Greetings from Brisbane! So, the journey so far.... Lee and I left Cairns on 1st September (seems so long ago now), not before popping into a travel agent to book 3 mini trips along our journey down the east coast. Before we left Cairns we decided we wanted to make the 350 KM trip inland to a place called Undarra, which is famous for its lava tubes. The story goes, several hundreds of thousands of years ago (which is considered as fairly recent in geology terms), a series of volcanoes erupted within the Undarra region, in an area that covered about 100 KMS roughly. The volcanoes erupted in such a way that they didn't force all the molten lava upwards like the spewing volcano eruptions we sometimes see on the news, but more in a slightly upwards, then spilling over the edge of the volcano way. The lava then travelled down along the channels that were once valleys that had hills and creeks etc. We were told by the guide that the lava basically travelled in tube like formations, but the outter lava cooled and formed a crust, whilst the inside molten lava continued to travel downwards through the valleys, and then kind of trickled out of the end, thus leaving a 'tube'. So we are just having this explained to us by Coral, the slightly butch, extreme hat hair, tour guide whilst a small group of us are standing under the remnants of the first bit of lava tube. Of course, one the group asks the obvious question, " has any of the tubes ever collapsed, or likely to collapse"? The delightful Coral replies that in her 10 years of tour guiding the tubes, no incidents have ever taken place, and that in reality they have been standing, hanging awkwardly for thousands of years and have never so much as moved an inch. Can you guess what happened next?! Coral then goes on to start explaining about some of the wildlife that lives within the cave like tubes when suddenly a few bits of rock start falling from the entrance to the bit of tube we all entered by. We all turned round to see what the noise was, and Coral asked us all nervously if that was rocks that had started to fall. Myself and a few others said we were sure it looked like small bits of rock coming down. We all stood there a few seconds in silence looking up towards the area the bits had rained down from in anticipation, when suddenly another few bits cames tumbling down. Imagine the horror of looking towards your tour guide for reassurance and she suddenly exclaims "holy sh*t, this has never happened, I think we need to get out of here pretty quick guys". A few of us leapt towards the stairs that take you out of the cave/tube, just to the right of where this commotion was taking place. Two people stayed where they were (one being Lee!), unconvinced that we should be so unlucky as to the first people to be inside this place if it was going to start falling down after all these thousands of years. As we reached the stairs, someone looked up, and to our relief, discovered it was nothing more than a cheeky Bush Turkey, kicking about in the scrub, and had sent some bits of loose stones and scrub over the edge near where we were standing. Of course we did all laugh at this discovery, but I for one was bricking it for a few minutes beforehand!

We left the eventfull Undarra the next day and made our way back towards the east coast further down, to a place called Mission Beach. Mission Beach is famous for the lovely beach it has to offer, and for a place called the Sanctuary, which is basically a small site which has eco tents that are situated right within the rainforest and offer 360 degree views of the forest from your small hut. We didn't actually stay at the Sanctuary as we have the bus, so we opted to take the cheaper option for one night and stay at the local council run campsite. It was a pretty unusual experience for us. There were only 4 sites within the campsite, they don't have power and the communal facilities consisted of a sink with no plug, a tap that was on a post located an arms distance away from the sink, with cold running water. On the plus side though, we could not have been any closer to the sea if you tried, and it only cost $12, which is roughly 6 pounds. Its little experiences like this that tend to stick with you and are more memorable than when we have stayed at more luxury campsites with all the amenities. We decided to move on the next day and contine our journey south along the coast as we had to be in Townsville to catch our ferry over to Magnetic Island. Townsville had little to offer us, and we felt it was not really a place we would recommend to anyone to stop over at as it is quite rough looking. When we went to the travel agents in Cairns, the girl advised that we should definitely get a trip to Magnetic Island in, as she has had so many of her previous clients tell her that it turned out