Emma's Travel Blog

El Chaten

Our first stop in Argentina was to El Chaten, a village within Los Glaciares National Park on the Argentinian side of Patagonia. We took a bus from Puerto Natales in Chile, to El Calafate, where we were to take a connecting bus to El Chaten. However our first bus was delayed, so we missed our connecting bus and with no cash or internet (as we had entered into a new country), we didn’t have many options! We ended up meeting two Canadian brothers, Ben and Jordan, who were also looking for a place to stay for the night. In the end we all stayed at a hostel next to the bus station which was also beside a pizza restaurant and a bar, so it turned out to be a great night! We were able to get an early bus the next morning, which got us back on track again.

We spent 4 nights in total in El Chaten, and we absolutely loved it! It’s a small village, mostly made up of restaurants and small shops. We spent our first 2 nights in a pretty grim hostel before moving to Thiamulu for the rest of our stay. This was much better! We got a gorgeous breakfast from the owner each morning, which made the experience so homely. The breakfast’s had been pretty grim, but this was the nicest in ages!

The main thing to do in El Chaten is hiking, so thankfully the weather played ball (mostly). We hiked Laguna Torre and Laguna de Los Tres. We didn’t get to the top of Laguna de Los Tres to catch a glimpse of Mt Fitz Roy (one of the most difficult peaks in the world) as on that day the wind really picked up and the park rangers wouldn’t let us finish the hike for safety reasons. The views were still great though.

In the evenings we ate steak and drank wine. We also met up with Jordan, Ben and another recruit, Chris who all ended up coming to El Chaten. On our last night we perhaps had a glass too many and decided to hike for sunrise without going to sleep! The hike was about 5 hours in total but as we were walking in the dark, it took us a little longer! As you will see from the photos, there was absolutely nothing around us and no signal either. It was all fun and games until Tori and I realised that we were probably going to miss our bus to El Calafate (as we were due to leave the next morning) but more importantly, we were going to miss breakfast! I don’t know where we got our energy from, but we ran back the whole way and made the bus! We even sweet talked the owner of the guesthouse into giving us a (very) late breakfast, which she did reluctantly! It wasn’t a bad way to ring in Easter Sunday! 😂

El Calafate

Our next destination was El Calafate, a small town again in Southern Patagonia, mainly known for being the home of Perito Moreno Glacier.

We took separate trips there as I decided to hike on the glacier itself, which was a whole day event. I think the tour is a little overpriced for what you get, but I really enjoyed it! And now I can say I have hiked on a glacier 🤷‍♀️.

The hike was topped off with some whiskey and glacier ice!

Buenos Aires

We flew from El Calafate to Buenos Aires, our next Argentinian destination. We stayed in the Palermo region for 2 nights, an area full of bars, cafes and shops. It’s a safe place and a pretty common place to stay for tourists. The hostel was quite nice and we had a lovely few days there just wandering around. I realise now that I didn’t take one photo in Palermo, but here is one from google that gives you the idea!

Mendoza

After 2 nights, we took another flight to Mendoza, a famous wine region in Argentina. We wanted to return to Buenos Aires for the weekend which is why we split up our time there.

Our initial entrance to Mendoza was a little hairy! When we arrived, we couldn’t really find any thing to do while we were waiting for our accommodation to let us check in. So we decided to go for an early dinner while we waited. At this point we had been having a GREAT time so decided to tighten up our belts for the next few days. We tried to find somewhere cheap to eat but before we knew it, we were eating steaks and drinking all the wine! Tori was in charge of this accommodation, which we thought was a hostel. It turned out that it was a couple in their 60’s guesthouse who were waiting for us to check in. When we eventually arrived, it was clear we had lost track of time and the man of the house started telling us off for coming home too late! It got a bit heated but the next morning everyone was full of apologies and the couple told us they were only stressed because they were worried about us which was very cute of them! In the end they left a basket of food outside our room each night and it turned out we had the loveliest time there! It’s the closest we have felt to being teenagers in a long time!!

The main thing to do in Mendoza is to take a wine tour. Our tour brought us to 4 different wineries and also an olive oil farm. We enjoyed it, and the people on the tour were also great!

