Hi Everyone,

We are in the middle of trying to book accomodation for Ayers Rock (not a cheap hostel in sight so we are shopping around for the best deal.....and we have just heard that it is Chinese New Year when we are in Singapore so we will have to really search for accomodation there too!! ) This organisational stuff is endless....anyway i'll try and recap on some of the stuff we have been doing....

On our one day in 1770 we managed to fit in an awesome tour...on 'chopper' motorbikes! 3 hours of the open road around the townships of 1770 and Agnes Waters, stopping to see wallabies on the way and ending up at the pub for a drink with a view, watching the sun setting over the bay. It was the first time riding a bike for both of us and we both loved it!! Bring on the leathers when we get home!! Hehehe (i can just imagine your shocked/worried face Mum!!)

Then the dreaded over night bus, which, apart from the fact we couldnt actually sleep was ok. The seats reclined about 3cm and the bus kept stopping every 2 or 3 hours so you couldnt actually settle down. Bring back South America overnight buses with almost horizontal reclining seats and foot rests!!ahhhhh

We arrived at Airlie Beach about 6.30 am, really shattered, so we had a chilled out day and an early night in our nice hostel Backpackers by the Bay. Next day we had to move hostels (we had been given 2 free nights with our sailing tour) to Magnums which was immediately less appealing but it wasn't until later that we realised just how bad it was...... We had another very chilled out day in Airlie, did a bit of shopping and i bought a new skirt and top to add to my rucksack!! We are finding even the lightweight clothes we bought in the Uk just too hot for this climate so super airy light Ozzie clothes are needed! My excuse anyway :-) Afterwards we sat and read books by the manmade lagoon, used because the saltwater crocs make the sea too dangerous. To be honest we have found the culture of constantly chilling out at the beach a bit boring and very 'surface', but there really isn't anything else to do in these sea side towns apart from wandering through the garish, tourist orientated streets....Australia so far really isn't doing much for me..... anyway, we had a lovely evening, meeting up with friends, Heena and Rishi for dinner...sneaking into their hostel and using their facilities, meaning we didnt have to go anywhere near our skanky excuse of a kitchen.

Next morning we were up early for our 3 day sailing adventure....and, guess what? It was monsoon weather....getting soaked to the skin and gusted off our feet as soon as we walked out of our room. I rang the company to check if we were actually going to sail in such weather. We just couldnt believe it...we never considered bad weather - its not like they show you that on the brochures!! Anyway, yes, we were off, braving the storm which in fact turned out to be really great fun. The boat was really sailing...very fast and on a crazy angle....we had to hang on for dear life tho I was sat next to a girl who couldn't swim so i actually felt quite safe in comparison :-) Sorry Olive! Day 2 and 3 of our trip were much sunnier which was better for sunbathing but not as good for actually sailing as there was very little wind. It seems we had the best of both worlds in the end! Over the 3 days we had a couple of little stops on beaches, including Whitehaven beach which was very surreal with its brilliant white sand (best in the world, 98% silicon), we saw sharks circing the bays here too, but for most of the time we were on the boat....eating and sleeping on it! The food over the 3 days was lovely and all prepared for us, we had a cool box full of beer and we also used it as a card table at night -so much fun :-) and then we got swayed to sleep with the sound of the waves lapping the boat-luckily my sea sickness tablets worked a treat. We did a bit of snorkeling too, gaining our first taste of reef corals and multi coloured fish which really wetted our appetite for doing more....and even to try diving further up the coast.

The only bad thing was that my feet and legs flared up with bed bug bites...as i said on the message board i had 96 bites on one leg...it was all swollen so you couldnt even see my ankle bone and excruciatingly itchy...we are not actually sure if i got them in the hostel before leaving Airlie or from the boat...but whatever the case they flared up something rotten in the sunshine so i ended up sitting with a wet towel over my legs to cool the itch.

Getting back to the mainland we had a lovely dinner with our group and said goodbye to them. It's such a shame....we are always meeting so many lovely people, getting to know them a little bit and then saying goodbye...so sad! Anyway, then we had the night from hell in our FREE but SKANKY hostel. I got yet more bed bug bites, and we also had a rat / mouse incident...getting into Richard's rucksack and nibbling the packet of freeze dried food as well as leaving droppings over his sleeping bag-YUCK YUCK YUCK. Enough said about that, the sooner forgotten the better.

Next day we got the Greyhound bus further up the coast and then the ferry accross to Magnetic Island. As soon as we arrived here we loved it. An island with really interesting terrane, lush green tree filled hills with strange rocks that look fake they are so big and little bays with quiet beaches. Our hostel was heaven too. We had a little 'A frame' hut to ourselves with fantastic air conditioning so it felt like a fridge when we went in, tho in fact it was 19 degrees...it just felt cold compared to outside!! The huts were set in 7 acres with a lovely pool and next door was a little wildlife park. Bliss. We even extended our booking so we could chill out a bit longer. On the second morning we had a special Bushtucker Brunch at the wildlife park...we sat down enjoying a huge meal, fruit, yoghurt, sausages, chutneys, lamb chops, reef fish and pancakes whilst 'residents' of the park were brought round to see us, crocs, snakes and koala!! how cute!

In the afternoon we went horse riding -Richard's idea not mine would you believe it. I had a lovely mount called Popeye, as Becky said, a foreign reincarnation of our Popeye maybe? However Richard's mare was being rather mare-ish and drove him insane napping to the others and refusing to MOVE!! Once we were through the bush and on the beach it was much better and swimming with them in the sea was loads of fun, they were not shy of it like Buddy but straight in until they were literally swimming. We got some nice pictures too :-)

On Monday we made our last Greyhound journey to Cairns and Tuesday we were up early and onto another boat for our Great Barrier Reef Diving experience. This time a big boat...infact so big it was like a cruise ship-absolute luxury and completely unexpected which made it extra nice. Dining room, lounge with settees, tv, coffee table, bar, our own room with en-suite!! Not Bad! Over the 2 days we did 5 introductory dives....and it honestly was the best thing we have done in Australia...in fact i think it was one of the best things we have done over the whole trip. It was so so nerve wracking, especially the first time but this made the thrills even better i think. We were lucky that there was only the 2 of us doing the introductory course - the others were all qualified divers- so we had complete attention from the instructor and basically a personal guide of the Great Barrier Reef. On the boat he taught us the basics and then we were in the water....dropped down to 2 meters where we did some skills like swapping our regulator and clearing our masks and then we were off, suddenly 9 metres under water with fish all around us and the most amazing coral. The first time i really had to concentrate on just breathing and swallowing....the second time was an awesome thrill (we even had to go off a little dingy boat backwards)....the third time was nerve wracking because i kept getting water in my mouth piece and i had to swap it 8meters under water....then by the 4th and 5th times we were both feeling more relaxed and could really appreciate where we were and the amazing things we were seeing. It really has given us the bug and i reckon we will do the PADDI certified divers course in Thailand :-) Bring it on!!

We have spent the last couple of days in Cairns, coming down off our diving high and organising the next bits of our trip. Off to Ayers Rock tomorrow for 5 days of Red Centre hotness!

Hope you managed to get to the end of this epic, leave us a message if you did, we LOVE hearing from you!!

Miss You, Sarah xxxxxx