Right then, Hello!!!!! My name is Debs, and my boyfriend is Chris and we are your family and friends and we are travelling and this is a blog that we do! Ha! Sorry about the BIG gap in keeping u updated everyone - been a little poor to say the least! (big thanks to parents for our credit card abuse!!!!)

So, it's been a while, but we've been soooo busy!

We last left you with us heading off to a tourist haven called Airlee Beach - basically a street with loadsa bars on where everyone gets drunk and then goes to the lagoon the next day (a big outdoor swimming pool thing overlooking the beach) and washes away the hangover! We arrived quite late on Friday night, a fair few weeks back now, and found a campsite with a swimming pool and settled in for the night. The next day we went to the lagoon and sat lazing in the sun (well, me under the shade and chris nearby doing kick ups). That night...we went out!!! Wahoo!!!! It'd been a while, we were still adjusting to the amount of money that just disappears out of ur bank as soon as u get to oz…so the night was long awaited! After drinking at the campsite and talking the heads off a Norwegian couple (had also been a while since we had any company, god, I bet they were overjoyed when our taxi turned up) we headed to the bars! Had a really good night, met some local lads that showed us the ropes, and stumbled home (after chris lost 2 lots of tobacco, his drunken state cost us about 20quid that night) and flopped into bed about 4am!

Was severely hungover on Sunday! Spent all day led down on a bench in the campsite kitchen watching cricket on tv (how good to have a tv!!!) And every now and then we'd hear a scream from above as someone fell from the skies... found out the campsite was prime location for sky divers! So funny! That night we tried to get a Chinese takeaway for supper, but it was shut?! What is it with Oz?! They're so laid back they don't need any custom! Anyway, we went to macdonalds and ate crap.

We left on Monday as the weather had turned nasty and headed south for an hour and a half to the nearest free rest area - couldn't afford to pay for a campsite whilst waiting for the sun to put his hat back on!! We decided to pop into the nearest town before actually finding the rest area, which was a place called Mackay - it suffered with the floods the month before but was apparently a tourist spot! Whatever. Absolutely naff all there! We had a wander around, was a nice river with restaurants lining it, but nothing to "write home about" (nice pun there) so we bought me some more cheap flip flops and headed to the rest area!

This is where the fun began! Just a note about driving in Oz first….the trucks rule the road!! We've now realized this. Basically the biggest and meanest trucks carter stuff up and down the east coast everyday, all day, and your supposed to move out of the way if your not going fast enough for them. The signs are hilarious over here as well, just a few examples;

DON'T SLEEP AND DRIVE (naturally?!)

REST OR R.I.P

and SURVIVE THIS DRIVE

So funny! This is also slightly off the point but it's appropriate to mention; the aussies are sooooo proud to be aussies!!! Everything relates to them. For example, where we have signs saying, don't litter, please put rubbish in the bin, they have "KEEP AUSTRALIA CLEAN". And where we have ingredients on milk bottles, they have "DRINK AUSTRALIAN MILK TO KEEP YOUR AUSTRALAIN BONES STRONG"!!! Honestly! Even on macdonalds burger boxes it has a paragraph about 'the purest aussie meat' and mentions Australia about six times! So funny! And while im being ever so informative, I have some shocking news for u...think everyone knows that were called POMS, but I don't think anyone knows why! Well, we know! It's an abbreviation for 'Prisoners of the Motherland! The cheeky clever gits! It's pretty true to be fair, as our convicts now live in a nice warm country and we've got rain all year round!!!

ANYWAY...it was raining pretty hard when we were driving to the rest area so we were going slow, and this truck was speeding up behind us and beeping and flashing at us. So I pulled as far left as I could on the first straight so he could overtake, but he didn't overtake in the other lane, he literally pushed us left so that we were completely on the hard shoulder!!! As it was a massive truck he wasn't going very fast and there was nothing we could do - the hard shoulder suddenly turned onto a grass verge and I had to slam on the breaks and end up on the grass!!!! So scary!!! Think I did quite well to say I've only driven a car around Burnley for 5 weeks before we came away! Honestly the 'big rig' drivers out here are morons!!! Don't be scared parents - it's character building.

