From Airlie to Brisbane

As we stepped foot back on the mainland at Shute Harbour for the second time in my Australian travels, we collected the van which took a bit of persuasion to start into life but after a few revs of the engine she was roaring into life no problem- Just had to warm the old beast up.

After filling up with fresh water for the travels we set off on our next voyage to Rockhampton which was a 6hour drive. We said we would share this doing 2hour stints each. I chose to do the graveyard shift as no-one really wanted it as it had been a very late, heavy drinking night the previous for our last disco at Lindeman. We did stop along the way for a McDonalds for dinner. Jamie being Jamie bought a massive family size bucket for himself which included 4 of everything- 4 burgers, 4 drinks, 4 fries and even some chicken nuggets so he was buzzing for his stint of driving with all them E- numbers.

We finally arrived at our destination around 11pm after an eventful drive which included bush fires at the side of our roads and then the petrol flashing 40km outside of Rockhampton and us thinking we we're never going to make it but somehow, thank the Lord, the old beast rolled into the petrol station on every last drop possible.

After sleeping in a shopping centre car park we awoke and went around the different shopping centres. We bumped into a friend of ours from the island Sabine and she'd been there for a few days and told us that there was nothing to do and we should move on. So taking her word for it as we knew we were pushed for time from now on, we jumped straight in the van and headed off to our next destination- Hervey Bay where we had a whale watching tour booked. However what should have been a comfortable 3hours ride ended up being 8.5hours as along the way we realised we'd messed up with the plans. We thought 1770 was after Fraser Island but we found out that we had drove past it and that it was half way between Rockhampton and Hervey Bay so the journey turned into a 6hour ride. As well as this hick-up we then got stuck in a huge traffic jam which was caused by bush fires again that were out of control so this added another 2hours onto the journey. By the time we found where our tour would be and got parked up for the night it was around 8.30pm and we we're knackered after that amount of time in the van.

We did the tour the next day and got to see heaps of whales real close to the boat too but to be honest, after 2hours of just looking at more or less the same thing, we we're rather bored and lunch time became the highlight of the day with beautiful homemade salads.

Next to tick off the plan was a small town called Tin Can Bay where a friend of Jamie's had told him you can hand feed dolphins at sunrise there. Every morning for the past x amount of years, this certain pod of dolphins comes into the Marina next to this café and then the people of the café feed them and it is from here they set up the attraction of hand feeding dolphins in the wild.

From here, we then took the short drive of around 30minutes to a place called Rainbow Beach where we would be doing our Fraser Island tour from. We even had a hostel included both side of the tour, so it meant we could have a proper shower and get plenty of charge in the phones!

The next morning we we're packed and loaded in the 4 jeeps. There were 22 of us plus the guide who would lead us around the island. Unfortunately we were unable to drive the 4x4's as we are under 21 so we thought the trip would be a big let-down. We were to spend 3days/ 2nights on the island camping by the beach and sleeping amongst the wildlife such as snakes, spiders and more importantly- Dingo's. The days were spent chilling around different lakes on the island, bush walks and checking out a few lookout spots. As for the nights, 1 word sums it up- GOON! Luckily out of the 22 of us, 8 of us were up for a good time. We got friendly with a group of 5 mixed Scottish people. Everyone else just seemed to sit there little groups- Not us 3! Proper English- loud and proud as always.

Overall the trip was a success and it was a good laugh. We did get good friends with the Scottish crowd and it turned out we would be going to the next few places at the same time along the coast so we spent a few days with them at Noosa, the zoo and also they booked to the shark dive we did at Underwater World. There was only 3 of them though as 2 left to go straight to Sydney to find work. They even said we would be able to stop with them over New Year as they would have an apartment so it was music to our ears hearing that.

The Australian Zoo was a great day out- Home of the late legend of Steve Irwin (Crikey!). We saw loads of different animals from lizards to snakes, crocs to tigers and even some cuties of koala's and otters. They was also a new area just opened called Africa.

Apparently it had been Steve's dream to build an open safari of Africa where the native animals could roam about in their natural habitat and what we saw was just stage 1 of their plans. They currently have giraffes, zebras, rhino's and also 2 cheetahs' which we didn't manage to see at the time. To finish the day off in style, Emily and I went and had our photo taken whilst having a 12ft snake around our necks.

The following day we were at Underwater World for our shark diving. Our Scottish friends Shaun and Michael went in the first group before us and they loved it once they had been in there a while. On our turn, because we had all dived before many times, the instructor was a bit more relaxed and he was also from England so he loved us. He missed most of the first part of all the safety rubbish. He wasn't even bothered about us going in the practice tank but then there was 1 person in our group who hadn't dived before so he then had take him in.

The experience was amazing to sum it up. The sharks in the tank were of many different species including bull shark, hammer heads, grey nurses and white/ black tip sharks. They ranged from 1.8m to 3.6m in length. We were also joined in the tank by massive sting rays, Carp fish and lots of tropical little fish.

Whilst in the tank, the sharks didn't seem to mind us being there once we had been in it a few minutes. We walked around the tank and took pictures of them swimming at side of us and above our heads. It truly was a great experience and I'd love to do it again but in the wild!

Our big milestone was our next stop- Brisbane, one of the major cities in Australia. It was only an hour drive from the aquarium. When we reached Brisbane though, we knew we'd hit the city. So many big buildings, lots of people and even more traffic. It took us a good hour to find where we wanted to be and suitably parking for the night outside a friend of Jamie's hostel. Every street we went down seemed to have 'no right turns' or 'straight on only' signs. After the stressful drive around the city we were in much need of a beer so after parking up we got changed and headed out for a few.

Brisbane was a big milestone to us as it means we have almost completed our East Coast Package as we are now only less than 1000km from Sydney- our final destination on the coast before jetting off to the even more beautiful country of New Zealand for the next chapter off our travels.

Hope you have enjoyed the read

xx