Good day to our fellow readers - if we have any left!!

We have managed to obtain enough will power to sit at a computer now and write the next installment of the Brenn Blog. This is basically from leaving Cairns on Nov 20 to when we arrived in Brisbane on Dec 20.

Ok...lets begin :)

Mission Beach

Our first stop - this was a little and we mean LITTLE village - that consisted of a beach, couple of cafes, one hostel, couple of nice apartments and a wee supermarket! Supposidly (apologies for spelling in advance!) the place to skydive and sunbathe...we unfortunately were unluckily enough to arrive when the heavens opened and Australia showed what it can really do. Rain. This however did not dampen out spirits and the following day we headed on a 12km beach/rainforest walk - if thats not a work out we don't know what is! But we got to see a turtle swimming about off Clump Point Jetty - CUTE!

The next day we decided what the hell we'll go white water rafting. One word. AWESOME! We cannot recommended that enough! If you ever get the chance doooo it! Was soo much fun. However the following day we woke up aching like we had done 3 rounds with Mike Tyson (or whoever the new 'star' boxer is). In other words my god it was ache-age!

Townsville

You can guess what it was doing when we arrived...raining!! The hostel we stayed in that night however was lush - it was like we had moved into someones home, all the modcons and bathroom was sooo lovely. It was quite painful when we had to head nearer to the town centre and stay in the Civic which was...interesting...

We booked a day tour over to Magnetic Island for the next day which blessed us with lovely sunshine. However the ferry ride over was an experience :S
The tour consisted of an extended jeep 4WD and there was only 4 of us in total but was a hilarious trip. We got to see Nelly Bay, various lookouts, Horshoe Bay, saw a wild koala having a snooze, we had tea and hammocks on the beach and then were driven over to the deserted west side of the island for cocktails to watch the sunset. Plus on the way home the driver turned up the music and gave us percussion instruments..the song "Mambo No 5" is never going to be same unless we are shaking marracas!

Airlie Beach

Next stop Airlie Beach for the Whitsundays trip. We booked with the hostel who gave us the few options we had for the trip and then were booked for the a 2 day 1 night Whitsundays trip on Apollo III. The boat was an old racing yacht and though it was small for 14 people on board it was no problem. The weather on day 1 was beautiful and as the boat was sailing along we saw dolphins jumping by. The skipper moored at various places for a good snorkell spots - which didnt disappoint. Alex managed to bump into a turtle swimming about and got to stroke this back. (Yay!!) By the evening time the rain set in unfortunately but we managed to make the most of it before all the swimming took its toll and we zonked out.

The following day we were up crazily early for the Whitehaven beach lookout - we managed to see so many turtles swimming around. The beach when we arrived was absolutely stunning, unforetunately the weather was overcast so we didnt get the perfect picture but to just see it and then walk around was amazing. Once we were off sailing again we had some more snorkelling opportunities. The reef was beautiful and had so much colour and the fish were awesome - some of them were huge, one swimming so close to Jo it might as well have given her a cheeky kiss! We just wished we had an underwater camera with us. At the end of the trip we found that we had seen far more than the Great Barrier Reef off of Cairns, so the trip was very worthwhile - even if a little (or alot) more painful to the wallet than we had hoped!

Rockhampton

Good old Rocky - this was quite inland similarly to Townsville than all the other beachside places we had visited. The heavens opened once again - but luckily the hostel had enough immenities to keep us amused in desperate times plus the beds were awesome! One evening though we managed to go down to the Rodeo practices which were really fun to watch - Jo was on the look out for a potential cowboy husband !! Only joking :)

We again walked around the town managing to "walk the crap" out of Rockhampton, with its Botanical Garden (there was a mini zoo there where ALEX THE KOALA lived!! - of course Alex non Koala had the have a picture with HER!), Kershaw Gardens (evil midges live there), the shopping complexes. It was quite simply a town. Nothing majorly special in the centre but the hostel was really nice and you could see it as a town that it was fine to live in - but not necessary as a backpacker to stay for a long period of time.

On the final rainy day we with our roommate Katie decided to brave the flooding and head to the cinema, with very little choice - 'Due Date' was the winner. A hit with Jo and Alex was less then impressed! Fussy woman!! Then it was time again to jump on the Greyhound again...