to be their favourite place in all of Australia. We left at lunch time, in the pouring rain on the short ferry ride over to Magnetic, or 'Maggie' as locals like to call it. As we were on the ferry we were thinking that this was not going to be a particularly positive trip due to the rain. Once we arrived on the island we took the local bus to the hostel and noticed that the weather had already started to clear up a little. The rain had stopped and there were small patches of blue on the horizon. We checked into the hostel (only the second hostel we had stayed in since we arrived in Australia), not sure what to expect, so we headed for the bar and took our drinks onto the decked eating and drinking area, which is on a beachfront location, looking out to sea and back across to mainland Australia. We were just into our second game of cards when the sun decided to make a full appearance, and we were then sitting there scorching! From then on in the rest of our time on the island was in brilliant sunshine. The island is only small and can be driven around in about 30 minutes. It has about 4 main beaches that are all truly stunning, with crystal clear aqua sea water. We hired a sea kayak to make up for our cancelled trip when we were in Cape Trib. Whilst we were mooching about, we both spotted a small creature surface out of the water not far from where we were paddling. It was roughly the same size as a seal, but we believe it may have been a Dugong. A Dugong is a type of sea cow that are known for swimming in the waters off the Queensland coast. We also had a bit of a result whilst we were staying at the hostel. We had to complain about the location of our room the first night we were there, and asked if we could be moved. We were told it would cost a bit extra for an upgrade but it would be to a much better room. We went along to have a look at the 'room'. The hostel was set out like a village, and the room we went to look at was right at the edge of village in a little Thai style hut, literally overlooking the sea, and best of all it had the biggest bed we had ever seen, which after spending 2 months cramped into a small camper van is an absolute blessing. We were only on Magnetic Island for 3 days, but it was like a mini-holiday within our overall holiday. We totally loved the beauty and tranquility of the island and were so glad we took the advice of the travel agent to include it in our itenerary. On our last day we went for a sunset walk to a protected nature area and were lucky to see a wild koala up in a tree, with her baby just below - so cute!

Back on dry land, we had to make our way to our next destination, which happened to be the second of our booked trips. Back on the road again, this time from Townsville to a place called Airlie Beach. Airlie Beach is the main departure location for trips out to the Whitsunday Islands. For me, sailing round the Whitsundays was part of our trip to Australia that I was looking forward to most, as I had seen picutures of these beautiful looking islands before our travels, and I thought one day - I really must try to see this amazing place. We arrived at the campsite which also has a campsite on the site in the early evening. First impressions - oh my god - this place is like Magaluf! It seemed to be over run by screaming, drunk 18 year olds, with the main road all lit up like a main drinking drag in a European holiday spot. We didn't worry too much as we were only staying the night so we could be at the harbour the next day for our 3 day departure to the Whitsundays. We went to the harbour the next day to our allocated meeting spot for the yaght we were to be sailing on. We decided to book our trip on a racing yaght, the best and most exciting way to explore the islands on, we had been advised. That plus we liked the idea of getting involved in pulling the masts and sails etc. So our group of 26 set sail on the 'Condor', a British made yaght that had won many world sailing races, not sure what to expect. We had learned from our previous sailing trip out to the reef, to take plenty of travel sick pills so as not to worry about that spoiling our adventure. The first day was spent sailing to a bay area of Whitehaven island, the most famous of the Whitsundays. We lowered anchor and all settled in for drinks and shennanigans with our fellow sailing buddies. It was a nice group of people on our boat, and we felt re-assured to be 1 of about 5 couples on our trip. I must just explain the layout of the yaght on the inside. We had specifically requested a cabin for 2 but opted for the cheaper option of a shared cabin rather than the pricey private option. We weren't quite expecting the 'shared' option to be quite so shared. Basically it was 1 big room with 6 double (big enough for 1 and a half people really), well you can't even