Hello there!!!'

Tis Chris here to take you a bit further in the story of what we've done in the couple of months weve not talked to you!!!

The night we left Airlie Beach for the second time we stayed at Boulders Creek again - and we stayed at the rest area rather than near the houses because I wasn't having all the locals thinking I'm still a puff!!! When we got there this massive wagon of a camper-home was parked next to us, so we felt safe anyway!

The next day we read our books and then set off late afternoon as we had read that there was a national park nearby that was great for seeing Platypus!! We were driving on some ridiculously narrow roads, when we headed around the corner and had to swerve as there was a HUGE poisonous 'Brown' snake in the middle of my lane!!!! (check pics) As we have learned about snakes in nearly every country we've been to, we kept our distance. We were then driving alongside shed loads of crops all lined in red mud - was really Australian! Eventually we got to the bottom of this enormously steep mountain and began the ascent! It was so smart, surprised the van made it up to be fair, when you looked out of the window half way up you could see the clouds circling the hills below, and every now and then there'd be a waterfall over the road. At the top we got ourselves to the spot for seeing platypus!

Debs quickly, this was soooo funny!!! We were just in time as it was 6 and the lonely planet told us the best time to see them was 6.15-6.45, but there was a hike to get there. As it was growing dark and beginning to rain, we got all sensible - this included putting our boots on, our raincoats on, getting the torch, taking water and chocolate (for energy for the apparently massive hike) a compass, and my mobile in case of an emergency! So, we set off with me saying "Right Chris, I've got the chocolate, and the compass is pointing north-east, so remember our location…" as we turned the corner of the car park to find fellow platypus viewers staring at us in utter bewilderment, us with torch in hand and compass elevated forwards, them stood on the platform in flip-flops and shorts! Was sooooo embarrassed! ha! You were supposed to be silent so as to not disturb the platypus, but I just couldn't stop laughing! These are the days.

Chris again - Debs is a goon. Think she scared away all the platypus laughing so we headed off to go try and find a campsite for the night and after about 5 mins driving debs drove straight past one. At some point during her three point turn… SHE REVERSED DOWN A HUGE DITCH!!!! GOON! As it had been raining all day the embankment we were stuck in was all marshy so we were wheelspinning and everything!!! Completely stuck in the middle of nowhere on the top of a bloody mountain!!

So we trudged off with the torch again and went to the nearest restaurant (which turned out to be well posh) kitted out in hiking boots and rain coats, and asked the owner whether he could help us! He ended up being really helpful so in the space of about an hour we were pulled out by a pickup truck and got ourselves to the camp site for the night and had some cheese on toast for tea.

The next morning was a really misty morning and the views which we had missed at night were amazing!! We headed back down the mountain and set of for a full day of driving to get to Rockhampton! 350km!! arrived at night and tried to find the free rest area! After driving around for hours we gave up and stayed down a side road by a lake! When we got out there were SO many mozzies it was incredible! We got the camping stove out and cooked by torchlight (with hoods up and socks on and everything) getting increasingly ratty because of the hefty drive all day and the mosquitos biting and flying into our tea!! I got well annoyed, especially when we got into the van to go to kip and they were constantly flying by your ear!! So I sat for an hour and tried to get them all!!

The next day we were headed for the Capricorn caves - the largest cave site in Oz! While we were sat outside waiting for the tour debs felt something cold on her leg, looked down and there was a green tree frog wedged in the leg of her chair (see the pics). She reckons the slimey feeling lingered for half an hour, what a load of rubbish! Well Chris, u stick a frog on your thigh and see how u like it! Anyway, we headed into the caves with a tour guide and a lad on work experience and both of them were complete goons!! Honestly austraila really is like America for tours.. completely crap!!! The caves were really smart but the tour guides just made it cringy!! Debs now, bit of info - im getting better at this - when aussies were claiming their own land, they used four X's to mark the boundries of it. Original we know. So the story behind these caves is that a guy marked one plot of land on the tax form and later he discovered the infamous caves under the land, which became a popular family business untill this day, making them loads of money. Anyway, thats where the 'XXXX' beer label comes from, marking terrority! Good eh?

Anyway, theres loads of other stuff we got told about too, like bat droppings being mined for fertiliser that were 6 feet deep etc etc, but the best info we got was that the caves do wedding functions! We found this hilarious! Original, but you had to be there to then imagine the bride ducking under the slopes and scrambling up the steps in a white dress with procession in tow! Then, we got taken to the part of the cave where the vows are said, looked nice wth candles everywhere, and there was a raised platform for the choir to stand (which was used for christmas carol singing, would be well nice to see that) but the tour guides made us sit in the pews in the dark and close our eyes whilst they played Enya on full volume!!! Ha! Totally runied the atmosphere, was so tacky when they turned alternating lights on which lined the cave to create ambiance. Me and Chris just couldn't stop laughing!

That's the end of that part of the journey for now!!! Loving the Wicked Campervan, makes the trip so different - imagine all the stuff we'd have missed out on if we'd got coaches to the main tourist spots!

Hope you're all well,

Lots of Love, the Travellers xxxxxxx