Well as time passes by at a rapid rate, island life goes on. We have been on Lindeman Island for six weeks now and have been working very hard indeed saving up our cents to add to the travel funds. The end is in sight though as we plan to work for another two weeks and we should be back on the mainland and driving about in Bert by the 16th August. With our time on the island it has gave us the opportunity to plan ahead with the rest of our time travelling and what busy little bee's we are going to be. One highlight is going to be finally getting to New Zealand as we have tickets to a couple of games during the rugby world cup. We are going to get to see the haka as the All Blacks take on Japan on the 16th September and also we get to cheer on our boys as we watch England hopefully walk all over Romania on the 24th September (my birthday, beats being stuck on an island like Ashleigh's bless her!). So we just have to say sorry to my Dad Steve and Ashleigh's brother ,Wayne and sister in-law, Nicky as they are rugby mad and will probably have dartboards set up in their homes with pictures of us up on them.

But all this is still to come so I should talk about what we have been up to when we haven't been scrubbing pots and pans and changing peoples bed sheets and cleaning skid marks off guests toilets. We still get visits from Sugar Ray from time to time and he flies straight through the door and makes himself at home. We have another feathered friend, a blackbird that we have creatively called Blackie. He sits outside our door and we feed him pieces of fruit. So I get followed home from work by not one but two birds on some days. At least Blackie has a good diet of fruits as Sugar Ray will only take sugar or peanut butter from us and turns his beak up at anything else. The days that we get off together are far and few between as it has been peak season for the resort making it a bit tricky to organise time off. Also a large amount of staff have been NBO'ed (next boat out) from the island for things such as being drunk whilst working, fighting or breaking into the bar to steal drink after hours. So like most of the morons on the Apprentice, in the words of Alan Sugar they have been told “YOUR FIRED!” but they use the term NBO'ed here as it is an island and they actually do have to take the next boat out off the island once they have been sacked without receiving their weeks pay as they have not honoured their contracts. Eeeee it all goes on here I tell you and with it being a small island it's only a matter of minutes before all the staff know what has been going on and by who. It is like living in a soap opera. They should make a reality TV series on this island, it would be rather entertaining with the amount of characters here. I'm sure this island coined the phrase “you don't have to be mad to work here but it helps!” as the majority of people who have worked here for over a year seem to be a little crazy, nice people but just a little crazy!

The best thing about being on the island is the sense of adventure you get whilst exploring the many walking tracks and beaches. We spent a day walking down the southern coast of the island and rambled about on the rocks of Plantation Beach. Its a good hours walk to reach the beach and once you are there you can spend hours climbing up and down rocks, through the woods or even getting your feet wet in the sea of the sandy beach right at the tip of Plantation. We found 'Snake Cave' that we had heard people talking about and had a nose around finding shed snake skin's littered on the floor amongst many types of bones. Bones of who knows what but they were a fare size, so with the thought that they might be the remains of a snakes last victim, we decided to climb back down onto the beach. It is a great place if you like a bit of rambling about as we spent hours there and were all over the place. We walked up onto some rocks for a better view out towards the other islands when Ash noticed that the cracks in the rocks were brimming with brown snakes. They must hide in these cracks to absorb the heat from the rocks as they bake in the sun. So a debate broke out between us what these rocks should be called. As the obvious choice I went for 'Snake Rock' as it sounded like something you would see on a pirate map. Ash on the other hand opted for 'Snakes-Ville' based on the assumption that it is a little village for snakes amongst the rocks. I will let you decide which is the best but you can tell already cant you? Snake Rock it is then.

