraft!! haha! Plus I kept forgetting to hold my head back on his shoulder before the jump, so the DVD shows him having to keep pushing my head back! But surely, if I'm sat on the edge of a plane I'm gonna look down right?
So, one, two, three, and boy did I scream! Full mouth full of cold air, neat hair completely destroyed by the gusts of wind, arms and legs locked backwards beneath the instructor and there we were, free falling for 60 seconds. What a weird sensation too as we went through some clouds. Like little wet hail stones on your cheeks. As my brain came back to reality I remembered that I was indeed connected to a parachute and it soon hauled me back up again (quite uncomfortably with the harness on actually!) and we started to descend over Mission Beach, with amazing views of Dunc Island, beautiful ocean and the sandy white beach below. I even had a chance to steer the parachute, oh yes. As we got closer to landing it looked like we were going to crash onto a palm tree but thankfully, it was a nice smooth landing on the sand. One of the other group wasn't so lucky though - his parachutist screwed up the beach landing a bit and they ended up landing in someone's back garden (no joke) with ripped shorts and a sore bum to show for it! ah dear. Think he bagged a free t shirt for that though!
So I've done it now, ticked the thrill seeker box, would like to do it again though if I ever can! No way to bungy jumps though. Like suicide but without the death.
Coincidentally, my house mate from uni, Adele and another uni friend, Charlotte were in Mission Beach at the same time as us, so we met up for a good catch up. Very strange to be talking about uni stuff whilst on the beach in Australia but so it goes! It was really nice to see them both and exchange travel stories. They also had a good laugh at our skydive DVDs!
We're now in Townsville for a few nights before heading to Magnetic Island for another Full Moon Party. Then next wednesday we set sail on a 2 day 2 night boat trip around the Whitsunday Islands. Beaut. It's been busy and exciting recently, and I'm loving every minute. I still can't get my head around the fact that it's November and nearly Christmas, maddness.
Think that is about all from me! byee
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