Day 69

Sunday 9^th January 2011

We had to check out of the apartment at 10.30am. This wasn’t pleasant and was made worse by the fact that it was absolutely shuttering down with rain outside. We went up to the Sky Lounge on the 36^th floor to read for a bit in the hope it would clear. You get a pretty good view from up there and can see the rain coming form about a mile away. It was pretty much IN the clouds when we arrived but it did get a little brighter and so we took the opportunity to head out.

Franky wanted some new flip flops / thongs/ jandals (choose the name depending on where you come from) so we made our way into town. He opted for these crocs – very understated don’t you think!

We had a coffee and after that we were pretty much hanging around and waiting to leave Brisbane. The rains were coming again so got a taxi to the airport a bit earlier than necessary. We thought if we left it any longer we might need an ark!!!

The check in wasn’t yet open, despite it being only two and a half hours to departure and the narky staff at Brisbane airport took great offence to us trying to queue within the barriers at the check in desk in an orderly fashion. Apparently our desire to queue was interfering with their break! We were made to sit with our bags beyond the barriers – this seemed to be in the way of everyone else trying to move around the airport and create something of a hazard but we thought it better not to argue.

At exactly two hours to our departure time we were allowed to make a queue and check in. We were offered emergency exit row seats at now extra cost though – yay!

The domestic terminal didn’t have a great deal to offer. We grabbed some food (still courtesy of the insurance company) and then headed to the gate. The flight was delayed …… Grrrrr! Amazingly this was the first flight we have had that has been delayed which is surprising given that this was flight number 13….. definitely the unlucky one!

The flight, when it did take off, was uneventful and touched down in Proserpine just an hour or so behind schedule. Proserpine is the smallest, most backward airport we have encountered thus far. They don’t even have a luggage carousel! It would also appear that they have one baggage handler who had one speed – somewhere between snail and reverse! Upon landing we walked straight through the corrugated iron shed that they ambitiously call a ‘terminal building’ straight onto the road beyond. Did we miss baggage claim along the way? Nope – we joined the sea of passengers waiting at the side of the ‘terminal building’. From here we could see the passengers now boarding our newly arrived plane, and the plane taking off! Still no sign of our luggage! We were getting a little exasperated – especially given the number of mosquitoes dive bombing us. They must love this arrangement - 9.00pm every evening a hole throng of unprotected tourists forced to loiter for luggage = LUNCH!!!! Eventually the luggage was brought – still on the flat bed trucks that it was offloaded from the plane onto. The trucks were parked up and then it was a free for all to try and find your bags!

It was fairly uncomplicated to arrange a shared minibus transfer to Airlie Beach – and half an hour later we were checked in to our new home – Beaches Backpackers. Again we had booked a ‘private double room’. This one was HUGE! It obviously used to be an 8 man dorm and they had cleared out the bunks and left just a double bed and a single. It also hadn’t had any maintenance since the early 1960s when it was built! But it was only for one night.

We threw the bags down and headed down to the hostel bar in search of liquid refreshment. After a couple of $10 jugs (it was happy hour) we thought we’d get ourselves settled somewhere to watch Utd v Liverpool which would be on at 10.45pm our time.

Next door at Paddy Shennigans (can you guess the origins of this bar?!) they had a number of screens showing sport, live music and $7 jugs all night – woo hoo! We spent the evening here with a group of Irish guys and gals and watched the footie. There were a couple of Liverpool fans in too so it was all very friendly as I’m sure you can imagine. It finished 1-0 with Giggs scoring the only goal, unlucky Mr Dagleish.

Franky was enjoying the banter and the beer (maybe a little too much as you will see)! It was late when we left the bar. We hadn’t had any tea so the pie shop across the road being open was a bonus! Franky garbled rubbish at me as we made our way back to the hostel in search of our bed. I fell into bed at 2.45am and promptly fell asleep.

I awoke some hours later a little confused about why the bed was wet……. and wondering about the whereabouts of my husband! Those of you who know him well (John) and in fact anyone who heard John’s speech at the wedding will know what had occurred. I, on the other hand was drunk, disorientated and asleep so it took me a little longer to put 2 and 2 together. Then it dawned on me – it had finally happened, Franky had performed his party piece and I had officially been christened!!! What is even more galling is that on realising his accident my beloved husband went to the bathroom, took off his wet boxer shorts…. and then got into the single (DRY) bed across the room. And me? Well he left me asleep to figure it out in my own time!!!!

Day 68

Saturday 8^th January 2011

We woke up with a stretch after a great night’s sleep in time to skype Helen and Eric – very entertaining as they were both pissed. They were on the Caffreys and wine (not mixed) and we were on orange juice and muesli!!!

As we sat on the couch looking out across Brisbane we could see the rain coming in and sure enough 10 mins later it was pouring down again. They call Queensland the Sunshine State – it’s anything but!

We whiled away the morning posting the blog and watching a documentary about honey badgers on TV – you really can’t predict the knowledge you’ll pick up whilst travelling!

By lunchtime the sky seemed to be clearing a bit, in that it was light grey and not black so we ventured out.

We had a wander into town to off load some second hand books. We need to drop some weight as we’re flying to Airlie with only a 20kg baggage allowance and all our other flights we’re allowed 23kg. We were going to post some stuff home until we found out how ridiculously expensive that was – with less than a month to go it doesn’t seem worth it. Instead we’ve bought some of those vacuum bags that you put your winter clothes and quilts away in and packed down all the stuff we don’t reckon we’ll need – mainly jumpers, hats, walking socks etc. So still carrying the weight but the bags shouldn’t be so much of an arse to pack anymore! Good news since this is probably my least favourite bit of the travelling process.

