G'day!

We have finally had people saying "g'day" to us! It made Jo's day! We have spent the past 4 nights camping just across from the beach and it has been beautiful, and nice and relaxing. Camping was new to Jo and she was a bit concerned about cooking in the dark on the first night, but we soon bought a lantern which cheered her up as it has been getting dark pretty early here. We adapted to the chilly nights by sleeping in a variety of clothes but the cool, clear nights were worth it for the stars and the sunny days that followed!

We have spent most of our time relaxing on the beach and exploring the local area, which for such a small settlement, is very spread out along the beachfront. We have sampled the delights of many brands of australian chocolate, ice creams and crisps, David is doing well sampling the beers and Jo's getting stuck into the aussie wine :-) We had much practice celebrating passing our exams.

The one tour we did here was a daytrip sea kayaking across to Dunk Island where we snorkelled, lunched and did a rainforest walk. We were disappointed not to see more sea life on the way over there (such as small rays) but floating over the fringing coral reef was pretty cool...or 'groovy' as our guide would say. Snorkelling was new to us, and Jo found breathing underwater a bit scary and hard to get used to at first, but it was really good fun and we saw loads of fish, especially what we like to call Zebra fish. Kayaking back over to the mainland at the end of the day we saw a couple of dolphins swimming ahead of us which we loved!

Apart from enjoying a few drinks (including some on the beach watching a huge orange moon rise over the sea) and a lovely meal out at a Greek restaurant that about sums up our stay at Mission Beach! Camping has been fun and we make ourselves proud with every meal we make on our little stove, especially our nutella on toast breakfasts :-) The campsite has some interesting characters who appear to be living there permanently including a mad hippy woman who wakes us up every morning at about 6am having an argument with some mysterious chap we can barely hear and never see! A tramp lives in a falling down tent next to hers. Interesting indeed.

We have a nine hour coach ride to Airlie Beach tomorrow where after a night in a hostel we camp again. We will be in touch again soon to keep you updated. Enjoy the new pictures!

Lots of love to everyone, Joanne and David xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx