Dan will hopefully be along sometime soon with his sides of the story and his pics. Till then I'm gonna entertain you with mine.
I dont travel much, but I can't see where getting to Australia could have gone any smoother. I left Dallas at 10pm and arrived in Brisbane, Australia 16 hours later. The flight was pleasant and pretty much uneventful. I had contacted Marty (Buff) and Alan (Amar911) about what to expect, and they pretty well gave me the rundown as to what to expect while traveling abroad. Thanks again guys!
Upon arrival in Brisbane, I had to get thru customs. For the most part, it went pretty smooth. Except for when I admitted I was gonna be hunting, and a cute customs girl wanted to go thru my gear and look at my knives. My dad had tried to get me to take along his beloved Randall Model 5, with the 8" blade, with hopes that I could use it to tune up a hog with in the outback. Good thing I decided to leave it at home, cause it woulda stayed in Australia.
I hopped another flight from Brisbane to Cairns and arrived there at 9:30am. Dan was due to arrive about noon, but due to some circumstances beyond his control, we finally met up at about 5pm and headed to the hostel that Mick and Andy had arranged for us to crash in for the night.
The hostel was inexpensive, and basic. Perfect for us. After all, this was gonna be the last stop of civilization for the next 10 days!
![](http://i204.photobucket.com/albums/bb277/swollengoat05/AustraliaOct2011006.jpg)
That night, we got a lesson on Australian culture. We drank their beer, ate their kangaroo meat, engaged in conversation with some locals, and got to witness how quickly a couple of female cops can take down a belligerent drunk and drag him out. I was really liking the place, and me and Dan both agreed by the end of the trip that we shoulda taken another day or two to spend around town before we went back home.
The next morning, Andy pulls up outside the hostel to pick us up. We loaded up our gear, and began to head out of town. But first, Andy had to submit to a mandatory breathalyzer test at a roadblock at 7AM!! I'm not sure, but I was beginning to think that Cairns was a hellraisin town! (For this record, Andy was sober...this is apparently just something that just gets done on the streets of Cairns.)
I love this pic....
![](http://i204.photobucket.com/albums/bb277/swollengoat05/AustraliaOct2011007.jpg)