Yesterday it was still raining, I just went into town in the day to make sure I knew where the bus stop was. I also did a bit of shopping....I bought some sunscreen and another bikini...yes, I'm being positive about the weather! I bumped into James on my way back to the hostel, he'd just arrived from Cape Tribulation. Last night I went out with Rachel and her friend Barbara from her diving trip. They had lots of vouchers for free food and drinks, so we had a bit of a pub crawl. Halfway through the night, I had a phone call from my brother, which was a lovely suprise. We had a really good night, we met lots of people and had a boogie. I met a German guy so I was practising my German, I tell you, it's so much better when I've had a few drinks (well it's probably not better, but I'm more confident!) I actually had quite a good time speaking it!! Our free backpacker meal from earlier hadn't really filled us up, so we ended up getting a kebab at 3 in the morning! I felt sorry for Rachel, she had to be out the door at 5am to get to the airport for her flight to Thailand...I felt bad enough after having only 3 hours sleep!

The sun has been shining today, yaay! I arrived at Mission Beach at 11am, was only a 2 hour bus ride, I couldn't keep my eyes open for most of it! The bus was actually ok, I'd heard a lot of bad stories about them, like they smelt of sick and alcohol, but it turned out to be quite pleasant, I bet going at night might be a different matter though. I am staying at the Mission Beach Resort tonight, it's very nice, it's a big 4 star complex with budget rooms, ours has a TV and a stereo....what luxury! Tonight they are having a Christmas celebration, they do this in lots of places in Australia on the 25th July when it's not as hot. It's an all you can eat buffet, I'm not sure whether I will go, it's a little pricey and I should be saving, so I'll see.

There is not so much to do here, I've been sat on the beach this afternoon, it was lovely. I saw lots of people with parachutes landing on the beach. I didn't really fancy venturing out too much today, I'm scared that I'm going to bump into a Cassowary. They are huge flightless birds (I think as big as an emu) they live in this area. Apparently they are really dangerous and can cause lots of damage by kicking you with their powerful legs. I heard a story that 2 guys hired a car and had just parked in a supermarket car park, the cassowary came along and saw it's reflection in the car window, thought it was a predator and kicked in the car door....scary stuff! I was a bit wary sat on the beach earlier, I'm so paranoid about seeing these dangerous animals, every noise in the trees makes me jump, I kept expecting a croc to come out of the sea and gobble me up, why are there so many scary animals here??!! I'm a nervous wreck! Oh well, I'm leaving tomorrow....next stop Townsville. This is so cool being able to hop on and off the bus when I like, and I'm not even nervous about it anymore!

See below for some pics.......