Breakfast the following morning was primitive due to the incessant rain which had plagued the journey so far and so feeling slightly unsatisfied, we headed onto Townsville (via a wifi pit-stop at McDonalds) to enquire about a trip over to Magnetic Island, one of the main tourist sites in the region. After investigating further, we opted against it as the costs of getting over were astronomical and coupled with the bad weather, it just wasn't worth it. We pulled up at a nearby campsite in the early afternoon and pampered ourselves with hot showers, clean laundry, a hearty pasta dinner and a few drinks with some other Brits who were staying there.

Townsville was, in a word, s***e. This could have been due to the weather coating the city with a layer of dullness but we weren't interested in sticking around until the sun came out and so the next morning we bolted onwards to Airlie Beach, stopping for the obligatory wifi break at McDonalds along the way. I'd like to point out that we didn't gorge on any food whilst on these internet breathers... I'd like to point that out, but sadly it isn't the truth. I blame it on that enticing perimeter aroma - it's too hard to resist once you've caught onto the scent. The greyness seemed to be lifting and whilst there was still a sheet of cloud, it did seem to be perking up. We arrived in Airlie Beach in late afternoon and whilst the town itself is very picturesque, that same group of gap-year party kids found throughout Asia and/or The Woolshed in Cairns seemed to have laid their roots firmly there. Whilst we had parked up on the main road and were contemplating our options, two familiar faces drove past in a large campervan; it was none other than the J's in Henry (they'd named their van themselves). After briefly chatting whilst wandering to the bay together, we realised that they were in a similar position to ourselves and that they were also looking for a site for the night. We decided to head in convoy down the coast and soon found ourselves sharing a few drinks whilst cooking our respective evening meals in a camp kitchen just outside of the town. We were joined by a cracking chap called Steve from Adelaide who rather enjoyed engaging in the English-Aussie banter. Our 'roaring laughter' and 'overly boisterous activity' until well past 10pm gained a few complaints from the older lot on the site (please note the sarcasm here), but we had a great night non-the-less. We were even visited by a few tame possums at one point, who had mastered their 'I'll-hang-here-looking-cute-until-you-feed-me' poses, much to the delight of Anne.

To be fair, we probably were a little loud as we all awoke with relatively sore heads in the morning, some more than others however (by some I mean Anne). However, it only took a few brews and bacon butties for Joe and I to be ready to hit the road and given the fact that we were both heading south, we'd decided to continue on in our little convoy. We didn't really plan a destination for this particular day, we were simply looking to cover as much ground as possible, so after driving for a cool 10 hours (broken up with the obligatory McD's stop, for wifi only of course), we found ourselves pulling up to a free site in Clairview. I say site, I really mean pulling in at the side of a road next to a block of toilets. The rain was completely lashing down and so I had the idea of parking the cars so that the boots were aligned, then raising the boot doors and using a piece of waterproof material that we had in the back to create a wall on one side. This provided us with a shelter for us to cook dinner and it worked perfectly. After a hearty Mexican feast we decided on hitting the hay relatively early, as we wanted to get the driving for the following day out of the way by mid afternoon in order to be able to have more down time.

Before bed, Joe had said something about how he thought it was going to be sunny in the morning which we all just laughed it off as the weather couldn't really get more miserable. So when we actually awoke to clear blue skies I thought it best to keep my distance from Joe for a while, just until I had ascertained what powers he actually possessed (note: in hindsight, I think it was just mere coincidence as after studying him for the following 24 hours, I can conclude that he definitely holds no paranormal abilities). Also, as it was dark when we arrived, we hadn't realised that we had parked next to a mangrove infested beach, so our day started with a fruit and yoghurt breakfast, followed by a little walk and some photos on the beach before we began to make tracks. After around 230km (just over 140 miles), we stopped for lunch in a quaint seaside town of Yeppoon. I decided to cook some noodle soup on my stove by the promenade and received numerous comments from the inquisitive yet friendly locals walking by. After we ate and studied our books and guides for local sites, we decided to head north to the Byfield State Forest, where there are a few national park campsites. We settled on one called Red Rock and arrived mid-afternoon to a picturesque clearing amongst dense forest. As Anne and I had previous experience of the National Park payment methods, we went in search of the booth where we could fill in our forms. However, this particular site didn't accept cash as payment and you had to either go online or call their helpline. We didn't have an operational phone between the four of us and our internet usage was limited to fast-food restaurants only, so after seeking help from a lovely couple called Kev and Sonya, we then realised that no only was the website was down but also the helpline was closed. So, it didn't take much persuasion for us to come to the decision of milking a second free night out of it.

Kev and Sonya proved to be great company too. They were from north New South Wales and had recently rented their house out and decided to tour the country in a campervan and as Kev was in the mining industry, he was going to find work as they went along to subsidise them. After our dinner of home-made chicken kebab and flatbreads, we moved our operations over to their site and the evening ran on with itself. The banter was flowing and the beer was even more so, so before long and for the second time in three nights, we were all drunk; so very, very drunk.

