So we awake the morning after our sesh at 5.30am to catch the plane to Australia! As we’re on the way out we decide to check the internet in the dark, trying to be as quiet as we can as your not supposed to use it at that hour! Luckily a friend of a friend Martyn has emailed us back from the night before and he said he’ll put us up for the night, what a lifesaver. Now at least we have somewhere to stay for the night!

On the plane we reminisce about what we will and wont miss from Asia, we’ve decided the ‘not miss’ items include; squatting pans, rice (for the time being anyway, 11 weeks of nothing but rice gets a bit much!), people trying to sell us tuff, and Gem getting stared at! The ‘to miss’ things include; spicy food, cheap prices, Thai whiskey, and their public transport, you just cant beat sitting in the back of trucks or motorcycle taxis!

We spent the next day looking around the Brisbane City, its such a nice place, weather very hot, and we enjoy some ‘western’ food, bagels and burgers and chips! After Martyn finishes work he plans to take us to our hostel that we have booked, but because we’re a bit late they’ve given the room away….we’re not having much luck! So after watching Martyn play 5 a side we have to use the internet and find somewhere else to stay! After that’s all sorted we have a few beers, a take away domino’s and watch a film. They have these really cool off licences over here called Bottle Shops, some of them are ‘drive thru’s! They’re excellent! On the way home the taxi driver takes us to the wrong hotel and we end up paying a fortune for the taxi ride??????

The next day we have to make our way to another hotel, its so packed in Brisbane cos of the ashes it was really hard to find somewhere to stay! But we found somewhere way out of town. We decided to go to the cinema next door to the hotel that night and watched 2 films how sad are we????

Then on the Sunday we’re off somewhere else to stay, Brisbane backpackers, but this time they have a dorm free for 5 nights so we book in there. And then we’re off to the Gabba Stadium to watch the cricket. It was such a great day, the stadium was huge, and the atmosphere was great, apart from they split up the barmy army so it was a bit quiet, but the beers helped nicely! Shame on the result though!! When we get back after the cricket we meet our lodgers for the first time, it’s the first dorm we’ve stayed in since being away, Asia was so cheep there was no need. But luckily for us this experience was a good one. Although we did have to share with a very questionable 50 year old sweaty man, who actually left us his contact details when he left….don’t think he’ll be getting a call!

On the Monday we headed off to Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, it was only a small place but it was great. Gem got her picture taken cuddling a koala, and we both fed the kangaroos whilst trying to fend off the ducks and pigeons trying to get in on the action?! We also got to see emus, wombats and dingo’s, how Australian!!! It was such an experience, one we’ll never forget! The next day we went to the wet n wild theme park, about 2 hours away. They had lots of flumes, inflatable and wave pools. They had one of those straight down flumes that give u a massive wedgy when u get to the bottom…it hurt lots!!! We spent the rest of the week looking around the city, and we went to the cinema again on the Wednesday with some Australian friends and Martyn…we’ve got lots of catching up to do on the film front….and its cheap!!

On the Friday we went to Steve Irwin’s Zoo, it was excellent. When we arrived the staff were dressed up as smurfs and there were banners around saying ‘Happy Birthday Bob’ and we were like ‘Who’s Bob????’. We saw a picture of an elephant with a small child and we thought it was one of the elephants birthdays or something. When we were watching one of the crocodile shows, suddenly there were loads of TV camera’s and a birthday cake appeared, and they said ‘Lets all sing Happy Birthday to Bob’ we thought it was a bit strange. Well we then found out it was Steve Irwin’s son’s birthday??????? Crikey!!! We didn’t even know who the little blighter was! His wife and 2 kids were there, it was really sad! But its our claim to fame anyway!! Apart from that the zoo was great, the crocs were huge and they had Bengal tigers and lots of other cool stuff, more koala’s and roo’s!

On the Saturday another early start as we flew to Rockhampton, and hours flight which would have taken 11 hours by bus; where we were greeted my a member of Chris’ family, Mary and her son Martyn, and they drove us back to their little town of Yeppoon. That’s about it really, we’ve been staying with Chris‘ cousin Michelle who’s absolutely lovely, her boyfriend Stew and her little son of 5 (nearly) Henry. We’ve got lots of stuff planned for the lead up to Crimbo, but at the moment we’re enjoying a bit of ‘home comforts’. We had our first steak in 12 weeks on the BBQ and we’ve also been treated to spag-boll and a roast!!!! Its great!!!!

We’re here on an off till January now apart from a few trips, so we’ll be able to get in touch more regularly with you guys back home. It’ll be great to catch up with the people we haven’t been able to catch up with so far.

Adios!!