We were headed roughly in the direction of Brsibane’s cricket ground, also known as the Gabba stadium. It seemed appropriate as the 5^th test of the Ashes finished in Sydney yesterday and England were taking the Ashes back home with them in victory.

Along the way we found ourselves wandering through the Botanical gardens with lily ponds and HUGE trees.

 

We crossed the Brisbane river and found the Gabba – OK it wasn’t that difficult given the enormous flood lights. To Franky’s disappointment it was all shut up with no tours or anything – I secretly suspect he was using this as an excuse to further gloat at the Aussies. We had a mooch around the outside and headed back towards central Brisbane on the ferry.

 

This is the ‘famous’ Storey Bridge in the background – a poor cousin of Sydney’s I think!

We jumped off the ferry at the South bank. There’s a man made beach here which was pretty quiet for a Saturday – but not that surprising considering the lousy weather.

We also discovered lots of restaurants and bars in this area. We were pretty hungry as it was now 4pm and we hadn’t had lunch so opted for The Plough which did good steak and live music – always a winner! We wouldn’t usually be choosing the most expensive thing on the menu but since this meal should be on the insurance company…. Why not?

After lunch/tea we walked back down the Southern bank of the river and crossed the bridge directly in front of our apartment block.

It was time for a Frank nap for some and so I got to monopolise the lap top for a bit.

We got our glad rags on, ready to see what Brisbane had to offer on a Saturday night. Franky even IRONED his shirt! – neither of us has seen an iron for 68 days! The rain was back so we decided to have a few beers in the apartment before heading out – hardly a hardship as we were sat on the balcony with amazing views of the city. When the Becks supply was exhausted we were forced to leave!

We headed back to The Plough as they had been advertising live music. Sure enough there was a guy playing acoustic covers – so we grabbed a table. It seemed some of the patrons of this bar had been on the beer since our earlier visit at lunchtime – especially one Scottish lad who was celebrating his 21^st birthday (which apparently he’s been celebrating since Tuesday!). He was proudly wearing his kilt, and equally proudly proving that he was a true Scotsman.

The bar shut at midnight and we were forced to source further entertainment. We had been advised that

Boundary Street was good for live music and late night bars. Map in hand, we headed off in that direction. 10 mins later we found Boundary Street.

 

Another great Aussie road sign!

Unfortunately it seemed that the bands were finished for the night but they were still serving drinks for the next hour so we joined the throng for another beer.

At 1.00am they were winding down so we headed back to the apartment for cheese on toast and a night cap – if you can call red wine a night cap!

We did some drunken packing as we have to check out at 10.30am tomorrow and fell into bed at around 2.30am.

Day 67

Friday 7^th January 2011

Having decided to head to Brisbane we had to be up and out of the hostel by 8.30am. We got a free transfer to the bus station and jumped aboard a coach to Brisbane. The journey was fairly uneventful apart from the fact that it poured with rain the whole way. I got stuck into my book and Franky typed up the Fraser Island buts of the blog ready to post as soon as we got wifi again.

We arrived in Brisbane at 1.40pm and got a taxi to our apartment. The apartments are about 500 yards from the transit centre but:

-          we didn’t know that

-          our bags are bloody heavy

-          AND most importantly the insurance company are paying!!!

We checked in and were thrilled to check out our new pad. It’s on the 31st floor overlooking the Brisbane river so the views are amazing.

We have  floor to ceiling windows that pull all the way back onto balconies from both the lounge and bedroom. We have a full equipped kitchen complete with dishwasher AND in the bathroom we have a laundry centre with a washing machine and tumble drier!!!!

I couldn’t have been happier. Those of you who haven’t spent time trying to do laundry in Aussie hostels won’t understand the frustrations of firstly waiting for a washing machine to be available, then throwing all your clothes in to discover it’s only connected to the cold tap anyway and so nothing really gets clean. You then either have to sit and wait until the washing is finished (boring!) or run the risk of someone dumping all your freshly laundered (all be it not very clean clothes) on the floor the moment its finished because they want to use the machine. This washing machine had hot water, settings for different clothes types and everything.

Franky was equally delighted with the 50 inch flat screen TV, couch and huge fridge to chill the Becks that we’d been carrying since Byron Bay.

After running round and round the apartment like two excited cocker spaniels who had just been told it was time for walkies we decided to use all the facilities and have a night in. Now I know this isn’t the most obvious decision when you arrive in a brand new city on a Friday afternoon but that was what we really wanted to do – and it was still bloody raining anyway!

We headed out to do a grocery shop, stocked up the fridge and then both had a shower. This was the best shower we’d had since leaving Sydney – hot, powerful with no drunken Aussie teenagers having sex in it – some things didn’t make the blog from Byron Bay and I’m still quite scarred from the ordeal. And then we just vegged out all night. Yeah!

We had meatballs for tea – which Franky has been craving since about day 3 of the trip, a few beers and some red wine. Lovely!

Topped with some rether non-PC cheese!

Then we settled back on the couch and watched ‘My Boy Jack’ which is a film about Rudyard’s Kiplings son in the First World War – pretty good actually. I’d recommend you watch it if you get chance!

At 1.00am feeling a bit tipsy but totally relaxed we jumped into bed.