We will continue to fill you in on our East Coast adventures - although we are currently settled in Sydney looking for jobs! (Pictures and details of our home for the next 5 months to follow…)

Whitsundays - Brisbane:

As we had spent a few days on a liveaboard boat in Cairns, we decided to do 2 day trips to the Whitsundays. On the first visit, we caught the ferry to Daydream Island where we had access to the resort's facilities. We pretty much read and relaxed by the pool that overlooked the sea all day. The resort was a bit disappointing as it appeared to be a bit rundown and not very busy or popular. There was supposed to be a huge man made live coral reef but it was small and the fish were not aplenty! Also, the jungle offered very little in the wildlife department and the crazy golf was shut. Aside from the amazing views of the sea and the glorious sunshine, the resort was akin to a shabby seaside town in England!

The next day was much better. We got to explore a lot of what the Whitsundays had to offer. We were on a speedboat which took us to 2 snorkel sites, where we saw the most fish of all our trips. The coral was bright and vast - it was great. We fed some huge fish with some orange peel (see pictures) - it was incredible. When we were in the water we forgot what size the fish actually were! Jonny loved it and I have now lost a bit of my deep sea fear! Unfortunately, a lot of our photos didn't come out, but what do you expect from a cheap reusable underwater camera from Thailand!

Our trip also included a visit to Whitehaven Beach, where the water was so clear and the sand was whiter than white! There was just miles of sand and water - everyone was wowed. The shallow water had stingrays swimming around and a few fish that nibbled at you! We both loved it! We sat for a bit in the shallow water looking out to sea. We took a walk up to a viewpoint that overlooked the swirling sandbars and clear blue waters. It was beautiful. We had a gret time and really liked the Whitsundays and Airlie Beach.

Our next stop was Hervey Bay where we stayed at the YHA which was set in a woodland style environment where I caught a glimpse of a possum! We walked around Hervey Bay to find the internet and a trip organizer to sort out our trip to Fraser Island but we found neither! We walked for hours and found nothing. It was such a weird place. However, we did happen upon this bizarre shark film/museum place which had the most awful and hideous models of sharks, for instance they had cardboard teeth! Needless to say, we didn't go in.

We booked on a 2 day 1 night Fraser Island trip. We were in a group of about 25 on a minibus style vehicle. Our guide was called Karl who was excellent and amusing who made the trip a lot of fun. On the first day, we went to Lake Wabby which was a deep lake amongst the sand dunes. The walk to it was very tough as it was long, sandy and the weather was boiling. We had a swim there and Jonny and I ran down the steep dune into the water! Next, we headed to Central in the middle of the forested section of the island. We were told about the plant life such as the Scribbley Gumtrees which develop wiggly lines where small worms hatch fromfly larve and eat the bark.

Our next stop was lake Mackenzie where we unfortunately had only a little time as our bus got stuck in the sand.Due to the long period of dry weather the sand had become soft and so difficult to drive on.If it wasn't for the help of some 4x4 jeeps we wouldn't have seen the stunning lake (they helped get us up the hill by wearing some tracks into the sand for our bus).The lake was beautiful and we went swimming in it.We stayed at a resort which was good, with some nice food - we even had apple crumble for desert.I had 2 helpings!!The room was good, but Jonny awoke in the night shouting "WHAT IS THAT!! WHAT'S THAT ON THE BED!!" and promptly went back to sleep.Panicked, I woke him up to search the room for snakes, but Jonny had just had another dream - probably because he had seen a snake earlier in the day (He was quite angry at me waking him up as he had no idea what had happened!).

We got up at 4.30 to see sunrise (Jonny took some persuading to leave the bed at this time) which was great + we even saw six dingoes on the beach!We were lucky to see so many.Afterwards we went back to bed, then woke up to a cooked breakfast.Today we headed up the beach to the north end of the Island.We saw The Maheno shipwreck, which was disappointing and then we saw some coloured sands - much less interesting than those at Alum Bay, Isle of Wight.We made our way to Indian head which offered spectacular views over the Island and Ocean.Our guide pointed out sharks + stingrays - you could see their shadows.

We spent the rest of the day at Eli creek which was a shallow creek you could swim down.It wasn't amazing but we sunbathed in the shade - it was so hot!On the way back our guide showed us some Pippis - which were little fish in shells (like muscles) that buried themselves into the sand if you picked them out.Our trip on Fraser Island was good, but we were not amazed, our guide made it v enjoyable - he told us a lot about the Island and even read some poems he had made.

We had a horrendous journey down to Brisbane from Hervey Bay.Our bus was 4 hours late, so we slept like homeless people at the bus stop, Jonny was lying on our beach mat (The bus was due at 1am so we spent the night outside!).Eventually, a replacement bus took us on a sleep journey to Brisbane.We found the cheapest accommodation in the city centre, which was alright, the Bathroom even had a roll top bath.Because of the awful journey we slept for the rest of the day.In the evening we headed into the centre and we both took a liking to the city.

In the next edition, we will fill you in on our travels from Brisbane to Sydney!We thought this was enough for you to digest in one sitting!Thanks for reading - hope you are all well

Love Jonny and Kirsty x x x