So...carrying on from the last one...1770 was a nice sleepy little town, but the hostel was pretty awesome and family like so we were there for 2-3days i think. Next it was onto a town called Rockhampton, in which there was nothing to do but we had booked a days outback tour with 'capricorn dave'. it was a long drive there, but we went in convoy with two other friends who have also bought a car so it wasnt too bad. Again the hostel here (probably the only one in rockhampton) was awesome, run by a crazy lady known as robbie (a.k.a mum) and was more like a little hotel. So the next day we had an early start and were picked up by dave himself. He took us off in his dodgy minibus out into a 25 000 achre cattle farm...miles from anything!! The first thing we all noticed was that he was bare foot...whilst we had all been told to wear shoes he just strutted around with none and began climbing trees to find some wild snakes for us to hold?! He was definately the calmest crazy man we had ever met, as he casually explored the outback for us. He knew a lot of stuff too...and even showed us the 'ant dance'. This was when you stamped on a 'meat ants' nest (because they eat meat suprisingly) to really piss them off, so that they came and savaged your feet for a few minutes (or however long you could last). Hells represented the girls on this and went for it on a small one and lasted a good few seconds, whilst the boys tackled the huge one and didnt last 5 seconds! Apprently dave said that the record is 13 MINTUES from some danish guy...would have loved to seen that done after watching the boys struggle with 4 seconds. Think they still have the bite marks to prove how vicious it was!! After our lunch BBQ dave then plucked a wild huntsman spider from a tree somewhere and gave it to us to hold, then put on our face. We got some awesome pictures of this, so will have to upload them asap!! The day ended with some scorpian hunting, more spider finding and also licking ants bums. yes thats right, there were these big green ants and apprently the aboriginies used them as a medicine and just licked the bums. So we did it. It was pretty sour...and possibly the weirdest thing we have been told to do yet...but defisantely an experience! We then had a swim in a billabong at sunset, playing like little kids in the tee tree oil mud then dried off around a campfire, star gazed a bit then headed back to the hostel.

We left the next day, and began our next road trip to Airlie Beach. It was a looooong drive, but we made it safe and sound ready for out whitsundays. This sailing trip was definately a favourtie so far!! We were on a boat with only 15 other people, and it was a cool old fishing boat (looked like it could of been a pirate ship) and we had an awesome crew. We were soo lucky with the weathy as it had been really s***ty so far, then cleared up just for us before turning nasty again! We had a wicked time, and got to kayak with turtles..the massive ones which just swam right by our boats! amazing! we then did our first dive which was good, as it got us excited about our dive course for cairns. then did lots of snorkelling and even saw a sting ray. Then we had an awesome sunset, followed by a dolphin swimming by our boat at night, PLUS the food was AMAZING!! have to say that we did see the menu before booking our boat and the food was a deciding factor in choosing 'summertime'.......so all in all a pretty good trip!

We had a few more nights of drinking in airlie before heading off to Magnetic island, where we only had 3 days but it was pretty awesome too. Ally did some bushwalking with a new friend, and we generally chiled on the beach, watched the sunset etc. we even had a trip down to the local pub which was funny...think we were all the youngest there by about 20 years?!

After magentic it was off to Cairns! our final road trip!! Was a sad time, but in a good way. Our beauty of a ford falcon 'Uwey' has done us proud up the coast! WE picked up another lost traveller from magnetic and gave her a lift up.

So thats where we are now, cairns...currently trying desperatly to sell our baby and also have started our dive course! staying in a really nice hostel...which is pretty much like a hotel. The diving is going well....just a lot of studying and excerise...both of which we really arnt used to...haha. have got another day in the pool, before we head out for 3 days on a boat for the dive exam (including a night dive! bring on those sharkies!) then its only a few more days before we jet off for NZ...where we think the climate change will come as a huge shock. Really need some winter clothes now!

Will keep you all updated on the diving....love to all as always...ally and helly xxxxxxxx