Hello! I've finally got to an internet cafe! Its not so easy with the campervan ('Winnie'), campsites never have computers and its just been too hard to drag myslef away from the beach when the sun is out (and when I did attempt to do an update the computer I was on blew up before it had saved!). well today is a bit cloudy (possibly storms coming as we've heard Melbourne is suffering from them at the moment) so here I am inside!

We've done so much since my last update, I'll try to remember everything...

Our rainforest tour in Cape tribulation was really fun, we went to Mossman Gorge in Daintree rainforest (the oldest in the world) which was really beautiful and went on a corocodile spotting ferry ride up the river (we saw three crocs on the river bank and some pythons curled up on the branches!). I hadnt realised before we came just how many crocs there are in the north area of Australia and that you couldnt swim in the sea because of them (and the stingers!). Before we came there had been bad flooding which meant quite a lot of crocs were on the loose - scary! (there was one in the botanical gardens in cairns apparently!). We stayed in a hostel in the rainforest (which at night filled up with all the er.. ' locals', quite entertaining characters around those parts it would seem!) so we made our own fun by staging the highland games on the beach (consisting of tossing the caber, hammer throw, an assualt course and an audience of one rather intersted crab!) = very fun! We returned back to cairns the next day in the afternoon and started on our east coast journey.

Our campervan is MASSIVE (3.2m high!) but surprisingly easy to drive altho it sometimes feels like tipping over is a very real possibilty! Its really nice inside (a biut too nice, we are scared to damage anything!) and the beds are really big which we didnt expect. We've bene splitting up the driving between us and stopping off when we want to, sometimes for a few days. The campsites aren't too expensive but when we can we've been chancing it and parking up on roads and a few nights ok in a supermarket carpark (awaking to a car park full of shoppers looking at us a bit strangely!) - we cant do that every night though as we need power to watch neighbours and get all the new story lines for when we visit the set (for which we cannot wait! - sad I know!).

One of our stops was Airlie beach from which I went on a day tour sailing the Whitsundays on a catamaran which was amazing, Whitehaven beach certainly lived up to its expectations as the most beautiful beach in the world with its crystal clear turquoise waters and birght white sand. When we stopped off there the 7km stretch was empty and its was such a sunny day, it was lovely. And I really enjoyed sunbathing on the nettings as we sailed around the islands (one of my Ozzie highlights I think!).

My other highlight would definitely have to be Fraser island. We stayed in Hervey bay on a beachfront campsite and weren't going to go to Fraser Island as we wanted to make some headway down the cast (aiming to get Gemma to Sydney by Sunday for her flight) but at the last minute we decided to stay another day inorder to go to Fraser for the day and do a self-drive in a 4by4 landcruiser and OH my God am I glad we did - i think its the most fun we've had yet. The day consisted of Gemma and I driving a rather battered 4by4 around the bumpiest of tracks through forest and zooming along the 75km beach racing the tides and avoiding dips and channels (most of the time anyway!). IT was just like the game mariokarts but better and the beach was so beautiful. We went to Lake MacKenzie which was stunning (white beach around a lake you would swear is filled with evian) and to Eli creek which we walked up and floated down. WE could have done with a few days there really but we saw enough in one and really enjoyed it ( we were all a bit bruised the next day but it was well worth it!).

From Hervey bay we drove down to Brisbane stopping off at Australia zoo on the way (Steve Irwin's zoo). We fed the 'roos' and patted the koalas, and we watched a croc show in which I was a volunteer. I had to stand with my arms out and squark really loudly (in a pretty big stadium) to attract some birds thyey were going to release but it turned out it was just ajoke to make someone in the crowd look stupid (i.e. me!) as the birds just flew away out of the stadium!

After the zoo we drove to bRisbane so we could spend the next day in the city (that was the night that consisted of camping out in carparks and hungry jacks (the Ozie Burger King) ! We were up quite early the next morning though (which for us was a first!) and went into Brisbane. After a long time of driving through small towns and long stretches of raod with nothing around, wewere all excoted to be in a city with high rises and proper shops! We had a cultural morning visiting the modern art gallery (there was a really good Andy Warhol exhibition) and the Brisbane museum and then had a few hours walking around the shops and cafes in the afternoon. Then we headed down to the Gold coast where we arrived yesterday and are camping in Southport just next to Surfers Paradise where we went out last night (good times were had from what I can remember!). We are off to Byron Bay tomorrow and then 2 days of serious driving to get down to Sydney.

Im sure Ive missed stuff out but hopefully I'll be a biut more regular with my updates from now on.

Missing everyone lots, cant believe how quickly time is passing, we've been away nearly 6 weeks now! Really looking forward to New Zealand, it'll be nice to have abit of normality staying in Gemmas house for a while and we've got an expert guide with us so we'll be sorted! Hope all is well for everyone,

Much love, Eleanor xxx