Just over a week ago we left the safety of Bill's house and embarked on our first big trip to Cairns and back - a mere 3,500km, or more if we come back inland! So far we have visited Maleny and the Glasshouse Mountains, seen a platypus and a pademelon (a small red legged wallaby) and a roost of flying foxes. We've wine-tasted, met someone from Jersey, been up and down some STEEP hills (I was worried Winnie wouldn't make it but she coped better than I did!), stayed at Maroochydore, watched an amazing sunset on the beach with a glass of wine in hand and been to Noosa in the rain. We've stayed on a lovely site in someone's 'garden' where we were the only people there, cooked kangaroo steaks under the stars and climbed to to the summit of Mount Tinbeerwah for 360 degree views of Noosa and the hinterland (it was scary, I held onto the railings all the way up!). We've also bought a drone and been taking aerial photos of the van, and crowds have gathered to watch!

And then we got to Maryborough, the birthplace of P L Travers, the author of Mary Poppins. We got on our bikes to explore as we wanted to see the statue of Mary Poppins in the centre of town. Well, we shouldn't have worried about parking the van in town as it was deserted. It was quite eerie, Saturday afternoon, shops shut and no-one, literally, about. In fact we kept bumping into the same two women! However, the town was fascinating with huge old colonial buildings, a wharf and old customs house dating from times when everything came in by river. We found Mary but could have easily biked by her! She was life-sized so quite small and dwarfed by the renovations being carried out to the bank next to her, the same bank that was managed by P L Travers' dad and so inspired the scene from the film. However, the safety screening had been purposefully made with images from the film - a nice touch!

In Pialba, Hervey Bay we booked a one day tour to Fraser Island, the largest sand island in the world. This turned out to be the most amazing day. We crossed on a barge/ferry and were picked up in a 4x4 bus! We knew it was going to be a different sort of trip when we were told we must put the seat belts on as we would need them. I know it sounds naive but I hadn't actually realised that the roads/tracks would actually be soft sand and they were full of holes and bumps. I have never been on a such a bumpy, rocky journey and the guide said this was a good day!! How people weren't sick I don't know! 10km later and we drove onto 75 mile beach - the only beach in the world where the 'road' is recognised in atlases and also doubles as a runway. However, we learnt that 'road' is a loose term as sometimes we would be at the top of the beach and then the sand would deteriorate, or a creek would appear, and we would have to drop down to the waves for a while. We sped along too, for 40km. During that time we spotted a few whales out to sea blowing and tail-slapping. It was just so mind-blowing that when we arrived at an 'airport' on the sand, and had the chance to take a flight up to see the whales and the rest of Fraser Island, there was no question - we were going. We had to wear headphones to drown out the noise, and I could have reached the controls myself, the plane was that small! I do remember clinging to the seat of the 8-seater plane as we took off, and also when he banked steeply to show us the whales and various lakes on the island, but it was such a great experience. Bob and I felt strangely emotional after that - we had been planning and talking about Fraser Island for so long, we had given up so much, and in that moment we realised why! We swam in a freshwater creek, Eli Creek, that spews out over 4 million litres of fresh water a day and visited a 'perched' lake, the largest of its kind. Apparently a 'perched' lake sits above the water table and retains its water due to a layer of vegetation on its bottom. Well, I have to say Lake McKenzie was a fine example - turquoise waters lapping onto pure white silica sand. Swimming had to be done, although we were one of the few, apparently it was too cold?! We visited the wreck of the Maheno, walked through the rainforest and didn't see any of the 7 venomous snakes, dingoes or the funnel web spider that inhabit the island. Result!!

Yesterday we were at Bundaberg, the home of Australia's premier rum. And yes, we did the distillery tour - silly question!! It was fascinating to know that on that site, which didn't appear particularly big, there was over $3 billion dollars worth of rum in the making. Also, that 96% of it never leaves Australia - only 4% is exported, 3% to New Zealand, as lots of Aussies visit there, and the other 1% to the rest of the world, which probably explains why we had never heard of Bundaberg rum before! Tastings were included on the tour so I dried the dark rum and the salted caramel liqueur, and Bob tried the Salera, a premier rum, and the chocolate and toffee liqueur. If these liqueurs ever get exported then Baileys will be out of business!!

It has been an awesome start to our trip, but it hasn't all been plain sailing. We are yet to connect up our water supply to the mains due to leaks so are living off of tank water, and bottled water for drinking. We have bought new fittings so fingers crossed! We haven't managed to get the TV working - it worked perfectly at Bill's but hasn't since, despite my efforts and various helpful comments from other 'travellers' on Facebook. We willl try again when our electrics issue is resolved, but it appears there is little or no reception around here! Last night we were happily reading when an alarm went off under our bed and our battery meter said low. Lights were turned off and the alarm stopped. However, when we were in bed, and in darkness, the alarm returned constantly. Wtf?! We both jumped out of bed, scrambled for the torch and then tried to find where the noise was coming from. We were both worried about waking the neighbours but couldn't get the darned noise to stop as we didn't know what, or where, it was! Bob ended up outside, scrambling for his toolbox and disconnecting the battery under our bed and the noise stopped!! Phew! We both went back to bed a bit shell-shocked from the noise and mentally cancelling everything we had planned for the next day. The site have been brilliant, fitted us in for another night on a powered site, so at least we could function, and arranged for an electrical engineer to call. Apparently there were two big problems, which are now sorted, and Winnie is ticketyboo again, thank goodness!

We have also both taken the skin off our knees while trying to get round our table in the van - now solved hopefully by the end of a pool 'noodle', which also came in handy for stopping our door banging onto the awning pole. And I have hurt my wrist somehow, can't put any weight on it or unscrew things. Changing gear on the bike is a killer, so am wearing a wrist splint, but at least we know that going to a doctors here is easy - same day appointment and no charge with our Medicare card!

So, how to summarise our first few days away? A bit of a rollercoaster really (like some of the roads we've been on!) - Fraser Island was a huge high but the few van problems have been lows and disrupted our plans. Still, c'est la vie, we signed up for an adventure so onwards and upwards to the next bit!