Woo hoo it's hot, hot, hot in Queensland!

After leaving Hervey Bay we drove up North to Townsville then onto Magnetic Island, or, 'Maggie' Island as the locals call it. We drove for about 7 hours then stopped in Rockhampton, the Beef Capital of Oz! We'd read it was a country/cowboy kind of town & what's the first thing we see as we drive in?! A woman wearing a huge cowboy hat just casually strolling down the road with her horse. Love it! After driving for so long we needed to stretch our legs and get some food so we headed to the infamous Great Western Hotel. When we read there was a bull ring with rodeos going on a few times of the week we definitely had to check it out! Lucky for us there was a full blown rodeo going on, ok it was one for the kids, but still the place was packed with everyone wearing cowboy hats and generally looking like they should be in a Wild West film! We finally get served our beer at the bar from the most sour faced & rude barmaid we've ever come across and grabbed a table. Someone obviously doesn't like tourists coming in for a gawp at the locals!! Maybe it didn't help that I wasn't wearing the custom cowboy hat and had a trilby on instead, trust me to stick out like a sore thumb! We munched our average food (good job it was two for one!) then jumped back into our car to find a rest stop for the night. Note to Dean, when there is a big muddy puddle at the rest stop don't drive into it, get stuck, wheel spin out of it and waken up everyone snoozing in their vans/cars!

The next day, en route to Townsville we stopped in Bowen and the Town of 1770, both gorgeous little towns, then made it to Townsville late in the afternoon. We were loving it pretty much from the minute we got there, the sun was shining, everyone was smiling and it was absolutely spotless. We pitched the tent at a really nice Campsite then treated ourselves to a scrummy salad, some vino and looked forward to sunning ourselves on Maggie Island the next day. Ah it's a hard life!

We're used to getting on ferries in Thailand that are crammed in with people so the ferry to Magnetic Island was a very civilised affair. We could take our car, which meant we could take all of our gear, then camp at a site in Bungalow Bay. I don't know why but it felt strange crossing the waters & being in Oz, we're used to seeing Thai Islands all around us. It made me realise how amazing it is and how lucky we are that we've had the chance to do both! It was toasting when we arrived over at Maggie, honestly if you don't slap on the factor 30 your skin actually smells burnt within about 10 mins, the sun is so strong here because of the hole in the Ozone Layer. We're normally lovers of a little bit oil to top up our tans but if we did that here we'd literally be burnt to a crisp! We had a fab few days on the island; the only one downfall was that it was too choppy to go snorkelling…..boo!! It's a majorly chilled out place & the bays dotted around the island are beautiful. Generally everyone, bar the locals, tour around in Mokes, little beach buggy type things but for the road. If we didn't have our trusty old Holden I would definitely have got a little pink one! Instead we must have looked like locals cruising around in our big family car! Our campsite was fantastic with wildlife everywhere, I managed to hand feed the cutest wild Lorikeet. Without sounding like a couple of bird watchers here the bird life in Oz honestly is amazing! We're used to seeing white Cockatoos flying around but we came across black ones here, didn't even know they existed! One our first night There was a Asian market going on and I managed to cure my Asian food craving with the tastiest Chicken Laksa I've ever had…..mmmm yummy! We finished that night off back at the bar at the Campsite and met a lovely Aussie guy called Bushy. We also met another guy who claimed to have taken a black cloud out of someone and replaced it with a gold cloud; he actually compared himself to John Coffee from Green Mile!! Love how you meet random weirdos whilst travelling! Before taking the ferry back to the mainland we went to spot some Rock Wallabies. Now we thought we'd see one or two but the area we were told to go to was full of the furry little creatures! They were so cute, eating out of our hands, checking us out and having a sniff of the car. Love Aussie animals!! The ferry back was fun, it was so choppy I was worried our handbrake was going to fail and we were going to smash into either the car in front or the car behind! The guy that took our ticket was worried we were trying to smuggle a child on, we told him that nope it wasn't a child in the back just our backpacks!!

Lots of Love

Chelle & Dean xxx