Compared to Si's enthusiastic attempts to kill me in Byron Bay, the last few days have been very quiet.

First stop after Byron Bay was Brisbane. The highlight here was definitely catching up with old friends again - Ellie (who I've know through Quaker things since I was about six), her top husband Lee (who also loves crisps) and their lovely and incredibly energetic kids Ben (4) and Keira (2). I haven't seen Ellie for about a million years so it was brilliant to have a proper catchup and find out how life has been treating her. The answer would seem to be "well", especially since moving to Australia. (Sigh, if only someone could drag the antipodes closer to Wales then I'd move) They were also wonderfully generous hosts; Ellie shared her immense book collection with my kindle, so - being a slow reader- I am sorted for literary entertainment for the rest of my life.

n.b. Hypothesis disproved: kindle is NOT great as travel guide book reader. Kindle is very great, however, as a thing to read good books on. Win.

On Sunday we set off bright and early for a 20 hour epic train journey to Airlie beach. Yes 20 hours. And then we had to get a bus at the end. I managed to get through with a combination of food, reading and discovering new and excitingly uncomfortable sleeping positions.

We got in to our hostel at 5am and had an hour or so of sleep before heading off again to catch our boat to cruise and snorkel around the Whitsunday islands. The Whitsundays are a collection of around 70 islands just off the coast of mainland Australia and are one of a handful of locations that make locals and travellers alike go misty-eyed whenever you mention it to them. Even the woman who booked our train tickets for us implored us to stay longer because we'd have such a lovely time.

As it was I found our day cruising in the beautiful Whitsundays non-awesome. There are a number of possible causes for that: 1) Our skipper and first mate were basically arguing for the whole trip and us passengers were mostly ignored unless one of us did something wrong; 2) The weather was intermittent and pretty dismal on the whole; 3) We were inconceivably tired; and 4) I think that Si's previous schedule of near-death experiences has blown my adrenaline receptors.

Still, we did get to go snorkelling in 29 degree seas and I saw some pretty fish as well as my first sea cucumber. We also met some lovely people, most notably a gregarious German bloke with the face of David Beckham and the body of Gavin Henson who loved to loiter around the boat in tiny little pants. (I'll admit, I'd judged him a bit before we got chatting, but he turned out to be a really nice guy.)

Today, with a good 6 hours of sleep under our belts we're on the train to our last stop in Oz - Cairns. Only a trifling 3.5 hours remaining...