Ok, I have to be quick with this one because I only have about 15 minutes to tell you what I've been doing. When I get a chance next i'll go back and edit it all.

So, on in Airlie Beach, the Whitsundays are just around the corner, so to speak. But Jetteke and I were feeling a bit like we were being forced to sail around the Whitsundays. Being told by everyone that we must sail around them, made me not want to, I knew they would be worth a look at, but I didn't fancy spending a few days on a boat while everyone around me gets drunk and I had snorkled last week, I didn't need to do it again.

Well, chatting to a nice lady at a tourist info centre helped us a lot. We got up very early on monday morning to get a ferry over to an Island called South Molle Island- one of the whitsundays with a resort on it, that had a few nice walks around that we could do. We got the 6:45am ferry to the island, and got there at 7:15, it was so early, no one was around! We had a coffee at the resort then started our walks. First we walked over to Mid Molle, an island joined to South Molle, that was quite nice, but we needed to head upwards to get the good views. So we headed for a walk to take us to Balancing Rock, I hadn't bargained on rock climbing! It was nice, and gave some lovely views, although seeing a tale disappearing down a rock was a little nerve wracking! Finally we headed a few kms over to the other side of the island, where we had a 360 degree view of the island and the surrounding islands and beautiful sea. We were at Mount Jeffry, and it was so nice to just sit and look at the superb view, whereas had we been on a tour, we would have been sheparded to the next destination pretty quick, it was great to take it at our own pace. By this time it was about 11.30 so we headed to the pool! but stopped to have lunch on the jetty- where we saw 2 sea turtles playing in the sea about 10 metres from where we were! one was really big, and they would come up for air every few minutes then head back down again.

We spent the rest of the day by the pool, watching the Rainbow Lorrikeets taking the fruit from people's drinks! Cheeky things.

It was a great day, because we got to do things at our own pace, and as we wanted. There was no one telling us what to look at or hurrying us along. And it felt like a proper adventure because we barely saw anyone.

So now I'm in a small town called Mackay, and at 2am, about 6 hours we're going on a bus to our next destination- a town called 1770- that's the actual name! I'll find a computer there and tell you about the platypuses I saw today- and the baby turtle who I'm sure was Squirt's cousin- he was so cute and tiny- half the size of my hand and swimming in circles!

xxx