Hi everyone,

Sorry it has taken us so long to write this update, it has been non-stop as we've worked our way up the East coast.

After our adventures at surf camp we headed up to Byron bay which has a nice beach and good surf although is a bit touristy these days. We enjoyed chilling on the beach and a Mexican themed night at the backpacker favourite Cheeky Monkeys (I'm sure Kate and Louise remember this!). We also got very hot and sticky walking through the rainforest to Cape Byron, the most easterly point on the mainland and could see turtles and stingray swimming in the waters below. It was in the rainforest that we had our first (and hopefully last) snake encounter as Alex nearly stood on a juvenile snake before it slithered off into the undergrowth. No idea if it was dangerous or not but we didn't stop to try to find out!

On the way to our next stop Noosa, we stopped in at Australia zoo for the day (the Steve Irwin zoo). We had a great day seeing all the native animals including a show in the 'Crocoseum' where Teri Irwin leaned over water and got a big croc to jump up and take meat out of her hands! The sound of its jaws smacking together made us glad we weren't too close. We also got to get up close and personal with some of the more cuddly aussie animals including hand-feeding kangaroos and cuddling a koala which I have always wanted to do.

Further up the coast we visited Tin Can Bay from Rainbow Beach where we were able to go waist deep into the water and feed wild dolphins. 2 dolphins came in that day and typically the male was boisterous and greedy trying to get the females food too! It was an amazing experience to get so close.

Rainbow beach is so named because the cliffs there have over 70 different coloured sands and so we had a nice walk along the beack and climbing up the dunes to see them all.

Next stop was Hervey bay from where we would go over to Fraser Island, the world's largest sand island. We were put into a group of 8 people and given a 4 wheel drive and a map and then left to go it on our own. Alex and i were the only ones who could drive and we had great fun on exteremly rough and bumpy sand tracks where you literally had to crawl along in 1st gear and hope another car wouldn't come the other way along the single file 'roads'. Driving along the beaches was also fun but a bit scary as you could feel the car sliding about on the wet sand and we got stuck a couple of times so we all had to jump out to dig the wheels out!

We had a really good group of people and we met up with other groups each night at our base camp set back from the beach in the forest. However, I didn't like all the creepy crawlies, I have never seen so many big spiders and bugs and ran very quickly from one shower cubicle when I discovered I was sharing it with a very large 8 -legged friend. The manager at the camp didn't exactly put us at ease telling us to watch out for the death adders (called that for a reason) and the Taipans (world's 2nd most deadly snake) - his advise if we got bitten was to kiss your backside goodbye - thanks! Despite his warnings the only snake spotted while we was there was non-venemous (carpet python) and a few dingo encounters. At one point I left my bag opn the front of the car and a dingo came and stuck his head in it, fortunately he didn't run off with it as happens some times.

We spent the days going to various freshwater lakes, floating down creeks and climbing up to the viewpoint at Indian Head. It was really hot and the sea looked very inviting but you aren't allowed to swim there as it is a breeding ground for Tiger sharks and there are lots of jellyfish in the water too. So we made the most of the freshwater lakes which are crystal clear and safe to swim in.

Once we made it safely back to the mainland and eventually managed to de-sand ourselves we continued our journey to the town of 1770, imaginatively named by captain cook when he landed here in, yes you guessed it, 1770! This is still a very small seaside town, apparently like Byron Bay used to be 20 years ago. We made the most of the peace and quiet and relaxed on the beach and by the pool, catching up on the lack of sleep we'd had over the last week or so. We did still manage one night at the towns only pub though, after all we didn't want to get too out of practice!

Rested, relaxed and beached out we headed for Kroombit, an outback cattle station for a completely different experience to the rest of the east coast. Here we got to take part in a time trial in teams of 3 to catch, restrain and mock-brand a goat. I was quite nervous about getting in the pen with them and then when it was our turn they brought out this huge goat that must have weighed more than me and I refused point blank to run after it! Fortunately the staff were just winding us up and took this huge goat back out and bought a smaller kid in instead. This was a bit more manageable and we actually came second in the competition which we were quite impressed with.

While we were here we also got to shoot a real shot-gun, learn to crack a stock whip (Alex couldn't get the hang of it at all - I think he'd had too many beers by this point) and ride/fall off a mechanical bull. We got very dusty and hot but it was great to get a taste of what life is like for these real-life cowboys.

We are now at Airlie beach having returned from our 3 day sailing trip on a Catamaran on the Whitsundays. We had a fantastic time and were lucky to have fantastic weather as there have been cyclones up here in the last couple of weeks. It was very relaxing sailing around the islands and we got to do lots of snorkelling and 3 scuba dives. We saw lots of different fish and turtles and chilled out on the bright white sands of Whitehaven beach. We really enjoyed the diving and can't wait until we can do it again. We went down to about 12 metres getting to touch and interact with lots of the coral life. Alex unfortunately got stung by a jellyfish on his but fortunately it wasn't serious, we had to wear sexy stinger suits whenever in the water as they get box jellys at this time of year.