G'day!! So what have we been up to? so much! From Airlie beach were we last updated from, we went on a 3 day 2 night sailing trip round the Whitsunday Islands, we choose to go on a Maxi sailing yacht called Matador. There were 28 people plus 4 crew. We all had to help run the boat and raise the sails. The weather wasn't that great on the first day so we were soaked and had to wear bright yellow rain jackets, atractive! Although the sailing was good. With the main sail up the yacht cruised at 25/30 knots and leant at 30 degrees. We had to do this manouvere called a jive when the boat sail flipped from side to the other, it went a bit wrong and scared just about everyone as the boat tipped to one side so much that part of the deck was in the water, was fun though, had been told to hold on tight but didn't know it was going to do that!! We saw whales and also dolphins caught on to the front of the boat for a bit too. We stopped at a number of beaches the best one being Whitehaven beach, with pure white silica sand, really beautiful! We also got a free scuba dive included, Owen loved it, afraid I was a wimp and didn't do it, after a bad experience with the dive instructor. We had a really great group of people on the boat and as we anchored for the night, club matador opened, food and lots of drink!! was very fun, we also had to sleep on board in slightly squashed cabin area, with bunk beds, not the best nights sleep we've ever had, but was fun all the same! When we got back after our days at sea, we stayed in Airlie Beach for a couple of nights with some of the people of the boat, so had a good few days with everyone, there were two other couples, one had a camper like us so the 6 of us decided to travel down the coast together to Eungella National park, where we saw wild platypus and had a big bbq and campfire. We all went our seperate ways a couple of days later and Owen and I went to Myella Farm about 2 hours inland, to experience australia cowboy style! Plenty of red dust and kangaroos, we went on a 3 hour horseride in the morning, which I loved, Owen preferred riding the motorcross bikes in the afternoon, we rode them all round the farm which was 10km squared and up to see the best sunset we've seen so far in the evening. We had to wear riding boots, jeans and shirts, the only thing missing was the cowboy hat! The next day we were up at half 6, Owen mustered the horses in on the motorbike and I milked a cow. We then fed the horses and saddled them before going on another 3 hour ride, this one was more fun as we got in teams and played games, racing as fast as you wanted, brilliant, Owen kind of mastered the trot! but at least he didn't fall off. We walked on foot rounding up cows, with whips, but I couldn't get mine to crack, without hitting myself, but I did manage to lasso properly! We left after 2 days, even though we both wanted to stay for longer it was really fun! Next we headed for town of 1770 spent a day on the beach, and arranged with some of our friends to meet in Hervey bay so we could all do Fraser Island together. Fraser Island is a complete sand island, so you have to drive in 4WD, we were in a group of 11, we knew 8 of them so it was great fun, driving on the island was completely mad and some drivers were worse than others! We went to a place called Indian Head where we saw Tiger Sharks and Loggerhead Turtles. We swam in a huge freash water lake called Lake Mackenzie. It had the clearest water we've seen so far and a good beach. We drove along 75 Mile Beach where we camped. We slept in tents which wasn't that comfortable and was very hot in the morning, the boys took charge of cooking for everyone on these rubbish bbq things, but they did a good job, and we had a good couple of nights on the goon, playing drinking games! We also saw Dingos around our campsite, a bit scary in the dark after we'd been told of the dangers of them attacking you! The night we got back showers were welcome and the entire group came to where 3 couples had camper vans and we had domino pizza and lots of drink. much needed after slumming it round fraser! We are now in Noosa, having a couple of days on the beach, quite a few peeps we know are around so might be meeting with them later. Hope everyoe is ok, miss you all. Love Sarah and Owen xx