We lived through our worst nightmare when leaving Cape Tribulation as the rains came though the night and didn't let up when we packed our tent away! Not a nice thing to do and now we have a wet tent scruffily packed in the boot of our car! What's more annoying is when the rain stops just after we finish while we're sitting having breakfast!

We never planned our days drive today apart from knowing we wanted to just skim down the coast we'd already seen and head to Airlie Beach. Some planning should've been considered because the drive was 769km and took about 10 long hours - something we didn't expect to have to do after leaving the outback!! The journey was broken up by the excellent scenery, however, and another visit to Frosty Mango's to indulge in pancakes, mango ice-cream, mango muffin and a mango smoothie. Delicious!

It's schoolie's week in this part of the world which means that high schools are kicking out the leavers and they come away to party (albeit underage). This means that all accommodation is booked and we struggle, for the first time, to get accommodated anywhere. Fortunately, one of the hostels cancelled a late arrival for us. It's about now when we should really start to book ahead as things are getting busier because of the time of year and the stand-out popularity of the east coast of Oz.

We spent a lot of time deciding how best to see the Whitsunday Islands because of the many different options and prices available. One option was a sailing cruise for 3 days/2 nights, another was a day cruise and the third was to simply camp. Camping was the first to be ruled out as the weather promised rain and it costs about $120 each just for the transport to the islands! Sailing was something that looked like a lot of fun but, again with the weather, may not have been enjoyable for that reason and was also expensive - from about $400 each. So the last remaining option won by default!! We still had a hard time choosing the best day tour but Ocean Rafting won. I guess it's not a bad life when our biggest worry is how best to enjoy a natural wonder! Sorry!!

We had to check out of our hostel on the morning of our trip so we loaded up the car and prepared to drive off somewhere (not quite sure at this stage!) as soon as we returned. It was clear from the outset that we'd made the best choice for the trip. The weather was fairly cloudy with some sun - probably the best formula and the fast transport through the seas was superb, with the driver using every possible opportunity to through you from side to side during 360 degree spins!

We snorkelled at two fantastic spots that were even better than the reef off Cairns - the weather probably helped - then had a walk up to the top of the main island for stunning views of Whitehaven beach, possibly one of the nicest in the world. The sand is like powder and is used by NASA for visors and we stayed there for a couple of hours to enjoy a buffet lunch.

When leaving Airlie Beach, we weren't quite sure where to stop next but we decided on Mackay. This city only just managed to accommodate us too as we arrived about 7pm and hadn't booked (tut-tut!). Near Mackay is Eungella N.P., accessible via a pleasant drive through some sugar cane towns. Our main aim here was to spot the ever elusive and native platypus.

We took in the surrounds and had a walk through yet another rainforest (yes it rained!) before a steep but excellent drive up to broken river where the platypus was waiting! It took a good hour of waiting and admiring the turtles and snake but eventually the little fella popped out to say hi. They're much smaller than i expected - only about 30cm long - but amazing creatures and very very shy. Even a flash from a camera will send him down to hide in the murky waters only to come up briefly for air.

From Mackay we drove a long and fairly dull 570km to "The Town of 1770" - so named after the date Captain Cook first set foot on Queensland. This town is very small and equally as attractive and we camped for the first time since packing up in the rain! As you can imagine, this wasn't too nice! We had to clean the tent to get rid of the smell and it seems to be all gone now!

Our full day in 1770 started on the beach for as long as we could bear it (about 40mins) due to the heat and concluded with what has to be one of the best experiences so far on our trip. We took a scooterroo tour. This was recommended to us by a couple of people we'd met so far so it had to be good and it really was. Sam was very apprehensive having never riden a motorised 2-wheeler before but she soon relaxed into it (i won't mention her near miss when careering off the road at 70km/h!! ssshhhh!). The tour was on fully automatic Harley Davidson type bikes, only a little smaller, and was superb. The train of about 20 bikers toured around the back roads spotting kangaroos for a couple of hours before enjoying a magnificent sunset with a cool beer and wedges at the local pub.

Bundaberg is our next stop and the only reason for our visit is because giant loggerhead turtle nesting season has just begun. We only needed one night here to see what we came for and it was probably worth coming to Oz just for this!

The turtle tours start at 7pm and had to be pre-booked, which we did! About 120 people can visit in any one night and they are split into two groups and we were in group 1. This was so a maximum of 60 people will be taken down at any one time should a turtle arrive and this was by no means guaranteed as the previous 4 nights had seen a total of 0 turtles!! We were lucky then as within half an hour we were called down to the beach to witness a truly remarkable, if a little imposing(!), sight. A giant loggerhead turtle came up from the sea to lay her nest of about 100 eggs in full view of all of us! She was over 1 meter long as her shell measured 95cm. This evening was as thrilling as the last but in so many different ways!