Well, where has that 2 months gone? When we left to do the 'Queensland Loop' the distances looked daunting, and we had a new van to get used to. Would we like it? Would we survive? So I thought for the final blog on this part of the trip I would go through some of our thoughts and impressions, and also some of our low points, as there have been some! We have travelled 5833kms, used 771 litres of fuel and have stopped at 37 different camp sites. The camp sites ha...

"This is Australia." The Central Highlands of North Queensland are probably not No.1 on the main tourist route so, when we called into the very helpful tourist information centre at Emerald, we picked up the necessary brochures to carry us over for the next day or so of travelling. The tourist information centres are an absolute 'mine' of information (well, we are near the gem fields!) and extremely helpful. We have found this in every place we have been to in Q...

Having driven up the Bruce Highway to Cairns we decided to return via the Great Inland Way. We thought that this would give us a gentle introduction to driving longer distances, and meeting 'road-trains'. How wrong were we!! For us, it has been like being in the Outback, although this is not technically classified as such - long, straight roads that stretch into the distance, red dirt corrugated roads, and single track bitumen, but more of that later, and no phon...

Oh my, what a lot we have done since the last blog. There is no way I will bore you with every place and detail but we have now reached the 'wet tropics', although there is no rain at this time of year! Signs everywhere warn of crocodiles and not to swim, although we have yet to see one. I have seen a shark swimming by though!! You are also warned about marine stingers, or jellyfish, but the season usually starts around October/November. However, we were made to ...

Driving up through the North East side of the Australian landmass you will either see fields and fields of cattle or fields and fields of sugar cane. Being quite partial to the end products of both, I thought to delve a little deeper into the sugar cane and came to the satisfactory conclusion that we all need to drink more rum! Picture 1 shows it's all about tasting the end products from the mill! Why? Rum is one of the many products that come from the incred...