How is the photobucket working for you? Is it easy to navigate? Does it crash your computer?
It *is* entirely possible to leave comments on this blog without having a blogspot, just so you know. If you have a problem seeing the pictures or something, you can let me know. That's ok with me.
After Boulia, when I was busy hating a paper, I went down to the post office and picked up my Easter package from Mom! It had a chocolate Bilby, which is a cute little Australian rodent. Apparently a percentage of the chocolate bilby sales go to conservation or something. They're real cute:
(This picture also includes the chocolate frog and eggs from the Easter basket and my Boulia rock collection)
But it's hard to go for Bilby ears:
Anyway, May 1st was a Saturday. My American friend from the Whitsunday trip called me up and invited me to a BBQ on the Strand (which is the touristy beachfront park in Townsville). She and some friends picked me up... and informed me that we were going to a beach out-of-the-way first... not to swim... or even to go all the way down to the water... or even get as far as the sand... they just wanted to look.
I understand that there are box jellies this time of year, but what's the point of going to a beach to sit above the path and look at the view?
Afterwards we hiked up Castle Hill, which is a huge... well, hill in Townsville that all the tourists hike up once and vow never to hike up again. And, of course, I was wearing a dress, so I looked like a particularly pathetic dumb American.
Castle Hill has a "Saint" painted on it... apparently some Uni students did it as a prank, the city got rid of it, and someone else put it up. I'm not really sure why this is such a big deal... I'll have a picture of it next entry, but it's really not that impressive.
The view was beautiful, though.
Castle Hill:
Me and the view:
Then we went down to the Strand and had a swim in the poison-jellyfish-free net, played on a particularly unsafe looking rope toy, and had a BBQ on one of the grills provided for our convenience. It was a good time, all in all.
Strand at night:
Sunday I wrote a paper... or tried to.
Monday I went down to Magnetic Island, which is a 20 min ferry ride off the coast of Townsville.
It's absolutely beautiful. I was there with a local guy that I met at the BBQ, so he showed me this awesome beach that no one goes to. Frankly, I wanted to be alone, but I probably wouldn't have found it on my own, so everything worked out.
The beach:
I'm going back to Magnetic this weekend and staying. It seems silly to pay for a hostel to stay an hour from your home, but the ferry's a bit expensive and it'll be worth it to wake up on the island. I'm going hiking around! Should be fantastic!
Next weekend, I mostly hung out. Two members of the anime club had a joint birthday on Saturday, so I went to that. It was zombie themed... so I was Zombie Laura Croft and a good time was had by all.
One of my better pictures...
The recent uploads to General Australian Pics include more of me posing on Castle Hill, a few of the beach we visited, and some of The Strand.
Magnetic Island has more from the little bay we went to, and will eventually have the pictures I plan to take this weekend!
No comments:
Post a Comment