Agnes Water to Cairns Part I

We checked out of our hostel by 10:00am but our bus to Cairns was not until 9:00pm. The bus journey will last 21 hours with us not arriving in Cairns until 6:00pm tomorrow evening. Clearly the only way to prepare yourself for such an epic bus ride is to spend the day at the beach.

The sun continued to reign supreme in its amphitheatre of unblemished royal blue sky as hot grains of sand slipped through our toes. We found a place to sunbathe and watched as people came and went to surf the waves. Tanned skin, sun bleached hair and a variety of boards paraded past as symbols of East Coast life. Later in the day, released from their classrooms, children arrived with their own boards tucked under their arms with the casualness of heading out on a bike ride.

Palms swayed and rustled gently in the sea breeze and the dry heat of the winter's sun massaged us into a sense of the good life. On 'Scooteroo' yesterday we met a young Irish couple who had lived and worked in Perth for the last two years and were briefly travelling the East Coast before returning home to Ireland. They admitted that the first months were the hardest and even after 2 years decided to return to Ireland rather than extend their visas. We recognise that it is one thing to travel and another to live in a country no matter how beautiful or great the weather might be.

Having gone through the motions of getting ourselves ready, the time to board our bus arrived. Agnes Water grew on us during our short stay and we were sad to say goodbye.

The bus trundled off into a night landscape, where only the occasional silhouette of trees could be seen from our side window. In the headlights of the bus, yellow diamond road signs flicked past the front like counted sheep as our eyelids grew heavy...Read more