Gold, Jerry.

We finally made it to paradise! Surfer's Paradise that is! It's warm and sunny and on the Gold Coast. YAY! Last night we went to a club called The Bedroom. It is a place where hot, scantily clad women abound. The music is bumpin and the strobe lights are aplenty. We got in free with our hostel and the first drink was on the house. This is the first time we've been out in several weeks and it was very entertaining. We also have a six-share dorm room to ourselves last night. Things are looking up. :)

Yesterday, we did a bus tour of Brisbane. Such an awesome city! It's built on the Brisbane River and is so modern and clean. We got off the hop-on, hop-off bus at the Botanic Garden just in time to catch a free, hour tour by a volunteer. We were lucky enough to have two volunteers and only three tourists (including me and B). We saw the tropical rainforest, the bonsai gardens, the Japanese Gardens, the fern area, and the herb garden. We saw plants, trees, lizards, flowers. We tasted bright, pink honey suckle flowers, smelled a unique variety of magnolia tree, and tasted herbs. It's so much more fun to be lead around by someone who knows what they're talking about - especially when it's FREE! Yay! We also went to the beautiful state library! A very modern building with open balconies on all four floors that look out onto the ground. (It's hard to explain, but just trust me that it's really cool.) Included in the bus tour was access to the CityCat - the water bus that goes all up and down the river. Very, very cool! We got on around 5:00 and rode up to the mouth of the river. There were huge, expensive houses and tall, glass buildings all along both sides. We stood out on the bow and breathed in the cool air and took some great pix. By the time the boat turned around, it was starting to get dusky, so as we came back to the city, the sky was dark and the buildings and bridges were brightly lit up. Amazing!

The day before that was all driving... but I did buy some material and have been hand sewing a purse. It's purple and brown and stripy. I like it... The reason we were driving all day was because we went to the Carnarvon National Park area. We took a long side trip to hike the trail, but when we got there, it rained on us all night and the trail was too muddy, and the weather too cold to be an enjoyable trip... So we drove to the middle of no where and camped for $34 for pretty much nothing...

The day before that, we CAMPED UNDER A BRIDGE in Emerald, Australia... Yes folks, a new height to our travels... We are officially very homeless. :) After we woke up from the dogs "next door" barking... we drove out to Sapphire and did some fossicking (digging for precious stones)... The bloke at the shop was, in our minds, the perfect mold of an Aussie - really friendly, wearing a big hat, short shorts, hiking boots and a collared shirt. He was an older, less commercial version of Steve Irwin. I really wish I had of taken a picture of him! After looking aimlessly for about an hour, the dude showed us how it was done. He came out and got on all fours and found a little zircon in about 30 seconds. After that, we had a better idea of what we were looking for, so we found several minuscule zircons and one tiny sapphire. Score!

Birds

Birds. Birds. BIRDS!

Imagine it. 6 a.m. Birds! All I hear is BIRDS! Squacking. Chirpity Chirping. Bleeting. Whiperwhilling. Tweeting. Twittering. Chattering. Thousands of them. Ringing in my ears. Can't sleep. I just want to SLEEEP! It's 6 a.m. for God's sake! QUIT SQUACKING! ... A momentary lul. Then they begin again. Louder this time! Larakeets. Gulls. Curlews. Brahmney Kites. Boobie Birds. Albatross. Pipers. Honey Eaters. Wedgetailed Eagles. Turnes. Cockatoos. Loud. soft. fast. slow. ALL-AT-THE-SAME-TIME! AHHHHH!!! WHY!??

