The pick-up outside the hotel was 07:05 where we also met Stuart and Pete from The Netherlands and they became our travelling companions for the day. Stuart was accompanying Pete his father-in-law on his first holiday in 12 years, a 6 week tour of Australia. Stuart, born and bred in West Yorkshire spoke fluent Dutch with a great Yorkshire accent, we felt right at home. Fraser Island is UNIQUE. It is the largest sand island in the world and measures 123km long by...

Today is probably going to be the longest drive of the Grand Tour with 875km over 10.5 hours. Combined with the 9 hours of driving from Cairns it looks like the estimate of 24 hours of driving from Cairns to Brisbane is accurate. Our first experience of a backpackers accommodation was a good one especially on the wallet. These youngsters seem to be able to travel cheaply especially if you are prepared to share a dorm with a few others. An early start again saw ...

The by now normal early pickup saw us inboard the minibus at 07:10 en-route to the catamaran Camira for a day sailing around the Whitsunday Islands. The boat can take 100 passengers but it did not seem that large. In the event only 24 boarded at the marina with the promise of others at an island nearby. The boat had originally been called Tsunami but this was changed following the Boxing Day tragedy. Camira is Aboriginal for wind but unfortunately today was defi...

Time to leave Cairns and head South on a 650km drive to Airlie Beach in preparation for sailing round the Whitsunday Islands. We shared the driving allowing us to make maximum progress. Unfortunately as my name is on the rental agreement any speeding tickets will come my way. I was checking Nicola's speed constantly! The agriculture is different from anything we are used to being mainly sugar cane and bananas. The sugar cane is especially interesting as the old...

Great breakfast, tea, toast, peaches and apricots with natural yoghurt, followed by full English breakfast. Spoke to Cilla (a good friend of Bev's who lives in Tasmania) to try to arrange staying with her whilst Henry is parachuting for three days north of Melbourne. Found out Cilla is staying in Melbourne! She insisted on contacting friends to see if I could stay three nights with them and would phone me back (I can). We left our excellent value for money hot...