July 25 Sabbath: Shower, breakfast and my papaya while walking to church started the day. I forgot to mention that earlier in the week a car accident had claimed the life of a five year old girl and her mother as they walked to the SDA school. It was in the papers and this morning there was a small insert in the bulletin telling a little more about the family. They were mentioned several times throughout the service. Charissa Fong was speaking again and made the need for more men and women like Caleb the primary focus of her sermon. It was another powerful sermon. Last week they had tentatively planned to have a potluck down on the esplanade, but the weather was heavy overcast this morning (and it actually had a couple showers during church), so we had the potluck at the church. The other reason it was changed to stay close to the church was that a 14 year old girl wanted to be baptized and they do baptisms outside and not during the service. So at 3pm after potluck we had a very nice baptism service. The girl is of Samoan ancestry and the family had fully decorated the baptistry with flowers and palm branches. I had eaten so much at the potluck that I skipped dinner completely and even though some people invited me to go out with them in the evening I stayed at the hostel and went to bed early.

July 26 Sunday I talked to Christina this morning and she is feeling much better, but will have to abandon the diving class. She wants to leave Tuesday or Wednesday, which is fine with me. We will meet tomorrow afternoon to do a bit more planning. I went by the Ken Duncan gallery again and picked up a couple postcards and a DVD that I'll have to send home before I leave the country. I got in touch with one guy in Sydney as a possible couchsurfing opportunity and another guy that was offering a ride from Sydney to Melbourne around the time I will be wanting one.

July 27 Monday is Monday

July 28 Tuesday Julie, Christina and I met for a while to plan a few details for our trip south and things seem to be falling into place. There had been a potential fourth person, but he apparently dropped out of contention earlier today, so it will be the three of us.

July 29 Wednesday Checked out of Asylum, got my key deposit back and said my goodbyes to some of the people I've gotten to know over the past month.

We made stops at Mission Beach, which was lovely and would have been nice to stay at longer, Jourama Falls, which were “closed”, and at Julie's brother's wife's sister's in Townsville. The last stop was unplanned, but worked out for a couple reasons. Julie got to visit a distant relation and the lady's husband was able to fix the wiring on the cigarette lighter connection to the refrigerator. I drove for a while at night and we saw several kangaroos and wallabies, including a couple crossing the road.

July 30 Thursday Beautiful stop at Horseshoe Bay in Airlie Beach. Most of the people on the beach were 'elderly', but the beach itself was breathtaking and I would happily have stayed there among the oldies to savor it a while longer. The girls are butting heads over every little thing. One wants to actually cook a lunch/one says it is a waste of time. One opens a second loaf of bread when the first is not completely done and the other gets mad. This could become a problem. We purchased a new stove in Bowen. Night drive to Eungella NP, which is supposed to be a platypus spotting oasis. We stayed in Crediton Hall park about 9 km from a prime platypus viewing section of the river..

July 31 Friday. Well the tensions between Julie and Christina are becoming very apparent. Christina wanted to sleep in and since she is in the locked car, we could not get access to any of our belongings that we had not already pulled out the night before. It also meant that we were not getting to the viewing station at the dawn/dusk time and risked missing our chance to see a platty. When she did get up she wanted to cook tea, but Julie put her foot down. We made it to the park and Julie and I did see a platypus shortly after getting to the river. It was just the two of us for nearly 20 minutes and then just before a group of other people came, the platty left. There were a couple of locals who said they had not seen a platty in the forty years they had lived in the area, so we felt privileged. The really surprising thing to me was how small it was. It was a full grown male and he was only about 15 inches long. Since seeing it we learned that that is completely normal. We missed a cave tour by about half an hour at another park just before sunset and camped at a rest stop outside the town of Gin Gin. My tent has been working out wonderfully and I'm really happy about that. We had a dinner of eggplant, rice, and curry.

On to August.....