Day 8

Otherwise known as the day we met Phil the bus driver. We had to get up very early to meet the Oz Experience bus at the Esplanade, and it didn’t seem like a very good sign when it turned up over half an hour late. Phil (who was a new Oz Experience driver – this was his first trip) had, it seems, broken down covering the mile or so from the place where he’d picked up the bus to the Esplanade where we were waiting. This guy was about to drive us over 2000 miles.

Day 7

After the activities of the last couple of days, my body and wallet needed a break, so I spent today reading, doing laundry, and catching up on E-Mail.

Nothing much

Day 6

You can’t leave Cairns without a visit to the Great Barrier Reef, and we had no intention of missing out. We got up early and arrived at the pier by 8 am (virtually all the day tours start this early) to meet our boat. The crew were of the fun-and-lively tour guide variety similar to the guy we had had the previous day, but there were a great deal more people on the boat, so we pretty much had to entertain ourselves for the one-and-a-half hour trip to Hastings Reef. On the way, everyone was issued with the appropriate equipment – a mask, snorkel and flippers at the least, and also a wetsuit if so desired.

Day 5

Today was to be our first organised tour. We had to be ready for 8 am, and in our ignorance decided to have breakfast in the hostel restaurant, not knowing that took over 40 minutes to get served a cooked breakfast. We got it about 30-40 seconds before the bus turned up.

Day 4

Our accommodation is a ‘holiday village’ which translates roughly as a motel/hostel. The facilities are very good – we have a triple share apartment with en-suite bathroom, TV, fridge, kettle, and of course air conditioning. Everything you could need, really. I got 11 hours sleep and was pretty much over my jet-lag.

Day 3

Our first day in Australia does not start well. All my own fault, of course – I just can’t sleep on planes. 3am finds us in Darwin – the right country at least – waiting to board new passengers before continuing to our final destination, and starting point: Cairns. In order to do this, everyone is required to leave the plane. This seems faintly ridiculous, but I’m far beyond any ability to complain, and so obligingly trudge off the plane, only to trudge back on again 30 minutes later. I suddenly realise that this is day 3, and we’re not actually there yet.

Day 2

As the second movie was coming to an end, I looked around the cabin, which was in darkness. In our section of the plane, I could see more than a hundred people, and all of them were asleep.

Day 1

One of the biggest draws Australia has as a holiday destination is simply the fact that it is a very, very long way away. It is actually about as far away as you can get from London unless you have around £14m and are willing to let the Russians blast you into space. This is one of the main reasons I chose it. The other was the fact that David had suggested it some weeks before. In fact, now I think about it, it was probably his idea. Nevertheless, the hugeness of the distance involved is often underestimated, which is why, sitting on a QANTAS flight from London Heathrow to Singapore, I wondered for the sixth or seventh time why I was not blessed with the ability to spontaneously fall asleep whenever convienient. We may be travelling across twelve time zones, but dammit, it’s dark outside and I want to sleep. Essentially, when travelling from the UK to Australia, you get roughly two shorter-than-normal days, depending on what time you leave. On the way back, you get just one monster one. Staying awake, it seemed, was going to be more unpleasant than I had thought.