People and places (posted Monday evening, 6th March)

I went back to Mon Repos on Friday evening to have a second attempt at Turtle Watching. As I was leaving the night before (if you recall, we were turned away due to the bad weather) I got talking to a young woman from Cumbria, Vicki, who is travelling with her partner Gavin. They also went back on Friday night.

I ran into Vicki and Gavin again at Cool Bananas on Saturday evening. I almost didn't recognise Vicki without the kagoule she'd been wearing on both the previous occasions that we'd met. They'd booked in there to take advantage of the cheap deal on trips to Lady Musgrave Island. They are travelling in a car that they bought when they arrived here in Australia. They are mainly camping, just staying in hostels for the odd night, or when the weather is bad. So we travelled over to Lady Musgrave Island together too. Also on the trip was Cheryl, from Poole in Dorset, who Vicki and Gavin had met when they were staying at the Footprints hostel in Bundy. Cheryl had also been to see the turtles on Friday night. She was now staying in Backpackers 1770 in Agnes Water. She'd travelled up from Bundy with a young Swiss woman, Olivia, who she'd met there. They thought they'd booked into Cool Bananas, but because they they spent 5 minutes sorting out their luggage before going to reception to book in, the overbearing man who appears to manage the place had given their rooms away.

Cheryl and I ran into each other on the beach at Agnes Water again yesterday evening, having both gone down to watch the sunset. We parted back in the town and each went off to find some food. I went to the Hook In in the Endeavour Plaza and found Vicki and Gavin there finishing off their fish and chips. I bought Barramundi (mmm) and chips and talked to them for a while. They had booked out of Cool Bananas and pitched their tent on the beach down at the site in 1770. I saw that site when I was down there on Friday - it looked great: lots of shade and good facilities, and a great outlook.

Vicki and Gavin are headed for Cairns, where they are aiming to sell the car. From Cairns they will get a flight back down to Melbourne where they are finishing their stay. They'll be in Melbourne at the beginning of April, so I may run into them there.

Daniel, Sara and Karin - the Israeli trio from the diving course - were also at Mon Repos on Friday evening.

When we completed our dive course on Saturday morning we were joined by the students who'd started later in the week and were doing their first open water dives. There was a young woman called Jo there. She is English, but her father lives in Townsville (N Queensland). When the bus pulled into Bundy this morning en route to Hervey Bay, Jo got on. She is now also in Hervey Bay and off to Fraser island tomorrow, but with a different company.

On Saturday I met with Tomei and the other Japanese guy from Barolin Street again. They were assisting with the dive course. I saw Mai down at Barolin Rocks (where we did our final dives) too. She'd had a frustrating week of it, unable to carry on with her Advanced course because of the weather. So she was hoping to get some good diving in at the weekend.