Heya,

Well, im uploading photos onto facebook because it seems to be a bit more successful than the blog. i’m currently in Cairns where were spending a bit of time sorting out our emails, postcards and post and attempting to organize the next stage of our trip – south east asia. Its petrifying me to be honest…who are we to go bumming around south east asia? Were completely out of our depths…ah well too late now I guess….haha

Ill carry on telling you about what weve been doing. We went to surfers paradise next after byron bay. I did really enjoy surfers but it was a bit too built up for me and although the town was lovely and had a really chilled atmosphere and loads of cool shops, I couldn’t help comparing it to byron bay which was much quieter, much more relaxed and would’ve suited me down to the ground. Having said that surfers was where we had our first surfing lesson which couldn’t have been better. All of us stood up pretty early on and even though I was so surprised by standing up I often fell straight off the feeling of being on there for a few seconds was brilliant. Naomi has put the pictures up on facebook so you can laugh at them in your own time…

After surfers paradise we went to movie world which was excellent, we got to see batman! And all the rides were brilliant. Then we walked along the tree canopy on the Skywalk and spent a hectic afternoon in Brisbane. Brisbane is not built for campervans! We could not park anywhere, Rob even almost attempted a multistory carpark! In the end we spent an hour at the waterfront going on the big wheel the have there and eating ice cream. Brisbane impressed me this time, last time I was here I think the weather played a large part in my opinion of the place, that and the fact that we had come there from the Whitsunday islands, where there is no comparison.

Next we spent a day at the Australia Zoo which was probably the best zoo ive been to. I loved how hands on the keepers were with the animals. They did a brilliant crocodile show and walked around with others animals so that you could touch them. We fed the kangaroos, stroked a baby alligator and held a koala. Although it was the Australia zoo my favourite animals were the asian elephants and the tigers. In the tiger enclosure the keepers were sat playing with and training the tigers. It was amazing to see such trust.

After days of driving from place to place we stopped for a few days at rainbow beach, so called because of its different coloured sands (mostly shades of orange). I loved it here. We stayed overnight in the Great Sandy National Park at Inskip Point. This is where I found my deserted beach. I woke up really early one day because of a demented bird and looking at my phone for the time I found that it too had gone mental and was telling me it was 1am. It was light so I went outside to the beach and found the sun had literally just risen and the whole landscape had about it a soft orange glow and because it was so quiet such a feeling of peace and purity. In the evening we could see the nights sky so clearly that the milky way was visible because there was absolutely no light pollution. Here we took the ferry to Fraser Island which was an amazing day, we swam in Lake Mckenzie, a crystal clear freshwater lake with silica sand and saw wild dingoes and swamp wallabies.

The next day we drove to the town of 1770 via the wild Endopacific Humpback Dolphin feeding at Tin Can Bay and a tour of the Bundaberg Rum distillery. Both of these were really interesting trips, again with the dolphins I was amazed that a wild creature would have such trust in a human, and in the Bundabery distillery I was surprised by a very interesting and funny tour. Naomi and I came out with a few rum based souvenirs… The town of 1770 is a sleepy fishing town with some beautiful coastal walks. I was a bit gutted we didn’t really get any time here but we had to move on, though I feel like I would like to return.

We left 1770 early because we had a 700 km trip to Airlie beach ahead of us! We just about did it in one day! Here we spent a bit of time recovering from our mammoth drive and took a day trip to Whitsunday Island. It was a beautiful day. We spent it on Bettys Beach on Whitsunday Island which had sand so white it actually hurt, and which was almost pure silica. We swam in the sea floating amongst little white fish and not quite believing our good fortune. In the afternoon we went snorkeling on the coral reef and had a go at scuba diving which was both easier and harder that I thought. Ive always had issues with getting water in my mouth which didn’t happen here, but I could get my buoyancy right so I ended up kicking bit of coral. Coral grows so slowly that I felt terrible about that… but we did almost see a sea turtle, it swam straight past our instructor and all four of us missed it!

Going to attempt to upload this now before I run out of credit, speak soon!
xx