Phew what a week!!! We've literally been to heaven and hell, starting with seeing some of the most spectacular scenery and wildlife Oz has to offer to finding a job, only to quit 2 days later and now have a useless car and as a result running out of money quickly!!! Oh the perils of travelling...

Firstly we made the hike from Bundaberg to Mackay in one day which involved 6 hours of driving for alaine.We set up camp in a tiny town called Carmilla. A small township that had the most bizarre pub ever!! Never seen anything like it!! It was a type of make shift pub with a 12 yr old boy serving (no really he was only 12!!). Got some of the usual shifty eyes from the locals which we are�quite used to now...you know those sort of "you're from not round here" eyes.... So after a swift schooner we went to the camp by the beach. Which was very eventful. First we had to deal with the fact we were sleeping by croc infested waters, then there was the 1000 or so army of cane toads (although we squished a few driving along), the swarms of mozzy's not to mention the fact we got Duchess stuck in sand. We needed 6 of us digging and pushing and�Alaine�was�just�pulling�quite�a�few�wheelspins!!�Anyway�we�got�her�out�-eventually!
Hit Mackay next day, treated ourselves to a cabin for the night!
1st chance of seeing the Great Barrier Reef and definately feels more tropical up here!! Went to some lovely beaches and met a guy who claimed to be old of Steve Irwins bessie mates! He helped build Oz zoo and said steve called him "Dangerous Dave"...
The only thing we thought he was, was Dangerously Drunk!!

We left Mackay and went a bit inland to see the oldest rainforest in Australia  at Eungella.
Amazing countryside and sights! We first went to Finch Hatton Gorge, driving through fords as we went. Then we made it up to Eungella which means "Land of the clouds" and it really was! We were up in the mountains overlooking the rainforests...amazing views and wildlife. Definately a favourite spot so far!! Photos dont do it justice.
After a bit of countryside we headed up to Airlie beach which is the gateway to the whitsunday islands - bit of a party town which never sleeps. But we had a good craic and spent 2 nights sleeping in a teepee! This was also the place where things started going wrong for us....we got the fruitpicking job-well Alaine did Mark got a job doing carpentry for the farmers son. Thejob was in a place was called Clare, outside Ayr and we already had a bad feeling about it before we even got there. PLus enroute the car was sounding very dodgy.

Arrived to the farm and was shown the shack which was our home. The place was in the middle of nowhere. So it was even more surprising when we met our fellow pickers that 2 of them were Simon and Jaime who we spent 5 weeks living with at Bondi!! 
So that was pretty cool but the whole experience was not cool!!! It sucked...big time!! Picking courgettes for minimum wage in 35oC heat was horrible!!! The farmers wife was a slave driver too so after day 2 Alaine quit and had to quickly text Mark to tell him we were leaving this hell hole asap!!! Then it suddenly dawned on Alaine that the car had been playing up so we may not be able to get out!! It was all a bit of a mad rush but one we had to go through as we had to get out. Anyway we got to Ayr for the night, put the car in the garage, only to be ripped off by the garage not finding the real problem and charging us for unnecessary work. Things went from bad to worse when we realised thanks to Mark L and Chaz's help that it was the f-ing head gasket that had gone!!! Now we are really up s***s creek!! So realising we had no money to 
repair the car- and that we'd just lost a hell of alot of investment- we stopped in Townsville and bravely decided to do the last 350km to Cairns despite the condition of the car!! Thank goodness we made it!!! Something had to go right. SO with no job/no car and no money we are in a bad situation...but still smiling!! 
To add insult to the matter its done nothing but rain since we've been in Cairns...we've been soaked in our tent and had no option but to go into cabin accomodation. We have destroyed the Duchess- quiteliterally!! We felt she deserved no better than being dumped at the scrapyard!!
Oh she could have had it all....but she chose another path and therefore she had to PAY!!!

So as you can see our lovely trip up the East Coast has had a bit of a pooey ending- but at least we made it to our destination!! And things cant run smooth always can they?
We did treat oursleves to a day out in the outer barrier reef...snorkelling which was fantastic....it was like swimming in a big tropical fish tank!! Totally amazing...though the sharks were a bit scarey!!!! We'll put up these pics soon!!!

Anyway ta-ra for now... watch this space!!
Al and Mark
xxxx