We experienced our best Australian drive yet! The road from Cairns to the Daintree Forest was amazing! We curved along the ocean the whole way to the Daintree. There, we arrived just in time for a croc tour! YAY. We got a small electric boat, which we were assured would get us very close to the edge of the water - and to the crocodiles that may be lurking there... or sunbathing as it were. The boat was small - there was room for me and B, a family of four, two dudes from southern Australia and our Dundee-hat-wearing guide. We putted up the very calm waters, straight to our first croc... The guide knew exactly where it was from the last tour he took out... So he pulled right up, really closely in my opinion... eek! Would he come and snatch one of the little ones out and eat her up right before our eyes? ... It turnes out that that would be entirely too much effort. The six-foot lizard just layed there on the shore, bathing in the sun. He lazily opened his eyes once or twice to see what was disturbing his peace... We sat there for several minutes and snapped pictures while the guide told us some facts about crocs and about the Daintree... Apparently, crocs don't eat as much as the Discovery Channel would have us believe. They are satisfied with about a chicken a week, and they can go six months to a year without eating anything at all... Pretty crazy. Also, crocs haven't changed at all in the 140 million years the Daintree (also unchanged) has been there. They are perfect and need no evolutionary tweaks... So on we went in the other direction... the rainforest and Dividing Range (mountains) all around us. Beautiful. We saw a tiny, baby croc, which was no longer than the palm of your hand. He was sitting on a small branch, just over the river, also sun bathing. It was surprising how small those things are when they are born! He was, according to the guide, six months old. ... cool! Other life we saw, included lizards, snakes, birds, flowers, trees, etc. ... Cool.

We got back to the shore, said our goodbyes, ate some lunch, and listened to all the fun things we could do in the area. We decided to drive to the Daintree National Forest area, which is only accessible by ferry. It was very smooth "sailing" across the river, and we drove up the coast, through the very thick rainforest to our first lookout. From there, you could see the ocean, several small islands, and Cape Tribulation (our ultimate destination). Twas very beautiful, and foggy - perfect for a rainforest, we thought. We continued to drive along the small winding roads, with trees along both sides and arching over the top of the road. We saw clear, rocky creeks running under the road at several places. It was very magical, with all the fog and drizzel. We made it up to Cape Trib and walked around, took lots of pics and then found a camp site. We set up and then had dinner - pizza and a jug (a little smaller than a pitcher) of beer - at the cafe by the campsite. Twas our first jug here. It was nice to spoil ourselves a bit. It rained all night long, but our tent is a good one so we stayed dry.

We woke up early and started back down south, to Cairns. There, we stayed in the same hostel as before, ate at the same "free" restaurant. I had sea bass and B had chicken parm - all for $10. The next morning, we showered and checked out (showers are so wonderful and sometimes rare, so I have to point them out... LOL)... We were lucky, as the Cairns festival was going on this weekend. We saw two sets of Aboriginal dancers, lots of Aboriginal artwork, and ate some good, Aussie food - Kangaroo burger with tomato paste - it was soooo good! Yay!! After our wonderful day of good food and culture, we continued our drive south. We bought some oil for our car - for $13 dollars!! And stayed the night at a rest stop just past Townsville.

Yesterday, we came back to Airlie Beach - which has been our favorite place. It's a small town, with one main road, and beautiful ocean along the whole stretch. We have purchased several good books from a little used book store, with prices that are even more expensive than new ones would be in the states - APPRECIATE where you live, seriously! The books have kept us from going crazy, and spending all of our money! It's a little overcast and muggy today, but it is beautiful, and the breeze is cool. Yay for Airlie!! Today is a good one.

:)

We finally made it to Cairns! WOOT.

Yesterday morning, we got up at 7:30, packed our bags and walked down to the bus station for our daylong adventure. We were taken to the marina by the most beautiful aqua water I have ever seen. We - along with the other 33 passengers - were given a safety briefing and then led to our boat - the "Big Fury" - by a long haired 20-something Aussie named Cam. We had an hour-long boat ride out to the snorkeling bay where we were fitted with masks and fins (not to be confused with "flippers," which are dolphins :) ...), and then we jumped into the beautiful AND FREEZING water. We swam away from the boat and to the reef to see the brightly colored coral and fish. There were all shapes and sizes of both - green, yellow, purple, red, black. We saw a really huge clam, which didn't look like a clam at all. It was grown into the reef and was about the size of a basketball. If I hadn't been told it was a clam, I would have thought it was some kind of alien being. :) Very cool! After an hour, we swam back to the boat and had a cruise around the islands. After another hour, we hit the beautiful white sands of Whitehaven Beach. Apparently, before it was declared a state park, they dug up several tons of it to make the Hubble Telescope... We jumped out and played around in the water for a few minutes before being called to lunch of sandwiches, potato salad, pasta salad, prawns, fruits, etc. It was good and we were hungry! After a little more play, we headed back to Airlie Beach. We walked along the ocean back to our car, then we snuck a shower at the hostel we had already checked out of and hit the road. It was dark by the time we set out, but we drove and drove and listened to our iPod thru the tinny car speakers. Around 10:30, we found a rest stop that clearly said no camping allowed, and pitched our tent between some camper vans, very near other tents that were illegally set up. (We're so rebellious...)

