Australia - what a whirlwind! Sorry for the lack of blogs lately, time has definitely escaped us.

So we arrived in 1770 after a few hours on the road. It's a small seaside town that is said to be the birthplace of Australia as it was the first place that Captain Cook landed from his vessel on 24 May 1770. From there, Captain Cook sailed up the east coast to plot Aus on the map. We visited the Captain Cook monument and hiked up to the famous look out point.

We decided to continue on from 1770 the same afternoon, so our next pit stop was Hervey Bay. Again there was little there, just a small harbour where we had some fish and chips. Back on the road, we finished the day's journey in the next town down the east coast called Rainbow Beach.

At Rainbow Beach we stayed in the car park of a hostel called Dingo's. The next day we checked in for our Fraser Island trip. We met our group - 8 of us to the car - and had a safety briefing. Our group included 3 girls from England and 3 French.

After loading up our stuff in our 4x4 the next morning, it was time to head off to Fraser Island. Our car, Tia, was a Toyota Land Cruiser with modified suspension and big chunky tyres. Not to mention a speedo that didn't work! Max was first up in the driver's seat and we followed a convoy of others. The first car was driven by our guide, Joel, and 3 cars followed including us. Max's first experience of driving on sand came about as we approached the ferry to Fraser Island. It feels a little bit like driving on ice as the soft sand is so slippy.

The ferry took 10 minutes to get to Fraser Island where Max resumed driving. It was a beautiful sunny day and driving along the shoreline on the sand is a breathtaking experience. Fraser Island is the largest sand in the world.

Our convoy stopped so we could swap drivers and Jerome took the wheel. We had walkie talkies for our guide to give us instructions, lots of the time which included to change to first gear and 'give it some herbs!!'. One of the cars in front got stuck - embarrassing for them - but we carried on through the sandy trail in the middle of the bushland. It was good fun being thrown around in a true four wheel drive. The jungle on Fraser Island is the biggest sand rainforest in the world and is a world heritage site.

We arrived at Lake Mckenzie which is created entirely by thousands of years of rainwater that has been through the ground and purified. The water was incredibly clear, more so than a swimming pool! When we left we were both passengers once again and enjoyed the bumpy, sandy track through the jungle. Back on the beach, Joel radioed through to us that we were approaching some dingoes. They look a lot like dogs but hunt like wolves and would easily take down a person, so we always had to be 'dingo safe' and stay with a buddy while on the island.

Steph was the last person to drive for the day and had a really good stint along the beach. It went from light to dark and became high tide, so it involved driving through a lot of soft sand, the sea, across rocks and into our camp. It was really good fun controlling the car and driving off road.

In camp it was two to a tent and each group of 8 had a crate and cooler box of food on the trailer that Joel had been towing. In the crate was a list of our meals and a load of ingredients. Between us, we all mucked in and cooked dinner. This was followed by a lot of goon and cider drinking and a fun drinking game taught to us by the French.

Day 2 on Fraser Island started with a group breakfast, then a trip to Indian Head. We all took it in turn to drive Tia along the beach. We were still driving north on the east coast of the island - you can drive along it for hours! Indian Head is a lookout point, great for spotting marine life and the views of the island. Next stop was the Champagne Pools. These are large natural rock pools where the sea crashes over. It's the only place you can actually swim in seawater (no sharks, jellyfish etc.).

Enjoying cruising in Tia once again we drive back down the coast from the Champagne Pools to the famous Maheno Wreck. This shipwreck occurred many years ago when the Japanese bought an old ship that had served in the war as a hospital and prior to that in other capacities and were towing it back to Japan. It got caught in a cyclone and washed ashore. They tried to remove it from the beach to no avail. Since, it has been used as target practice by the Australian Air Force but is largely still in one piece. Four levels are buried under the sand but you can still see the sheer size of the ship in the wreck still visible on the beach.

Our last stop for the day was Eli Creek, or 'hangover creek' as Joel said. Again, this was a stream formed by natural spring rainwater that has been cleaned in the eco system. We grabbed our empty water bottles and water tank from the boot and headed to the start of the stream where you will not get water more pure and tasty. The best way was to get straight under the water which was very cold and oh so refreshing. We filled our bottles up and then floated down the lazy river back to the beginning.

Our group prepared our second meal and the drinking began once again. We took a more mellow approach that night and sat around the fire joining in the sing-along to Joel and his guitar.

On our last day at Fraser Island we woke up to rain, rain and more rain. It turned the sand everywhere to cement. We packed up, put our crates on the trailer and head out to our final stop. It was our turn to go in Joel's car so we all just enjoyed the ride. The last stop was at Lake Garrawangan but as it was raining and cold, most people didn't go in for a dip. Of course Max did! This lake is special as it's blood red, caused by the natural tea tree in the water thus also being very good for your skin and hair!

We arrived back to Rainbow Beach by early afternoon. With our time down the east-coast limited, we decided to push on once again.

A few hours of driving got us to Noosa, a cool surfer town. Darkness was approaching and it was still raining so we camped at a scout place in the centre and hoped for the weather to improve the next day. We woke up to yet more rain, but thought we'd check out the beach anyway. There were no surfers out and it was still raining and cold, so we boarded Otis and continued our trip.

From Noosa we drove to Australia Zoo, owned by the Irwin family. There are tributes to Steve Irwin everywhere and we watched the impressive croc show. Roo Heaven was our favourite; you buy some roo food, go into the enclosure and you can hand feed the Roos! It was still raining but good fun. Our other fav place was the koala encounter where we got to stroke a koala bear. They're so soft, fluffy and relaxed.

After the zoo and as the rain hadn't subsided, we continued on past Surfers Paradise to Byron Bay. It was a long journey and we didn't arrive until the evening. This was unfortunate, especially as it was the Thursday before a four day bank holiday weekend, and 6 camping places we tried were all full. Giving up, we drove into town and went out for dinner and drinks. Byron Bay has a really laid-back, surf/hippy vibe to it and feels truly Australian. We drove slightly out of town on to the highway and stayed in a free rest area for the night - we weren't the only ones!

The next day we spent in Byron Bay. The weather had improved slightly so Max rented out a board and went surfing, then we strolled around town enjoying the different vibe - it may be one of our favourite places in Aus.

Sadly, our time was limited so that late afternoon we got on the road again for one long, last journey...

Steph and Max x