call them a bed really - it was more a bunk. Each double bunk had the smallest single bunk right above them, but there was only enough space to lay flat on your back. If you were to turn over, you would jab the person above you in just about every area of there body. The same went for the poor people in the bunks above us - if they were to move an inch then the people below on the double bunks were sure to be squished. Needless to say we all suffered serious sleep deprivation for a couple of nights. We were told we could only have a 2 minute shower each for the whole trip, and when you consider the shower really was not even big enough to swing a kitten in - most of us decided to scum it, and leave showering until back on dry land again. The next day we made our way onto Whithaven Beach, via the brand new look-out area just up in the hillside. I'm not sure I can even describe in words the breathtaking view you get when you arrive and look down to the inlet. If you ever saw the Australian tourist board promotional adverts a couple of years ago, it featured an arial view of this bit of beach, where it shows swirling, colourful sands with the blue-est looking inlet leading towards the sea. Check out the pictures I took - I have to say I'm really quite proud of the way they turned out - this really is a truly stunning place, and well I have to say, the most beautiful place I have ever seen in my life - I was actually speechless for a couple of minutes - Lee even asked me if I was alright as I had gone so quiet. Once I had got my breath back, we headed over to the beach - which again provided another almost speechless moment as our feet melted into the powder soft sand. The sand is so powder soft that they sink at least 6 inches into it, and it is so powdery that it leaves no residue on your feet or ankles. Everyone was saying how it was like walking in blamanche or warm snow or other such unlikely matter. I for one was just over come by how spectacular the place was and can say it didn't live up to my expectation - it far far exceeded it. Gosh, I'm still gushing about it nearly 3 weeks later! If you do ever get a chance to go to this place - I think you can guess I highly recommend it! Even though there were grey clouds above us, I think this just added to the beauty of the landscape, and provided more dramatic photo's. After Whithaven, we sailed over to another island where there was the first opportunity for people to snorkel or scuba dive. Lee had paid to have an introductory dive with a few of the others, whereas most of the others went for the snorkel option. I have to say I chickened out again as the sea was pretty choppy again, and I knew that Lee was going to be down under the water and not there to coach me. It turns out that Lee didn't get a chance to dive after all. His so called instructor got him and the others to walk into the sea from the beach, and then tried to get them to do something like take their goggles off, or something which Lee didn't feel too comfortable with, and so he abandoned the idea and came up to join the others for a snorkel. He said there were loads of lovely pretty fish, in all shapes and sizes. Everyone got back onto the boat after about 30 minutes as they were all saying how cold the water was. The rest of the trip was spent sailing to a few other dive/snorkel spots around various islands within the Whitsunday group, before setting sail for our journey back to Airlie Beach, only this time we weren't just sailing, we were racing! The yaght turned up at 45 degrees and we all held on as tightly as we could to anything we could grab hold of (which is only parts of the mechanics of the boat itself) whilst we raced another yaght back to land. I have to say that although my heart was in my mouth for most of it, it really was as exhilarating as it was scary, and we both came ashore feeling extremely proud of the fact that we could now add racing on a proper racing yaght to our list of new experiences. Our sailing group all met up for drinks on Airlie Beach that evening before we all departed for new destinations.

We left Airlie the day after our return from the Whitsundays to make our way slowly down towards our next trip destination, which was to be Rainbow Beach for the last of our booked trips, over to Fraser Island. We stopped at various places en route, such as a medium sized town called Mackay which we both thought was a nice place. We found a really nice, friendly campsite on a beachside location and decided to stay there for 3 nights. We had the beach to ourselves each time we visisted, which was pretty cool. After a wasted stop over in a place called Gladstone (wouldn't recommend this place to anyone as it was so dull), we continuted to Rainbow Beach, and checked into a campsite for our day after departure to Fraser Island.

