Don't go Troppo

It's bad for your health. And don't go to the wet tropics. It's wet and there's no surf. Only joking, Cairns is alright. Been here less than 24 hours and already organising moving on. The drive up here was cool. IT took five days. You could do it one if you booted it but there were many things to see on the way. Not least the Burdekin Dam which is at the top of the Burdekin river, in the county.... BURDEKIN SHIRE !!!!!!!!!

OH my, it's amazing to see such a massive concrete structure built in your name. Class it was. On the way back it was dark and the devil cows kept bloking the road.

Devil Cows? What be they?????

Honestly, no messing, these cows were satan in bovine form. Evil buggers. We got past them eventually though. And on into Ravenswood, a tiny goldmining town. Nice place though. Very rural.

After Ravenswood we went to Townsville in order to get across to Magnetic Island. Magnetic Island boasts a dry climate all year round. We hired an open top car and it rained. It rained all day. It only rains three days a year at most. The locals were ecstatic. We had an open top car. We were not ecstatic. Good laugh driving it though. It was like a souped up golf cart, about 1bph and yet 5 gears. Weird.

After the Magnetic Island adventure we moved on as travellers must. We aqua planed all the way to Ingham, which has nothing going for it really. IT was Anzac day the following day so the usually bustling hive of activity that is Ingham was deader than the cricket stuck to the car radiator. Not to worry, 'there's water in them there hills,' was the cry. And indeed, water there was. A walk through the rainforest (ahhhhhh, memories of Thailand) and we were at the foot of the highest single drop waterfalls in Oz, The Wallaman falls. Spectacular. Due to the conditions the air was full of mist with hints of sunlight finding their way through the dense, golden green vegetation. Makes you glad to be alive. The Jurassic(esque) plants also added to the meeting of a Cassowary. Click here.

Post Cassowary we stopped in Innisfail. Innisfail is famous because Andy banana picked there for a few weeks. Honestly, I think that's the only reason it could even think about fame. Finally we'd found a DVD player at the hostel so we could watch the last surfaris video that Tao has with him. Only one week until we return to that old favourtie... wooooooooo! The next day was more waterfalls and mad fid trees. Fig tree seed are deposited in the branches of rainforest trees by insects. They then start to grom way up in the canopy and drop roots down to the ground. As they get older more vertical branches grow toward the ground making a curtained effect, a bit like this.

So now I'm in Cairns. Someone please mail me to give me something to do whilst I'm here.

Aaaaar ye scurvy land-lubbers

Howdy howdy. I'm back from the pirating adventure that was the Whitsundays. Bloody good it was too. Got three rolls of film back today so you can find the pictures in the usual place (photographs, then public albums, then albums with the word Whitsundays in them). Here's a taster. Go peek, they're alright. In fact I took so many photos that my bloody camera's packed up again.

Onward and Upward

So following the Sundays of Whit we're now heading north to Cairns. Me Tao and Christine are hiring a car tomorrow. We'll be going through Burdekinshire (its got a dam and everything!) and then stopping off at various places (Magnetic Island, Mission Beach). Once we get to Cairns it'll be a case of fooling around up there for a while. Posst Cairns, the withdrawal syptoms of not surfing are starting to make me upset. Only one thing for it then, yes, at the end of the month Tao and I (and maybe Christine, but looks like she's gonna be a piker) are flying south to do yet another surfaris. Haha. Addicted.

Here's the three of us with our pirate bandanas on---> Aaaaaaaaaaaar!

For Jimmy's Eyes Only

Jimmy, sorry I didn't say bye to you today at the cafe. Nice to meet you though. By special request of our mutual, absolutely fabulous friend, please click the following links for a bit of a chuckle:

Christine 1

Kitty O'Shea

Hope you enjoy them pal.

Olly

Brisbane Blues

As predicted by the ever astute Glanville I'm still in bloody Brisbane. It sucks. Why I'm still here is quite a long story of various mishaps, let downs and laziness. It basically follows the South Park theory of blaming Canada. *sigh* if this wasn't a family web page I'd tell you in more detail about the problems with Canadians. However, I'm finally busting out tomorrow to go back to Noosa. Been there done that but it'll break up the journey to Airlie beach a bit. Instead of 24 hours it'll only be 20 hours from Noosa. Brilliant.

Why travel 20 hours to a beach? Well, that'll be the launch point of the ocean bound united nations (Canada, Yorkshire, Irish). We'll be on a yacht for about three days. Eye patches and all. It should be good so I'll let you know about it when I get back. Ooooooooh, and there'll probably be more pictures of folk you guys don't know, and if you're really really lucky so more beautiful beaches and blue sea.

A Family of Tomatoes is Walking Down the Road

It's time to catch up. Once again I've been super slack on the updates, but I'm travelling. Which means when the sun is shining I don't want to be holed up in some net cafe getting headaches from staring at a screen. Anyway, looking down at my last post it's only been a week or so, although it wasn't a really informative post. I just wanted you to check out my photos (but more on that later). So where've I been. Mainly in places with slow connections or no connections causing contact tensions. Aside from contact issues, the last time I posted I was in Brisbane. A quick synopsis of activity, I went up to Noosa (beach town) and then to Hervey Bay to launch into the 4x4 extravaganza known as Fraser Island. I'm now back in Brissy. I know not why but I shall not be here for too much longer (although the lure of seeing a live show by Steve Irwin may keep me here longer than intended.

A Quick Note

It's come to my attention that some folk are having trouble accessing my photos for numerous reasons. Getting lost in the lomo site, slow downloads, being in net cafes and not having the time/money/inclination to check them out. Fair does, I say, so I'm trying a new approach. Through my tales click on the links that appear looking like this and (fingers crossed) you'll magically be transported to the relevant picture. Good eh? That way you can choose what you want to see. Any advice on how to better this (thumbnails maybe?) in the comments thanks.

The photos corresponding to the following words are all a bit of an experiment. The experiment being cross processing. That's why they all look bleached and a bit weird. Pretty good though I reckon.

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