Hi, we flew to Brisbane from Cairns to get over the flooding and stayed in a really nice hostel which was run by a british guy who had travel a lot so new what a good hostel involved.

The next morning we picked up our Jucy Camper and Ash had nominated me to drive through Brisbane an onto the highway north, all was going well until we stopped at some traffice lights and a girl asked for a lift north we were both taken by surprise and agreed neither of us could believe we had said yes but we were stuck with this Dutch girl. The only problem was that we didnt have enough seats so she led in the back (illegal we know), this made us both nervous so we ditch her as soon as we could in Noosa and carried on north. That night we stayed in Hervey Bay which is by Fraser Island so we thought would be quite busy after a walk around we found no people so we got that wrong but it was a nice camp site and a good start to our camping trip.

The next day we were up quite early as Ash fell through her bed as one of the panels moved it was quite funny. We carried on heading north as we were trying to get to Airlie beach and Whitsunday Islands but the further north we went the more it rained and we didnt seem to be getting any further up the map so after a long day driving and being very fed up we decided to turn around and stop in a place called 1770 (population 56, yes really!!!) It was a very nice place and more importantly dry. Our campsite was quite basic but ok we were quite near a pub, the only one had seen so we went for a drink and a lad we met on the campsite joined us. The landlord came up and told us the bar was closing so we thought it was quite late, no only 9.30pm. We realised quite quickly that there wasnt much going on in 1770.

The next day we looked into trying to dive the reef as we had missed out further north, the only one we wanted to do wasnt going until the saturday but it was only thurdays and there was nothing to entertain us for one day never mind two, we decided to give it a miss and come back another time to do it. We booked into another campsite for our second night in 1770 which was even worse than the first, our van was on a hill and it felt like we were going to roll down it all night so not much sleep for us that night.

We then went further south to Noosa which is a little town, Jucy had given us a voucher for a Nomad hostel so we could sleep in their car park and us the facilties. Sounds a bit strange but was actually ok and we quite enjoyed it. We booked to go to Australia Zoo (Steve Irwins) the next day, we were up early and it was torrential rain all day we had gone in flipflops which was ok as we had to wade through the water to get to the kangeroos and elephants. Although we did get to go to the Crocoseum and see the animal show it wasnt as good as it looked on the telly might have had something to do with the weather. We saw loads of crocs some of which had been on the telly so it was good although we were soaked and cold on the coach back to the hostel. We sat like old ladies with our hoodies on drinking tea in the car park (living the high life).

We left Noosa the next day and headed off to Surfers Paradise which we thought would be a great place with loads of surfers and people around how wrong we were. Our campsite was nice but quite expansive compared to others we had stayed at. We had a walk around in the afternoon, and in the evening we walked into the town to find some people or night life but no luck there were a few people about but not enough for a party.

We sat on the beach for a bit the next day then drove to Byrons Bay as the sun had finally put in an appearance so we sat on the beach in Byrons Bay aswell, we did this for the next 3 days. Ash had a surf lesson one morning which she really enjoyed I think a new hobby for her. She was up early for her lesson and was taken to Lennox Head for her lesson. She stood up a few times and caught some waves but i think after 3hours she was knackered.

We moved to another campsite a bit further out for 1 night then moved on to make it to Sydney in time to return the van which Ash has named Betty as she is a sweaty betty box at night. We walked to the light house in Byrons Bay and themost easternly point in Australia it was a nice walk although some of it was through jungley type area i was a bit sacred about the wildlife but we survive the worst we saw was a water monitor lizard.

We stopped at a place called Port Macquarie which was about half way to Sydney and dead there were no people about we were the only people in a camper so we had our own TV room and kitchen or so we thought. We were watching a film when a mouse popped up running round the kitchen closely followed by a cockroach not the best night ever but we survived.

The next day we stopped at Newcastle hoping to camp and although it was a nice place there were no campsites, we had a walk around then moved to Sydney for our next night. We stayed at this really horrible campsite which was in areally bad area. We didnt realised when we first pulled up. We stayed in and watched Cool Runnings for the second time since we had the van.

We drove to Coogee the next day, had a walk around as its a nice town and some lunch before moving to another campsite in Sydney which is far nicer. I even made Ash watch the Australian Grand Prix, the weather looked amazing there so we are clearly in the wrong state as we are forecast rain for the next week we are going to be very soggy espcially as we are planning to sit on Bondi Beach one day.

We give Betty back in the morning it has been fun for most of the time but driving over here is a little bit harder than at home as there are large stretches with nothing. The Australians are also terrible drivers but we are glad we did it. Its back to the hostel tomorrow.