We weren't sure what to expect with the Fraser Island trip, but most of the backpackers we had met along our travels so far had said that this had been the highlight of their whole trip in Australia. Fraser Island is the largest sand island in the whole world, and is protected by the government to keep it as natural as possible. The only way to get around the island is by four wheel drive (4WD) as there are no bitumen sealed roads on the whole island. There is very little in the way of buildings and most of the provided accommodation areas on the 75 mile island consists of campsites of varying facilities. The trip we opted for is designed for backpackers, and therefore offers the cheapest/lowest amount of frills. The idea is you are put into a group of 11 people, put together at random, and given a 4WD Land Cruiser, complete with tents, gas burner, food etc. You are given a brief the morning of your departure and are told about tide times, dangers of dingo's on the island, and are given a suggested itenerary to follow, both with regards to the places you all visit and the food they provide you. Its then up to your group to just get on with the adventure at your own pace, under your own guideance. The night before your departure to the island, they suggested we all go to watch the sunset together and have dinner at the hostel so you can all get to know each other a bit before you leave on the trip. The 2 groups of us, who were to become Team A and Team B went to watch the sunset, which of course involved taking alcohol to, to add to the drama of the event. After an hour or 2 up on this hill, everyone was a little tipsy, and once the sun had set, everyone decided to make a move back down to the village to the hostel for dinner. It was now dark and Lee and I and 4 others suddenly realised that everyone had literally disappeared in 1 big group out of sight. After much debate about which direction the village was, we all left the hill, and headed towards the pitch black bit of forest that leads back to the village, with just a Nokia phone torch light between the 6 of us. Luckily it was only a short walk through the dark forest until it reached a small street. We were just walking down the street when a guy called out to us, 'hey have you guys seen the snake'. We all thought he was drunk or joking, but he shone his power torch over to the kerb ahead of us, and there was indeed a snake, slithering its way up the kerbside, in towards someones front garden. I asked him if he knew what type of snake it was and he said it was a Carpet Snake. It was about 2 metres in length, and very slim in bredth. They are not poisonous to humans alledgedlly. This was a pretty cool moment to see our second snake of our trip. Our small group continued to the hostel and joined the others for dinner before our trip the next day. Next morning we all met up at the hostel again for the brief, and to make sure we had all the items we would need for our 3 day adventure. We had already been warned not to bring shower gel, as we would not be going anywhere near any showers for 3 days - nice!! Our group consisted of a mix of Brits, a couple of German girls and a late arriver to the group, an Aussie called Darren, who told us all he had his own 4WD jeep back at home, and had plenty of bush and camping knowledge. We all agreed that Darren with his experience, should be the first of our group, Team B, to drive us all in our 4WD Land Cruiser. We had not been on the island for more than 30 seconds when we got bogged in a particularly deep bit of sand. Just behind us, Team B in their Land Cruiser then got bogged in the same area of sand too. We all got out and stood there helplessly whilst each driver revved the engines and tried in vain for 5 minutes to get the vehicles to move. Eventually Darren was able to get our 4WD moving, and we all hopped in the back again quickly and continued up the sandy hills, inland towards our first destination. The other group didn't fair so well, and ended up all pushing their van before it finally dislodged itself and was able to continue up the hill. There is a strict 60 KPH speed limit on the island, as there have been many accidents of late, and also a few deaths. I always tend towards the nervous passenger side when there is speed involved, and now we were in this battered 4WD all squashed in the back, bumping up and down on every uneven bit of sand, was starting to get particularly nervous. I asked Darren to go a bit slower and to a few of the other girls relief, they were thankful the first person had spoken up and asked him to slow down. Darren did for a while slow his speed, but then un-intentionally got faster and faster along the straight bits of beach again. A few of us were looking at each other nervously as we thought the vehicle would tip over at any time. All the tents, food, bags and anything else gets loaded onto the roof of the vehicle so there is enough room for everyone to sit on the 2 sideways benches in the back. This of course does make the van top heavy, and could be a real problem if the van was to be driven too fast or to take a corner to quickly. Just as a few of us were thinking we were about to topple over, Darren went over a hidden bit of log or something, which caused the vehicle to leap up and jolt down. This of course caused pandamonium in the back and everyone was screaming at Darren. Lee was sitting next to me right at the back and had been bitting his lip until this stage, but by now was furious with Darren too, for driving too fast. It's not that he was driving fast fast, but just too fast to be driving a vehicle with 11 people in it, in such conditions. We soon stopped at a small place called Eurong where Darren was elected to be sat in the back, and Lee was to take over the next stint of driving. Lee being the brilliant driver that he is, soon had everyones nerves calmed again, and looking forwards to our first proper location from our itenerary. It seems that whenever Lee and I have booked a trip