In the morning, we skipped off early in order to avoid the ranger (we actually gave her a cheeky wave when we drove off as she was knocking about the amenities block) and headed onto McDonalds. This time, the agenda comprised of food first and wifi second as we desperately needed something to soak up the hangover, which was worse for some than others (and by some, once again, I of course mean Anne). Despite consuming a disgusting amount of fast-food, none of us could really muster up the strength for another full day of driving so we unanimously opted for a chilled out day at a paid site (with a pool; this was a necessity). We drove the relatively short distance of 50km (just over 30 miles) to Emu Park where we found a great little site by the beach. After parking up, we arsed about in the pool and then on the beach for a good few hours before heading back to get washed up. Joe and I headed out to get provisions for dinner, much to the protests of the girls who clearly didn't think we were up to such a task. We proved them wrong though, as expected, when we returned with a van full of meat and other goodies and proceeded to cook the best BBQ known to man (Ok, maybe it wasn't that good but I do want to stress the point that we definitely didn't fail). After such a hearty meal, we retired back to Henry (the J's van, in case you had forgotten) and introduced Monopoly Deal to proceedings (think back to when we were in Hong Kong). The J's loved it and so we played to our hearts content until bedtime (I forget how late we stayed up but it was definitely well past 8:30pm).

The next day was to be one of pure driving and we had the town of Seventeen Seventy in our sights, which was just shy of 300km south. The J's were keen to book a trip to the Great Barrier Reef as they previously had one abandoned due to bad weather in Cairns, so this was looking likely to be one of our last chances. The weather had seemed to be holding out for us too, so with our agenda set out, we hit the road. The town of Seventeen Seventy has historical significance as it was the very point where Captain James Cook landed in Australia in, believe it or not, the year 1770. The Dutch were the first Europeans to have 'founded' in the country in 1606 (despite the Aboriginals having apparently inhabited it for around 40,000 years), they initially named it New Holland but as they had never claimed nor settled in the land, the Brits took it for their own and began sending over the convicts 18 years later. The first fleet of prisoners actually landed on 26th January 1788 and this date is now known as 'Australia Day', a national bank holiday. Coincidentally, it was also the Dutch who founded and named New Zealand, with Zeeland being a region of the Netherlands.

Anyway, back in the present day, we had arrived at the coast, booked our trip for the following day and settled up down the road in Captain Cook's Campsite (not his actual campsite, that was just the name of it... I don't think it was owned by Cook anyway). After dinner and the compulsory card based evening festivities, we settled down early, very much excited for our following day's adventure... And what a day it was, we headed out to Lady Musgrave Island, named after the wife of a former Queensland Colonial Governor. On the way out there, we saw a dolphin swimming alongside the boat and during our two snorkelling expeditions, we swam alongside hundreds of tropical fish and even some turtles; it was everything we had hoped for and more. Even the weather decided to hold out for us, although it did begin to rain almost as soon as we arrived back on the mainland, which went a long way to determining where we lay our head that evening.

We had found a place in our guide which was just outside of the town, but down a 4km dirt-track. We set off with some apprehension as it was already beginning to get dark and there was the threat of a real downpour of rain. However, as we arrived at the start of the dirt-track we found ourselves up against a heavily flooded road; neither Joe nor I wanted to chance driving through it so we turned back and headed towards another 'paid' site which we had seen a few miles back. These guys however, wanted above and beyond what was the going rate for the area so after conferring briefly, we sped back to Captain Cook in order to book in there for another night, having felt slightly aggrieved at what turned out to be a very pointless journey. Our evening festivities pretty much write themselves by this point - economy dinner, economy wine and card games. Not to say that this wasn't enjoyable, it was very much the opposite.

After some beans on toast for breakfast, we took a 4 hour drive to Hervey Bay, where we had a noodle soup lunch on the esplanade before Joe and I wandered into the town to buy a football. Despite it being a Nike branded ball, we gave it the obligatory name of Wilson, as per the film 'Cast Away'. From here we had a frantic race against the nightfall to get to Petrie Park, just outside of Maryborough, which was a free campsite by a river which allowed fires much to the delight of Joe, who had wanted to partake in the stereotypical campfire activities (minus the guitar) for about a week or so. It perhaps wouldn't have been as frenzied but we had made a number of unscheduled stops in Hervey Bay for various but necessary purchases, nevertheless, we made it before the darkness surfaced, even if we did have to cook our Caribbean-style hotpot in the moonlight. After our hearty meal and a few roasted marshmallows, we turned in at around 9:30 to ensure that we were up and out early as the next leg of our journey incorporated the Sunshine Coast and apparently lots of picturesque landscapes, quaint villages and beautiful beaches.