In Mendoza we also spent a day at some natural pools. It was a bit chaotic when we arrived, but we were just happy to be in hot water! The showers have been …Interesting!!

Buenos Aires #2

From Mendoza we flew back to Buenos Aires, but this time we stayed in San Telmo, another popular area for travellers. We dropped our bags and went straight to San Telmo Market, which was a little like the Time Out Market in Lisbon. We got a really good steak here and it’s definitely a must do in Buenos Aires. There is such a good atmosphere here.

Sunday is the best day to visit this market, as the market continues outside. While exploring, we came across our first Argentinian tango experience. One of many!

The next day we visited the ‘La Boca’ area, home of Boca Juniors soccer team (which meant absolutely nothing to us)!

La Boca is also known for its colourful streets. It’s a big tourist spot so it was pretty packed with people when we were there. It’s quite a nice place to walk around though.

We ended up having our favourite meal in Argentina in La Boca, totally by chance! Argentinian BBQ is divine!

Of course we couldn’t leave Buenos Aires without seeing a tango show! we couldn’t use our phones inside but the show was great! Tango dancers are incredible to watch!

We visited a few more sights before finishing our trip with a visit to Recoleta Cemetery – apparently the worlds most beautiful cemetery. 14 acres big! It’s organised like a city with each grave/tomb built like a house, organised in ‘streets’. Many had stairs with 2 or more floors inside. Many were made of marble. Some were very dilapidated inside but others looked brand new. It was a weird, but cool place to visit!

I almost forgot that we spent a day in Uruguay also! From Buenos Aires we took a ferry to Colonia, where we did a walking tour of the town. Honestly, we were quite bored there as there was literally nothing to do! We can tick another country off the list though!

That sums up our trip to Argentina. We had an incredible time, as always but we were both SO excited to get to Brazil! We had a feeling the best was yet to come- and we weren’t disappointed!

Next stop, Florianopolis.

Santiago

Our trip to Chile got off to a rocky start as Tori developed food poisoning before the flight! Things were looking ropey but she managed to get through the flight and got a nice little bump up to premium economy for her troubles! We arrived in Santiago after a 6 hour flight and went straight to our accommodation at ‘Sommelier Loft Hotel’, where we were in the laps of luxury!

Our first Chilean meal was not exactly traditional….but it’s what was needed after the day Tori had put in!

Santiago didn’t really impress us. We actually just spent one night there, as we didn’t feel there was much we wanted to do. We spent the day wandering around and enjoyed some good food. It’s incredibly expensive in Chile, closer to Dublin prices!

We took a bus from Santiago to Valparaiso, and were chuffed with the level of comfort!

Valparaiso

After two hours we arrived in Valparaiso, and faced a baptism of fire of sorts! We took a public bus to our accommodation which was manic, to say the least. The combination of the dark evening, too many bags and a packed bus made for a stressful journey. In addition, people were jumping on and off selling things for the entire journey. The bus door was also always left open. We swore when we left Valparaiso, we would get a taxi to the bus!

After a steep climb, we arrived at our hostel ‘ Casa Volante’, a cute hostel in a lovely part of the town.

This part of town was covered in beautiful graffiti and full of art galleries.

To curb costs, we made some DIY lunches, with some Chilean wine of course!

Despite there being beautiful parts of this town, there were also parts that weren’t very safe to walk around in. So we stayed around our area and had a lovely few days here!

We returned to Santiago for one more night to take a flight to Puerto Natales, Patagonia. Another night in our favourite hotel!

Puerto Natales

Puerto Natales is a city in Southern Patagonia and a gateway to Tores Del Paine National Park, our next destination. We got a sharp shock when we arrived, as the temperatures are so much colder in the south of Chile!

Puerto Natales airport is very small, and everyone is basically travelling for the same reason- to trek in Tores del Paine!

A short mini bus from the airport brought us to the door of our hostel, ‘Hostel Reymar’.

The hostel was ran by an old man, and while it wouldn’t win awards for its facilities, it had a real charm and we enjoyed staying there!

We found a very nice restaurant in the town called ‘Amerindia’, where we ate both nights. It was so good!

We spent two days wandering around Puerto Natales getting our things ready for the W Trek.

An early start the next morning with no idea what we were in for, and off we went on a bus to Tores Del Paine.