This morning, we woke up bright and early and got back on the road. We arrived at Cairns around 1:30 and found a hostel near the ocean. It is much warmer in Cairns, as everyone said it would be. YAY! So we walked up the street to the lagoona and had a brisk swim, then laid out in the warm sun for about an hour. ahhhhh... After that, we walked around to the many tourist shops and wasted some time until the Woolshed opened at 5:00. The hostel we're staying at offers a free meal here - or you can upgrade to the regular menu for a few dollars more. We totally upgraded! B had a steak dinner and I had a Thai green curry and chocolate cake. YUM YUM! After dinner, we chilled on the couches in the very hip restaurant and watched music videos. Twas good! I've been longing for a couch and a good movie. Couch and music videos was almost just as good!

So now we're back at the hostel doing internet schtuff. We check out by 9:30 in la manana and are heading to the Daintree National Forest. Hopefully there, we won't want to spend so much money! I'm excited to check it out. We're in the wet tropics now, so the scenery is a little different from the scrub brush and eucalyptus trees we've gotten used to. We're also gonna go on a croc tour. Cross your fingers that we don't get eaten. :)

Miss ya!
A

How Ya Goin?

Sooo... We're coming home early... We couldn't get work visas and are running outta money fast, so we've decided to get the hell outta Oz... We'll be flying back on Tuesday, Sept. 7th. ... This is a good thing. :)

The past few days have been spent at Airlie Beach. It's not entirely warm, so we haven't been in the water at all. We've basically been walking around, eating, and playing on the internet... Not a whole lot to do when you're broke. And the Pokies (beers) are never under $5 each, so nighlife is sorta out too. We did buy some Goon, however, which is fake wine. It's pretty nasty, but it does the trick. All of the alcohol here is really expensive, even in the liquor stores, due to high taxes. The cheapest bottle of liquor you can buy is a small $20 bottle of no-name vodka. Rum is $35 and up, a case of beer is $45... Ouch...

Tomorrow shall be fun tho! We're going to go sailing, snorkling the Great Barrier Reef, and then to an awesome tropial paradise called Whitehaven Beach. Can't WAIT!

So a few random things about Oz...

A shopping cart is a Trolley. A baby stroller is a Pram. A small glass of beer is a Pokie. Layaway is called lay by. They say "cheers" a lot. It can mean thank you, or hello or goodbye. They also say, "How ya Goin" instead of what's up or how are you. Sunglasses are called sunnies. Breakfast is known as brekkie. The pharmacy is the chemist. You don't rent anything, you hire it. A car collision place is called "smash repair." Cars are really different here. New cars with pickup beds on the back of them are really popular. All of the road kill is kangaroo... They can really f up your car. There are signs for them everywhere, as well as for koalas and sheep. The town of Mackay is pronounced mack-eye. The town of Cairns is pronounced Caines (no r). They say mate a lot. The people are very friendly. It gets dark early ... 'cause it's WINTER. We're living in the future. It's 12:45 p.m. on Sunday here, and it's only 9:45 on Saturday night there. We're also walking around upside down. We're on the other side of the world, people!!!

xo
A

Walking Greatly

On the 8th, we started out early... First we went to the Parks Dept to get our camping passes for the 30k Whitsunday Great Walk. Then, we went by the grocery store and picked up our food for the next three days. We drove out to the Whitsunday trail head at Brandy Creek and parked our car. We spent the next 30 minutes clearing out all of the unnecessary items out of our packs. After all was clear, we put on our fully packed (with food, water, tent, sleeping bags, sleeping mats, clothes, etc) bags for the first time... Yeoza! They were HEAVY. So crap, I have to carry this for 3 days up mountains?! ... No whining ... So, on we go up the rocky path toward our 1st night's camp site called Repulse Creek. The walk was pretty easy. We stopped a few times to take our packs off and rest. We cleared the first 8.3k's in around 4 hours. We arrived at the rainforest camp site, ate spaghetti and set up camp. We took a bunch of pictures of the giant, white tree we were camping by and decided it was the protector of the jungle. :)

