Wanted – and urgently! Lone female backpacker seeks fantastic mobile phone deal!

There’s a funny story behind why I’m trawling through the multitude of online offers on mobile phones. My old phone died in a grand fashion, on a dream paradise island, so the memory alone makes searching for mobile phones UK a lot more enjoyable!

I was living the dream, hitchhiking around Australia, when I was offered a lift from just out of Cairns to Townsville in tropical Far-North Queensland. The driver also offered me a lift to Magnetic Island on his boat.

We met bright and early the next morning, and sailed around to the extra secluded side of the island to an isolated bay and pristine beach. The driver took great pains to establish how alone we were, pointing out how there wasn’t even reception for our mobile phones, but I felt a little uncomfortable as he became super creepy, so instead I wanted to find a campsite. However, at the main bay there wasn’t a jetty, and the driver didn’t want to risk scratching or beaching his new boat. I was instructed to jump out into the deep water, and he’d pass my bags to me, but the weight of my tent and sleeping bag caused me to dunk it under the water when trying to paddle back to the dry sand. The second load, my backpack, was a little more precious, so I shouted and hollered for the driver to come closer. He agreed, eventually, and my bag was handed to me as the boat drove past to keep up momentum. Arms outstretched, head submerged, I held that bag above the water for all it was worth. The waters receded, I took a breath and then another wave came and slapped me across the face. It wasn’t going to get better until I was in shallow water, so I trudged along submerged, until the water became waist-deep and I lowered my bag. As the surrounding water became knee-deep I became aware of how fatigued I was from the effort, but congratulated myself that my bag and its contents remained dry.

And then I fell. Into the water, just like that! Maybe I tripped over my sodden trousers from the exertion, I don’t know. Of course my mobile phone was resting in an external mesh pocket, and copped a soaking. Pity it wasn’t waterproof like the tent and the sleeping bag, because it hasn’t worked since.