We arrived at our accommodation in Byron late at night successfully negotiated thanks to the sat nav - it's a quirky place that's a mixture of backpackers and hippies, which kind of sums up Byron altogether. The weather has been awesome and has allowed us both to get very burned (Mark: back in particular, Helen; ears and feet!) and all we've really done is chilled out on the beach. On the first evening we caught up with a cricket friend of Mark's: Dom Marsh and his wife Claire. We had a lovely meal and drinks by the seafront in pleasant warm temperatures. On our second and final day in Byron we chilled out on the beach under Dom's beach umbrella (due to the burns - bloody poms!) and then headed up to the lighthouse late afternoon. This also involved standing upon the most easterly point on the Australian mainland and taking a quick photo before all the Japanese tourists arrived and took it in turns to jump over the (strictly no entry) fence to get that all important photo! We left Byron to head up to Noosa Heads (which was our stop for the night before driving to rainbow beach for our tour of Fraser Island) and decided to go via Surfers Paradise for a cheap bite to eat. Surfers has an amazingly long beach but is definitely the Benidorm of Australia, not helped by the fact that they were gearing for "schoolies week" (where year 12 graduates let off steam after exams). Mark reminisced on places visited in '98 and is still as horrified by the tackiness of the place as he was 9 years ago! Next blog soon.