June 18th - 21st

Aaah, Friday the 18th. The evening of the Sugar Cane Fire. Was really cool actually. At some point during the afternoon, Jacki came round to everyone and asked if we wanted to go and see a sugar cane fire later that evening - everyone in the hostel had been wanting to see one for ageees, so of course later on that night we all bundled into two of the minibus van things and went to see one.



(Cassie at the Cane Fire)


Theres not an awful lot to describe about it, other than it was pretty damn cool! When we got there they were spraying the sugar cane - they spray everything around the area they're going to burn with water so that it doesn't catch fire with the rest of it. Then, they lit several small sections of the area on fire, and as it started to burn they set more and more bits on fire until the result was an epic fire (which people commenting on my facebook thought was a bonfire at first, hehe). Its over so quickly - one minute the fire was tiny, then it just caught and was HUUUGE and then all of a sudden it was over. Capiche. Finito! Very cool thing to see though. Unfortunately we were on the side that was being lit, so we didn't get to see the swarms of wildlife that apparently normally rush out in an attempt not to get burnt to a crisp - i.e pigs, snakes, and assorted other small vermin type creatures. I'm not sure whether its a good or a bad thing we were on the other side, eh? Haha :D I managed to get some semi decent photos, as well as a really nice group shot of everyone who went, aka most of the hostel. Its awesome :)



(Kev, Gem + Gerard at the Cane Fire - they even brought refreshments!)


So the next evening (being Saturday 19th) everyone was chilling in the kitc1hen, good times. Becky and Justin ever so kindly donated multiple beers to myself, which of course went to my head instantaneously - good times. At some point throughout the beer drinking we all decided we were gonna head on out on the town (well.. Ayr...) and go to the Queens Hotel (+club on a Saturday) which is where a lot of the girls normally headed on a Saturday night anyway. I hadn't been since getting to Ayr due to the lack of funds but already being rather tipsy before heading off meant that I really didn't care :D



(Group shot of everyone who came to watch the Cane Fire - I love this photo!)


We definitely had an awesome night. Gemma took her camera and so at some point I'll be stealing pics from her. At first it was just me, Gem and Becky - Justin, Tomas and Hayden had forgotten to bring their IDs and had to walk back to the hostel, but they soon returned, and not long after them came the whole Lazy Lizard Crew :) Good times, good times. Becky bought me a couple more drinks in the pub too, I feel bad I never got the chance to pay back her generosity - hopefully karma will sort her out!
Sunday was amusing purely for the amount of hungover people that were wandering around the place, luckily I'd managed to avoid such a fate :D



(My lovely self at the Cane Fire)


Monday was the day of my epic trip to Townsville to sell my beloved SLR - sob sob! I got the lovely $15 Premier bus at 12:30pm and was on my way. It took an hour to get from Ayr to Townsville, and when I got there I proceeded to wander around and explore. I knew vaguely where the Cash Converters place was so I headed off in that direction, only to get confused half the way there and turn back. And then walk back on myself once more - oh dear!! Eventually I just gave up and got the bus, which was $2.60 and got taken to where I needed to be, albeit like 3 hours later! Probably a good thing too, it wasn't really walking distance and by this point my feet were hurting lots - I then also tripped up getting *onto* the bus, and my foot *still* hurts from that - ouchies!



(Crazy smoke clouds and fire)


However, all was not to be. When I finally made it to the Cash Converters, the blokey told me that they couldn't take my camera, because it was english. Mofos! Because it had an english power cord they couldn't take it, and then to add insult to injury, he added that all they would have offered me for my beautiful camera was $150 - after recovering from the shock of it all, I sold him my spare lense for $25 and went on my way, camera still in possession - $150?! What an INSULT. Poor camera. Just as well it *is* English!



(Lovely sunset while waited for the Cane Fire)


What followed was a mad dash to deposit money into my bank account before it closed at 4pm, and then another epic walk to find an internet cafe where I could book my Greyhound bus home for the evening - $30. Ouch. Made it to one in the end, booked coach and then proceeded to get another bus to the ferry terminal where the Greyhound buses picked people up - not at the same place as the Premier buses, noooo, that'd be far too easy, eh?

So anyway there was muchos time to be killed so I did so by reading one of the Dan Brown books I now have on my laptop - while we're on the subject, the new one is pretty shit - The Lost Symbol? Nowhere near as good as Angels and Demons / Da Vinci Code. IMO, anyway.

Overall - I had a reasonably ok day in Townsville, despite having no money for food and so being pretty damn hungry, and also the fact I spent $50 getting there and back and only *made* $25 - so it didn't work out the way I'd intended, but I can always say I've been to Townsville, the name sake of the town where the Powerpuff Girls live. Oh yes.