Well we made it - the campervan is a giant, but we've got it to our second campsite as we work our way down Queensland. When we came to pick up the camper in Cairns we found they'd given us an upgrade so instead of getting our "cheapa camper", we've been given a brand new VW Tourer. It's a bit bigger and has a few more modern conveniences including an automatic gearbox, which makes handling the thing much easier, but it is a biggy, well it's by far the biggest thing I've ever driven anyway. However, the roads are wide, the people are friendly, lets face it its always nice to get a free upgrade, and the signs are in English so even Debbie didn't take long to get behind the wheel and have a successful run driving down the coast.

We're staying on the next beach up from the actual Mission Beach, Wongaling Beach, but it's all the same stretch of sand, running non-stop 14km's down the coast! Hardly anyone is around, it feels really strange, you get the feeling they are coming though - we drove past a couple of places where concrete pillars, looking very raised-motorway-like, were being built alongside the current road. Also although we are surrounded by beautiful fields and rainforrest, some of the fields aready have roads for future housing estates laid out on them. Most fields have esate agents signs on the front of them. There is a massive Woolworths with no one to shop at it, at a junction just up from the beach. And lots of clearly marked out gas, water, and sewerage pipes, currently laid for field mice only! You get the idea, the unspoilt could well be spoilt soon.

Queensland really feels like you would expect if a load of English people just sailed round the world and set up home in the tropics. Devonshire tea shops, fish and chips, beaurocracy, paperwork, people called John Smith living next to the Jones'. It's all here. Makes travelling here real easy!

Hope everyone is keeping well!

Love Alex & Debbie xxx