Day trip to Bowen

We got to Bowen, which doesn't have much to offer except for fruit farms, sugar cane fields, and a cemetary that greets you as you enter the town. But it's got beautiful beaches with nobody on them, and great boulders to climb around on. And that's what makes it a great place - it's a beach town that is not considered a "beach town."

My friends Ben, Hamish, and Rachel and I loaded up on fresh produce at a roadside stand on the way to Bowen, to last us the whole day. So we spend a glorious day on the beach, eating the juiciest, tastiest melons, manderins, oranges, green beans, and avacados, without proper cutlery, just letting the juices run down our faces and arms. It was wonderful. The food-highlight of my day, however, was the fresh-off-the-tree coconut that we enjoyed whilst sitting on the horizontally orientated coconut tree than hung over the sand, overlooking the clear blue water. It was picture perfect. We managed to bore a hole in the coconut and pass the goblet of milk around - so wonderfully sweet and smooth! Incredible! We then cracked our empty goblet open to scrape the delicious gooey flesh off the inside with our teeth. It was the perfect experience for a lazy beach day.

There's not much else to say about the day - just picture your perfect tropical beach day, and that was it.

But take a look at the pictures!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2132448&l=89df7&id=19700757

Ben, Rachel, Hamish, and me, enjoying our beautiful day

Posted 06/25/08

Part 3: Volleyball playoffs

Saturday evening, 5:15pm, we faced the Yellow Tails, the #1 team all season. Games against them are always my favorite - they're a good team that plays the game well and enjoys the sport, and we always play a close game against them. We came out pumped, and I could feel my competitive side really coming through. The whole season has always been about fun and recreation, and it still was all the way through, but this was the Championship game - this was my arena, and it felt GOOD.

The game was tight, and we fought hard, but the Yellow Tails are a good team, and in the end they got the win they deserved. I could feel my competitive side get a bit frustrated with the loss for a moment - I really don't like losing. But very quickly, I remembered the whole reason behind the league: this was a fun thing to do with a great group of friends, and the 4 of us (roommates Scott and Crystal and our friend Hugo) have really come together over the season to create a fun team to play on.

We never would've thought that our scraggly crew, who came into the season late, losing all of our first games, wildly scampering all over the court for out-of-control balls, would ever make it to being the Runners Up of the league. But we did it, and we had a fantastic time doing so. Now, each one of us has a great glass-framed "trophy" sitting on our desks, reminding us of the great time we had this season.

Our trophy for 2nd place - Hugo, me, Crystal, and Scott. Yay Flogging Molly!

Posted 06/15/08, revised: 06/19/08

Part 2: Ultimate camping

Monday morning, a group of 11 of us left for Keel Bottom Creek, about 45 minutes northwest of Townsville. We found a great place to set up camp along the creek, complete with a fan-mazing rope swing!! Most of our time was spent on this rope swing - it was perfect. We enjoyed 3 days of just relaxing in the PERfect sunny weather, playing in the creek, lying in the hammock, listening to music and running one of the car batteries dead, sitting by the campfire, and cooking up fantastic campfire-food (i had kangaroo for the first time! roo stew... SO tasty!).

A lot of the people that play ultimate frisbee are study-abroad students, so a number of them are leaving after exams these next 2 weeks. The camping trip was sort of an end-of-term, goodbye celebration for those of us that won't be around anymore, and it was a perfect way to conclude a great semester of fun and friends. We all had the time of our lives, and every moment of the trip was enjoyed to the fullest.

Our group of friends, hanging out on the rope swing tree ...Mom, I know you're squinting your eyes, thinking, "Which one's my daughter?" I'm the one at the very top.

Here again, I don't have my own pictures from the trip, but I've linked one of the other people's photo albums so you can get a look at this amazing trip. But yet again, not many captions, so you'll just have to look and enjoy.

Photo album - Ultimate camping: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2495651&l=fe685&id=13930813

Posted 06/15/08, revised: 06/15/08

Part 1 of... many: FOLK FESTIVAL!

This one, my friends, is about last weekend's folk festival. While Townsville is a renowned red-neck town, there is a hidden hippie culture... and I found them at the Palm Creek Folk Festival!! The festival was last weekend, Fri-Mon, on an eco-tourism area about 40 mins out of town. It's at the base of the the Great Dividing Range mountains, right next to national park. In short: beautiful place.

I went with my good friends Andrew and Hugo, and Hugo's friend Zoe. We went on Saturday evening, and listened to music, ate great food, met great people, had an awesome time camping, and just generally enjoyed the whole atmosphere. It felt so nice to get away and finally see live music again. It was also really nice to see this crowd of people, because this culture is hidden away in Townsville, drowned out my the red-necks driving by in their shiny utes (those car-truck things), honking their horns and yelling out the window at bike-ists. But anyway, yeah, we had a great time and I was so happy to semi-satisfy my yearning for live music. All of the acts were little local bands, but there was some really great music! Let's face it: Live Music is Better.

Me and friend Andrew, enjoying the beauty of our surroundings on Sunday afternoon, with the sounds of folk music coming from the stages behind us.

We stayed until Monday morning, when we hitched back early so that I could get back to town in time to leave for a different camping trip... which is the topic of my next adventure! Read the next story to learn more...

As my camera is broken and I don't have my own pictures from the weekend, I've provided a link to Hugo's photo album of the trip. Unfortunately he doesn't provide captions, so there's no indication of who's who (unless you're logged into Facebook). But there's not much necessary commentary anyway: it was a beautiful location, Andrew's got the dark hair, Hugo the light hair, Zoe's the girl :)

Just an interesting side note: Andrew and Hugo are 2 of the guys that live at the house I Couchsurfed at my very first day in Townsville, before I found a place to live. I mentioned them in one of my very first blog entries - they were the first people I met in Townsville, and they are now some of my closest friends. I just think that's so cool the way that worked out, thought I'd share :)

Photo album - Palm Creek Folk Festival: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2186077&l=33f69&id=61011192

Posted 06/15/08, revised: 06/19/08