Hi Guys,

We've had a fairly chilled out last few days, kept out of the sun a bit which has proved a good thing for some of us ;)

After we left Cardwell, we headed down towards Townsville, stopping off at Little Crystal Creek (a stepped waterfall/swimming hole) on the way down.After checking into our campsite around midday we decided (rather foolishly) to walk down to the main town area.For some reason the 30+ heat and midday sun didn't immediately put us off - would have been good if it had as the estimated 10 minute stroll turned into 30 minutes of hell in absolutely no shade! Needless to say we spent the rest of the afternoon at Townsville's Rock pool - a kind of mass swimming pool to make up for the fact you can't go in the sea.

After chilling out with some wine we spent possibly one of the most uncomfortably hot nights ever in the camper before getting up early and heading off to Magnetic Island.Despite the promise of 250 sunny days a year and wild koala walks etc etc, we got rain and lots of it.The rain started about 2 minutes before we got off the bus at the hostel and didn't stop until the morning we left.Not only did this mean no koala hugs (very upset about this!) but it also meant 2 days of running between our room and the toilet/shower/bar trying not to get absolutely soaked through and a whole lot of monopoly and yahtzee!When we did make it down to the beach (in the rain) it seemed like it had been hit quite hard by the Cyclone, something we hadn't noticed at Townsville, only 8km away.You could see the potential of the place to be a great little tourist spot but I think we just timed it really badly on both fronts!

After our boat back from the island, we went on koala mission 2 - a sanctuary just short of Townsville.It was shut due to cyclone damage (even more upset about this as this place also had wombat hugging!!!)Anyway, we set off south towards Airlee beach, passing through a couple of lovely towns Ayr and Bowen, where we had our lunch on the beach - celebrating a bit of sun for once!Once we got to Airlee beach we chilled out by the lagoon and went for a wander round the headland for the afternoon.Airlee beach is much more of a tourist town - kind of how we'd expected Mission Beach to be - and its clear that everyone's here for the Whitsundays tours.

Speaking of which - we're heading off on ours today! Since the boat I originally booked broke in the cyclone we unfortunately had to be upgraded to a much better one at their expense, ending up with a $410 cruise for $250! Standard bit of Seymour luck there! We went to check out the tour when we got to Airlee yesterday and it seems really good so fingers crossed!

Will be away until Friday so will update when we get back a whole lot more tanned (or burnt in Martin's case) ;)

Lots of love Katie and Martin