Day 222, Back in the Whitsundays
12 Dec 2004

Spent an evening with Tricia & Cole again when we zipped through Gladstone on our way to Airlie Beach. I love this place. It will be hard to leave once we spend 3 days & nights on a beautiful wooden Tall ship called the "Alexander Stewart." A few things that I haven't had a chance to put out there yet: Jim arrived on Thursday. He and I stayed at Gina's, new couchsurfer, place. If you haven't heard of Couchsurfing, check it out at: www.couchsurfing.com . It's a very cool idea, and a really neat way to meet locals and travelers. I recommend it to all of my friends. Jim preaches the couchsurfing way of life. He's stayed with over 48 different people & has not had any bad experiences. Let me know if you decide to give it a try. I've had good experiences too & am looking forward to hosting people when I have a place of my own.

Another thing I forgot to mention in my journals (greg reminds me of things when I tell him about them) is the exotic fruit farm in Cape Tribulation: http://www.capetrib.com.au/ You can see pictures of the fruit that I tried while I was there. If you ever go to Cape Trib this is a must see & taste! Some of the fruit we had that day: Carambola, Soursop, Tahitian Lime, White Sapote, Sapodilla, Black Sapote, Jakfruit, Rollinia, & Roseapple. I liked them all, but especially the Rollinia which is a white fleshed really really mushy soft fruit that's delicious! You won't find most of these in the grocery store because they haven't found a way to get them to the store without the fruit bruising or going bad. It's really really delicate finacky stuff, but good fun to try!

Other stuff for you guys to look up: The aussies (and brits) have something called Vegemite. yuck. it's like a salty "vegetable extract" spread for toast. gross, but they love it!

Greg and I have driven 1100 kms over the last 2 days to get from Brisbane to Airlie Beach. We even stopped in Gympie & Greg went soaring (airplane without an engine.) Greg recently got his soaring license in the states, and now he's logging airtime all over the world!

Tricia quickly reminded me that I had forgotten to tell Greg about the "Drop Bears." She did the honors & now we are carefully going through the forest looking up at all times to avoid being mauled by plummeting deadly Drop Bears. ;)

One last thing. I wanted to add this for my family. My brother & sister-in-law are having another little one born on Monday! I DO wish I could be there, but I will be there in spirit instead. So, this is for you guys: "I'll have a Blue Christmas without you, I'll be so blue thinking about you, Decorations of red on a green Christmastree, Won't mean a think if you're not here with me"

I'll miss you guys! Merry Xmas to everyone.

Oh! And Farley wanted me to do this. I've got a wish list up on www.Amazon.com If you'd like to get me something, what I NEED/want is an MP3 cd of the music/albums listed. You do not need to BUY me any albums, just if you have the music, or can get it, rip it onto one cd for me. If you can't do this, but would like to get me a gift, then there is nothing like green. I've got one large Credit card bill (airfare) to pay off...

no worries. Everything else is sorted out. I'm doing great & really excited to be going sailing today. Talk to all of you soon. Drop me a line & I'll get back to you as soon as I can! ttys

-amy