somewhere, we always take a bit of the British weather with us, as no sooner had we arrived on Fraser, it started to rain. We eventually navigated our way to our first destination, Lake Makenzie, had some lunch and then went to explore the lake and its bit of beach. Lake Mackenzie has been voted as one of the top 10 beaches in the world due to its staggering beauty. Our 2 groups headed to the lake with baited breath, but alas the rain did nothing to encourage the majority of us to enter the water. Even though it was overcast and raining, it was clear to see that this was indeed an extremely beautiful place, and the water was still showing its green, blue and aqua tones through the raindrops that were falling into it. Everyone at this stage had cracked open there supply of beers or Goon (cheap nasty essential backpacker wine) to celebrate the start of our mini-adventure. We all decided before we left that whoever wanted to drive must not drink alcohol, so Lee at this stage had not had a drop to drink. After a few hours at the lake, we headed towards the campsite we were to be staying at on the first night. Tents were pitched straight away under Darrens instructions, and myself and a couple of the other girls got involved in making the dinner for everyone that night. It wasn't long before everyone was well under way with their alcohol supply, and I think pretty much everyone stumbled into there tents that night, completely drunken monkies. No sooner had we got into our tents, when the heavens completely openend. Lee and I sat up in our little tent as the lashing rain threatened to wash our whole camp out to sea, and laughed at our good fortune with the weather on the trips we had been on. Everyone else could be heard shouting 'we are going to be washed away', 'we're taking in water' etc. All but 1 tent woke up the next morning with a puddle of water in there tent, and sleeping bags having to be wrung out - nice! Second day we all woke up to brilliant, really hot sunshine. First trip of the day was to a scenic creek called Eli Creek, for a splash around, then onto a famous ship wreck called the Maheno. The last suggested location for this day was to a spot called Indian Head, which is said to be a place where you are most likely to spot sharks, whales etc. Whilst making a late lunch for the group, the weather had once again taken a turn for the worst, and once again, the rain started to fall, only this time, it really was absolutely pouring down. We all sat in the land cruiser eating our soggy, sandy rolls for about 30 or 40 minutes wondering if we should just brave getting out and going up the cliff to Indian Head, as the weather was showing no signs of getting any better. We decided to brave it and go out in the pouring rain as if we missed seeing it at that time, there wouldn't be any opportunity to see it again. We all climbed slowly up the rocky hill, which was rapidly starting to look like it would turn into a landslide. Alex, one of the girls in our group who I had become really friendly with had decided it more safe to climb up in bare feet rather than slip around in flip flops. Lee and I were prepared to take the chance in flip flops, which turned out to be the best option. We eventually reached the top, completely soaked to the bone, but the view from the top really did make it worth the effort. From the peak you can see right into the shallow waters. We saw Manta Rays swimming, and again, we were lucky to see a whale splashing about in the distance, flapping his fin playfully. The journey back down the hill was always going to be tricky, especially for the people who had taken the bare feet option. I stayed with Alex as she hobbled along the rocky, stony path, which had now become like a skating rink. It was still pouring hard which only added to the comedy and danger of the situation. As we reached the first downhill bit, Alex went first. We took it really slowly, not least due to the fact she had nothing on her feet. It was going well to start with, and then the inevitable happened. A really steep downhill step, which Alex tried to take, and then slipped on in the slippery mud. She went down on her bum, hands planted firmly in the brown stuff. I was anticipating her reaction as she seemed to go down in slow motion, and when she realised she wasn't hurt, the frustration of the situation kicked in an she screamed "Oh no - this cannot happen". I couldn't hold it any longer - I completely burst out laughing right in her face. I wasn't sure if she would hit me for being so rude, but I could not control it. Luckily she immediately saw the funny side of it and we both started hysterically laughing. This then made me slip but I somehow stopped myself just as I was in a squatting position. I cannot explain how much we laughed trying to negotiate the rest of the way down, but even sitting here now thinking about it, I am laughing. We all made our way back to the van, completely soaked through, some of the group wearing the only clothes they had with them for the whole trip. We got back in the van and made our way to the second campsite for the trip, and s*ds law, the rain stopped and the sun came out again. The second night was spent drying out, making dinner and tucking in to a second night of alcohol abuse. On our way back to the campsite, we were driving along the beach when we all spotted a dingo just by the water, chomping on some left over fish from where there had been a fishing competion during the day. We drove right up to him as he was tucking into the fish, and he didn't shy away in the slightest. Unfortunately our camera was packed away in our bag on top of the roof so we missed this great photographic opportunity. We then drove past the biggest jelly fish you could ever imagine seeing. It was dead, washed up on the beach. We were all nearly sick at how revolting it was. It measured roughly a metre in circumference, and was at least half a foot thick, and had this kind of lattice pattern on its main body - totally freaky.