After travelling inland for an hour we found our spot, a bit of grass under some trees next to a river with a toilet called the 'Windyloo' - home to the hairiest spiders!!! We soon settled down to sleep after wine. The next day we stayed in the van as it was raining and…I DID SHORTHAND ALL DAY FOR LIKE 6 WHOLE HOURS!!!!!! WAHOO!!! Forgotten everything, but well done me! Chris just read, napped, read and ate. That night we played cards by torchlight and went to bed. Same thing the next day too..but that night we almost died!!! Got near-death experiences to a total of 9 now! Basically Chris was testing me on my shorthand, got 60/60 by the way, when we heard this monstrous wail outside!! We just thought it was dingo's (aussies are proud of this 'native' animal - its just a dog) but then the noise surrounded the entire van, was weird, and freaked us out so we dived over the seats into the front, turned the engine on, and zoomed off up the hill to the nearest houses!!! Chris' face was as white as my skin, what a picture the puff! We slept there that night and returned to the camp spot the next day to collect our flip flops - we leave them outside the van and didn't dare to grab them when the monsters were there! That day, a local lady came by who lived in one of the houses to chat and called chris a girl because she thought it only acceptable for 2girls to be scared of the camp spot! Ha!! She gave us some banana's tho so Chris didn't mind. Still don't like bannanas by the way, tried my best. That day we had a wash by the river, chris almost blew us up with the gas can when cooking noodles, and we slept near the houses and put the cd player on in the car regardless of killing the battery cos we were getting cabin fever!!!

The next day we decided to go back to Airlee beach cos the sun was due and we wanted to do snorkelling. We arrived about 3 at a backpacker hostel called 'magnums' which let campers use the grass, and it was great! It had a bar and was central! We sat reading and drinking whilst listening to the acoustic guitar man who was on every day 5-9, and then met our neighbours!!! The beginning of the end!!!

Two Londoners, Kirsty and Hannah, who were well impressed that we we're cooking shepheds pie (oh yes, cooked it all on one gas stove, was delicious!!! Decided we'd best eat good for a bit) and who we went on a night out with…and then spent the next 3 weeks with, ha! They were so sound. The next day it was sunny, yay, and we were all a bit ruff so went to the lagoon after bacon butties! Me and Chris also booked a snorkelling trip to the infamous 'Whitsundays' for the next day.

Sunday: up at 7, bus to the boat, paid $5 for stinger suit, on our way to snorkelling the GREAT BARRIER REEF! Tick box. Cross box for value for money…50 quid each!! But we just had to have a look at it, the Whitsundays is made up of loads of islands and people come from all over the world just to go on 3 day sailing trips there. Unfortunately the weather turned overcast so the water was a bit cold, and it was murky because it was wet season, lucky that we'd seen amazing things in Thailand…this was the great barrier reef for godsake!!!! Also, instead of having fun with us, the crew were all health and safety freaks, constant number checks and speeches like "this is a mask and snorkel, this is a mouth piece, you put that in your mouth..these are your flippers - which go on your feet and help you to swim" UR KIDDING!!! Anyway, the day picked up when we visited the glorious 'Whitehaven beach' - the whitest sand in Oz. After that we had a sandwich and salad buffet for lunch on the boat and headed to a lookout point on Hook island. This was WELL smart!!!! Just a quick word Andrea…THE BOUNTY ADVERT WAS FILMED HERE…NOT IN INDONESIA!!! All that way to find paradise for nowt! Ha! Seriously, check the pics, we know why they filmed the ad at hooks island!

We arrived back at the van by 5 to be greeted by our neighbours off their heads as they'd been drinking all afternoon with a stag party, and dragging us out!! We were knackered, but after making a spag bol (oh yes) and dying all our clothes pink in the wash (who put my red bag in with the whites?! oops) we headed out with 30 Aussies who'd been on a 5 day, 5 night bender!!! What a night!!! All we know is that I made noodles at 3am which Chris ate cold at 6 because the Stag knocked on our van door and dragged him out for one last drink! Ha! Cheers for the invite chris!

The next morn we had macdonalds brekkie and set off south listening to all the Queen songs blarring out!!! Loved that drive. Think I gave Chris a headache with my singing and a heart attack with my head banging when Bohemian Rapsody came on - I was driving you see.

So that's that, carry onto the next blog if I've not blabbed your head off! I'll let Chris do it.

Miss u all lots and love u all lots, and hope you're all having fun in the snow!!!!

Us xx