Monday 14th July. After a hefty four hour drive from Noosa we arrived in plenty of time in Hervey Bay at the Koala's backpackers village for our pre-expedition talks. We were booked on a three day self drive 4x4 trip around Fraser Island with eight other backpackers that we hadn't met yet. We were praying for a good group, the last thing us oldies wanted was a bunch of lairy, gobs***e teenagers. We were pleasantly surprised when we were put into our group of ten,...

Wednesday the 2nd of July and following a heavy night of goodbye drinks with John and Madeline, our Canadian friends, we drove north heading for the Hunter Valley and thinking of the sunshine that would greet us further up the east coast. The three hour drive seemed to last an eternity as we were both in a serious state of sleep deprivation. We stayed the night in a vineyard that belongs to friends of Liane and Julian. They said we could sleep in the car park and...

We arrived back in Sydney on Monday the 26th of May having spent all our saved money in the Blue mountains and pledged that we would knuckle down and work solidly for the next four weeks. We had set ourselves a time limit of no more than two months in Sydney as we have met countless travellers who have spent eight or nine months here then spent the remainder couple of months racing around trying to fit the rest of Oz in. Lets face it Australia is a bloody big pla...

Tuesday 20th May. We awoke bright and early, said a prayer and performed a non-rain dance as today was the day that we were heading for the Blue Mountains. The Blue Mountains are renowned for their unpredictable flippant weather and over the last couple of days (according to the news) the temperatures at night were dropping to nearly freezing. As we headed out through the masses of mini roundabouts and traffic lights of Sydney's Northern Beaches and hit the motor...

We left behind Canberra, and the lovely hospitality of Beth and Shaun, at the crack of dawn on Monday the 21st of April. We had an appointment with Exact, a work agency based in Manly on the Northern beaches of Sydney. We drove the four hours and with no map and only vague directions and stumbled right upon the agency with fifteen minutes to spare, better born lucky than rich. We signed up, watched a ridiculous health and safety video then called Leane, a friend ...