Hello all, Before I begin I must warn you people out there that this is going to be a very, very, very looooonnnnng post card as it involves quite a few places. Be warned!!!!!!! Well, it is I, Dan. Yes I have drawn the short straw of updating you wonderful people back home in Sunny England. We begin this part of the trip in Cairns, a really....... nice place. It has a real laid back atmosphere for a 'city'. The actual place is not that large. As Hannah said on the previous post card, we arrived in Cairns 2 days after 'Cyclone Larry' hit the east coast of Australia, around 40Km south of Cairns. As we drove into Cairns you could notice the damage to the trees & stuff, but it wasn't that bad at all. Anyway, we stayed here for about 5 days treating ourselves to some meals OUT, yes no cooking for us in the hostel as normal!!!!!! Our next stop was Magnetic Island, but on the way we drove through some of the small towns that were hit directly with 'Larry'. I don't think we were prepared for what we next saw. We planned to stop at this town called Innisfail for some lunch, but when we got there the whole place was pretty much flat......... There was army personnel everywhere trying to put things back together, shops were closed, houses were standing without a roof or NOT standing at all. This cyclone was a category 4 and now we could see why. So on we went to Magnetic Island, a beautiful place just a few km's off the coast. We thought we needed a bit of a rest from all the frantic stress's of travelling around a beautiful, hot, sunny & sandy country, so we booked a nice motel style room for us for the week. We had a T.V!!!!!!!! The actual beaches on the island were not that much so one of the days we decided we both needed a bit of 'Us' time so.................... Hannah went horse riding & I b*****ed off to play a round of golf!!!!! Yes, Hannah went on a 2 hour horse trek through the bush & then finished out galloping along the beach. During the gallop along the beach Hannah & her new buddies thought they saw a shark while they were in the sea with the horses, so they frantically dashed out of the water. Looking closer at this so called shark, the girls could see it coming closer to shore & thought it was a dolphin, then, the plonkers finally realised it wasn't either & found out it was actually a Manta Ray, which was probably better than seeing a shark to be honest. While Hannah was off gallivanting with marine life (sharks, yeah right!!!!!) I took it upon my self to delve into a round of golf. Basically, that was it. Not very interesting eh......... until I reached the 9th hole & got attacked by 2 flying........ things!!!!! Haven't got a clue what they were but they would attack from the front each time, come swooping down & try & peck me on the head. I swear it was real scary. Anyway, I thought sod this for a 'XXXX' & just legged it to the club house with all the locals laughing at me. I then realised in all of the commotion & had lost my drinking bottle, but I thought I would leave it to those...... sweet little flying things.......... Fu*kers!!!!!!!!! After the days activities we went to a Toad Racing night, apparently very popular in Oz. Safe to say that we won Jack s***, as normal. We next went to Airlie Beach, which was the place where we caught our boat & went around the Whitsunday Islands. We booked on to this boat called Avatar, a real big b****** it was. It was a trimaran, abit like a catamaran.......... but spelt different I suppose. There were 19 of us on board & it was a real good group. Unfortunately the gods weren't doing their job for us in the weather department!!!! The whole 3 days & 2 nights we were on the boat we never saw the sun, luckily it didn't rain though. As I said, we spent 3 days sailing around the islands (Because of the lack of sun & the high breeze, it was quite good weather for sailing) & some of the views we got to see were amazing. We also went snorkeling on the Great Barrier reef about 3 times a day which was absolutely out of this world!!!!! We saw loads of turtles, sting rays & the biggest fish I have ever seen, I would of called it a whale to be honest!!!!!! We also saw our 1st shark on Whitehaven Beach, but to be fair, it was only about a foot long. Next we travelled on to Kroombit, a farm stay. We stayed here over night & it was awesome!!!! We arrived around tea time & they cooked us up some proper scram, home made soup & roast dinner, aaarrrrhhhh we were in heaven. Then it was on to drinking loads of grog & playing the ever so embarrassing party games. As you will see on the photos, we both got on the mechanical bull & got thrown off it just as quick!!! Man those things are harder than you think. Then they put us to the test of 'whip cracking' which is basically getting a massive whip & trying to crack it in the air which makes a real loud noise, Hannah got the hang of it but the only thing I managed to crack was the top of my head & that was PAIN I can tell you!!!! The whole group then got very drunk & went to bed. The next morning was an early one & most people looking worse for wear. We had a full day ahead of us, first we went goat mustering on horse back & what a laugh that was. Trying to control this horse & running after goats as well!!!! Once we rounded the goats up we then were put in to groups of 3 & had to catch a goat & pretend to brand it with a hot iron, our team actually won that one, 15 seconds I think it took us. Then Hannah had a go at lassoing a goat which she cracked on the second attempt, very impressive. Then Hannah & I had a shoot off to see who shot the most amount of clay pigeons, I won that one for the boys!!!!!! Next we went to a place called 1770, the only place in the world to be named after a number, cool eh?? Knowledge is the bomb!!!!!! Well we liked this place so much we stayed for nearly a week. It was a real small town right on the beach. The beach was top & the surf was massive, probably the best we have been to so far. Not a lot to say about this place really as it was so small, but it just had a real good feel to it & the people were very nice. Hervey Bay was next up, abit like Airlie Beach this place in respect to Hervey Bay is the town we caught the ferry to Fraser Island. Oh man, this place was just heaven. Fraser Island is the largest sand island in the world. Yes the whole place is just made up of sand. It was (approx) 170km long & on average 18km wide. The island doesn't have a single road on it. The only road you need there is the beach, it is THE highway. We booked a 1 night 2 day tour. I can't do the place justice with words, so I think the best thing to do is just look at the photos & see for yourself.............. One thing, we saw our first 2 dingos here!!!!!! We then travelled on to a place called Noosa, the chic place to be. Man this place was real cosmopolitan, a bit too up market for us paupers!!!! But it was a real nice place to spend a few days. A funny story, we went on a walking trek along the coast while we were here & the lad we were staying with (who was a proper psycho!!!!) told us to avoid a beach called Alexandra Bay as he said it was a nudest beach. We thought nothing of it & just started our walk. Well, the psycho was right with a capital 'R'. The whole beach was full a nude, fat, old men!!!!! The only women I saw on the beach had a bikini on!!!!! I was gutted!!!! Anyway, we legged it as fast as we could away from the 'Toddger Beach'. While we were in Noosa we visited Australia Zoo the home of Stevo the Croc Hunter!!!! The whole days was pretty cool, but unfortunately Stevo wasn't there. We left Noosa & headed to Brisbane, the capital of Queensland. We have been here nearly a week now & heading off in a few days further south to Surfers Paradise. Brisbane is a pretty chilled out place for a big city, but at the same time not a lot to do, so we have just been taking a bit of time out for the past few days. I think I will leave it there for this post card, as I'm sure you are all getting a little bored, I know I am!!!!!! It is now just under 2 weeks until we meet Hannah's mates Bec & Jane in Sydney for a 2 week binge (not really mom's!!!) & we are really looking forward to it. Catch up soon everyone, hope all is well back home. See you in less than 2 weeks Bec & Jane!!!!!! Dan & Han xxx