One/Seven.
Let us go back some. I'm in 1770 (actually I'm in a place by the name of Agnes Waters. 1770 is in fact 7km away yet everyone seems to believe it lies here & because the name is so much cooler I shall agree); lazy. In a moment of spontaneous combustion I decide to spend a whopping $50 on a 4WD drive through pristine rainforest. Accompanying me is Walter & some youngens from the Somerset/Paris area. They annoy me slightly. Our driver is plain crazy & possibly already drunk. He sees a tree, he drives AT it & thankfully (as the 4WD comes armed with a bumper thingy) it disappears on impact. We (holding on for our lives & myself trying to put a lock on my bladder) pass lots of native Australian fauna & flora; wallabies, kangaroos, a type of wasp that can sting 4 times in a row (youch!), super huge, jumping, biting ants, tarzan swinging stylie vines & natural ginger a 'complete food'. Apparently there are only around 10 complete foods (which means it fills you with every kind of nutrient the body needs) in the world & I try this one. We clamber on up & down sheer cliffs!!! on to the lookout. Wow. It was cloudy & miserable a minute ago (yes this is Australia) yet check out this sunset, it's so... red. We are warned not to use the toilet until driver guy has sorted out 'his little friend', which turns out to be a toilet dwelling, piss-on-me tree frog by the name of Kermit. We take him to the tippy top & settle him down on my head where together we enjoy the red sunset. I love this frog, even if he has absorbed a lifetimes supply of ones, twos & chlamydia. The night rolls on & we settle around the camp fire, marshmallows are whipped out & I can't help but feel it's all been done before - New Zealand <3. One of the youngens takes a seat on a suspicious looking log, which happens to house a rather large centipede. Centipede is peed-off & he strikes! It's not the snakes & spiders you have to worry about future travellers, it's the ants, flies & centipedes. 1770 is at an end, I wave farewell to my new friends from Croydon & Italy & I'm back on my little way.
Airlie Beach. Rubbish. Everyone I meet is doing the Whitsundays boat trip yet I am adamant not to spend my monies. I save it for Cairns & instead spend my days here reading, watching the simpsons & getting sunburnt. I also reunite with Chloe (who along with Olivia, Erin & Daunte form my New Zealand Emily Morrison!), glad to see a familiar face, we drink, we pose as apes & we go home early. I'm getting bored of this partying life or maybe it's just another phase I am going through like 90% of 2008? Onwards to the Great Barrier Reef way.
After another long, fidgety night on the greyhound bus (why do I do this to myself??) I arrive safely in Cairns, home to the GBR. I bump into the Welshies from my stray trip & once again am happy to see some familiar faces. We head out the next night & party like it's 1999, or at least they do... I'm still not feeling it. More farewells & I am back to being a singular once again, which suits me well. Next day I splash out on a trip to the reef with plans to snorkel & only to snorkel.
Both ankles & both elbows are twisted however and I agree to jump into the water for a free 10 minute scuba diving tutorial. Of course, being fully twisted I have already decided to spend $70 on my first half hour scuba dive... it is just too tempting. Doing this I feel more scared than I did on bungy jumps & skydive combined. It's not natural to breathe under water. For some reason I seem to think that you have to keep removing the mouth piece & blowing bubbles... but as it turns out that was just the warm up exercise. It soon begins to feel natural & myself, Rob the instructor, Andrea from Ireland, Katja from Finland & some random naked guy float down into the deep dark depths of the reef.
It really is like a completely different world. I almost feet like I'm on the moon, almost. Instantly we come face to face with coral, manta-rays & giant clams "it felt like a sofa" Andrea tells me on land & she is quite right. We spot a nemo fish amongst orangey-yokko-hair & a wide variety of other fish besides! This is awesome. We swim with a turtle, touch a sea cucumber & enjoy our new mermaid status under the sea. :) Back up we go for some snorkelling action. This time I find my own private turtle & swim directly above it, I then realize I am mimicking the way the turtle is swimming, woops. Better stop before I end up in Hawaii 3 weeks too early! Now I've done it, 1/7 natural wonders of the world. I can see this becoming an addiction!
Airlie Beach. Rubbish. Everyone I meet is doing the Whitsundays boat trip yet I am adamant not to spend my monies. I save it for Cairns & instead spend my days here reading, watching the simpsons & getting sunburnt. I also reunite with Chloe (who along with Olivia, Erin & Daunte form my New Zealand Emily Morrison!), glad to see a familiar face, we drink, we pose as apes & we go home early. I'm getting bored of this partying life or maybe it's just another phase I am going through like 90% of 2008? Onwards to the Great Barrier Reef way.
After another long, fidgety night on the greyhound bus (why do I do this to myself??) I arrive safely in Cairns, home to the GBR. I bump into the Welshies from my stray trip & once again am happy to see some familiar faces. We head out the next night & party like it's 1999, or at least they do... I'm still not feeling it. More farewells & I am back to being a singular once again, which suits me well. Next day I splash out on a trip to the reef with plans to snorkel & only to snorkel.
Both ankles & both elbows are twisted however and I agree to jump into the water for a free 10 minute scuba diving tutorial. Of course, being fully twisted I have already decided to spend $70 on my first half hour scuba dive... it is just too tempting. Doing this I feel more scared than I did on bungy jumps & skydive combined. It's not natural to breathe under water. For some reason I seem to think that you have to keep removing the mouth piece & blowing bubbles... but as it turns out that was just the warm up exercise. It soon begins to feel natural & myself, Rob the instructor, Andrea from Ireland, Katja from Finland & some random naked guy float down into the deep dark depths of the reef.
It really is like a completely different world. I almost feet like I'm on the moon, almost. Instantly we come face to face with coral, manta-rays & giant clams "it felt like a sofa" Andrea tells me on land & she is quite right. We spot a nemo fish amongst orangey-yokko-hair & a wide variety of other fish besides! This is awesome. We swim with a turtle, touch a sea cucumber & enjoy our new mermaid status under the sea. :) Back up we go for some snorkelling action. This time I find my own private turtle & swim directly above it, I then realize I am mimicking the way the turtle is swimming, woops. Better stop before I end up in Hawaii 3 weeks too early! Now I've done it, 1/7 natural wonders of the world. I can see this becoming an addiction!