I didnt stop off in Rockhampton in the end - heard some pretty rubbish things about it, so I skipped it and took the long bus journey down...

Im finally in Hervey Bay after a long fourteen hour bus journey. I arrived at 01:20 this morning and checked into the Beaches Backpackers after waiting 45 minutes for a taxi at the bus station, in the freezing cold!

The bus journey went alot quicker than I had expected it to. I met a girl from Kent on the bus, her name was Becky. She had another twelve hours to go on top of my journey, I didnt envy her at all! My journey was long enough!

We stopped at a service station six hours into the journey where I got talking to another lady on the bus. She has been up the east coast visiting her son and was on her way back down to Townesville. It was really good to speak to one of the locals! We both got talking to a group of bikers. There were about fifty of them, all middle aged, with long hair and beards, with bandanas and leather waitcoats on! They even offered to drive us instead of taking the old greyhound bus... tempting!

So, I arrived at the Beaches Backpackers at 02:30 and checked straight into the dorm. I didnt actually meet anyone in the dorm because they had all gone when I woke up and checked out.

I am now staying at Koalas Backpackers resort - I am doing the Fraser Island tour with them tomorrrow. I actually managed to get a free night out of them because I transported a box of brochures from the Airlie Beach resort down to them here! Result!

Ive had a really chilled out days today. Its the Australian Fathers Day here - so Happy Fathers Day Dad! It is 29C here, so decided to sit on the beach for an hour, and then took a wander around town. There isnt much here to be honest.

I had a pre tour meeting at 15:00 today, where I met the rest of the group that I would be staying with over the next few days. There are eight of us on the one truck - Johnny from Buckinghamshire, Marlin & Justin from Germany, Jacob from Yorkshire, Brendan from Kent and Bas & Kune from Holland. They are a great bunch of people and we all have got on really well.

We were given a list of recommended foods to take,along with the amount of alcohol that the tour guide recommends us to drink in three days - of course this list went out of the window and we decided to 'wing it'! The eight of us went shopping and spent $250 on food and drink for three days - basically it had 175 cans of beers and 16 litres of goon (wine) in there somewhere!

We are back at the hostel now, packing a smaller bag to take with us for two nights. Ive had to rent a bloody sleeping bag because I dont have one - it was $10.

We all have to meet at 06:30 tomorrow morning for our ferry over to Fraser Island. Johnny, Brendan and I have been put down as named drivers - this will be fun! Ive already warned them about my driving! Haha! It will be fine - think positive - thats what I keep telling them and myself!