Hello all again,I am now in Australia after leaving Thailand and Asia after almost 11 week. I have to say that I have had my fill of rice and noodles and am now enjoying western food again. I flew into Sydney on the only passenger flying Airbus A380 aircraft. It is the largest passenger plane capable of carrying about 850 people although this one was configured for 1st and business class as well us unfortunates in economy class. It was very comfortable and quite.I spent 3 days in Sydney doing the usual sightseeing of the opera house harbour bridge and the city centre. Sydney harbour is outstanding it is so large and beautiful. The underground system seemed efficient and a bit cleaner than London.I had a day trip into the Blue Mountains a large range just outside of Sydney which was also well worth doing.I then flew up to Cairns for my volunteer program with Conservation volunteers of Australia (CVA) and stayed in a house with 4 Japanese volunteers who were most impressed by my cooking. After 2 days in Cairns 2 of us were asked to go to Townsville to the CVA project there. After a 6 hour bus journey we arrive in the CVA house. It is not as good as Cairns but does the job. After only 1 night in Townsville we have now come to MagneticIsland 45 minute by ferry off the mainland and have joined up with some local volunteers. The 6 of us are staying in a rented house and again my cooking has been appreciated (I hope).We are helping clear weeds from the national park and so far have done 3 days work although the weather has not been that good with some heavy rain, still very hot thought. I return to Townsville later to start on another project.I am in Australia until the 2nd of April when I go to New Zealand. I will post another blog on here in a couple of weeks with some more pictures.Take careJohn