We arrived to Camp Central at 9:00am where we were greeted with our home for the night.

We dropped our bags and took off on our 20km hike to Mirador las Torres. We tried to get a coffee before we left, but the water pipes had frozen in the campsite. However, one kilometre in, we passed a hotel so we went in to grab a coffee there! We were delighted with ourselves at that point!

However, that quickly changed when we realised the bill came to €30 so needless to say, that was the first and last coffee we bought on the trek!

The terrain on the first day was quite mixed with some gorgeous views on the way.

Our daily lunch looked like this!

The peak of the day was when we got to Mirador la Torres.

When were were ready, we headed back to our campsite and wrapped up in all the clothes we had! Breakfasts and dinners were included most days. The food was pretty grim for the most part but beggars can’t be choosers!

The next day, we headed off on a 16km hike with our bags to Camp Frances, our second home!

The terrain was different each day so here’s a few snaps from day 2. The campsite wasn’t as nice on this day, but we survived!

Day three was another 20km hike to our favourite of all the campsites, Paine Grande. This campsite had a bar overlooking the mountains where we spent most of the evening, and we also had the cosiest tents here (or maybe the wine warmed us up!!)

On day four, we walked 11km to the next campsite on a pretty difficult trail. We got our first glimpse of the glacier on this trail.

I decided to walk a few extra hours continued past the campsite to get a closer look at the glacier which involved crossing two very long, very high bridges. I don’t usually get spooked with heights, but these were not for the faint hearted!

This was our last night on the trek, so we stayed in dorms instead of camping! We actually had loved camping though and were a little disappointed that we had changed it up for the last night! It was nice being warm though!

On our last morning, we took one last walk to see the glacier before heading back to Paine Grande, where we waited for a boat to take us back to a bus, which took us back to Puerto Natales.

We both absolutely loved the trek. It was definitely the highlight of our time in Chile. That being said, we welcomed the hot shower and clean clothes which greeted us on our return to Puerto Natales! We spent the next morning getting our clothes washed, before taking a bus to El Chaten, which actually brings us to the next country!

Next stop, Argentina.

A much shorter bus journey brought us to Santa Marta.

We stayed in our favourite hostel so far – Viajero Santa Marta.

There isn’t much to see in Santa Marta itself, but it’s a great location for travelling to other ‘must see’ places, such as ‘Tayrona National Park’.

After spending one day exploring Santa Marta, we packed an overnight bag and took a taxi to Tayrona National Park.

The taxi dropped us to the park entrance, and from there we walked a couple of kilometres to our campsite ‘Don Pedro’.

When we arrived we were given our beds for the night, which were hammocks!

Unfortunately, this was the height of what I saw in Tayrona Park and I became sick almost immediately after arriving! After five months of travelling without any issues, my luck was bound to run out at some point! Tori had a great time though, and I definitely got my money’s worth for my hammock!

The next day, we returned to Santa Marta where I stayed a night to recover and Tori left for Minca, our next destination, which was just 30 minutes away. We both treated ourselves to a taxi which was heavenly! Any day you don’t have to lug your bags to a bus is a good day!

We LOVED Minca!

Despite having made a reservation for one night, we stayed five, and were very sorry to be leaving at all!

Tori did a couple of hikes which she loved, while I took it easy to fully recover. Minca is a very relaxed town, and we were staying about two kilometres outside the town in a place called ‘Casa Pozo Azul’. We absolutely loved staying here! It definitely wasn’t for its modern facilities, or overall cleanliness! It just had a charm and was such a relaxing place to be.

While in Minca we took a coffee farm tour – a must when in Colombia!

We also swam in one of Minca’s many waterfalls.

The only way to get around Minca was on a moto taxi, which was great because Minca is a very hilly place!

Our favourite spotin Minca was ‘Casa Loma’- especially at sunset!

We spent most nights here eating delicious vegetarian food and soaking up the views!

That pretty much sums up our trip to Minca, and to Colombia, as all that was left for us to do was to take a taxi back to Santa Marta for a flight back to Bogotá (where we started) for one last night!

Colombia exceeded my expectations big time! It was so colourful and vibrant and a really interesting place to be! You could easily spend another month here, but that’s it for us!

Next stop, Chile.

