townsvilletocairns

Wednesday, October 18th, we drove from Townsville to Cairns. Along the way we stopped at Paradise Waterhole where Joel did a cannonball into the river and Mission Beach where we swam very quickly because we weren't sure if the deadly boxer jellyfish had arrived yet.

Once we arrived in Cairns we checked into the Bohemia Resort Backpackers Hostel, a newly built hostel that looked great in the magazine. We stayed there 3 nights but wanted something more comfortable since we planned on staying in Cairns for two weeks. One night we walked around Cairns and saw something that proves -- it's a small world after all.

We got an email from Lisa's sister Zsuzsu of a picture of The Sube as an Art Car. Remember we donated the wonderful piece of machinery that got us across America, The Sube, to be used as an art car at Burning Man.

After looking at 4-5 places, we found an awesome holiday apartment at The Esplanade. It's a far cry from the hostels we're used to: 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a kitchen, laundry, TV, living room, dining room and two balconies overlooking the pool and jacuzzi outside! But even The Esplanade has geckos. Oh well, as the Aussies would say "no worries", besides they are harmless and kind of cute. We checked in Saturday, October 21st and are planning on staying approximately two weeks.

We decided to sell the car in Cairns. We had thought about driving it to Darwin and possibly even Alice Springs (to see Ayers Rock), but we decided to sell it, primarily because we are already two weeks behind the schedule of our tentative intinerary and Cairns is a place where many backpackers buy cars to drive south down the coast. Also, because of the cost of gas here, it's cheaper to fly than to drive to both places.

We met two really nice people -- a Swiss guy named Andy and a German named Ute -- who called about the car when they saw our flyer at one of the local internet places. After a few test drives and a check with a mechanic, they bought the car! They plan on driving it all the way to Perth (possibly via Alice Springs), through Sydney. The Fairmont Futura has been good to us so we know it will be good to them.

Something that's really interesting about Andy and Ute is that they met through a personal ad Andy ran in a Swiss Travel Magazine. He was searching for someone to travel with who could share expenses. Ute answered his ad and the first time we met them was Saturday night when they looked at the car for the first time. Ute had just flown in and was meeting Andy for only the third time ever! Andy had been in Cairns about a week, looking at cars and they had met twice prior to this while in Switzerland. They plan on traveling together approximately 5 months through Australia and Ute may continue for up to a year including New Zealand in her trip.

Sunday, October 22nd was a hang out at the pool and relax day. Maybe read a book, draw, or just "veg". It was a nice day. Lisa took one more trip to the supermarket, just in case it was the last day we owned the car.

Monday, October 23rd, we picked up Ute and Andy and went to have the car looked at by a mechanic. While we waited for the mechanic, we all walked through the Cairns Botanical Garden. When we returned to the Shell station, the mechanic said it was basically a great car but it needed a few improvements. Although it was very easy for us to get the car registered in Sydney, getting a car registered in Queensland is much, much more diffucult. The strict regulations require that even small sections of rust be fixed before a car is allowed to be registered in this state. (Pretty ridiculous, we think.) Andy and Ute discussed in their native German whether or not to buy the car and decided that, yes, they would buy the car after we came down in price since they had to have some items fixed in order to get it registered. We all went back to The Esplanade and celebrated with a glass of wine!

Tuesday night we meet Ute and Andy for dinner at The Woolshed. It's basically a hangout for backpackers from all over the world. Most hostels give you a coupon for a free dinner each night you stay with them so all backpackers from the whole town are there. The food was good and just after eating -- as Ute would say -- "we make party" as our dinner background transformed into a disco atmosphere. We meet a couple from Germany, a guy from Holland and even an Aussie "mate". It was a lot of fun.

Wednesday, October 25th, we hung out at the pool all day.

Thursday, October 26th, we bought a 2 week membership at a gym. After a four month layoff from working out, we figured it was time for a short shape up program.

Remember back to our sailing trip in the Whitsunday Islands. Remember how we didn't bring the digital camera, so there were no pictures up on the website. Well, we took a picture of a brochure for the boat -- The Card -- so you could see what kind of boat it was.

Also, a Brit, John, who was on The Card with us in the Whitsundays, was nice enough to email us some pictures from Whitehaven Beach. Thanks John.

We bought a map that shows the southern hempishere on top -- an upside down map.

Friday, October 27th, we hung out at the pool and worked out.

Saturday, October 28th, we hung out at the pool and worked out.

Sunday, October 29th, we hung out at the pool and worked out. Sunday night we went to the final night of The Cairns Music Festival and ate at Roma Roulette, the best Italian restaurant in Cairns according to the taxi driver who took us there. It was very good.

Monday, we hung out at the pool and worked out. Monday night we meet Ute and Andy at The Woolshed.

We made a decison to fly out of Cairns, to Darwin, November 8th. We changed our flight from Darwin to Bali to November 15th. If we stick to that date we are approximately one month behind our scheduled plans when we set up the tentative itinerary. "No worries mate". We will just have to make up the time somewhere else or extend the trip one month. Ute wants us to meet her for Octoberfest, in Germany, next October, so who knows how long this adventure is going to last!

Tuesday, October 30th, through Tuesday, November 7th, all we basically did was hang out at the pool and work out. Joel also continued to add to his collection of drawings. We figured we needed some rest and relaxation before we head into Southeast Asia.

All the fun in the pool did have one draw back though. Joel got a real nasty ear infection. After a late night run to the emergency room, we got some meds, and Joel was on his way to healing up. Unfortunately, his bad ear ruined our plans to scuba or snorkel in the Great Barrier Reef. The doctor said "no way". Bummer. Well, we will just have to come back to The Reef some day and we've heard there is excellent diving and snorkeling in Southeast Asia so we can always do it there.

Wednesday, November 8th, we flew from Cairns to Darwin.