This blog is dedicated to Stroman and his wife Holly who will have a brand spanking baby girl in their arms within a weeks time! Hope you get time to read this blog over lunch at your desk Stromans! Well, I have been fairly slack in the blog department for the past few weeks - probably too busy sunning myself on the beach, building sandcastles with Ruby and getting smashed by waves and nearly drowning us both!

We left Point Plomer to head towards Coffs Harbour and were greeted with 3 days of torrential down pour. Most of the time was spent towards waterproofing the camper and then watching movies while we waited for a break in the weather so we could pack up and b***** off out of there. Finally we got our chance and got on the road to head up towards Byron Bay. We stayed at Broken Head near Byron and and had a glorious week of beautiful sunshine and great surf. Our friends Micko and Yutah and baby Aden were visiting from Thailand so it was so nice to see the big, hairy fella again and his gorgeous family. Micko was the first person I ever went travelling with and got me in to all sorts of trouble and saved me twice from being hit by buses in Mexico. Unfortunately I was cleaned up by a quad bike in Utilla a week after he left!

The day we were leaving Byron we received a distressing phone call from our Euro mates Sandy and Andrea who had woken up in a National Park about 2 hours away with 2 flat tyres. Poor Sandy thought he was a goner, even though they had mobile range and the area was frequented by about 50 visitors a day. So we drove to the rescue with a spare and sent them on their way, agreeing to meet up the next day further north.

That night we camped in the car park at Mt Warning so Nath could get up at 3.30am to climb to the top and see the sunrise - it is the first place to see the first light on mainland Australia and by Nath's account is pretty spectacular. We then drove to Hastings Point which is about half and hour south of the QLD border and is so beautiful. We had another three days of swimming, sunning ourselves and surfing and were joined by Sandy and Andrea. The three boys spent two days sanding back the Euros 4WD and pointlessly spray painting it white - no idea why.

Then to QLD. We headed along the coast and stopped for a surf and a swim at where else but surfers paradise. Nath had a great surf with b***** all people out (a rare event for the east coast apparently) and I hung out with the beautiful people on the beach. Ruby had a great time rolling herself down the sand hills and embarrassed the hell out of my by standing in front of the hottest bloke on the beach and drilling her nose. We went for a dip in knee deep water and got smashed by two rogue waves, sweeping me off my feet and sending myself and Ruby tumbling. I held on tight, lost my sunnies and hat and almost my bikini top but thank god managed to hang on to my daughter - very scary. We kept driving on to Brisbane and spent a night with the lovely Krepsta and Lou before Nath flew out the following morning back to Karratha for a few weeks of work.

Ruby and I headed north to Gladstone for a coupe of weeks of wine and giggles with Larri and the Lindons. I was crapping myself driving the troopy and camper out of Brisbane and was determined to drive the 7 hours without having to reverse (mainly because I don't know how). I tried to keep Ruby entertained with bad singing and a muffin the size of her head, but 5 hours in to it she had had enough and spent the last two hours alternating between screaming and whinging. If I had a spare hand I would have pulled my hair out, however we continued on and stumbled in to Larri's 7 hours later - straight in to a much needed glass of wine. Ruby has taken a huge dislike to Larri's husband Dwain and after a week she can now tolerate him in the same room. In the beginning he was not even permitted in her line of sight but she has relented slightly and allowed him some movement in his own house. She absolutely adores their two daughters Tyla and Lucy and copies everything they do - she especially loves dinner time and bath time where she gets to hang out with the big kids.

We are a week in to our stay and have been fairly boring, I have been working and hanging out with the girls and both Ruby and I are missing Nath like crazy. I would have though that after 5 months of being in each others faces we would have been glad to see the back of each other. Now I am just very keen to get back on the road and see some new places. So that's it for now - we head off on Saturday back to Byron Bay and the Goldcoast to spend 10 days with Carla, Dave, Will and Tom Tom....and of course Nath. I can't wait!