Better start this little soap opera now. This could take a while. The Oz bus arrived in Hervey Bay just before 6pm on the Friday. We disembarked at Palace Backpackers, with arrangements to meet up for a pizza later - all except the cheese-phobe, who ended up walking down the street for a chicken burger (God, I really miss the food in Asia - Australian food is the same tasteless stodge you get back home, only with less flavour). As I exited the bus, I ...

[Photos uploaded now, check the "photo albums" bit for a step-by-step goat lassooing masterclass!] After a couple of days in Airlie Beach, it was time to catch the next Oz Experience bus. This was a bit of a struggle, since it left at 7am. I suppose it would have been less of a struggle if I hadn't been in the pub until 2am, but never mind... The day started well, I was in the top bunk and when the alarm on my phone went off at 6am I leaned over to th...

Woo-hoo, I'm still in Airlie Beach. Joy. Welcome to all my fellow Spank Me passengers (don't worry, you can unsubscribe from this waffle any time you like). At least, all the passengers whose e-mail addresses I could read after the sheet of paper got covered with beer. "Drumbeat" was built in WA and was originally owned by notorious Australian businessman Alan Bond. She won the Sydney to Hobart race in 1990, and he celebrated this win with a glass in...

As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted by the clock last time, I have to tell you about a horse. Tuesday morning meant leaving Base Backpackers on Magnetic Island to catch the bus at 7:25am, then heading towards Horseshoe Bay to Bluey's Ranch. In addition to Kim and me, there was a bunch of girls from Perth (Scottish version, not the Australian rip-off) and a few from other countries as well. While we waited for everyone to get there, we ha...

OK, first update in over a week, there's a load to get through so I'll try to keep it short! Last Monday I went up to Port Douglas, and booked myself into a dorm in the Parrot Fish Lodge. Nice hostel, weird people in it - not particularly sociable, although I managed to meet two blokes (from Melbourne and Canada) to go out and explore the Port Douglas nightlife, which is a little sedate. On Tuesday I went snorkelling on the Great Barrier Reef, on a boa...