Cairns and highway

Sorry this is a bit late. We might have forgotten to upload it.

1.4.

New continent, new chapter and completely different culture. After three months in Southeast Asia, our two adventurers were ready to explore a new world, with new foods, new people and new experiences. We are getting closer to Mordor every day now and we can feel the power of the ring growing. The metal eagle carrying us over the vast sea landed at dawn of the fourth month of this year in the charming city of Cairns. Our first challenge of the day was to cross the gates into these new lands. This is harder than you might think gentle reader, as there are many things you are not allowed to bring or need to tell the guard that you have them with you. Among these are fruits and vegetables, and shoes with soil. Scared that they would take away our breakfast (worst fear of every hobbit). We quickly broke our fast on rice and tempeh before marching through the gates. We then obediently told them about the nuts and lemons we still had with us (the nuts were ok, the lemons weren’t) but we did not consider our shoes as very dirty. Yes, they are travel worn, and you can see that they have carried us over vast distances, but there were no chunks of soil attached to it. The guard was of a different opinion, so he spend 10 minutes cleaning our shoes and telling us of for not declaring them. At least now our shoes are cleaner than they have been in months.  A carriage whisked us away to our next inn which had not opened its doors yet. However, a kind spirit let us into the kitchen of the place so we could change out of our travel worn clothes. We ventured of to the market hall of all things shortly after the inn opened its doors. This is really exciting for us, as we were missing these ones very much in the end. Just one place to get all the things you need for everyday life. So our second meal of the day we enjoyed some pasta with pumpkin and carrot… It delighted our hobbit hearts. In the afternoon we ventured through Cairns and came across an even bigger market hall of all things that we also explored. The evening was spend preparing food for the next day as we would go on our last ocean explorer tour for some time.  

2.4.

In the morning we made our way to the harbour of the town. Destination: Great Barrier Reef. A big vessel would carry us across the ocean to an island of the coast from where we could explore a part of the reef. On the boat the crew handed out some gear. This even included a suit which serves two crucial purposes: Firstly, it protects you of the dangers lurking in the deep seas of Australia. Ghostlike creatures fill these oceans in the first half of the year in this area. Secondly, it protects you from the dangers from above: we are still carrying the wounds from our last battle with the great warrior in the sky and in these lands it is even stronger. So, we were very happy for a proper armour against this ever-present foe of ours. In comparison to our last ocean exploration, this one had a lot more security features in place: there were safety instructions (more than, “careful, there might be a current”), different areas for different level snorkelers and you could get a safety vest. When we got off the boat we were greeted by the sight of a big turtle swimming through the water next to the pier. We took this as a sign from Poseidon that the ocean was willing to show us more. Unfortunately, we must have misread the signs as the water turned out to be not as clear as expected and the corals less colourful than in the sea realms we had explored in other explorations on this trip. Yet, we did see many big fish and some funny birds later when we explored the island later during the day. We strengthened ourselves with some more pumpkin pasta at the beach later before we stepped back on our vessel to head back. Our departure from the island was again blessed by Poseidon with the help of a marine biologist who did a fish feeding demonstration. Many beautiful and colourful citizens of the reef appeared and even a reef shark came by. About a Harry Potter movie later we arrived back in our inn, where we had dinner after which we headed off for a night walk along the coast.

3.4.

This morning we had to move our room so we gathered all our belongings. We had some side quests for this day. The first one: find the location to pick up our carriage on the following day. The location in question was about an hour of wandering away. After successfully finishing this quest, we explored the botanical garden of Cairns. As the proper hobbits we are, we were back in our inn in time for lunch. Our next quest: gather our rations for our continuing journey and figuring out a way to connect to the library of all things throughout this land. We went back to the market of all things. Here we successfully completed the second question but only half of the first one. We were running out of time as we had said we would talk to our family at the third bell after noon. Yet, we finished the quest after the call. The rest of the day we had dinner and prepared to leave the city the next day.

4.4.

Pascal, Meeko, Sesy and Artey, went on a public big carriage. The driver was really kind and let them on for free as they did not have the local gold with them. To move on, we took on the side quest to move a carriage from Cairns to Brisbane in five days. We got the carriage and drove on through rain and sunshine. When our hobbit hearts called we ate at a very rainy viewing spot. We went past jungles, beaches, vast plains and multiple dead kangaroos. Eventually we arrived in Bloomsbury, at the spot where we would spend the night. We were both very tired from driving and our brains were about as intelligent as donkey from Shrek… just in tired. It took all our three remaining brain cells to make ourselves some dinner. As Bloomsbury is about as urban as Hogwarts, the sky was dotted with stars and we could even see the milky way in the sky.

5.4.

The main quest for this day was to get to Hervey Bay. A small town where we were wanted to meet an old friend of Arteys who she met when she visited these lands a decade ago. We got on the road early. While we had not rested well in our too-hot carriage, we still started enthusiastically into the day as one of our favourite group of bards had just released a song that day. Around noon, we had lunch at a very rainy park. Our lack of rest called then and we went on a quest for a magic potion. These cost a lot more gold here than in the lands we visited before and we also do miss the constant supply of hot water you could get anywhere on the continent we visited before. But as we wanted to drive on safely, we acquired a magic potion from a certain well-known western supplier of cylindrical layered foods. The potion strengthened us, and we continued onwards until dusk. We expected to arrive in Hervey Bay about as smoothly as the Hogwarts Express ends up in Hogsmeade. But alas, it was rather like the journey of Harry and Ron in the Ford Anglia. Around one hour before our expected arrival time in our final destination of the day, we stopped to feed our metal horse before going on. Half an hour later, the sun had travelled out of our view to the other side of this planet, and it started to rain. Our windshield wipers could have received a passing grade for their performance, but now they could not be graded over a D in OWL marking scheme. We halted to clean them and our windshield. This was just a five-minute procedure, but in the meantime, our horse had decided that it would not move anymore for that day. No matter how often we tried to encourage it, it stayed asleep. We were stuck on a refuge island in rural Australia, half an hour from our destination. Our first instinct was to contact the emperor of our Stormtrooper group. He is an expert on mechanic horses and carriages and his knowledge far exceeds ours when it comes to these things. According to him, there was an issue with our storage of power which makes the horses start walking. He told us that with the right equipment and the help of another carriage we could potentially make our horse start walking again. Consequently, we tried to convince passing carriages to halt for us two travellers in need. Even though we tried to look as much as possible as two young maidens in need of rescue, it took us a while to trigger enough compassion in someone to halt. Maybe we are not the best in starring as elegant young ladies… But nevermind that, a young couple finally took pity in us and asked if they could help us. They did not have the right equipment with them but that did not discourage them from helping us. The lord of this carriage just took his storage of power out the front of his carriage and tried to place it on top of ours. Despite his effort, it sadly did not have the hoped effect. Our potential rescuers drove on and we were again left with our situation. Yet, further help was on the way: we had informed the friend of Artey’s who was living about half an hour away from the refuge island we had stranded on. She and her mother were making their way to us to save us from this place. These kind souls picked us up and took us to their home. We had decided to leave our carriage on the island. The father of the family greeted us with the sight that will make you win every hobbit’s heart: dinner. Our carriage would be a tomorrow us problem.