We're back travelling……………Wahoo. And in a sense we are starting the long journey home. We manage to throw a lot of stuff out and squeeze a lot of stuff into our backpacks, somehow?! We have a farewell meal with Orla and Cathal and a quick trip to the casino (practice for Vegas) and Maggie wins $20 from $1 not bad for her first time! We will miss Brisbane and our apartment very much, it was hard to say good bye.

Our first stop is Cairns. We arrived just before midnight and get the shuttle bus to one of the nicest hostels we've stayed at (Tropic Days for those who want to know, they also have one called Travellers Oasis), although the staff are also nice here they seem to have travelled the world and think they know the best spots in every country, yes you know the people we're talking about, we may become them when we return). Cairns seems like a backpacker and stag do heaven, plenty of bars and drink promotions. Although there isn't actually a lot here in the city there is a lot of tours and things to do after staying out for a while it makes our head spin trying to decide what to do, aargh.

Our second night we begin the camping, it's not a great start as it's on shale but we think of the $24 we're saving, oh yeah! For our first tour we go to the Atherton tablelands, we go to the through some dense rain forest and to various rock pools which include some rock sliding. Maggie jumps in the deep end but hits her leg on a tree, she tries to carry on but then slips on the rocks and cuts her hand, bless. She was the first to fall but not the last , many people fell victim to the rocks, I suffered a very dead ass (which lasted for days). We move onto the rock fall where…………wait for it………….Peter Andre videoed 'Mysterious Girl' and the Herbal Essence ad was filmed. We then go to a warm lake and Karen takes a swim it's a tranquil and relaxing place, but a little too much like Lake Placid! We finish the day quietly watching some Platypus's with hot chocolate and marshmallows, it's brilliant but they are very small freaky things and they complete a fun day - the pictures seriously do not do it justice, it's really rare to be able to see them in the wild so we were lucky.

The next morning we get up early for our Great Barrier Reef dive, I wasn't going to do a dive but I figure I probably won't get the chance again and it is the GBR so I decide to do it, Mattie of course does a couple. Anyhow the dive was cool and I didn't freak out or anything and we spent a few hours snorkelling too. The reef is probably the most amazing thing I have ever seen, I was totally awestruck, we saw a sea turtle, Mattie saw a reef shark, I saw a stingray and millions of other fish. While snorkelling on my own I found a massive patch of electric blue reef and I just floated above it for ages watching all the fish, it is truly an amazing sight! Mattie got a sea cucumber off the floor and I felt it (feels like velvet) he also touched a massive Wrasse, they are big and ugly! I did not touch it. On my last snorkel I got stung on the wrist by something so we decided to call it a day and went back on board where we were entertained by a crew member called 'Elvis' and he took a shine to Mattie coz he kept joining in with all the songs! We both had a brilliant day and were so glad we did it, when we got back to the hostel we were knackered so we went into town and got some dinner. We both were a little bit sunburned from all the snorkelling so we had a semi painful nights sleep in the tent, sniff.

The next day we just chilled at the hostel and did boring things like laundry and read our books in the hammocks. On the Friday we got the bus to Mission beach, arrived at 9.30am and got a free lift from a hostel guy to our campsite. We "checked-in" and found our site, it was amazing, both of us were never so glad to see grass and shade, seriously it was like luxury camping!!! Grass, amazing stuff!! So we set our tent up under the palm tree and then decided to head to the supermarket for some food (proper camp food - beans, noodles, bread and Nutella, yum yum) however when we got back we realised that although there is a kitchen at the camp site there is no stuff to cook with or eat on, so we head back to the supermarket for the 'basics' which equals - 1 Saucepan, 1 Turner, 1 Tea Towel and a pack of plastic knives and forks, we have tubs which we eat out of. Mattie will not allow me to buy spoons or a cup, these are luxury items apparently, however he later realises we have bought soup so will need to buy spoons, ha ha a whole 93cent extra!. Also after we have finished making pasta I decide to use the jar as a mug and people at the campsite keep offering us their stuff and laughing at us 'roughing it' - note, the Aussies are the most prepared nation for camping, ever EVER, their camp sites are like mini homes. Anyhow, the camping is fun and we just spend a few days chill axing as the beach is like 50metres away so we get up go to the beach, have lunch, go to the beach, have dinner, and then try and entertain ourselves until it is a reasonable time to go to bed 9/9:30 as there is nothing to really do in Mission Beach in the evening. On our last day a family take pity on us and drive us round the area a bit, we go to the market and some of the other beaches and then in the evening we sit at their site (chairs!!!) and they make us tea and damper (bush scone type bread thing). The next day we pack up, our family makes us tea and then we walk to the bus stop and board for the 8 hour trip to Airlie Beach.

Take note here peeps, we are now 10 hours South of Cairns and not even halfway to Brisbane yet, Australia is mahusive in a way you just cannot comprehend until you come here - it's so crazy and we never stop being amazed by this!

