Our first night in Jucy (our campervan) was surprisingly comfortable. We kept the windows partly open for a through breeze, and when we woke it was drizzling gently outside, which made our little nest feel very cozy!

First up, a cup of tea! Just because we can. We left early from our free campsite to drive the 20 mins to our free shower spot. This is a council initiative, and the showers are cleaner that some to the hostels we've been to! There's a fake lake outside, with some hardy swimmers - it's so cloudy and drizzly that we've had to put on (wait for it) LONG SLEEVED TOPS with our shorts. What is the world coming to?!

Foxy is very pleased with this change in temperature: "I think I feel a lot happier because it's raining" - Alex Fox, a true Englishman.

After showers, we skip a campervan breakfast (the downside to the rain is that we don't really want to cook in it) and inside drive straight to Surfers Paradise. We have brunch on the Esplanade, grab another coffee to go, and pose for some photos with various painted koalas. The same sculpture has been painted in different ways by various artists; much the same as the Paddington Bear statues dotted around London last summer.

As the weather is still miserable, we suck into a shopping centre (which looks rather rundown) in search of tenpin bowling, but couldn't resist playing giant chess instead.

Back into the rain, we get a frozen yogurt to wander the streets with, and walk straight into Roy and Shaked; the couple from Israel whom we met on Fraser Island. I expect we'll recognise more people as we continue down the East Coast - it's a small world!

Neither of us are impressed with Surfers Paradise. With an air of former glories, it's still very touristy - lots of overpriced tours and trinkets available to purchase. Admittedly, many places look less than glorious under grey drizzle, but Surfers may actually be more pleasant in the rain. According to the guidebook, it has 20,000 visitors per day. Not many were out today, so perhaps this place would be even worse if it were thronging with holidaymakers!

We drive on down the Gold Coast - all quite uninspiring in the rain. The most exciting part of our journey was when we crossed out of Queensland and into New South Wales; we've crossed a whole state! To celebrate, we spot a pleasing vista over the beach and some distant surfers, and stop for a cup of tea (this is definitely the best bit about a campervan). Picked up milk in Pottsville for further teas - seems like a nice, homely town.

Avoided the Pacific Highway for a much prettier journey through lush countryside - reminiscent of one of England's "shires", and looking particularly green (read: soggy) after today's drizzle. We loop over and around the Highway a number of times - presumably this is the road everyone used to travel on, when driving was for fun rather than just the quickest way from A to B. It was definitely worth the extra 20 minutes for our journey!

We arrive at tonight's campsite a little later than planned, and pick our spot. For the first time, we find a "driver reviver" station open, and handing out free tea or coffee, as promised on all the signs! Pasta pesto. Made the bed and turned in to watch Going for Gold(?) on the portable DVD player in the camper. We plugged it into our stereo, so we had camper surround sound, and turned the fans on, just to keep the air moving around. There's a scene in this film where the protagonist, on his bicycle, comes across his mother and father stranded on a bridge, their car battery having gone flat. In the midst of this scene, our audio goes intermittent. We have a horrible feeling about this....

It's true. We've drained the battery and Jucy won't start. Asked driver reviver people. Embarrassed to admit fan was on, when engine off. Lesson learned!

We watched the rest of the film anyway, on the