Day two - we packed up our schtuff and filled (+ filtered) our water bottles and off we went... Up, up, up, up, up the many mountains to our next camp. We were pretty surprised to find out how freaking steep the trails were. We were definitely trudging up, and in some parts down, in pain. This jaunt was 11.5k's and took us about 6 hours. (Pretty sure I've never walked that far, or for that long, at once in my entire life.) We stopped along the path to eat some premixed tuna sandwiches. We were passed by a dude who was running the whole 3-day trail in one day. CRAZY! Other than him, we didn't see anyone else on the trail or in the camps for the entire 3 days. We finally arrived at the Bloodwood Camp around 4:00, set up camp, ate, and soon got in our (new and much larger!) tent, as there was no seating or tables for us to chill at. Soon after we got in, it started pouring rain. It didn't stop pouring all night long - and I can attest to this because I was up all night with a stuffy, runny nose... B gave me his sickness. BOO!

We woke up around 6a and packed up camp ... in the rain ... and we took the next 8.5k's at the highest speed possible. Our packs were slightly lighter since we had less food and water, so that definitely helped. The pathway was really muddy, so we were slipping all over the place. I was getting lightheaded every time my heart rate went up and I had to breath thru my mouth 'cause my nose was plugged. Did I mention it was still raining?... gur! After about 3.5 hours, we made it out to the other side, at Airlie Beach. We walked down the street of the brand new housing development that the trail led into... I felt like a homeless person, as I was all muddy from the trail, and hadn't had a shower for 3 days AGAIN! yuck... On we walked to the hostel we had stayed at before, checked in and paid a taxi $40 to take us back to our car at the trail head. We drove back and immediately jumped in the shower. Yay! After getting gloriously clean, we walked around in search of some food. A lot of the restaurants were closed as it was around 4:00 and it wasn't quite dinner time. The ones that weren't closed were around $25 bucks a plate. Finally, one of the restaurants owners who was closing down for the day directed us to a fish and chips place just off the main strip. Neptune's was fantastic! Best food I've had yet in Australia! Their fish and chips plate was $10, and the outside seating offered a perfect ocean view. The coke was still $4 for a small bottle, but we bought one anyway. There are just some things worth spending extra money on... After dinner, we walked around a bit, got the free wifi from McDonald's, bought a bottle of (really nasty) wine for $6 and went back to our room. We had a lot of fun last night, staying up til the wee hours of the morning, talking to all of our English roommates and their friends - we're now staying in a 8 bed dorm room.

Today, I woke up early and slipped out to have a breakfast of banana nut bread and a fresh fruit smoothie and have some quality Internet time.

We're still trying to decide if we're going to stay the entire 3 months and try to get jobs here, or if we will just do the rest of the things we want to do here and fly home. I'm on the side of getting jobs at the moment, but it tends to change for both of us daily...

Peace and love ya'll. :)

A long en

Sydney, August 2nd... We started out on the morning in search of a car. We decided to go to Liverpool, an hour train ride from Sydney. We ended up buying a car at the 1st place we looked, after walking around all day, talking to every car dealership in Liverpool and the next town over. The test drive was an entertaining experience: B was driving a standard with the shifter on the opposite side of the car, while driving on the left side of the road - everything was backward! There was a ton of traffic, we didn't know the area well, and it was at night! So he was focusing on shifting backward while I was trying to tell him what lane to be in and which way to turn to get back to the dealership. It was pure adrenalin rush insanity! So what else to do, but buy the car? Ha! We made and offer and asked if the accepted credit card. We thought, if we could put it on my Discover Card, we could just pay it off when we sell the car back in three months. Well, they ended up not taking Discover, so we had to pay from our bank acct. The only way to do so was to use the check card, as it was a bank holiday and we wanted to get out of Sydney ASAP (it's expensive!). $3,350A later, we had to run B's card 3 separate times and my card once because it wouldn't accept a transaction over $1,000... So we got the car, and then had no idea where we were going. First we had to get gas. We got turned around 3 times and B kept driving in the Right lane... OOPS! We finally got back to the hotel to pick up our backpacks and headed out of town - without a map! The first night, we drove til we had to sleep and pitched a tent at one of the many side-of-the-road rest stops available to us. It rained all night long and B about froze to death because he didn't get the warm inner liner for his sleeping bag... Blah!

