On Monday, our last day in Sydney, Mark and John went to Manly beach for lunch and a walk about while Beth was a coldy couch potato. The boys met up with Dan and Kate at the Local for trivia night and managed to win a free sample paddle of beer.

Early Tuesday morning, we hopped a plane from Sydney to Brisbane. We arrived in Brisbane at 6:30am!!! We picked up some maps and found our bearings before leaving the airport. We then took the train into the central city area for breakfast. Finally around 9:30, we headed to the Hertz depot to pick up our rental car. The complete opposite of our beloved rocketvan, we would now be cruising up the Sunshine Coast in our very own Hyundai Getz - a tiny green hatchback. Ever the expert driver, Mark hopped behind the wheel and we headed out on our Queensland adventure.

We decided to check out some of Brisbane before heading out of the city, although with a crappy map and dozens of highways intersecting the city, this proved to be a bit of a challenge! We did, however, with only a couple of wrong turns, make it to our first stop at the Daily Hill Koala Sanctuary. This was a huge wooded conservation area with a small interprative centre and several koalas just hanging around, sleeping in the trees. Definitely a nocturnal animal, these small bears resembled sloths the way they were sleeping and hanging onto the tree branches.

The koalas were so cute we decided to head to another koala santuary - the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary across the city. Here, you could actually hold and cuddle with a koala - I was in! This reserve had many open koala displays, and again, they were there sleeping in their trees or munching on eucalyptus leaves. I did step up to cuddle with a small koala. He was so soft and cute and definitely smelled of eucalyptus. So great to get up close and personal with the local wildlife. There was also a large kangaroo reserve where you could feed the kangaroos! Again, they were so cute! (And Kaila, none of them tried to head-butt either of us!)

After being spoiled by the mild Sydney weather, it was definitely a shock to the system to land in Queensland and experience a true Australian summer. By 3pm, we had both had enough of the heat and decided to get out of the city and find our camp for the night. We headed north to the beautiful resort beach city of Noosa. With gorgeous beaches on the ocean and an inland river, there are no shortages of great waterfront areas to explore. That being said, it is also the school holidays so most every place in the city was booked solid. We wound our way through to the outskirts of town and found a caravan park with tent sites still available. They weren't on the water but they did have a pool! As soon as our tent was up, we grabbed our bathingsuits and hopped in to cool off.

Wednesday morning, the sun rose early, and because of the heat in the tent, so did we. By 7am we were sweating in the shade and having our breakfast. Mark got to chatting with the people camping across from us, an Australian couple, and not only got some great points about good places to camp, but also a road atlas! So having done very little research about our destinations before heading north, we now had a nice idea of which areas we wanted to stay along the way.

After a quick morning swim, we packed up camp and headed back into the chaos that is Noosa to check it out. We parked at the Noosa National Park and walked a couple of its trails, both along the coast and into the rainforest. We then continued on to check out the main beach. The surf that day was pretty small but the beach was packed - with people trying to stay cool, I'm sure, as well as tons of kids having surfing lessons. We decided on a picnic in the park along the Noose River, instead of on the beach, where there was a coolish breeze and less people.

The couple Mark had talked to in the morning told him about a beach where dolphins will swim into the shallows in the mornings and are so friendly and unshy you can sometimes even touch them. So, we hopped into the car and headed just a little further north to a small town called Tin Can Bay.

When we arrived in Tin Can Bay everything was so hot even the lamp posts were sweating. We decieded that it would be a good idea to give ourselves a break from the heat and to stay in a motel room for the night. After multiple days of early morning travel, we passed out in the motel in the mid-afternoon for a nap. We emerged in the evening only to track down some ice cream.

The alarm rang early the next morning again, as we were in pursuit of the wild dolphins who feed in the bay daily between 7 and 8am. Arriving at the docks just after 7, we were suprised that another 15 or so people had formed a line outside the local bait shop. Waiting in line, we were equal suprised to watch the line grow behind us to around 100 people. At approximately 8am, two Indo Pacific dolphins swam up to a small beach beside the marina.

The story of the feeding of the dolphins dates back 60 years to when a local fisherman fed an injured dolphin who was swimming in the bay. After he regained his strength, the dolphin swam back out into the wild. To the suprise of the fisherman, the dolphin returned daily to feed and would often bring a friend with him. When the dolphin had his first son, he brought the son to the bay to introduce him to the people there. When the original dolphin passed away, the son continued to come into the bay. That dolphin then had a son and introduced him to the people who feed. It is the grandson of that origninal dolphin that comes to feed now daily. A few years back, the grandson was attacked by a shark and spent several months recovering in the bay.

On this morning, the grandson and a friend swam into the bay to greet all the people. The local bait shop sold raw fish to visitors and in a controlled manner, we were allowed to feed the dolphins. It was cool to see them so up close and I did take a quick video of Beth feeding one of them. The dolphin feeding organizers were very organized and professional, it was a great experience.

We hung out for the rest of the morning in the small town of Rainbow Beach. The beach was beautiful and was surrounded by the huge dunes of the Great Sandy National Park. From here, we could see Fraser Island, where the rest of the national park was located.

After that, we loaded up the car and continued our way up the coast to a small town called Bargara. Our decison to travel there was based on a tour available were visitors could watch sea turtles as they hatch on the beach and make their way out to sea. The main beach were this occurs has a limited number of visitors every day, and to our misfortune the tours were booked up for the next 3 days. Optimistic, we camped outside of town at a small beach camping park, a few kilometers south of the turtle conservation area. Locals stated that turtles are often seen hatching there but are in fewer numbers than the conservation area. After dinner, Beth and I spent many hours on the beach hoping that we would see a baby sea turtle. Our determination was fierce but after 3 or more hours of searching by flashlight and strong coastal winds, we decieded to call it a night. We did manage to see many cool beach crabs scurrying around but no turtles for us on this adventure.

Our next day was also filled with a good amount of travel. After many construction filled back roads and highways, we made our was to another coastal town, Yeppoon. There we found a great little campground that backed right on to the beach. Our afternoon was spent walking the huge beachfront and enjoying the cloud covered sky, which gave us a welcomed break from the sun. Following a big barbeque dinner we passed out in the tent sometime after 8:30pm, early I know.

With the early bedtime, we awoke early again the next day and hit the road again. We had a huge driving day today to head further into Great Barrier Reef territory. Through some crazy rains and flash floodings we wound our way north. We found ourselves on Airlie Beach in the WhitSunday's. A great beach town surrounded by cool islands on the inner side of the Great Barrier Reef. We have found a nice cabin in a local park and have booked ourselves in for the next three nights. We are looking forward to cruising the beach, and catching a sailboat out to the islands for some snorkelling.