It's the 11th of September and we have arrived in Australia. First port of call, a little town near cairns called Yorkeys knob, no we didn't make this up! As its coming to the end of our trip we thought to join the rest of the youngsters and work. Unfortunately we are not youngsters anymore and are too old for working visas so we settled for working for free accommodation. We stayed for 9 days with Peter at his place, villa marine, a place we could no way have afforded, it was luxury. James' job was to help Peter with all things graphic design, me, I was the resident cleaner. Having informed Peter that I had not done this professionally he gave me lessons. I nearly overcome my spider fear, having to sweep leaves and trim bushes convinced a funnel Webb would jump out. I survived and am now fully qualified ;)

Despite working 5 hours a day (backbreaking) we managed to explore when not enjoying the luxury room. We got taken to the local salsa class in a casino which was very entertaining, to the local markets, the food in which was amazing, walked the beaches and chatted to Bruce, Peters dad who tried his best to convert me to Johovah, although I'm not sure I would have got the approval if he really knew me. Our favourite day in cairns was a trip to the Great Barrier Reef. What an experience, a sail boat took us to Michalmas Cay, a sand island with thousands of birds. We swam out into the crystal clear waters and snorkelled for hours. We also got to go on a submarine through the reef seeing all sorts of fish! To top it off the food was so good, a massive improvement on Asia trips, cake and tea twice, a buffet and cheese, biscuits and champagne on the journey back. Best day ever!

As we had spent the last 6 months travelling Asia staying in hostels, catching all sorts of public transport, and lugging our backpacks around in the 40 degree heat, we decided a camper van was going to be our mode of transport and home all in one, to travel the east coast of Australia! We roughly planned a route from Cairns to Sydney and hit the road. Our first day/night was interesting, particularly parking up in the dark with no internal lights charged and trying to cook hot dogs, which stunk the van out. I for one was very dubious as to what was to come. Things soon changed and we were loving our new home, particularly the freedom, parking up pretty much anywhere, cooking and in bed by 8pm! It was dark by 6 so wasn't much else to do. We usually spent the mornings searching for outdoor lagoons with showers along the coast, quick swim and a cold shower, great way to wake up brrrr. The man made lagoons were great, particular as a lot of sea was out of bounds due to sharks, crocs and jellyfish!

We spent our nights in random campsites meeting people who have lived there for months, with only a worn out caravan to their name, living the simple life! Other nights we parked in truck stops surrounded by huge road trains, one particular night we choose to stay in a 'non camping' area, waking to the most gnat bites in my life, we were covered. In a rush to get from there James decided to reverse into a tree, denting and smashing the lights on the van! Karma I guess, we didn't stay in a 'non camp' area again! Luckily the van was fixed as we arrived in Brisbane, by a very chilled out guy who wasn't bothered at all, luckily we paid insurance and it cost nothing! Panic over. Brisbane is a lovely city, very modern. We spent the night at Brisbane backpackers hostel, waking at 2.45am to watch the Wales vs Australia game! We actually got to see it on TV unlike the Wales England game which we listened to on the radio in the back of the camper unable to get back to sleep at 5am in the morning being so excited!

We decided to take a trip to the biggest sand island in the world, Fraser Island. A very cool day which started with being picked up in a 4x4 bus! We spent the day driving down beaches and up and over very bumpy sand dunes visiting and swimming in lake Mckenzie, the most clear lake we've ever seen it was beautiful, we saw ship wrecks, learnt how the locals once lived, swan in lagoons and rescued a car which was stuck in the sand. We ended the day with a visit to sand blow at rainbow beach where we were staying. The wind had cut through an area of cliff blowing sand over the top, difficult to explain, best to see the photos. We sat and watched the sunset which was amazing!

We spent the next 10 days with Stu and Naomi, a couple from York. They came for tea at our van most nights, sharing stories from their travels. Together we went to Steve Urwins Zoo, for James birthday which he loved! Went to wet and wild water park, so much fun, like being 10 again, and finally joined them for a surf lesson at Byron Bay. Rewind a little, we actually spent a night alone before this, stranded in a national park due to a very stubborn starter motor. It was 9.30pm before we were rescued and very dark, no artificial light for miles. It took one hour to drive into Byron on really dark dodgy roads, luckily we had a free camp spot at the garage. We then met with Stu and Naomi to find that they had a parking fine too. We were also with them when reversing into a tree, we started to think we were a bad influence on each other.

Ok so back to the surfing lesson. We arrived at a beach a fair way from Byron Bay, listening the whole way to Terry citing quotes from the 70's show Get Smart. At the beach everyone was coming out of the water due to a shark sighting, boats helicopters the lot. But no not Terry 'in we go everyone this happens all the time' later admitting he needs the money, obviously no one moved. I checked with a few of the locals who advised us not to go in a they were tagging a great white! We put our foot down and an angry Terry drove to a river with no waves, a huge argument between him me and James, resulted in being taken back to the 'shark beach' and getting in the water. Yes we surfed and survived, what a crazy guy! We de-stressed with a dominos and a beer with Stu and Naomi :)

Difficult to fit the amount we done into a blog, so just a few more things we managed to squeeze in. Much to James' delight we drove through the many vineyards of hunter valley sampling wine, cheese and olives all morning for 'free!' Being designated driver I had to swill and spit, it felt very wrong! What a great morning though. Another alcohol induced
morning involved a visit to Bundaberg Rum Distillery, very interesting and we got two free rum and cokes at 11am, result :)

Having drove through many towns along the East coast including, surfers paradise and Gold Coast, with vast beaches, we decided a trip into the blue mountains was needed before hitting Sydney. We drove the whole circuit of the national park, amazing views ending up in a beautiful remote campsite for our last night in the campervan. It had been an adventure and was sad to say goodbye to our home and head to an old school friends real house for 11 days in the big city. Having not seen Alyson for around 12 years we had lots to catch up on. James and Kyle Alyson's parter sat and listened to old school stories which were pretty amusing to be fair, we laughed all night over beer and pizza. We spent our time in Sydney seeing all the sights including a trip to the opera house to see a play, walks over harbour bridge, a boat trip to Manley, yoga in the park, taught Alyson how to make lasagne and just enjoyed being in their lovely home, very greatful!

The time had come to fly to NZ. Our alarms were set for 2.45am to support both teams, the country we were leaving and the one we were heading to. So it was off to the home of the rugby world champions! See you again in 3 weeks Sydney!!

Much love Roanna & James xxx