The best laid plans...well...they just never work out how you lay them!

I think this has been the theme of our adventure thus far...the best laid plans just fall apart and it is the plans that come together last minute that result in the greatest times and some of the best stories. I think I may have even blogged a similar blog with a similar title previously. Al and I have tried desperately to plan every single moment of Australia and where to be when, but it has just not worked out to our advantage so we decided to throw caution to the wind and just start heading down the East Coast and stop wherever the feeling strikes us, so of course we had to stop a the information centre in a town called Bowen, as it has the largest replica mango we have ever seen and actually the largest model mango in the world...it was painted in a kind of rainbow pattern making it gay friendly as well so it seemed like a friendly place to be. To be truthful, I needed to use the toilet desperately so this was the best place to stop. While there, we were given information including a map of Bowen and all the award winning bays and coves and beaches that surround this area and we felt that we should just give it a go...and boy were we rewarded for our spontaneity. We drove down the road, spotting the caravan park we would be staying in that evening, as it had a giant striped blow up pillow to jump on...it may be for kids, but it sure was fun! We drove into the small town and parked the Jucy in the one shady spot we could find. It took me back to my days in Texas when I drove around and would park miles away from where I was going just to get the car in the tiniest bit of shade. We walked around the town centre for a few hours looking at all the shops and at all of the suits they sell to prevent tiny jellyfish from stinging you in the water, as it is stinger season we were told. This did not fill me with great joy, as we are due to spend 3 days/3 nights on a boat touring the Whitsunday Islands and there will be diving, snorkeling and swimming involved. We discovered that you actually rent stinger suits on board the yacht so we were relieved with that and decided to take the Jucy to Horseshoe Bay for a mooch around...what a deliciously gorgeous place. There are rocks and boulders of all shapes and sizes surrounding this bay in a horseshoe pattern and people were swimming in the luke warm water that looked like a million sparkles reflecting off the sun. All around the bay were tree and brush covered hills with various lookouts perched on top that you could navigate yourself to. Al and I decided to take a trek up to one of the lookouts and discovered a 5km path that takes you from Horseshoe Bay to all the other bays and coves around Bowen in an intense, uphill/downhill heart-racing hike over rocks, through forests, across beaches and on the road. We hiked the whole thing around dusk and got a tiny bit lost towards the end and a lovely autistic man gave us a ride to our car. I swear he had the flattest affect and even when he talked about the traumas of living in Zimbabwe and why he fled to live here in Australia, he did so with absolutely no emotion whatsoever. It was strange. He runs along this path every single day after work in true autistic form and never deviated from his set path, though there are like a million other pathways you can take all around the bays. After our hardcore hike, that I might add followed a run that morning in Ayr, we decided to treat ourselves to a rotisserie chicken, hummus and a baguette for dinner. Wow, was that tasty especially after a diet of pasta and rice in a bag. We gobbled that tender meat slathered with hummus down and went straight to the caravan park for some restless, sweaty and bug infested sleep in the Jucy rooftop tent. We noticed a tour bus for a local music group called Country Shadows. The bus looked a bit worse for the wear, but how cool was it to stay in a caravan park with some local celebrities. I did a Google search for this band and I think they are a cover band of sorts and there are no pictures or articles about them anywhere to be found. I took a snap of their tour bus none the less because if they one day become famous, Al and I can say we stayed right next to them in a caravan park in Bowen one time. How cool would that be!?! For those of you who know me, you will be aware that something comes over me and I transform into a psycho stalker type person when I am around anyone with any sort of celebrity status...even if they are in staying in their shit tour bus in a caravan park. I am sure the Colin Firth story may come into some of your minds at which time we saw him in the local sushi restaurant in Chiswick and while he was standing at the counter near Alex and I, I gently placed my hand near his, sliding it ever so slowly so that we were eventually touching pinky fingers. I don't think he liked that so he moved away from me and left briskly. I don't even know what came over me, but Alex still tells that story and asks me why on a regular basis. So, this morning we awoke at about 6:30am, as there is no sleeping in when staying in a hot sweaty tent with the sun beating down on your flesh and the hungry mosquitoes feasting on your ankles...so in true Alex fashion we decided to go back to where we hiked the evening before and run the sucker...and so we did and it took us 37 minutes. It was intense and I thought I was going to die, but we needed to get a bit of training in, as we have an 11km run in a few weeks at Olympic Stadium in Sydney and I have not been running as I should. I swear there were moments during this intense forest run that Alex just whizzed through. I like to think of myself as someone who enjoys a nice stroll or hike on a precarious and obstacle laden path more than someone who enjoys running these types of paths, but it was very cool and there were loads of people running it. Almost twisted the old ankle a few dozen times, but made it out in one piece and then just when you think you emerge from the forest and it is all over, you have 2 giant hills, one steep and one slow incline that you have to conquer in the bright sunshine before making it to your car and smelling the sweet smell of victory and tasting the sweet taste of warm water...yummy! We de-sweated and headed back to the caravan park for showers and some more stalking of Country Shadows and then off to Airlie Beach to check in for our 3 day.3 night yacht tour of the Whitsundays, as we leave tonight at 7pm. We are a bit traumatized from the Yongala experience, but will push through the fear and take some sea sickness tablets, but honestly, it is a 30 metre long boat and we have an air-conditioned room on the boat so that will be such a treat! I have heard that the Whitsunday islands are just some of the most amazingly beautiful places in the whole world and if they are even anything like the beaches we have seen thus far, then we are in for a treat.