We drove up to Brisbane from Byron Bay on Saturday, stopping en route at Brunswick Heights (a surfing beach on Gold Coast) and Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary. The wildlife sanctuary was really good and we saw kangaroos, crocodiles, dingoes, koalas and even a Tasmanian Devil. All the indigenous creatures in fact apart from the Wombats that just refused to put in an appearance!

We took a look at Surfers Paradise but as it seemed to consist of nothing but high rise along the beach and temperatures were pushing 38 degrees we did not bother to stop.

On Sunday we took a 2 day trip to Moreton Island, which is a sand island just off the coast of Brisbane. We had a great day racing along bumpy tracks in a 4x4 vehicle driven by Eugene (he of the greying ponytail and dreadful teeth!). Eugene was a great laugh and very knowledgeable about the local flora and fauna. It turns out that he was also a poisonous snake breeder and musician who was also learning aborigine - so very multi-talented! He flung the jeep (called Betsy) around the sand roads on the island and raced along the beach to try to get to the other end before the tide cut us off. Spot of deja -vu from plane from Heathrow in that one of the other people in the vehicle was the most enormous Aussie lady with her face totally covered by total sun block. Her 12 year old son (who was accompanying her) seemed to want as little to do with her as possible - I remember those days! Anyway it fell to Roger to heave her in and out of the 4X4 - not an easy task as the step up was really high. He couldn't make up his mind whether it was better to push her enormous backside from behind or get in first and heave her in, risking being pulled out of the vehicle himself!. Needless to say once inside there was not much room for anyone else whether you sat opposite or next to her.

We swam in a Blue Lagoon (which had become a little red due to tea tree oil) and climbed up to the lighthouse. Lunch was provided on the beach and after we had picked ourselves up having been crushed in the fat lady's stampede for tucker - we were able to swim in the surf.

The highlight 0f the trip was undoubtedly the sand tobogganing. We were issued with planks of hardboard that we waxed and then launched ourselves off the top of a sand dune for a hundred metre slide down head first. Roger really got into it until he wiped out big time and ended up with his face, nose, ears and beard a few centimetres thick in sand! He looked like some sort of sandy swamp monster.

We stayed the night in a very smart resort on the island and Roger took part in a nightly dolphin feeding session. Th3 dolphins are wild but come in every night to be fed fish by the tourists who are led into the water under supervision dangling their fish by the tail. Quite an experience!

The next day we went for a bush walk and saw several Skint Lizards scuttling away as we approached. Roger also saw a brown snake slithering out of the way but luckily did not tell me about it until I was well passed. We also walked up to a spot where 15 vessels had been deliberately sunk to create a reef. Unfortunately the wind had got up and it was too rough to snorkel but it was strange to see the rather ugly wrecks poking up from the sea on an otherwise beautiful and unspoiled sandy beach.

We are having some bad luck with electronic equipment - Roger's ereader has decided to pack up and unfortunately sand got into the camera and the shutter won't work. We are hoping to take it into a camera shop tomorrow and get it mended but if not will have to buy another one as we just can't be without a camera for the rest of the trip. Heartened by the England win in the Six Nations however!