Wednesday 10th February 2016

After two days of surfing we were too tired and hurting to enjoy surfing a full day again, so instead of collecting the surf boards for a morning before our lesson, we decided to visit the most easterly point in Australia by visiting the lighthouse in Byron Bay.

The lighthouse sat on a little spit so we walked around the lighthouse and then out on to the spit the carries you down to the water. Whilst on this spot we had crazy rough waves behind us and then really calm waters in front. We were lucky enough to see loads of dolphins here, a pod were cruising around in the rough waves, a pod were fishing in the calm waves by going round and round in circles gathering up the fish then one rogue dolphin was jumping in and out of the surf showing everyone how you really surf a wave.

We went for our surf lesson at about 3 and whilst waiting for some Japanese girls to turn up, Isla and I went to a shop and brought 4 varieties of loose leaf tea. Just to show the Aussies who the real tea drinkers are. Hopefully we can get them back to the UK.

Once the Japanese girls had arrived we went with Brett and Gowie for our final surf lesson. The weather was miserable today and the water had a really eerie feel to it. I was shown how to turn as I did so well the day before and Isla was showing improvement catching a wave. Whilst paddling out I "Thought" I saw something breach the water ahead of me, straight away I was sat on my surf board with arms and legs out of the water. (Don't know why because if it was a shark that probably wouldn't have helped) my heart was racing for a bit but then I got hold of myself and carried on. I told Isla and Brett, Brett laughed it off and Isla was not impressed that I didn't warn her (has she not seen Jaws??? Does she not know what happens when people scream shark). Anyway hazard avoided we continued surfing, caught more waves and got out of the water in possession of all our limbs.

After the surfing we started our drive north to the Gold Coast and Surfers Paradise. We had been told about an amazing Fudge shop in a National Park just before Surfers Paradise so we headed towards it and found a free campsite to spend the night.

Thursday 11th February 2016

We woke up and cooked bacon on the free BBQ's provided for some lovely bacon baps. We then headed towards a nearby waterfall called Purbrook Falls. On the way to these falls we found the Fudge Shop and parked up to take a look. The shop was not open and Isla started panicking that it would be closed all day. We decided to go for a walk around the waterfalls and then return in the afternoon. We arrived at Purbrook Falls and like all the falls in OZ there is a viewing platform. The falls were amazing but unfortunately for some reason the walk was closed so we drove on a little further to a place called Twin Falls.

Here the walk was open and provided some lovely views. It was very much dense rainforest with a well walked path through it. After about 1 hour we reached the Twin waterfalls, they were amazing. The first falls we have seen that you can actually walk behind. It was so tempting to reenact the scene from Last of the Mohicans by jumping through the waterfall into the pool below but couldn't see the bottem so decided against it. (Just for the record the waterfall path was only about 10 meters over the pool so not a large jump like on the film).

We carried on walking through the rainforest and came across a second waterfall, this one the path was at the very top of the falls and you could walk right out onto the edge and look straight down into the canyon below. Very special sight and Isla was gripping on for dear life whilst we took a selfie.

After this walk we were in desperate need of sugar so we headed back to the Fudge Shop which was thankfully open. This place is just a White House in the middle of nowhere. They make homemade fudge and serve like 30 different flavours and just like a cheese shop we were allowed to try before we buy. Amazing! We spent £10 on fudge and came away with 6 different flavours, Caramel Creme, Baileys, Mango, Honeycombe, Chocolate + Raspberry and Chocolate + Caramel yum yum.

With our fudge we headed towards Surfers Paradise. It looks very much like Miami with its inland waterways and high rise apartments on the sea front. The sea was very rough and didn't look like a surfers paradise so we didn't fancy trying out our new skill. We had lunch and then headed north. On route we went against visiting Brisbane as it was to far in land for our liking and had been described to us as Gods waiting room so we carried on to a place called Hervey Bay which is were we would visit Frazer Island from.

We arrived in Hervey Bay quite late but managed to book into a powered site. Luckily because on arrival we realised our secondary battery was flat so no fridge and no lights. Maybe pushed Kylie 1 day too many.