We picked up a little hire car at Brisbane airport and headed for the Curumbin Valley to visit Ray's friend Mark from his Falmouth Art school days.

Before we left the UK, Mark had invited us to stay in his caravan in the rainforest and I had my reservations about this invitation then.

About ten years ago Mark had bought some land in the middle of the Queensland rainforest and started to build a very large eight bedroomed property in the hills. While the building was being carried out he built a temporary shed and installed a little caravan for him and his family to live in. Anyway for one reason or another the building work has stopped so for the time being Mark and his children continue to live in the shed and the caravan is used for visitors.....eight legged ones!!

We arrived and Mark was still at work, he told us to make ourselves at home so we explored. The view from the shed was spectacular, rainforest all around as far as the eye could see with mango and avocado trees and coffee plants growing in the garden which was decorated with stone buddhas and The Easter Island statues. Amazing setting!! We found the caravan, bright green, very old and away from the main shed. Ray opened the door and just on the inside was the carcass of a very very big huntsman spider...I immediately knew that there was no way I was going to stay in the caravan!!

When Mark arrived home he offered us his room which made me feel a lot better as I had considered sleeping in the hire car. Anyway we cracked open the beer and Ray and Mark had a lovely catch up about old times. I noticed that all around the shed there were huge webs in every corner, so something was making them... (Oooh that didn't bode well!!)...and as I went into the bedroom to get something my worst fears were confirmed. On the wall was the biggest spider I had ever seen ...a huge Huntsman, although not venomous, extremely scary! I came running back into the lounge whimpering, pointing and squeaking like a complete girl!.. Marks son James leapt up at my reaction (he didnt like them either!) and grabbed his baseball bat!!??...Ray ran about grabbing cups that were far too small and cans of insect repellent. Now I am seriously spider phobic but I do have a sense of compassion, I mean I won't kill anything just because its ugly and has too many eyes and when all said and done I am in its home not the other way round. So I persuaded James to put the baseball bat down and Ray found more suitable sized spider catching equipment, a plastic fruit bowl and a Joe Cocker record sleeve. The first attempt at catching the thing failed and sent the spider reeling around into the speediest and flightiest run ever seen and had me leaping onto the nearest chair and doing a strange, tribal, wild woman of Borneo slappy dance, thankfully the second attempt was more successful and Ray managed to capture the Jurassic creature under the fruit bowl and sliding the record sleeve underneath the bowl he then managed to release it back into the wild, the ground shook as it galloped away into the night...phew.. Panic over!!!........NOT....after this initial baptism of rainforest fire there continued to be a succession of the ruddy things. That night, after Mark had given up his bed and slept on the floor (so I didn't feel I could refuse and sleep in the car) I spent most of the time with the light on, staring at the ceiling just above my head where three more huntsman were lurking close enough for me to freak out should they move or bungee jump from the ceiling (since found out that huntsman hunt and dont spin webs or bungee jump!!) but too far away to catch. It didn't get any easier as the nights went on. The Queensland rainforest is beautiful but by far the noisiest place I have ever been. Things buzz, hiss,chirrup, croak, caw, whistle, yell, cackle, fight and hoot with absolutely no let up. In the middle of the night Ray had to accompany me to the toilet with a torch, we couldn't put any lights on in case it encouraged buzzy, bitey things into the house so it needed one person to do the 'weeing' while the other watched out for any rats who liked to frequent the outside kitchen and bite the dog or for snakes that had slithered into the living area, thankfully no snakes (and not just any old snake, apparently it's Fierce snakes they get here, one of Australia's deadliest!) But as we shone the torch around, two massive cane toads hopped about the bathroom. As I sat on the loo, trying to 'go' as quickly as I could Ray shone the light just behind me and there in all its hairy legged glory, with its eight red eyes shining with the reflection of the torch light was the mother of all arachnids!!!....honestly, I don't know how I did it!!...

We had intended staying with Mark for about a week and although he and his family are just the loveliest people my heart and nerves could not cope any longer than three days.

We used our time productively though visiting the famous Byron Bay with all of its, bongo playing, hippies from Nimbin. Nimbin became popular in the 1960's and many of the 'love and peace' generation got stuck here. Although the buying and selling of cannabis is illegal in Australia the hippies throw many parties and activities to rally for its legalization. I read that thousands of hippies descend on Nimbin during rallies for some cannabis related fun and frolics which include; a Prohibition Protest Rally and Parade with the Ganja Faeries, the Nimbin Cannabis Cup, the Hemp Olympix, which includes the Bong "Throw'n'Yell", Joint Rolling, and the Grower's Iron Person event, where runners must first carry a 20 kg sack of fertiliser, then a bucket of water, and finally "the crop", as a tribute to the difficulties faced by growers in the hills, and to show that cannabis users can be fit and healthy!

Everywhere you look there are serious surf dudes and lentil eating veggie cafes on every street corner. I felt that Byron Bay was a nice place but too far out and cosmic man!...honestly , I can't stand people who swan about the world and don't work.... get a job you lazy hippies !!....hee hee!!

We also visited the glowworm caves in Springbrook National Park where volcanic activity and erosion has created a waterfall right through the middle of the rocks which in turn has created beautiful caves under the falls where the fruit bats and glow worms live... very lovely walk, right in the heart of the rainforest.

On our last day in Queensland we stopped off at Steve Irwin's Australia Zoo with its tame kangaroo's and koalas, Tasmanian devils and an array of deadly snakes. It really was a fascinating place with so much conservation work going on. Next to every enclosure there were information signs with Irwinesk expressions such as 'crickey mate', 'fair dinkum', 'isn't she a beaut' and whole walls displayed like shrines, filled with the classic Steve Irwin khaki shirts with words of condolences written on them from visitors to the zoo for the Irwin family. But the place was very quiet and sedate and as we watched one of the keepers feed an enormous, prehistoric crocodile I couldn't help but feel that the life had gone out of the park. It really felt like there was something missing....very sad!

That night we stayed in a hostel just outside of Brisbane airport and it was great to finally get a good, spider, snake, cicada, buzzing things and toad free night's sleep!