Cant believe they've knocked the cooling towers down!!!!!!!!!! They were the 8th Wonder of the World!!!!!

We've covered some miles since our last blog... let me tell you!!! We've finally arrived in Cairns after 4 weeks on the road, there's been good times and theres been bad times, we've laughed and we've cried but its been a right laugh!!!!!!

Any way further to our last blogger we moved on to Rainbow Beach for some 4x4 action on Fraser Island, which was ace. We were in a truck with 6 Mexicans for 3 days, camping on the beach. The driving was pretty scary but those lessons from T-Bar on all terrain driving came in handy... I knew they would!!!. We partied with the Mexicans, who we became pretty good friends with in a short space of time. The sky at night was unbelievable and we saw loads of shooting stars and the Milky Way, which was light and fluffy on the inside!!!! You could'nt swim in the sea cos of the shark threat, so we headed to Lake Mackenzie on the island which was paradise! After 3 days we said goodbye to our Mexican friends and headed to the Town of 1770.

1770 is a small, laid back seaside resort, just what we needed after 3 days of partying on Fraser Island. We booked in for some surf lessons and bike ride around 1770 on modified chopper motorcycles.... ace!!!! Surfing was hard but really good fun and we all got the hang of it by the end... probably not good enough for competition standard but good enough for 5 kids from Rothers!!!!! The chopper bikes followed in the afternoon, Gem went like a bat out of hell untill she fell off!!! then she was like a grandma on a mobility scooter!!!! We saw the native kangeroos and stopped to watch the sun set which was beaut.

We stayed 2 days in 1770, then embarked on our longest drive to Airlie Beach which took 9 hours. 9 hours in a confined space with Ash and Dave is enough to send anyone mental so upon arrival at Airlie we went for some well deserved beers, one leads to 2, 3 & 4..... The next day we were scheduled to leave for the Whitsunday Islands on our sail boat 'Enid', however the weather was inclement to say the least, but in true nautical style we ventured into the storm. The weather broke in the next couple of days and we had an amazing time just chilling on deck and snorkelling around the reef. The coral is beautiful and so are the many different fish, Gem unfortunatly didn't find Nemo but the icing on the cake was when she spotted a turtle cruising through the water and we followed it as long as it let us, amazing to see in its natural environment.

From here we left to Magnetic Island where we spent four days relaxing on the picturesque bays around the island and put some overtime in on the tan. A short drive from here was Mission beach where again we chilled and slapped on the factor 30. We vistited a secluded beach surrounded by subtropical rainforest which was recommended by our hostel, however she failed to tell us about the saltwater crocodiles, so we couldnt go in the sea and ended up baking on the beach!!! This was Amy's last night as the next days she was flying out of Cairns homeward bound, so we went out for a few beers.

We arrived in Cairns yesterday and dropped Amy off at the airport, we were all sad to see her go, cant believe its been 4 weeks. Its been great to travel the East coast with a friendly face and we'll miss her, but we wont miss the snoring, burping and farting!!!!!

We have a few days in Cairns and Port Douglas before the lads go back to Newcastle and we are on our own again. We fly to Darwin in a week or so to check out the Northern Territory which we will update in our next blog.

Hope you are all ok, keep your messages coming, we miss you all very much.

Rob & Gem xxxx