So I know it's been a while since I last updated my blog but I've been really busy so this is going to be a long one!

Last time I wrote I was on my way to Magnetic Island in northern Queensland. I absolutely loved it there. So much so that we extended our stay by a night (unfortunately we didn't have enough free days to extend it by any more). We stayed at this really cool hostel on the beach called Base Backpackers. It had a great view of Townsville and out to the sea (actually the picture I've put on this bit of the blog is from the beach infront of our hostel). They also had a great outdoor bar which overlooked the sea and you could go down to the beach to watch the stars. It was so beautiful and really really chilled which is definately what we needed after our whistle stop tour of South East Asia, quickly followed by our exhausting dive trip.

We then caught the Greyhound bus down to Airlie Beach which is the access point to the Whitsundays. As we only had a bit of time we did a 1 day trip of the Whitsundays. We were really lucky because we have met so many people who have been unable to get out to the Whitsundays this year because of the weather. One boat even capsised in the weather and everyone had to be airlifted to shore. Thankfully on the day we went out the weather was pretty nice although maybe not quite enough sun for the pictures to come out as nice as the postcards!

After that we got an overnight bus down to a town called 1770. The bus journey was pretty awful as I didn't sleep very much but it was all worth it when we got to 1770. It is one of the nicest places I have been to. It is just so chilled out and no-where near as affected by tourism as the rest of the East Coast is. While we were there we rode on Choppers...it was so much fun and a fatastic way to see the area. We also had to stop at one point because some kangeroos were blocking the road and wouldn't shift so we turned around and let them stay there. While at 1770 we stayed in a hostel called Cool Bananas. It was a fantastic place. We have found that the best hostels are those which aren't too big and Cool Bananas had such a great atmosphere and we made some really great friends from our dorm. We loved it so much that we used our final spare day and extended our stay there. On our second day we had a surf lesson for $16.50 it was so cheap and we got a 4 hour lesson and board hire for that. In places like Byron Bay and Sydney you can pay upto $90 for a 2 hour lesson so we definatley had to do it while we were in 1770. Surfing was great fun although I didn't manage to stand up at all and just got frustrated with myself but it was such great fun!

Unfortunately we had to say goodbye to 1770 and jump on the Greyhound down to Hervey Bay which is the place everyone goes to get across to Fraser Island. With our shortage of time we did a 1 day tour of the island (most people do a 3 day/2night self drive of 4 wheel drive cars). It is one of the most beautiful places I have seen. It is the biggest sand island in the World and it even has a rainforest on it. We went on the Exclusive tour so we had fewer people on our tour and we got a steak for our lunch, complete with as much beer and wine as you wanted. When we arrived on the island we got on our bus and Clare and I got to sit upfront with our driver Chris. It was a good job we sat upfront because there are no roads over there and driving on sand is the bumpiest journey I have ever had in my life. THankfully the travel sickness stayed away for the day. We saw some absolutely beautiful sights (photos to follow but I can't upload them on this computer!) including a ship wreck which has been there for nearly 100 years. It is eerily beautiful. We also got to taste some kangaroo while we were over there. It was actually really tasty and tasted just like steak.

I'm going to have to go now as my internet time is running out and I don't want to lose everythings I've wrote. Hope you're all OK. Email me and let me know how you all are. I'll do another update as soon as poss. Love C xxxxxxxxx