One of our days off together was spent as an active activity day. Eight of us set off at 12pm for the trek to Gap Beach on the east side of the island. In our adventure group were myself and Ashleigh, Mat, Jay, Marcus, Philippe, Vincent and Justin 'Three Englishmen, two German's, two Frenchmen and a Canadian take a walk to a beach...' sounds like the start of a joke doesn’t it. It was a good hours walk along the walking trail until we were met by the rocks of Gap Beach. We couldn't have picked a better day to go as there wasn't a cloud in the rich blue sky and the sun was shining down onto the waters making the sea dazzle in turquoise colours. We walked south along gap beach to the rocks that would eventually lead to Turtle Bay. It was great climbing up and down the rocks, taking in the views of the nearby islands and the little natural lagoons that had been carved into the rocks from years of erosion. We eventually came to a dead end as the only way to continue around the island was to swim or to climb a steep rock face. Justin made his way back as he had to start work and me, Ash and Mat sat on the rocks as Jay, Marcus, Philippe and Vincent climbed down the rocks and had a swim in the lagoon. The work we do here is hard going but these moments make it all worth it. After some time me, Ash and Mat decided to head back to camp for a cuppa before climbing the mountain for sunset. We said “See you later” to the rest of the guys and started the long trek back. As we were making our way back over the rocks and beach that we had came over we noticed that the tide was starting to come in and we all thought that the rest of the guys best be careful as they could get stuck out there on the rocks. After a brisk walk back through the woods and discussing the adventures of Snake & Banana (it's a long story!) we grabbed a round of tea and toast before setting off up the mountain to watch the sunset.

It takes a good 30-40 minutes to walk up the mountain but the views are breathtaking. Possibly the best views we have seen throughout our travels and we have seen a few I can tell you. I suppose it could be classed as Australia's alternative to Halong Bay in Vietnam. Ash was blown away with the number of islands that could be seen and the actual amount that make up the Whitsundays. To celebrate conquering Mount Oldfield we had some chocolate that I had acquired from the kitchen and to help wash it down we popped a bottle of fizz that our neighbour had kindly given us. It felt only right to take my Union Jack along and hold it aloft at the summit claiming Lindeman Island as part of the British empire. So if you are reading this Liz, for our services to the country and for our courage and valour a knighthood for me, Ashleigh and Mat would do very nicely. Sir Peter and Dame Ashleigh Cole has a very nice ring to it I think. As we sat on the summit we watched as the sun slowly set behind an island in the distance and the array of colours on show were plentiful. Watching the bright light gradate into warm oranges and reds then into blues and purples is a sight that is hard to get bored of especially within our surroundings. As soon as the sun sets the temperature drops and before you know it is pitch black. So with this in mind we headed back down Mount Oldfield to our home away from home with the need of a good plate of grub.

When we made it back to the canteen we asked of Philippe and Jay, nobody had seen them. Marcus and Vincent had not been seen either. We had been joking making our way down the mountain saying “imagine if the boy's are stranded somewhere, they will have to send for the rescue helicopter” and this thought now came to mind. We checked their rooms and there was no sign of them at all. It is only a small island and there is not a lot of places you can go. It was pitch black outside and we had left them over five hours ago and alarm bells started to ring. Ash notified HR and made them aware of where we had been and what time we had left them. We kept checking their rooms every 20 minutes to see if they had turned up. By 7.00pm there was still no sign of them and we started to get rather worried about them. The health and safety officer sent out a team on quad bikes to see if they could find them and if they could not he would have to call for the rescue helicopter. At 7.30pm a very relieved looking Philippe, Jay, Marcus and Vincent made their way into the canteen looking more than pleased to be back. The quad bikes had found them making their way back up the walking trail they had walked down some eight hours earlier. They had left the lagoon they had been swimming in after we had left them and climbed over the rocks to make their way further around Turtle Bay. After sometime they tried to complete a route round the southern side of the island that connects to another beach, Plantation Beach, by swimming round the southern tip. Philippe told us that they were swimming holding their bags over their heads but the waves were too strong and they had to turn back only 50 metres off from Plantation Beach. So the long route they had already walked, climbed and swam had to be taken back towards Gap Beach. They even admitted that they started to panic as soon as the sun started setting, during that time we were sipping champagne at the top of the mountain. Everybody was just so pleased that no harm had came to them and that they had all made it back safe and sound. Jay finished off the panic perfectly with “....WE SEEN TURTLES THOUGH!”

So only two more weeks until we are on the road again and we are at that stage now where we are counting down the days. If you took all the pots and pans I have washed over the past six weeks and melted them down you would probably have enough metal to put a rail road around Russia. And with all the bed sheets Ashleigh has changed you would probably be able to cover 200 football pitches. So it is safe to say that when we get home and buy a house, we are buying a dishwasher and hiring a maid as we have washed enough dishes and cleaned enough rooms to last us a lifetime!

Love Peter and Ashleigh x