I guess it was fairly inevitable, the next morning everyone woke up, having had just a bit too much rain, sand, alcohol, etc, and was feeling groggy and wanting to get back to dry land for a much needed shower and some proper sleep. To cut a long story short, a few people in our group started to snap at other over various things, and within an hour, nearly everyone had had a go at someone else for something. After a couple of hours everyone had cooled off, probably more at the thought that we would be catching the ferry back to the mainland a few hours later that day. I found it particularly amusing that most people who do the Fraser Island trip remember it as the best time they had in Australia - and our particular group all got so knarkey with each other that they will probably remember it less favourably. Although there were a few awkward moments on the last day, it was in all, a fantastic and memorable trip for us both.

After the trip to Fraser we stopped the next morning at a place called Tin Can Bay to feed some wild Indo Pacific Dolphins that come in to be hand fed each day. There are 3 dolphins from the same pod that come to this feeding area everyday to be hand fed by the tourists. They are naturally a very shy breed of dolphin, unlike the common bottlenose dolphin's that people often swim with, so it is very rare for such dolphins to come into contact with humans. We just about resisted the urge to stroke them, at the request of the wardens who run the charitable attraction. The small harbour area they come in to also attracts a number of large pelicans, who all try to get in on the action, and steal fish from the tourists who have it in their little buckets ready to feed the dolphins. We both enjoyed feeding the dolphins and watching the pelicans scaring the small children. After feeding the dolphins, we made our way back down the Bruce Highway, onto our current destination - Brisbane.

We came to Brisbane to meet up with James, our friend from Uluru, Cairns etc, as it was his birthday. We also met up with Natalie, one of the girls from the Fraser trip and hung out together for a couple of days. We actually be driving back up the coast again tomorrow, to a place called Gympie! We are going there to go and stay with the couple we met in our first week in Australia, when we went on the trip to Kakadu National Park, etc in the Northern Territory. They very kindly offered to have us stay with them for a couple of days. We leave Brisbane tomorrow for Gympie and will be going out the Ev and Len for Len's birthday on Friday night which we are looking forward to.

We still can't believe that we have been in Australia for nearly 3 months now. The time is just whizzing by, but we feel lucky to say we are making the most of every opportunity and already have a lifetime of amazing memories.

Unfortunately we are unable to upload our photo's from the Whitsundays onwards just yet, as they are all on a new 4GB HD SD memory card, and we can't find an internet cafe that reads the card, so once we have bought a card reader or worked out how to get round this isse, we will upload those photo's then. This really frustrates me as there are some awesome photo's I really wanted to be with this blog, but hey ho.

Once again, thank you for your messages - especially from you crazy girls, very funny - love you & miss you loads, and Kelly - I'm not writing all posh on blog - you have to remember all sorts of people may be reading this blog, parents, other friends, people we have met along the way, Gibby and Paul Gansbuhler!