Hello from Australia's most famous outback town, Alice Springs. My flight in from Cairns went smoothly. It took just over 2 hours to get here on board a QantasLink Boeing 717, which is the smallest passenger plane I've flown on. Despite its small size most of the seats were still empty. They did at least feed us on board but there was no in flight entertainment. I passed the time by reading an Australian national newspaper. Now the British tabloids are usually re...

Hello from Cairns. I'm just back from my Great Barrier Reef cruise and have a spare hour before our final group meal/night out on the east coast leg of the trip. The Cairns nightlife seemed very good judging by Wednesday, although that particular night was ruined by the idiot we had in charge of our pub crawl who was intent on humiliating everyone. We visited a few different bars around the centre and thats about the only chance I've had to see the city itself. O...

Hello from Cairns, the final stop on the east coast leg of my Australia tour. We've just checked in to a very nice resort hotel on the edge of town, and I'm utilising a spare hour between arriving here and departing on a pub crawl around town to update my blog. Its been a very long day of driving (around 7 hours excluding stops) and I'm very tired, but I'll try my best to remember the happenings of my 2 days in the beautiful Whitsunday islands. Some of our group...

From Hervey Bay (mainland port for Fraser Island) we drove north in the direction of the Tropic of Capricorn, headed for a farm stay 50km south of the city of Rockhampton. The land was noticeably drier on route, and we passed a lot of land that had clearly been subjected to bush fires not so long ago. We made a morning tea stop in the sugar producing town of Childers, which is infamous for a hostel fire nine years ago which claimed the lives of 15 backpackers, ma...

Good afternoon from hot and humid Airlie Beach - gateway to the world famous Whitsunday Islands. I am currently awaiting my short ferry to tiny Daydream Island where I will be spending the next 3 nights. I'm not usually one for beaches but am relishing the prospect of having nothing to do tomorrow. It'll be the first free day and lie in I've had all trip, and the resort looks really nice with a spa and swimming pool to keep me occupied. The Whitsunday Islands rea...