Hi Guys,

Think I might have finally caught up with the blogs now after a few days without internet/dry land.Since we last wrote we've had an absolutely amazing couple of days.We set sail on Wednesday afternoon on a 32-seater sailing boat, out of Airlee beach.When we first got on the boat we couldn't believe they could actually fit 32 of us on there but it turned out to be actually pretty big.

The first night we just sailed out to the Whitsundays (technically the Cumberland group of islands, I have been later informed), set down the anchor in a cove next to Hook island and had a dinner of BBQ fish and potatoes..yum yum (especially since I didn't have to cook it for once!)Some of the crew were fishing off the boat during the evening, catching loads of squid for their dinner!It was really good to watch - apparently the squid turn orange when they're hungry (rush of blood to the head or something like that) so there were flashes of orange all over the sea.We also got visited by some bat-fish (I think) - massive 1ft square varieties - apparently they only eat poo so they don't taste very nice, hence they got left to swim free! Lol

After a rather uncomfortable night's sleep in a 3ft double bed we set sail early the next morning for Whitsunday island.We anchored at a small inlet and walked over the hills of the island for 10 minutes until we reached the other side; a lookout point for Whitehaven beach, where we took (perhaps too many) photos.A short stroll later (past quite a few mega spiders and a snake that luckily we didn't spot!) we reached Whitehaven beach itself.The beach is absolutely amazing - apparently the white sand is 98.something % silica which makes it the second best (in terms of that at least) in the world.Apparently the Americans took 10 tonnes of the stuff when the made the lens for the Hubble telescope!After lazing around for a couple of hours, we wandered back towards the boat, spotting a few small lemon sharks swimming in the shallows.

After lunch we sailed over to Luncheon bay (appropriate) where we did our first snorkelling trip.The fish were absolutely incredible, we'd never seen anything like it - the guys off the boat were throwing in fish food so they were swimming all around us.The variety of fish they had was pretty astonishing - small angelfish the size of a 50p to massive ones the size of a dinner plate! Luckily the water was quite shallow so we could dive down and get really close.I think my favourite fish was probably the moon wrasse - a turquoise and pinky kind of variety with really beautiful markings; Martin was more fond of the massive purple and red ones (the name escapes me I'm afraid!)

Enough about fish or Burke will be complaining again!So after snorkelling we spent the evening on the boat eating too much spag bol and getting drunk on $10.99 wine (that's $10.99 for a 4 litre box..it was lovely.)We were also visited by some dolphins alongside the boat later in the evening - unfortunately the pictures didn't really come out to well.The next morning we went for our second snorkelling off the coast of Hayman island - a site nicknamed 'the aquarium' for the amount of fish there.Again we had a great time - at this site they have a 60lb mari-wrasse (possibly spelt wrong) - an absolutely enormous blue fish (like 1m long) nicknamed 'Elvis' by the team due to the large lump on top of his head!He was really friendly, Martin even swam down and gave him a stroke!

Hayman island (obviously the other side to where we'd anchored) is a 6* ultra exclusive resort - random fact that we learnt from the crew is that apparently the staff there aren't allowed to be seem out of character so when they aren't working they have to crawl up to their homes in the hills through a tunnel - if they are seen by the guests they get sacked on the spot! Something to think about if you have a spare grand a night to spend on a room there!!!

After out second snorkel trip, we set sail back to the marina - we had an absolutely amazing trip - great weather and for only 170 quid each we thought it was great value for money!So anyway, we arrived back around lunchtime on Friday, jumped in the car and drove for 5 hours to Rockhampton; where we stayed overnight.Next morning we drove (again) down to Bundaberg, via a small surfing town on the coast called Agnes Water - it was a pretty looking beach but the last two days of on-off rain meant we didn't really spend too much time there.

We stayed at a campsite in Bundaberg last night and are on our way to the rum factory there this morning (not sure if that's a good idea at 9am!)Heading down to Hervey Bay this afternoon before going on our tour of Fraser island on Monday - should be good! Hoping for a bit of good weather again!

Until then, hope all is well,

Love Katie and Martin x

(koala count: 0; Cassowaries: 0; Emu:2 - crap zoo at Bundaberg; Kangaroo: 1/16th ish - dinner last night!)