Day 103: Surfers Paradise

Oly woke up with a crook neck and I was feeling a little under the weather this morning. However, the sun was shinning so we decided to cycle to Sea World. Having one person who had to move their whole body to check for traffic and one not wanting to be that far from a toilet makes for very interesting bicycling.

One hundred and twenty eight extortionate dollars later (I am not afraid to use blinking to emphasise my text!) Ol and I were faced with water, lots of it, and not just the water in the aquariums.

During the five hours we were there we managed to see some cute sea lions performing and wonderful, clever dolphins doing amazing things for their "best friend" trainers. It was fabulous.

That managed to fill an hour. The rest of the time we were dodging the rain that once again followed us. Did I mention we had cycled?

I think I have only been to one other Sea World before and Oly has been to two, in comparison this one was pretty lame. The didn't even have a killer whale! However, we did agree that for children it ticked all the boxes.

We did appreciated the good that Sea World does for orphaned and injured animals, they have lots of Pelicans they fed who had been injured by cars and boats and were unable to catch their own food. There was also a sea pig that was separated from its mother as a baby and had been hand reared at the centre. Things like that took the sting out of the high entrance fee. You don't mind paying a premium if you know it is going to a good cause.

We froze our butts off going back. It was really unpleasant. The tent was thrashing in the wind and we were very glad it was pegged firmly down. Just pegging it down had taken a good half hour on top of the hour it took us to erect it.

There are so many benefits to having a kombi.

Emelie

Day 68: Mission Beach

Lisa loved it here so much she stayed two months, Dave and Elaine from Port Douglas have purchased land and plan to move here in the near future. What are we missing that is so great about this place?

It didn't help that we were drenched in the night. It didn't stop raining (even I am getting bored going on about it). Our back door and side door was open for air circulation and the rain just poured all over us.

Dunk Island was on today's agenda. We took one look at the water taxi at South Mission Beach and decided today's churning ocean was not for us. Tomorrow we will get the catamaran, they didn't have any room on today's.

We successfully completed two rainforest walks where we had the joy of seeing two cassowaries before we retreated back to the van in the afternoon. Only then did the sun come out. By this time, we were resigned to staying in and doing "housework" on our laptops that we have "been meaning to get around too for ages".

We did pop over to South Mission Beach and it is much nicer than over here. There is nothing there but a camp site and holiday apartments, and it works. The beach was pretty good. It is quiet, calm and the view of the ocean and Dunk Island is a nice touch!

The fact that our camping ground is only a quarter full and South Mission Beach, Beachcomber Coconut Village, was straining at the seams does kind of confirm our suspicion that we are in the wrong place. (I bet it doesn't rain over there either!)

Emelie