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Here's more from the East coast- i'll have to be brief as usual!Almost one whole month ago now (27th-29th June) we were in a town called Hervey Bay- gateway to Fraser Island. It's a stop on all backpackers itinery. Apparantly it's the largest sand island with more sand than the Sahara desert! Not too sure if that's true as we didn't get to see a great deal of the island as our 4x4 broke down on us! I'll let Terry tell you about our time on the island as he loves telling everyone about our little adventure.From Hervey Bay we headed to a sleepy little town called 1770. As usual, had a really pleasant time, didn't do much other than chilled out on the secluded beaches. We then headed to Airlie Beach and the Whitsunday Islands- another 'must do' on the east coast. Has to be my favourite trip so far. We had a 2 night sailing trip around the islands, sleeping on the boat. Luckily for me we slept in the 'engine room' so we were nice and warm whilst everyone else was really cold! We anchored at Whitehaven Beach which was the most stunning I have ever seen- take a look at our photos though they really don't do it justice. We snorkelled in the chilly waters with the coral and fish which I loved. Couldn't bring myself to put on a freezing stinger suit the next day, but Terry did of course- and he was the last one in the water- as usual. We watched an amazing sunset, and sailed home the next day in the choppy waters. Managed somehow not to be sick which I was very proud of!We moved on to Townsville and went to the largest coral aquarium in the world. Don't let Terry fool you into thinking our photos are from his diving course- he made sure in all our photos that the fish tanks weren't visible so he could try and fool everyone. From here we took the ferry to Magnetic Island. Terry did his open water dive course so he's now a qualified scuba diver. As expected he's planning a lot of dives into our travels now. Travelled to Cairns, followed by Cape Tribulation for 3 days. It's a rainforest north of Australia, as far up the east coast you can travel before the 4WD tracks begin. Met an interesting bird called a cassowary. They are an endangered species now with only 1000 of them left. They are literally the size of men, and looks like a cross between an emu and a turkey with a huge boned head for charging at things! I didn't know they even existed! Also found out there's a species of small kangaroo that lives in the tree canopy above. We didn't see any as they rarely leave the tree trops but they sound interesting too! Saw some feral pigs around our beach hut- it was just like we were on the island on 'LOST'. We had a good time in Cape Trib- we went for a cruise on the Daintree River and saw some crocodiles that you wouldn't want to mess with. They inhabit the waters in North Queensland so you have to be careful not to get close to the waters edge.We are back in Cairns now for another 2 days before heading back to Townsville. Terry has booked onto worldclass dive on a shipwreck called the Yongala. It's raved about by divers worldwide so hopefully he'll have a good trip whilst I make the most of a day without him! Love Michelle xxxxxxx Hey every1 this is Terry here. Been told my great story about our fraser island disaster is 1 that should be shared with every1. The trip started off great. After getting off the ferry at fraser island we drove as a group of 10 in a 4x4 through the woods on what they call a road. I was driving so as you all know me the first part of the trip was a great sucess. We stoped at a beautiful lake called lake Makenzie, then travelled futher up the island driving on the beach which is the main road, to our base camp ground, staying with some aboriginal people. The camp was nice, the locals who lived there were great, joining us around our camp fire, singing songs & playing their digeridoos. After dinner that night we all thought 1 of the others in the group had thrown out the remainding scraps of food. At around 1am we were woken to the sound of to local dingos (wild dogs) ripping through the bags and there's no way we were getting them back till they had finished. On our second day we drove to a lookout called Indian Head where we saw baby sharks, turtels, pods of dolphins, whales jumping in the back ground then 1 came really close to shore, we got some great photos. Driving back to our camp ground is when all went t*** up. The accelarator cable snapped and there was no way we could repair it, luckly a local stopped and towed us to another camp ground which was 10km away from ours. After managing to find a phone i rang the tour company who put me through to a drunk waste of a space mechanic on the island who due to the tides on their main road (the beach) refused to come and fix the car, the plan was that he'll see us at 10am in the morning and that was the best he could do, i beg to differ. As we were 10k away from our camp ground where we had left our sleeping bags another guy and i decided we should walk back to the original camp ground a collect the sleeping bags and what ever else we could carry. walking 20k on the beach on a hot sand island carrying tents and sleeping bags is not the best thing i've done while traveling, but it funny to look back on and share our great story with you ( if you've kept reading till this point). At our new camp ground the only cooking equipment we had was a bbq. for dinner that night all we had to bbq was bacon and some corn on the cob for the veggies, there was nothing left to do or eat so we did what comes natural, we got drunk. in the morning we found out the camp ground we were at were having new phone lines installed and would be down all day. As the time was now gone 11.00 and the mechanic hadn't bothered to turn up our only option was to rig up our own accelarator cable and find a phone. We had a stick to prop up the bonnet, the belt off my trousers to hold down the bonnet and stop it blowing up in the wind, then we ran a rope attached to the accelarator from the engine through the drivers window. Driving to find a phone i was pulling on the rope to rev the engine, the guy sat next to me was having to change gears. when we finally found a phone the mechanic told me he had now got more work on and we would have to make our way to him, 40k away. We travelled the 40k which took an hour. not happy we pulled up at his garage where he was still acting like a knob, he refused to work on the car until Dong (a cool guy from Hong Kong) stopped taking photos of the engine, he then stormed off when i told him to tell Dong himself, shouting that he wasn't photogenic. At this point tempers were starting to rise. Michelle tried to start a friendly conversation with him which he was just sarcastic back. We were there only there around 15 mins. we had to catch a later ferry back as we missed the first. so this is the famous story i'll be telling you all about again with more enthusiasm in December. Another thing our memory card has stopped working so we think we may of lost our photos. Thanks for the birthday cards and messages. hope you like the story and our photos. message us back please xxxxxxxxxxxxx
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