Ok, so we left Cairns finally! We were still a bit nervous that the floodwaters would still be quite high after watching the news on the morning we left, but all the web reports on the roads said they were open - so off we went with our armbands at the ready.

The drive from Cairns to Innisfail was fine, we could see an obvious water line on the banks of the rivers we passed, there was a lot of debris still on the road but nothing to bad. In Innisfail it's self where all the really bad rainfall had been some of the shops still had the sand bags against the shop doors. Some of the locals had drawn the water line of the floods on the wall of the shops and put the date next to it, underneath this years line was other lines form the previous years flooding. I guess the locals we trying to have a dig at the state politicians about the state of the drainage in the town - rather than another new tourist attraction, obviously there was tourist's stood there taking photos of it (not us)!

The scenery on the drive was amazing, beautiful hill sides covered with rainforest and fluffy clouds half way up them, sugar cane fields as far as the eye can see, banana plantations and vast open spaces. Simply beautiful. The roads here are incredibly simple - the Aussie's have really got it sorted, they have one highway that goes all the way from the top of the East Coast right down to the bottom! Simple even for us..

We had a quick stopped off for lunch at a place called Mission beach, Stunning beach as you'd expect from Oz, but we couldn't go swimming there because of all the "stringers" (Jellyfish), apparently they have allot of them in the summer here, and them and me don't really mix - I still have the scar from Vietnam!! We just sat on the sand watching all the skydivers landing on the beach screaming and shouting as they came down (can't blame them really I think I would be screaming too..). There wasn't another soul on the beach apart from them and us.

Back in Frank we set off for our first stopover Townsville. I have to be honest I don't really remember much about Townsville. When we arrived there, it was getting dark and the heavens had opened, and franks windscreen wipers don't go that fast so I was concentrating on the road. We obviously were supposed to be camping our way down the East Coast, but seen as it was chucking it down we decided to rent a cabin at the campsite!

We didn't stay to long in the morning because we want to get to our next stop at Airlie beach. Airlie beach is basically were you go to go to the Whitsunday's. We had decided to only do a one-day tour of the Whitsunday Islands, as we didn't have enough money to do the 3-day tours that you are supposed to do.

So off we sailed round 3 of the Islands. They are mostly all unpopulated, as they are National Parks apart from the resorts that are there for the stop over tours. As part of our tour (which was mainly for the Grey army) we did get to do some snorkelling on one of the Islands - again we had to don the smurf suits, (attractive!) But because of the amount of rain that had fallen over the previous few days the visibility was crap. I could see about 2 inches in front of my face, so it seemed as good a time as any to have a bit of a panic attack about all the sharks that were going to attack me!!! So I was spluttering and screaming allot in my snorkel - which is quite difficult might I add - Sarah, then tried to calm me down, by telling me to take off the mask and snorkel and just keep my head above the water... My hero! I calmed down and swam over to the boat where they were throwing in bread for the fish so that we could see them close up. All was going swimmingly at first... Then the tour guide bloke threw bread right in front of my face so all the fish started to swim at me - more screaming followed through my snorkel - I'm such a wet blanket it's unreal! I surfaced to find Sarah laughing hysterically at me :( After the snorkelling we went to the other 2 Islands for more swimming and walks around the Island. They were very picturesque.

Next day we were back on the road to get to Hervey Bay via Rockhamton. I'm very sorry but I can't remember much about Rockhamton either, apart from there was alot of cattle... Aparently, rockhampton is Australia's capital of beef!!! = a lot of cattle!!! Hervey Bay, however I will never forget! Our first night camping in our spanky new tent!! Yippy! The joy of camping! I am not design to camp! However, Sarah thought it would be a good way to save a few pennies, and it turned out to be more fun than I remembered. Hervey Bay, is actually the gateway to Fraser Island, and alot of tourist use it as a jump off point only to get to Frasier, but we stayed there for a few days, enjoying the beautiful beach! The beach was empty and the water was lovely, and we also enjoyed being in the tent rather than a hostel, it was refreashing to have a bit of privacy.

From Hervey Bay to Maroochydore - to meet up with Marc! Marc was the Bakery Director of Bagel Nash, and had moved back to Oz a few months previously. We had arranged to meet up with him before we left the UK. We had an amazing time with Marc, he took us up Mount Coolum (which was hard work - for all of us!) to see some amazing views of Maroochydore and surrounding area and a walk along the local beach to see the beautiful 'Sunshie coast' coastline. He also treated us to BBQ at his place, and dinner at his friends restaurant - which was lovely (thanks Marc!!)! We also went to the 'Australian Zoo', which is the zoo that Steve Irwin set up in Oz - very cool place, lots of koala's and crocs!

From Maroochydore we went to Brisbane.... To be continued.....