Agnes Water/1770

We shall christen this...the place were we invented the card game 'Juno' I cross between cards and Uno! The weather was rubbish the first day so we wandered around the teeny beach village then wasted time at the hostel. The following day we had our surf lesson. The weather couldnt have been any better and with a girl we met - Nadia we headed out to embarrass ourselves. We both managed to stand once which was a great accomplishment. But the biggest talk of it was the size of Jo's bruise...yes she officially got beaten up by a surf board. We must not laugh but it was a wee bit funny and bloody huge!!! (Alex got a scabby knee when we jumped off the surf board wrong but that just looked like an injury an 8 year old would get falling off her bike!)

The next day the weather was beautiful too and we managed to grab a tour of Agnes and 1770 which meant we got to see it in its best light, the view was amazing and the value of land is crazy...one plot selling for nearly $2million - all it had on it was a bucket and some grass!

The beach was lovely around Agnes Water and the water crystal clear which made the day of surfing even better. A def worthwhile thing to do...(yes Elaine we are talking to you!)

Hervey Bay

We ended up staying in Hervey Bay for 6 days all told, this helped as the hostel was lovely and the place itself was really nice too. The weather was good to us once again and we spent days sunbathing (Alex burnt her eyelids!!) and the sea was so warm we spent alot of time in it. This time we cycled the crap out of Hervey Bay - 22km!!! Alex blames Jo for her walking like John Wayne the next day!! However we did manage to see so much, the Harbour, Pier, so much beach and it really did show Australia in such a light that you can imagine why people come here.

Through the hostel (which Alex was in love with) the manager was really good at advising us on what Fraser trip to go with - we decided on Unique Fraser. This was a camping 2 day 1 night on 4WD (4 cars in total).
On the first day on Fraser Island the weather was lush and we swam in Lake Mckensie, saw the shipwreck, The Pinnacles and then went dingo spotting (with no luck :() Jo also managed to get behind the wheel and drive through the sand and sea! We then set up camp and had a big dinner all together then drinks, toasted marshmallows round fire, went to beach for evening fun and then back to the little humid tents! My god it was like a sweatbox!

The following day we were not as lucky and it rained, rained some more and RAINED!! So we managed to see India Head, Champagne Pools, Eli Creek, Lake Wabby in the rain. Which was a shame - we still managed to see it all but the view wasnt as spectacular. Oh..expect probably the view of the coffee shop where we nipped in for hot chocolate and donuts!! Nom nom nom...
The trip - currently Jo's favourite was awesome, we had so much fun, the scenery, people, food it was all top notch indeed!

Rainbow Beach

Arrived in Rainbow Beach and head out on another wander, this time we ended up walking through the rainforest then onto Carlo Sandblows. It's hard to explain without showing pictures - which are uploaded but we can seem to share it!! But basically its ALOT of sand which is causing erosion along the cliff face, this links with the Rainbow sands which you cannot get to unless its low tide. But the story behind them is that the Aborigines say it is the remains of a rainbow which came to the rescue of a young woman who had been attacked by the evil man and the rainbow sacrificed itself to save her and got smashed into millions of pieces which are now found on the side of the cliff face (think thats right!)

The following day we spent bodyboarding - Jo's first time but definately not here last - she loved it! There were some crazy waves but bodyboarding is far less strenuous then surfing!
Rainbow beach is another tiny beach village but was really pretty - and definately made up for the crappy hostel! There was also 'Movies under the stars' on show each night so we rocked up with our blankets and watched 'Cloudy with a chance of meatball' outside while scoffing our faces with sweets :) - winner!

Noosa

Our penultimate stop before christmas. Noosa is quite a posey town and there is ALOT of money there, the holiday apartments looked amazing and very pricey. Quite alot of families and couples around - likely to have come from Sydney for a holiday (pah!)

We took the opportunity as we were near also to visit Australia Zoo aka Steve Irwin tribute zoo. It was HUGE and we got to see quite a few animals while wilting over the heat of the day - ice cream sales through the roof! The croc show was a little disappointing but maybe we wanted the trainers to put their lives at more of a risk like Irwin! Overall it was definately worth seeing but what did creep us out was how everything was focused on the daughter Bindi...she had own clothes, books, tv show...its all a little bit weird...

On our last day (in the rain) we headed over to the beaches for a walk up the cliffs so we could try and see dolphins and koalas (no luck) BUT once we arrived on Alexandria Bay we got to see free willy...or lots of them to be precise! We had stumbled across a nudist beach. Oops! Think that was the highlight of the day for us haha!

That brings us to the end of this side of the East Coast. We left early on Monday 20 December to head back to city life for christmas (with at that time hope for beautiful sunshine!)

We have rambled on enough for now and will be updating again soon.
Hope you all had an awesome Christmas and HAPPY NEW YEAR.

Miss and love you loads
Brenn xxx