A bus that was meant to take 13 hours actually took 20, but we finally arrived to Cartagena. There was a road closure on route, so for 2 hours, this was the view!

Thankfully our hostel was really nice so it was the perfect place to flake out after a big journey!

Cartagena has two very different sides to it’s city. When we arrived, we were shocked by how run down the place was, with slum like buildings everywhere. We took a taxi from the bus station to the hostel which was…interesting. A car AND a motorbike hit the back of our taxi on route and tensions were high (to say the least)! At one point the driver got out to take on the driver that hit him. Needless to say we sat still and said nothing while this was playing out! It was a 45 minute drive to the hostel, which was on the other side of the city – the touristy side. The contrast between both parts is indescribable.

Cartagena is incredibly colourful with brightly painted buildings and amazing graffiti. The weather was noticeably warmer here too, almost 30 degrees! This was the hottest weather we have experienced to date.

We ate some great food in Cartagena while we were there, especially these fish tacos we got on our first night!

I also tried my first ‘ceviche’. Traditionally a Peruvian dish but popular all over South America. I wasn’t a fan but tori loved it!

Our favourite meal was at a traditional Colombian restaurant called ‘El Bololó’ where we ate traditional Caribbean food overlooking ‘Plaza de la Trinidad’, a square teeming with music and dancing.

We stayed around to hear some music, and even caught a glimpse of another Michael Jackson!

While in Cartagena, we took a boat trip to some of the Rosario Islands. There was a good group from the hostel also taking the trip so we had a great day!

Cartagena’s streets at night are great with everyone drinking and dancing on the streets. The art looks great at night too.

We found a cute coffee / book shop close to the hostel to escape the heat for a few hours. However, English books are few and far between in South America!

Overall we really enjoyed are few days in Cartagena.

Next stop, Santa Marta.

We took our first bus journey to get to Jardin. It was supposed to take three hours, but it took four (we were expecting much worse). We stopped once, and there was some commotion with the police which delayed us, but thankfully they weren’t interested in either of us 😂. Here’s a snippet of the bus journey.

When we arrived, the rain was bucketing down. Thunder and lightening was actually promised for the entirety of our trip so we contemplated jumping ship. However, we were pleasantly surprised when we woke the next morning and while it did rain in the afternoons, we still got to do the things we wanted to do, so it all worked out!

We stayed in the town square which was a great location! Jardin is a very colourful, authentic town, and our accommodation was no exception!

As it was a Friday night when we arrived, the square was full of people socialising. There was a really lovely atmosphere about the place and immediately we both agreed that this was our favourite place so far.

The next morning we went for a leisurely walk to ‘Cafe Jardin’. We passed some beautiful scenery on the way which made the climb more bearable!

We took a break at the top to soak in the view.

A leisurely stroll back to explore the town along with a lovely dinner at ‘Óleo Bistro’ concluded our first full day in Jardin.

The next morning we set off on a 16km hike. The route wasn’t marked but we had done some research. The aim was to visit 4 waterfalls and take a loop back. It didn’t quite end up like that as we were struggling to find the last waterfall and also the thunder was threatening hard! So we went back the same way for fear of getting stranded. I really hope Dad doesn’t read this, as once he realises that I came all the way to Colombia to walk on a mucky farm surrounded by cows he’s going to have serious questions 😂.

We did find some waterfalls though!

By the time we got back to the hotel we weren’t able to speak we were that shattered! Nothing a pizza and a few beers didn’t sort out though! We made some friends and enjoyed our last night in Jardin.

We did find our favourite coffee spot at ‘Del Alto Cafe’, although as I sit here and write this, I have definitely exceeded my coffee limits for today, so homemade lemonade it is!

We both loved Jardin. We met some lovely people who gave us tips for the rest of our trip and overall it was such a fun, quaint place to be.

We take a bus back to Medellin this evening, and hopefully get a good sleep there as tomorrow we have an overnight bus booked to Cartagena.

Pray for us.

Next (main) stop, Cartagena

We took a short one hour flight to Medellin, another city in Colombia. We took an Uber from the airport and got some bank for our book as he serenaded us all the way to our hostel! He gave us plenty of tips and even bought us a sweet each! He made sure to give us his YouTube channel when we left also!