Anyway we arrive at Airlie Beach in the evening and find a hostel for the night, dump our stuff and get a jug of beer and some dinner. The next day we check out and move to a camp site which is not a good one but we pitch up anyway and just leave it for the day to book our sailing tour, then we go to the supermarket and buy some stuff before heading to the lagoon to cook our sausages on one of the free BBQ's, we are closely watched by the seagulls who multiply before our eyes, I think they smell the bread but Mattie scares them off by throwing things at them, I find this quite funny!

The next day is our Whitsunday sailing tour on Mantaray and our first stop is Tongue Bay on WhitSunday Island where we get let off to go to Whitehaven beach. It is the most amazing beach, it is totally what you imagine paradise to be, the sand is super soft and so so white, hence the name and the water is really clear. We have a good old swim in the water and use the sand to give ourselves a much needed scrub down. Mattie gets his snorkel on because he sees sting rays (there are loads of them really close to shore, it's cool) we could stay here all day but only have an hour so we head back to the boat and go on to our second stop which is right up in the north of the islands, we're not sure where, but we get off to snorkel, Mattie and I are the first ones in and good job too because we see a reef shark so clearly and we follow him for a while, it's brilliant and no-one else sees him. The reef here is amazing too, so close to us, in fact Mattie gets a bit adventurous and dives down a bit and cuts his hand, it seems fine but then we notice there is some black stuff in it and its bleeding at like 8 cuts so he gets out to check on it and is worried the blood will attract sharks, the big jesse, the crew say he's not bleeding enough to attract sharks and then he gets back in. After we're done snorkelling, the crew cheerfully disinfect Mattie's hand as reef cuts are very prone to infection because of all the organisms and bacteria, whoo hoo! There a massive fish here and about 5 large Maori Wrasse and other 2 meter long fish. When we're done we have a massive rush for cake as this fat bloody family are eating it all, Maggie sees red! We have a relaxing boat ride back and arrive at our humble abode.

We wake up puffy eyed and pack up our stuff as we have to be out by 10am but our bus isn't until 5pm so we decide to buy some fresh bread and bacon! We sit by the bay and cook on the free BBQ by the beach which is too cool for school. We then relax by the lagoon and mooch around a bit before we need to get the night bus to Hervey Bay - 13 hours.

We have a surprisingly okay journey, Maggie finds a new found respect for Jumanji and we realise Robin Williams looks like my brother in law. Anyway we arrive into Hervey Bay at 5.30am, we waste some time in McDonalds and decide on where we will stay. We settle in to the hostel, do some much needed washing (I've basically stopped wearing pants, it's great!) and book a couple of tours. We have to get up the next morning at 6.00am for Fraser Island. We get on our four wheel drive bus and start our adventure, the island is completely sand and so the guy just motors the bus through whilst talking about the largest sand island in the world. We go to Lake Wabby first for a hard 5k walk on sand, when we get there we go for a swim and there is a massive sand blow (where the sand just completely blows over the rainforest). We then go for some of the best backpacker food which for normal people is just okay food, you know edible, has taste. In the afternoon we go to the white sands of Lake McKenzie, it's beautiful! It looks a bit like a beach but it's a lake, so no salty sea water and no waves, weird?! After an hour we go to the rainforest/central station where they used to log the area. When we get back we had planned to go out for some schooners but were pooped and fell asleep at 9.15pm - yes we're hardcore travellers but the joy of a double bed in our own room was far too overwhelming for us.

The next day we head up to the Maheno shipwreck, go to the Coloured Sands, Champagne pools, Indian Head and lastly Eli Creek. At the sands we stop by the beach highway and are lucky enough to see our first Humpback Whales and one of them does a tail slap. Indian head gave us a really good view of the coastline and a massive sand blow inland. We also had some lunch at a little park and saw a wild Dingo, which was pretty cool but it does just look like a dog. Our last stop was Eli Creek, which is a clear fresh water river with nothing but sand as the river bed. You can walk to the top and float down the river, although there wasn't much water in some places so Maggie had to tow me down most of the way! At the end of the day we take the bumpy journey back to the West side to catch our ferry back to the mainland.

Our last day in Hervey Bay and we take a morning whale watching tour, after sailing for what felt like forever we finally see the whales, it's amazing, the pictures totally cannot show you how cool it was so we'll just post a few but at one point the calf was like 10metres away from the boat - it was huge! The calf was breaching for ages and then two big whales were slapping their fins on the water and then the calf was slapping his tail, it was amazing!!!! We were so close to them.

Apologies for the massive post and there will be 6 picture folders (if we can get them all on) to look at but hopefully it'll keep you all going after we've starved you of info on here for so long. We're off to Rainbow Beach tomorrow for a few days after all the tours and stuff and then we'll go on to Byron Bay so until then…