OMG...The sun is out, the whales and dolphins are everywhere, this is a special place! Paul and I met up with friends he met travelling in Laos. A great bunch of guys, with some top nights out. We went out to whitsunday islands with Dive Time...A great trip, We went Scuba Diving of Hamilton Island where Paul proved to be a natural, to the exstent the Dive master let me go off with him alone! Hopelessly trying to get Paul to stay above 10m lol. The reef was spectacular. The next stop was Whisundays...We climbed a hill to get some stunning shots, then headed for the pure white sands of whitehaven beach. On route home, travelling at some 30+Knots we came to as sudden halt, with most people thrown of their seats...We hit a humpback! God only knows how...more importantly the whale seemed to be ok and the park were informed and will monitor her! This was the highlight of our time here. Now for a monster drive home.

Having been on the road for 19 hrs we pulled up at Byron Bay at 4am. After a wee snooze and a wakening from the park ranger, we spent the day exploring this tranquil spot. We walked up to the lighthouse and down to the rock edge (Australias' most easterly point) and again were treated to close encounters of whales and bottle nose dolphins. Early eve, after a quality feed we headed south to Sydney to return our snowvan before 10am.... ! 11am and we made it. We met more friends, who picked us up and looked after us for the following days. Of course we had an Aussie BBQ which was Awesome!!

I then headed north to visit my cousin in north west Sydney.