It was very sad to finally leave Airlie, especially the people. However, I was glad to be back on the road and travelling again. A 14 hour bus journey took me down to Rainbow Beach, the base for Fraser Island. On arrival my first task was to paint a boomerang. Again my physical co-ordination skills challenged my artistic talent (also sadly lacking). Left with little guidance and only paints, I set about trying to create a lovely sunset scene. To my own credit ...

After a brief escape to travel, I returned to Airlie Beach and the shock of working! My job was a decky for a company called Prosail. There were 3 boats I would work on; Condor, Hammer and Broomstick. Condor and Broomstick run a 2 day 2 night trip whilst Hammer is a 2 day 1 night trip. Condor is 85ft in length and has won every major ocean race in the world twice. She is the only yacht to have achieved this distinction. These races include the Sydney to Hobart, ...

Finally, leaving Airlie Beach behind, I headed to the place where Australia began. The Town of 1770 (/Agnes Water) is the place where Captain Cook first landed in, funnily enough, 1770. There is not a lot to see except a beautiful coastline. The main thing to do here is ScooterRoo-ing and, boy was it worth it! Basically, you hire a Chopper (mini Harley Davison) and spend several hours driving around the Australian countryside looking for kanagroos. And what a si...

I had decided that when I was in Australia I would try to reinstigate my forgotten sailing skills and make them stick this time. Apparently the best place to do this is around the Whitsunday Islands. The base town for the Islands is Airlie Beach and this is where I headed to next. In Cairns I had researched about sailing and found an ideal course called Learn to Earn. The course involved 6 days intensive training resulting in being awarded an internationally rec...

The only reason anyone goes to Townsville is to get the ferry over to Magnetic Island. Deciding to buck the trend I opted to stay in Townsville, and it was a delight. A run down town that is trying to redesign itself, there was a certain charm about it. A beautiful promenade ran along the beach, allowing me to enjoy the beauty of Magnetic Island from a distance whilst still having the joy of a town. It turned out that this weekend there was a VB motorcar race- a...