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Day Sixteen – Townsville – Happiness is Both Alone and Together

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I spent the day by myself today with a car. I had to get up early to take Emily to work and to go to my doctors appointment so it meant that I had a perfect fresh start to have a full day. This is definitely something I needed after all the lazy days.

After my appointment finished I went to the rock pool for a good swim. It felt so good to have some proper exercise and to just swim up and down like I’m used to and I know I’m good at. After this I drove up to Castle Hill overlooking Townsville. I climbed over the railings and down to a rock outcrop far away from the path. I sat there for two hours by myself and looking at the phot above you’ll know why. I could sit there all day.

I had to leave this gorgeous view to go meet Matthew for lunch. We went back to the place we had cocktails the other night for a greasy pulled pork sandwich. It was good, I really like the hipsterisms in Townsville. I just didn’t expect them to had made it here and I like it. I think out of all of the fads there have been, emo, punk etc, hipsters is the best. We may have to agree to disagree.

After lunch I headed over to the aquarium and spent the rest of the afternoon there. Aquariums are some of my most favourite places in the world. I sat for a good hour watching this one fish. He had so much character and he seemed so happy and lively, he was very entertaining. I could definitely relate to him and I think he liked me to. Just before I left I checked out the turtle hospital where they bring in sick turtles and nurse them back to health before releasing them into the wild again. It made my heart break. There were turtles who had swallowed plastic bags which makes them float and if they float they can’t dive down to collect food so they start to starve to death. Other turtles had been hit by boats cracking their shell. A turtle shell is connected to their spine so it’s like a boat hitting you in your back and snapping your spine, paralysing you. It was nice to see people doing something for these turtles but there was only enough room for ten turtles in the hospital. There must be so many other turtles who are also being affected by man made issues. I just wanted to write about this here to raise a little extra awareness around the world.

We went out for dinner tonight as it was my last no to in Townsville. We went down to a surfbar on the seafront where it was nice to here the sea waves as we ate. Another one of my favourite places is the sea at night, it’s so calming and romantic and reminiscent of good times in my youth. After dinner we headed to the new chocolate shop which had opened in town. The queue was pretty massive but we waited anyway getting plenty of free chocolate samples. I bought some chocolates for us and for myself I bought a small pot of liquid chocolate. Why not indulge?

We then went home to nurse out chocolate comas and had a little play on Emily’s new PS3 playing buzz. I was much better at it than I expected to be.
Today was an absolutely quality day. I loved every minute of it, packing it full and exploring as much as I could in Townsville and ending it happy and safe with my family. Let’s hope there are plenty more of these days in the next week.

Day Ten – Cairns to Cape Tribulation – Dreamy Daintree, Romantic Rainforest

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I woke up this morning extremely hungover and had to pack a lot of my stuff all up. I properly struggled but I managed it and went down to check out. I spent a good half an hour chatting to people and stuff before someone told me I had my stamp from the night before on my face. How embarrassing but oh well. It was nice cause Bill, Tom and Josh were on my trip so I knew some people and they’re so nice to me and really funny so I felt like I was just travelling with a few mates. We headed up north to the Daintree rainforest to Cape Tribulation.

On the way up there was a beautiful jungle/coastal drive which was so bizarre to have jungle meeting the ocean. It felt pretty incredible and also pretty sad because I’m sure many places on earth were like this before humans destroyed the areas. We went on a boat trip to see crocs and saw two at least 2.5m long which was pretty cool. After that we took a little walk in the rainforest. We didn’t see too much but it was still nice and just good to stretch the legs and have a chat. We then got taken to our accommodation. I stayed at the Cape Tribulation Beach House which was a hostel on the beach with dorms in little beach houses. It was pretty cool. We hung out by the pool for a while and went to the beach playing balls games.

We had heard that there was a lookout near but that we should instead go for a wander up some rocks. So Bill, Nadja, Carly, Ash, Danni and I all took a little hike down the beaches, through the rainforest and up some cliffs. When we got up there I was exhausted and sweaty and the hangover was taking its toll so I felt a little disappointed. But suddenly out of the blue (literally) we look down and see two turtles swimming together and then two little sharks appear with a bigger “mummy” shark in tow. It was so incredible. We were about 30m high but the water was so clear and fresh we could just see these animals cruising around.

The sun started to set so we headed back. I showered and changed quickly and decided to buy dinner as the hangover was making my tired and hazy. It was nice to sit by myself and have time to myself. I actually realised that although I am travelling alone I haven’t really been alone too much and I needed it. I didn’t even think cause I was too tired I just sat and relaxed. At around 9pm the hostel put on a beach BBQ down on the waterfront. I took a few beers and headed down.

It was pretty amazing. First we watched the moonrise which was so beautiful and something I’ve rarely seen. Then we just sat and chatted. There were two guys from Manchester, Harry and Jordan who worked and lived in the hostel. I got chatting to one of them and it just sounded so amazing. They really are living the dream, just living so remote with an incredible outdoor playground at their feet. It’s so hard not to view the rainforest through romantic eyes. It was a pretty breathtaking night and something I will remember for a long time.