Wells folks it's us again, I know what your all thinking you don't hear from us for like 2 months & then we post 2 blogs within a week. Well as it happens a lot has happened within that week & we have decided that it will be easier for us to remember things if we post shorter & more frequent blogs. Well Blair left off with us picking up the new van in Brisbane he also told you all we quickly named it Pam, here's why:

The women handed us over the keys and said it's called RBT, we both looked at each over as though to say what the hell does that mean. She had clearly had this look before and promtly told us it's full name was Random Breast Testing! Well that was the start of my humillation & Blairs delight! She showed us out to the van so we could do a swift check over before getting on our way. Well we walked into the courtyard and there in all her glory was a shiney white van with 5 pairs of boobs painted down each side! Yes people we are driving a boob van about Australia! Well Blairs eyes lit up and mine... well filled up! After 5 minutes of being in the company of the boob van we thought we better name her and both came up with the name Pam after Pamela Anderson of course. After the inital shock I thought it might not be that bad, Wicked Campers are a large company and I'm sure people have seen it before. So we did the check and set off for Hervey Bay.

After the 400km drive to Hervey Bay it turns out that not that many people have seen the van before and either point and laugh or have a look of disgust across their face! The look of embarassment that crawls across my face every time someone casts a dissapproving look is somewhat of a laughing matter to Blair. The embarassment soon faded though when we booked a trip across to Fraser Island, famed for it's wild dingo population! We rode across on a ferry & hopped aboard a 4wd bus. The bus took us through some amazing rainforests and we had a few different stop offs on the tour. Our first stop was at Central Station an old forestery station which was used when they were still logging on the island. We went for a walk through the rainforest which was lovely. Our next stop was to a beautiful perched fresh water lake, Lake McKenzie. The sand is 98% silica so never heats up in the sun and is a brillant white! We then stopped off at one of the resorts on the island for a buffet lunch and then went to see the coloured sands which are supposed to have over 76 different colours but looks like about 12! The bus then took us to a ship wrecked which got washed ashore on route to Japan. Our last stop was to a little creek called Eli Creek. We just stepped off the bus & a dingo appeared! The wee chap came right up and had a sniff about looking for some food while the whole bus stood and took photos off him. The creek was lovely & not too cold even though it was raining, we thought we had escaped the rain when we left Melbourne!

We left Hervey Bay and had a long 2 day drive to our next destination, Airlie Beach. Well the drive is well worth it when you come over the hill. You forget about the sore bums and the heated debates over navigating when you see this place! Airlie Beach is the gateway to the Whitsundays, which are a collection of 74 islands just off the shore. We just chilled out the night we got there and booked two tours. Our first tour was a day trip around the islands. As soon as you leave the marina you feel like you are in Paradise! The boat dropped us off at the biggest island of all the Whitsundays, called you guessed it Whitsunday Island. There was a short walk up to a lookout which looked out over Whitehaven beach. It really is one of the most spectacular sights, the water is crystal clear and the beach is pure white. After the lookout we went down onto the beach and it looks just as lovely from ground level. We were given stinger suits to wear if we went in the water, which are locally called 'clingys', and I have to say they are probally the most unflattering thing I have ever seen! (As you will see there are plenty of pics of Blair wearing it and none of me!!) After a couple of hours on the beach we got taken to a little bay for lunch, where we spotted a logger head turtle just metres from our boat! We then got the chance to scuba or snorkel about the reef. Of course I jumped at the chance to scuba the great barrier reef but unfortunately the visibility wasn't that great but it was still an awesome experience. The next day we set off on a sea kayaking trip. The guide said it was the calmest day there was for 2 months, which we were very pleased about considering our last sea kayaking adventure were we nearly ended up killing one another over who was stearing the wrong way! We paddled out to a little island, technically classed as a rock, 5 kms out where we had a mid moring snack and had a wander about. The beach itself was made up of dead coral not sand. The guide pointed out 6 sea eagles flying overhead which was very unusual. We made our way back into town for a bit of light shopping. It turned out to be not so light for me as I bought a Didgeredoo! Don't worry I'll let you all have a try.

The following day we were sorry to say goodbye to Airlie Beach as we could have easily spent longer there but we needed to head back south. We thought we would take a different route back down to Brisbane so we decided to go through the outback. The views were lovely although we got eaten alive once again by mossies. We noticed on our way down that we were going through a town called Toowoomba where one of the guys, Peter, from our asia trip stayed so we decided to pay him a visit. We went out for tea at a local Irish pub and had a good catch up.

We are now in Brisbane once again and are catching up with another Irish couple, Caroline & Kevin, who we met in Asia also before heading down to Bryon Bay.

Hope all is well at home & everyone is fine.

Love & Missing you all

Sarah & Blair Xxxx