hi all,

So we left our friends in Port Douglas after we had been there a week and headed for the Atherton tablelands, Which is an area that looks quite alot like north yorkshire, full of lush green rolling countryside and alot of waterfalls. Our first stop was lake Tinaroo so we took what we thought was 'The Way' and ended up down some "4 X 4 ONLY" dirt track, poor smantha's suspension was not enjoying this and as were not really supposed to be going on any off road tracks was probably not the best idea, but we carried on with the philosphy that we have started now so we may aswell finish, and 17 Kms later we arrived at a national park camping ground that was right on the lake. It was amazing barely anybody alse around so Amanda gathered some fire wood and built a fire and much to my surprise it stayed alight for 3 hrs and we even managed to boil the kettle on it!! The only thing was we parked the van on a big slope so felt like we were constantly rolling outta bed into the river.

The next morning we had a drive around the lake past the dam and onto malanda falls where we spent the next night. In the morning i went to the camp kitchen to wash up ( like i always do) and there was a massive beetle just sat on a cup ( check out the pic), think he was waiting to use the microwave!!

From here we went onto Lake Eachem with its crystal clear waters it was ideal for swimming and when we went for a walk around the lake Manda nearly stood on a massive black snake but i just manged to pull her out of the way in time. We stayed at the campsite near the lake that night and when we went to check in the girl gave me some bread to feed Josey and Ozzy which we later found out were a BIG Pot bellied pig and resident ostrich, was a nice site but the socota beetles make soo much noise at night. While we were there we got chatting to a 80 year old guy from wales that has been workin on the farm for 5 years and when we told him we had seen some nice birds at lake eacham he replied "yes but she's the best lookin bird i've seen all day" pointin to amanda, probably the oldest person to ever chat her up haha!!!

From Lake Eacham we did the Millaa Millaa waterfall circuit which consisted of 3 waterfalls on a short 12 k drive arond the countryside which was really nice too. The weather was much cooler in the tablelands as it is 1000 m above sea level and we had quite alot of rain but still made for a really good few days.

Before we headed south to mission beach we deciced to head west to Innott Hot Springs where natural springs heat up the the pools in the caravan park, so we spent the afternoon lazing around in a pool of about 35 deg, it was like a bath, but felf a little like a old peoples home as no one seemed to be under 75!!!

A long drive back to the coast took us up to Babinda boulders where we got caght up in a massive down pour in the rainforest, but the boulders were really good to see, got some good pics, That night we were gonna stay in a free rest area but when we got to it it was in the middle of no where and right next to a creek so seemed like a beginning to a horror movie to us so we drove back to a campsite. The next day we went to Paronella park, its beautiful here, a spaniard called jose paronella, built his own little castle in the middle of no where in 1930 right next to a waterfall, we got a free van site with our entry fee so after we had a mooch around the park during the day we went back to the van for tea and then went back for a night tour that turned out to be really good. We took our torches and went wildlife spotting, 1st turtles then a wolf spider and fire flies lightin up like xmas tree lights, a golden orb spider that apparantly the web is so strong the USA army are using it to make bullet proof vests!!! we went in tunnel of love next and saw baby bats which were not allowed to be photographed, we then went back to the castle to see it lit up at night and got some good pics, and on the way back the tour guide stopped to look for another big spider when a big brown thing jumped out onto my leg so i screamed and started dancing about thinkin it was a spider, turned out to be a cricket but everyone had a good laugh at me which was good :( i was constantly on spider watch for the rest of the night in the van.

The next morning we drove to Mission beach and had two nights here parked right by the beach which was nice, then we drove to Cardwell to meet back up with anna and franz and on the way we saw the rare Cassowary by the side of the road which we managed to get a few pics of so we were really lucky!!. The next day we headed south to townsville where we made a trip to Magnetic Island which was really great cos after we had completed a 7km walk in blistering heat we got to see a Koala asleep low down in the tree and we could touch it and she wasn't bothered, on the way back tho she had a baby koala in her arms which was really nice to see and had to check manda hadnt smuggled the baby in her bag before we left Haha,

We're in Airlie beach at the mo where we have booked a luxury boat to cruise around the whitsunday islands on wednesday and our van is practically parked in the beer garden which is nice.....

Anyways thats quite alot to digest so will update after the sailin, hope ur all ok