We stayed in ‘Rango Hostel’ for two nights, which was a really gorgeous hostel with a restaurant, bakery And bar onsite.

On arrival, we took a stroll around and ended up in the Museum of Modern Art.

Undoubtedly the best part of Medellin was the Comuna 13 tour Graffiti Tour.

Comuna 13 was one of the most dangerous communities in the world ran by drug trafficking organisations in the 80’s and 90’s. Today, outdoor escalators and art have helped to turn this into the biggest tourist attraction in Medellin.

Here we also tasted ‘frozen mango biche’, a local treat served in lemon juice and salt. It was actually delicious, especially on a hot day!

We had some great food in Medellin. We went to ‘Tacos El Tigre’.

We also ate in ‘Ajiacos Y Mondongos’, a traditional Colombian restaurant.

That sums up the best parts of our Medellin trip.

Next stop, Jardin.

I arrived in Bogotá safe and sound after a smooth-ish journey. My stopover in Madrid was very short so a decent sprint to the airport was needed to ensure I caught my flight! Poor organisation on my part combined with some bad luck as my plane was leaving from the last gate in the last terminal and I couldn’t have been further from where I needed to be! All was well thankfully.

My first hostel of the trip was ‘Cedron Hostel’ run by Gabriel and his wife Patricia. Despite having little English, they made me feel right at home. Tori’s flight was delayed, so I had one day to myself to get a feel for the place!

Jet lag was in full swing so I woke very early! The hostel provided a very cute breakfast which all the guests ate together.

It was a great way to get recommendations of what to do in the city with little effort. After speaking with another guest, I booked a walking tour of the city with Hector for 10am.

The tour was perfect to get a grasp of ‘Downtown’ and ‘La Candelaria’, the main parts of the city.

On the tour I got my first look at the exotic fruits that everyone talks about in South America.

I tried the ‘Maracuya’ based on the guides recommendation which was made of lemon, passion fruit and mint. (The lemons here are actually limes!)

I also tasted the local beer, ‘Chicha’. (It was 5 o clock somewhere!)

On the tour we saw the ‘Emerald Market’ in full swing where traders were gathered to buy and sell emeralds. We were warned in advance what to look out for which was men in suits holding small pierces of white paper containing the emeralds. Had we not known what was happening, it would have seemed very dodgy. But we were told if you know your stuff, it’s the best place to get emeralds at a good price!

The tour was very informative. We learned about the artist ‘Fernando Botero’ who has a Museum in Bogota, and other names such as Simon Bolivar, Gabriel Garcia, and Pablo Escabar who all had a huge part to play in Colombia’s very interesting history. To top it off, I even met Michael Jackson!

It was a really great tour, so much so that I booked a second ‘Food Tour’ with Hector for the afternoon! Instead of having to find a place for dinner, I got a taste of all the best foods in Bogota! Now this was my kind of tour!

To start off I tasted my very first empanada.

This was followed by a ‘bunuelo’ which was basically a filled donut. I chose dulce de leche of course!

Next up we tasted some corn, that tasted more like popcorn than sweetcorn. It was much tougher that home, although still tasted great with butter and salt!

Traditionally this is paired with a drink called ‘Limonada de Cäna’ which is made from lemon (limes) and sugar cane.

On route I bought some dragon fruit and ‘mangostina’, which is absolutely nothing like a mango!

Our next stop was to a Colombian bbq restaurant. In Colombia they don’t bbq on charcoal, instead they cook on wood, like this:

From here we went to ‘Puerta de la Cathedral’ to taste Bogota’s best ‘Ajiaco’, a traditional vegetable soup served with rice, avocado, capers and cream. It was absolutely delicious!

To sweeten us up, we got an ‘oblea’ next, which is a traditional Colombian wafer desert. One of the toppings was actually cheese. They put cheese in almost everything in Colombia – even in hot chocolate!

This brought us to our last stop in a barista school where we first received a shot of ‘Aguardiente’ which considered Colombia’s national drink, before finishing the tour with a coffee lesson.

Colombians take coffee very seriously. We were given a choice between three coffees, which were all made in a different way. I chose the strongest coffee, which was made using a piece of equipment I had never seen before called a ‘sifon’.