The next day, we woke up at our regular 5:30a and continued our drive north toward Cairnes (pronounced Cains by the Aussies). The beginning of the day was fabulous! We went to Seal Rocks and Sugarloaf Point Lighthouse. The views were BREATHTAKING! I can't wait to post pics! There was a 260 degree view of the bright green ocean, tons of rock cliffs, etc. It was really, really windy, but sooo beautiful! I said if I don't see anything else the whole time we're here, the trip was worth it just to see that! ... Guess I shouldn't have said that... as soon after, we started freaking out about money. We spent half of ours on the car, so now we had to decide how we could get by the other half - $3,000 total - over the next 3 months. Everything in Australia is SO expensive. We spent 20 bucks on a pack of cigarettes and a coke a few days back... Which was another fun adventure... B going off the cigs cold turkey... we won't go into that or much else over the next couple of days... Basically, days were spent driving without much stopping and eating our grocery store meals in the car. At night, we were cold and miserable, it rained the whole time and we were sleeping in a one-man tent that was too short for Brandon. It was pretty bleak overall...

August 5th, things started looking up. We stopped at one of the many road side information centers available to us. The attendant suggested that we check out Wreck Rock in Deep Water National Park. So on we went. We stopped at a gas station on the way to book our camp spot. Further down the road, we stopped at a local shop and bought a sea fishing pole, in hopes of catching our dinner. The rest of the way there was mostly dirt road. Toward the beginning of the drive in the park, we came across an awesome lagoon, where we were sure a croc would come out and eat us at any moment. :) Soon, we arrived at the camp site and set up camp. I took a nap cause I was gettin cranky and when I woke up, we cooked our second camp meal - boiled carrots and potatoes and fried lamb chops (that I bought at the gas station in the way in). It was actually really good. (For some reason I'm always surprised to get a good meal at camp.)

Next day, we got up and started exploring. We walked out to the beach and along the rocks. I took tons of pictures of the textures, bright colors, and little pools of life within them. Later on, we took a 3km walk thru the rain forest to the next camp over. We came out on that stretch of beach and decided to walk that path back to our place. I stopped at every mass of seashells on the way and picked up the small ones with holes in them so I could make a necklace. Back at camp, B made us some spaghetti and I made my necklace. We went to sleep soon after the sun set (at 6:00p)... There are no fires allowed in the parks, so there isn't much to do after it gets dark... not to mention that we didn't have coats or blankets to keep warm in the cold breeze.

August 7th, we got up early and got the heck out of there. (The area was very secluded, so we were ready for some interaction with other people!) Several hours down the road, we came to Mackay. We stopped and got a hostel and immediately got in the shower! We were totally ripe from three solid days in the wilderness without bathing! I think it may have been the best shower I have ever had. Yay! We got all dressed up and went out on the town - in search of food. We got Chinese takeout (cause it's cheaper than eating in) and took it back to our room. Then we started watching the movie Stripes - if you know what it is, you'll certainly make fun of us - on the first TV we'd seen in days... We got sucked in and ended up going to bed at 8:30, instead of joining the hoppin' bar party downstairs... We're so lame... LOL

Today - we got up and headed a few more hours down the road to Airlie Beach - the hopping off point to the Whitsundy Islands. We got a hip hostel with a bar, DJ, cafe, etc. Tomorrow, we're going to buy a bigger tent and then we're heading out on a 3 day hike/camp - the Whitsunday Great Walk to be exact. After that, we plan on staying in the area for a few days, so hopefully internet access won't be so hard to come by.

We miss all of our friends and fam, so drop us a line and let us know what you've been up to!!

XO
A