Cairns was gorgeous and I never wanted to leave, but I had a bus ticket that was to take me to Arlie Beach which was right next to the Whitsunday Islands. I hoped on the Greyhound and got ready for a 12 hr trip. On the way I noticed that we were mostly traveling on two land roads that went through the country. At first I thought to myself, “this must be a shortcut through the back roads.” After a few hours of just back roads I asked the person next to me, “is this quicker than the highway?” What I found out was there are very few highways in Australia. For the most part you travel from town to town on two lane roads which are basically one of two or three roads that lead into a town. We stopped at the halfway point of our trip to grab a bite to eat. The truck stop we stopped at was just we had in the states except it was on a road in the middle of a town and not off of the highway. As we finished our meal we learned there had been a major accident up ahead and we wouldn’t be able to get by for an hour as the clean up crews did their work. There was no other road that would bring us into the city, this was the only way. So we waited for a little over an hour then we got on the road and finished the trek with no other hassles. We had planned on going to Arlie Beach to check out the Whitsunday Islands but the price of a boat trip out there was ridiculous and we decided just to stay on the beach. That night we wandered around and there was nothing but a bar and a pizza shop open. There was really nothing there just one road with some shops and restaurants and that was it. The next day we went to the beach and to my surprise it was empty. On such a beautiful day I wondered where everyone was. Like in Cairns everyone was by the pool right next to the beach. Instead of laying in the sand and swimming in the ocean they laid on the grass and swam in a pool. We ran into some friends and that made me realize on my trip how little interaction I had with Aussies. Other than the workers in the hostel and in the restaurants I met more Americans and non-Aussies than Aussies. Other than the beach there was nothing to do and we were ready to Brisbane and see what this city was all about.