The process started like this, and as the water was heating the coffee was added.

This was the finished product.

I took the scenic route back to the hostel passing by some incredible art. The colours and vibrancyof the art here is incredible!

Walking around when it’s dark is not a good plan in Bogota, so I stayed in the hostel for the rest of the evening and waited for Tori to arrive. Poor Tori had a quick turnaround as we had another flight for the next morning! Overall, I enjoyed my short visit to Bogota.

Next stop, Medellin

I’m a little late writing this, but my blog on Australia would be incomplete without writing about my last destination, Cairns.

I took my last Greyhound bus from Townsville, which took just under 6 hours. The bus was quiet so I got a whole seat to myself…it’s the little things!

I arrived to Gilligan’s Hostel late on the 24th January ahead of my Great Barrier Reef Tour which departed early the next morning. Before I get into that, let me explain a little about Gilligans.

Gilligans was the main hostel in Cairns. I hadn’t realised at the time of booking, but this is basically the biggest party hostel in Australia. It is labelled as a ‘resort’ which may be a stretch, but it certainly was no ordinary hostel. Housing a swimming pool, 3 bars, an indoor beer hall, a night club, a restaurant and a gaming room spanning across four floors, it’s clear why this hostel is a firm favourite! However, that may depend on where your room is located, as many rooms were impossible to sleep in due to the loud music! Thankfully my room was on the opposite end of the building so I actually heard nothing. A big win!

I was also staying with my Fraser Island friends here, which was nice. Our last stop before we all parted ways for good!

The next morning I left for the Great Barrier Reef tour. I went with the company ‘Ocean Freedom’ and couldn’t recommend them enough. It was my first time snorkelling and I did two dives. It was really incredible being that far down in the sea, but I have to admit, I did think I would see more colour down there. Both in the marine life and in the corals. Clearly a great deal of damage has been done, but nonetheless, it was an incredible experience. The tour itself was great though, everyone had the chance to snorkel three or four times along with diving and going on a glass borrowed boat.

When we weren’t in the water, we were indulging in some really good food! There was even a cheese board, and you know how I feel about cheese boards!! 🤤

I also did an ‘Uncle Brian’s’ Waterfall

and rainforest tour in North Queensland which included numerous different stops.

Babinda Boulders:

Josephine Falls:

Mila Mila Falls:

and Lake Eacham:

We swam at each location and were also fed at each stop! One thing Aussies do well is feeding you on tours! It’s a never ending supply of food – always! We even stopped at a dairy farm for lunch would you believe!

My trip to Australia would not have been complete without seeing at least one kangaroo, so for my last day before returning to Sydney, I decided to go to Hartley’s Zoo.

I got my fix, and treated myself to a private room for my last night in Cairns.

And a fairwell French toast of course at ‘Caffiend’, a cafe I frequented when staying in Cairns!

I had one weekend left in Sydney before making the journey back to Ireland. I stayed with Helen and Liam for the weekend! I owe them big time.

My cousin Eamon took me to a very fancy steak restaurant in CBD called ‘Hurricanes Grill’. I hadn’t had a meal that good in a LONG time.

It was so good to see Eamon as I missed him when I was last in Sydney.

I took a quick trip out to Manly and bid fairwell to Hannah and David, (and Louis and Sheila of course)! The next time I see them will probably be at their Italian Wedding! 😍

I tried my first ‘Cinabon’. It didn’t disappoint!

And took one last trip to Bondi and Coogee beach.

By now, there was nothing left to do but to say goodbye to Helen and Liam, and head to the airport. Eamon gave me a lift and stopped by his new house on the way which was absolutely gorgeous!

I was pretty sad about leaving Australia. I had the best time there and would return in a heartbeat! It’s a really great place to live. However, once I got on the plane I was so excited to get home to see everyone!

The journey home was actually fine, with a short stopover on the way in Doha Airport which was absolutely insane!

They even had an ‘Oreo’ cafe, so I got a milkshake in honour of Edel!

As most of you know, my trip home was a flying visit as by now I have made it to my next continent.

Greetings from Colombia! 🇨🇴

East Coast Trip

I was picked up nice and early at my accommodation on Wednesday morning to head for Magnetic Island. Talk about service! Magnetic island is an island 8 kilometres offshore from the city ‘Townsville’.

