I have just stroked a Koala! We are in Rockhampton-beef centre of Australia and went to their little zoo in the Botanical Gardens. We saw kangaroos, wallabies, lizards, a croc , sleeping wombats and all manner of birds (like these lorikeets) too. Before that the only Aussie animals we seem to have been able to spot are dead ones by the side of the road so it was lovely to see some live ones! We are off for steak tonight and are staying in a caravan park by the river where we can see the hotel we've been recommended to eat in by the locals across the bridge! Yesterday we were in Bundaberg home to Australia"s only rum distillery. We went on the tour and got to sample molasses and several of the rums -Darren was a big fan but I enjoyed the rum fudge the best. Bundaberg is a huge cane suger producer so we also stopped off at the Bundaberg ginger beer distillery which brews non-alcoholic drinks like guava, pink grapefruit and blood orange pop. We stocked up and bought 6 bottles each to keep cold in the fridge-it"s getting very hot as we travel north and we are travelling in big stretches. Today we were up at 6.15 on the road by 7.45 stopped off to do some pick your own strawberries (we are in a fruitastic but of Oz-got a little pineapple for 30p yesterday) and to see some mystery craters (yes we paid $7.50 to see them and felt very had!) we finally arrived in Rockhampton at 1.45 after 5 hours.

Since my last blog we have travelled to Byron Bay which we loved-it"s a bit like Glastonbury on sea with amazing beaches and turquoise sea. We hired body boards and had a lovely time riding the waves on our stomachs. We topped that off with a bbq and a swim in a tea tree lake where the water was stained brown from the tea trees round a bout it and smelt of the oil! Amazingky I bumped into an old uni friend Charlotte Allen in a bar in Byron bay-she lives there now so we had dinner with her and found out that she teaches English in the local high school and gets up to surf every morning at 6am-very impressed by her dedication. We were really sad to move on from Byron Bay but with such big distances we don"t have time to stay in one play too long so we headed up the coast to Noosa Heads-a very upmarket (Richmond on sea!) beach town with some lovely walks through bush, rainforest and coastline. We sat and had a lovely sandwich in a little cove sitting on rocks being lapped by the waves. Yesterday, we moved onto to Bundaberg and rather stay in the city we drove over to Elliot heads and got a large space overlooking the beach. We feasted on bbqued Australian halloumi and red pepper and drank a lovely Aussie red wine.

Only a couple of days and 500 km and we"ll be in the Whitsundays!