Australia Chronicles: Day 11

7/31/09 - 1:06pm Wow I'm really bad about this whole journal thing, it's been 3 days and I've been very busy.  Right now, I'm on the coach on the way from South Molle Island to Yeppoon.  Now to recap the event that have transgressed since I've written last.

We woke up early at Reef HQ on the 29th and packed up.  We all slept in the theater all together and watched a really bad movie showing coral and stuff while we were dozing off to bed.  We didn't have becki there for we were on our way to Billibong Sanctuary for a hot breakfast and a look at quite a few native animals.  The food was pretty good, then we got our pictures holding koalas, snakes, crocadiles, and wombats.  We had a little lesson on salt water crocs.

From there, we traveled to Ayr where we got a civic welcome and a presentation on their area.  After that we went farther south to Arlie beach where we rested for a little while.  I got a glimpse at what the French Riviera must be like with a few people "sun bathing."  We caught a 5:30 ferry to South Molle Island where we had a little presentation on the island and the resort.  Then it was off to dinner and then free time.  It was loads of fun.

I roomed with Ronnie, Kenny, and David.  The next morning it was 7:00 brecki and then on to beach games like volley ball & a few racing games.  That was followed by a presentation by O.U.C.H. (Order of Underwater Coral Heroes).  They told us a lot of stuff about the coral I had already heard when we were out at the reef.  Lunch followed then a stupid nature walk up Mt. Jeffries which was 3.5km's from the resort.  I must admit that the view from the top was quite awesome.

After that, there was bird feeding and free time til dinner then for free time until 8:00pm when we had a group meeting where we discussed why we wanted to come to Australia and a quick brief on things to come.  I helped people through tough stuff.

Then we got to this morning with a 5:30 wakeup call and room cleaning and the packing of bags then moving them to the bottom of the hill from where our rooms were.  Some girls were moved to suite rooms because their rooms had broken doors and there were drunkards going around the resort causing trouble.  We had a rushed breakfast and we ran to catch the 7:30 ferry.

Once on the coach we were off on a 3 hour trip to a sugar farm where we had lunch and learned about the growing and harvesting fo the sugar crop.  There was a 15 minute stop to change money but of course I didn't have a photocopy of my passport so I couldn't change any travelers cheques and at the same time, the Bank of America Visa bank system was down with ATMs so I couldn't get any money and now I'm very mad.

James M. Connors