As Emma and Paddy had a car, we took the car on the ferry over and saw many of the islands attractions in just one day. In between catching up on all their honeymoon adventures of course.

The weather had started to clear, although it’s still very overcast. That being said, we were still able to capture the beauty of this island!

The absolute highlight of our day was seeing koalas in the wild – mother and baby! We spotted them on ‘The Forts Track’, a short hike with some incredible views of the island.

We visited a few more points of the island such as Horseshoe bay and Picnic Bay. We grabbed lunch in one of the very few places that was opened on that day, but we all enjoyed it👌🏻.

We returned on the 5pm ferry to Townsville and then headed for Airlie Beach (at last!!!!) A 3 and a half hour trip which flew by as we (Emma and I) yapped the whole way! Sorry Paddy 🙈

I plan to spend 4 days in Airlie Beach with Emma and Paddy and then I will actually return to Magnetic Island and catch up with the friends I left in Mackay! All roads have reopened now and the disastrous floods seem to be a distant memory!

A day well spent which finished with me sneaking into Emma and Paddy’s lovely hotel for the night! The glam life continues!!!

Next stop, Airlie Beach!

East Coast

Myself and some of the Fraser Island group took off on a 17 hour bus journey to Airlie Beach. To be fair, the buses are very comfortable here so it’s not actually as bad as it sounds.

There had been weather warnings for where we were headed and rumours had started circling that some of the roads ahead would close. However, our bus was still running, so we took that as a positive and went on our way. (Perhaps we should have questioned the driver asking us to sign a waiver when boarding saying if we didn’t make it, it wasn’t the bus company’s fault!) But we hopped on enthusiastically and off we went.

5 hours in, 10 hours in, even 14 hours in, things were looking good. Then suddenly we were told we couldn’t make it any further. We were given the choice to stay where we were or start going back down a few hours to Rockhampton. Both locations offered were less than desirable, so our sleep deprived minds felt the best thing to do was to stay put as we were closer to where we wanted to be.

We got off the bus, and full of optimism started exploring all options- taxi, bus, car rental…No luck. Finally, we admitted defeat for the time being and found a place for breakfast. Brain food!

‘Mackay’ was the name of our unexpected destination, which can only be described as an overnight stop for truck drivers. Not a must hit on your Australia itinerary by any means! This was our main view for the time there!

We booked a motel room that fit all four of us which even had a pool! Perfect rainy day activity!!

Most of our time here was spent like this!

Trying to find a bus or taxi to take us to Airlie Beach or trying to contact travel companies about trips we had planned for the coming days. As it’s a very busy travelling season, all the subsequent buses were full so getting a taxi was the only option really, although they hiked the prices up big time!

There were some silver linings however as Ben (in the red top) is actually a chef!

This was over 30 hours into being motel bound… we had fully lost it at this point!

Thankfully an unexpected visitor provided some light entertainment for us!

There was very little to do in Mackay, and the rain was atrocious. There was an airport though, and flights were still going! So after much deliberation, I decided to fly to Townsville (the stop after Airlie Beach) as my friends Emma and Paddy from home, who were honeymooning at the same time were driving to there and could give me a lift back to Airlie Beach as the roads from their direction were open. It was a bit more expensive than the taxi would have been, but I decided it was worth it to not waste any more precious time!

I had planned to meet Emma and Paddy in Airlie Beach anyway, so the itinerary was juggled slightly. This did mean that I would be leaving the crew I had met in Fraser Island as they had decided to wait out the storm and get a taxi as soon as the roads reopened!

We said our goodbyes and hoped our routes would overlap again in the coming days! And off to the airport I went. The weather had not improved by this point at all!

It was a short one hour flight with Quantas who are my new favourite airline as they gave free wine and cheese on board! They very much knew the key to my heart at that moment!

I arrived in a few hours before Emma and Paddy so I treated myself to an apartment in Townsville for the night. To say I felt like the queen bee having this much space to myself is an understatement. I had time to wash my clothes and catch up on Netflix as the rain was still pouring around me!

The next morning Emma and Paddy picked me up. What a treat to see two familiar faces!

Townsville was only ever a stopover.

Next stop, Magnetic Island.