"Go Hard or Go Home" - Roughing it at Raglan Tavern...

Wow what a weird few days it's been!

We set off for the small, coastal township of Bargara on Tuesday after chilling out in the hostel in the morning, only stopping briefly in Childers and Bundaberg. Once there we found we were staying in villas with about 7 other girls, but it was really cool as we had a TV, air-con and our own kitchen. The only bummer was that we had to pay loads for cutlery and plates, which you think they would've provided having provided a kitchen but whatever! We took a walk down to the beach too and then walked back along the road, where we finally saw a pelican as we walked across the river! Not seen one yet so very excited! As it was Pancake Day, Claire and me had absolutely no intention of participating in the hostel barbeque. We had, of course, bought some pancakes (yes, the packet ones, having deduced that we would not have the facilities to fashion our own) from the 24hr shop about a mile away from our hostel in Hervey Bay - well worth the walk, and procured (or pilfered, rather) some condiments from the buffet in Eurong Resort - well worth the guilt. So we had a delicious pancake tea and enjoyed it fully. I had three - one with vegemite, cheese and ham, one with jam and peanut butter, and one with sugar and lemon juice (we bought a lemon too). I was too busy shovelling it down to notice what Claire had. Anyway, that evening was spent being very lazy and taking advantage of the luxury of having a TV, namely watching The Simpsons and new episodes of The OC. Naturally.

We left Bargara pretty early on the Wednesday for the Town of 1770. I was feeling pretty rotten - possibly having something to do with the 4-5 glasses of wine I'd consumed during the TV fest the night before - I had a throbbing headache and a lurching stomach. Not good. Once we arrived, we found we were actually staying in the town of Agnes Waters, so we opted to get the daily shuttle to 1770. I thought it odd that there was only one shuttle per day, until I saw the form in which it took! It was a crazy nutter of a guy with, yet again, a handlebar moustache and a bandana round his head like some crazed biker, and his three jeeps, one of which he 'drove' (if you could define it as driving!) and the other two he let anyone drive, insured or not. So off we went along the main road, me and Claire sat in the front, and all of a sudden the guy goes swerving off the road onto a hidden track down to the beach, which invloved much tossing and throwing about of his poor passengers, including us. Let's say the ride didn't really do wonders for my 'illness' (aka. extreme hangover), and despite the lovely, deserted, main beach of Agnes Waters I felt decidedly worse.

After going back up another track (more tossing, tumbling and throwing about) we eventually got to 1770, which was nothing more than a street of houses and a one-shop marina. Which stunk sickeningly of fish and fish bait. That did it, I felt absolutely, horribly sick by this point, and I couldn't focus on anything but going to bed. Which I did. For the whole afternoon!

At around 4:30pm Claire woke me up and we had a walk down to the beach, where we had a swim for about 5mins until we spotted a HUGE jellyfish and did one back on to the sand! Just chilled out in the TV room in the evening and watched The Terminal.

Then yesterday morning we left 1770 and it was raining. In Dingo, it was raining torrentially, and had been doing so for the last 3 hours. The consequences of which meant that we couldn't stay at Dingo that night. MAJOR disappointment! To make it worse Helen, Jake, Jessy and Cat weren't on the coach either, they were still in Hervey Bay, meaning we were stuck on a coach full of people we didn't know, staying somewhere other than Dingo, party central. We eventually ended up in a tavern in Raglan, population of 50, with more houses than people, yet we could see no houses. Just the tavern.

Since it was raining, there was no going outside, so the whole afternoon was spent playing cards with some girls we met at dinner, then Monopoly, but I quit once one of the girls started getting really arsey and wouldn't pay me rent cos she'd already rolled again. Can't be bothered with people who can't have a laugh playing monopoly and take it far too seriously.

After tea our poor driver tried to organise some competitions as the southbound bus had turned up, but other than the climbing around the table thing, the pool thing, and the beer, crackers, and balloon thing he wasn't too successful, especially when the drunk Scottish guys completely stole his thunder by playing the bagpipes, much to the locals' delight! Anyway, once bedtime came along, that meant sleeping on airbeds in the lounge with everyone else in the room! It was like one massive slumber party, but a little less glamourous!

Anyway, that's about it really. We're now in Mackay, and we've already discovered the huge shopping mall just a couple of streets away from the YHA, which is like Disneyland for the backpacker who's been shopping-deprived for the last month! So we're going to devour that tomorrow to make ourselves feel better after a disappointing last couple of days, and just chill out this evening. Hope all is well at home, take care!