After the whirlwind off-road camping adventure that was Fraser Island, we took a couple of days to chill out in the towns of Agnes Water and 1770 (1770 is so called because it was built on the site of by James Cook and the crew of HM Bark Endeavour in May 1770. Originally known as Round Hill — after the creek it sits on — the name was changed in 1970 to commemorate the bicentennial of Cook's visit. The community of 1770 hold the re-enactment of this historic landing each year as part of the 1770 Festival held in May... just in case you wondered.)

We spent our days there just lazing by the pool, reading a few books, things like that. Foolishly, we thought we'd take a bike ride into town from our hostel. It was pretty much uphill all the way there in 30 degree heat. Nice. What better way to offset the manpowered sweatiness of bike riding than a ride on a motorpowered chopper! This guy and his wife (possibly Thai Bride) run these tours around the area where everyone jumps on these motorbikes, no experience necessary. Sheona fell off her bike on the first corner but she was only going 2 miles an hour so no real harm done (she may argue otherwise, going round telling people she was in a motorcycle accident). The tour took us to watch the sunset which was really good. I kept singing "Born to be Wild" as I sat back and enjoyed the ride a typical Harley pose :-)

We had our last overnight bus trip (thank god) to reach the town of Airlie Beach for our Whitsundays tour.

-B