En route to Brisbane we stoppped off at Tin Can Bay to hand feed wild dolphins with fish which we loved! This time Kim actually managed to get a photo of her with a dolphin...our last encounter (in the Dominican Republic in 2006) Mark managed to cut her head off while taking a similar photo of a dolphin encounter! Brisbane was a chance to kick back and chill out. Phil treated us to two nights in a very nice 'loft apartment' due to his fear of dorms - pure luxury...

It was a good few miles between Rockhampton and Hervey Bay so we broke the journey staying in our first free campsite, much to Phils disgust as this meant we had no air con or hot showers. In Hervey Bay we hired a 4WD truck and camping gear and headed over to Fraser Island for 3 days to enjoy 'paradise on one of the worlds only sand islands'. Hmmm....paradise? The island was really beautiful - forests inland and stunning beaches but our camping trip could possi...

Until now we hadn't actually seen any of Australia's deadliest creatures... this all changed when we stopped at Finch Hatton Gorge on our way to Rockhampton. Walking to a waterfall Mark stopped abruptly having noticed a snake sunning itself on the side of the path. The snake looked scarily like a Taipan (one of Australias deadliest snakes we had seen a few days earlier at the Billabong Sanctuary). Phil hadn't even noticed it and when he saw we had stopped walked ...

WOW! The Whitsunday Islands really live up to the hype! We had booked a trip which entailed flying out to the stunning Whitehaven Beach by helicopter from Airlie Beach and then setting sail on an old sailing ship overnight to sail back to port through the islands. We were slightly concerned by the disorganisation of the company we had booked the trip with - the offices were in complete dissarray and the 'transfer' from our campsite was in a smelly jeep packed...

Whilst in the Townsville region we had planned to visit Magnetic Island. However decided against it when the ferry people told us the fee to take the 'Wizard of Oz' (our campervan) across for the day would be around 150 quid...WHAT????? It turns out it's bigger than the average camper...while I'm sure that fact boosted the Wizards ego we decided to save our pennies and visit Billabong Sanctuary instead! The Billabong Sanctuary is an Australian wildlife sanctuary...