Hello again. Another email from us had landed in your inbox - spammed twice in as many days, yessssssss!!!

(Or has it? When uploading this chapter, a message informs me you have not been emailed of this update as it was within 24 hours of the last post. Dammit)

So, we left off last time at the Gold Coast. Early in the morning, we packed up, taxi to the train station and a lethargic railway journey to Brisbane Airport to pick up our first hire car of the holiday. Our destination was the town of Agnes Water (and the 1770 resort) on the east coast, about 600km north-east of Brisbane. The rest of that afternoon was spent driving to the Mango Tree Hotel in Agnes Water, and much of the drive involved a fair old stretch on the genuinely-named Bruce Highway. Looking forward to paddling in Sheila's Creek and stopping at the Strewth Motel at some point. I've made them up, but we did genuinely pass Steve Irwin Way too.

< Monty Python reference >

"G'day new members, what's your name?"

"Michael"

"So your names not Bruce then? That's gonna cause a little confusion"

< / Monty Python reference >

Anyway, after a 6 hour or so drive, we land in Agnes Water. The last 100km were done in the dark, and this involved a detour along several km of untarmacced tracks (we weren't keen, but our sat-nav was insistent) and the occasional glimpse of a kamikaze kanga hopping across the road in the road in front of us. Makes a change from New Forest ponies. Everything shuts up after sundown here, even restaurants and takeaway shops, slightly confusingly. If you havent got your food in by about 6:30pm, then tough. Managed to find a petrol station that doubled up with a greasy-food option, but it's not an easy thing to do. In fact, finding a petrol station along the Bruce Highway is not an easy thing to do - being stranded without fuel was becoming an option at one point.

So anyway, the reason for this expedition was our boat tour out to the Great Barrier Reef. Pricey at $175 (about 110 pounds), but so so worth it. An excellent day, which involved a trip out to Lady Musgrave Island. This link should show a load of pictures that give you a feel for the place: http://www.google.com.au/search?q=lady+musgrave+island

Boat trip out takes a couple of hours, including a sighting of a humback whale with her calf. For your money, you get a guided walking tour of the island, where you can view the birds nesting in the trees. Many of them nest on the ground or at eye level, so you are literally face to face with a wary bird. The trees and landscape are extraordinary. The beaches are beautiful, and include obligatory holding of a sea cucumber (remember the fact of the day from our last blog post?). They look very much like a cross between a large slug and a... ahem, turd. Not too wriggly, but nice and slimy.

To get to and from the island, there is a glass bottomed-boat. You get driven over some beautiful coral, which is host to some equally beautiful tropical fish. As per her acquariam visit, Izzy was again totally engaged with staring at this underwater kingdom, and the life within it. There was also a 'semi-submarine' tour, basically a boat with steps down to under water level. You hang around down there, whilst the skipper pilots it around the reef, getting further views of the reef and fish of all colours, some with luminous scales or tails. Following lunch, you're then allowed to snorkel in the areas around the boat, getting right up close to the fish (particularly close when someone throws fish food around you, which attracts a blizzard of life swimming right past - unnerving at first, but such a magnificent experience... until you lose grip on the mouth-piece and have to make an undignifed track to the surface to cough up some seawater - I bet those fish had a good giggle at that).

So we had such a magnificent time. Thoroughly worth the subsequent immediate 6 hour drive back to Brisbane to our hotel (arriving about midnight), with a 4:30am alarm call for an early flight to Alice Springs.

And Alice Springs is where we are now. It's slap bang in the middle of the Outback, a dusty desert town surrounded by imposing rocky, craggy landscapes. We've had a day or so here, it's pretty hot (low 30s centigrade), and Isabella may be teething, as she was really cranky yesterday. Not too bad today, but the Calpol and teething gel are at the ready. Lovely swimmming pool at the hotel to cool off in later, and we've picked up a hire car. Tomorrow we drive to Uluru (Ayres Rock), and at some point we're going to get a helicopter tour in over this superb landscape.

So you're up to date. More to follow in three or four days. Pictures to follow when Australia invests in some functioning memory card readers.

Fact of the day - Alice Springs has a fair population of Aboriginal people (the first we've really seen on this holiday), and some of the ladies like to walk along the main street shouting out "f*ck yoooo, f*ck yooooo" in an affectionate manner.