Hi Everyone!

I hope you are all well. Firstly i want to thank everyone who wished me happy birthday on facebook or by text. I am sat here reading all your messages and there is a tiny tear in my eye, so thank you so much.

Secondly I want to apologise for not having updated this thing for a while, internet seems to be really expensive in this part of the world and it can be quite hard to find the time. When speaking to Mum yesterday though she told me off for updating the blog so here I am doing it now, hope you're happy MUM! :)

I am currently in Hervey Bay which is right next to Fraser Island. It's only a small place and basically it's just used as a gateway to the island, the ferry port is located here. I arrived on tuesday night, stayed one night at the hostel but began my 3 day self-drive safari of fraser island on wednesday morning. It's quite a popular thing for backpackers to do, one of those 'must do' things for the east coast. I was put in a group with 7 other people, all of my group were either english or irish. We then had to watch a safety video (so we wouldn't get eaten by dingos, the wild dogs that live on the island) and go shopping for food which would last us the three days. Only 4 wheel drives are allowed on fraser, as everything is sand, other cars would not have a chance, even some of the jeeps were getting stuck! There were 2 girls in my group that shared the driving, im glad i wasn't driving as it looked pretty tough! It was an interesting three days and not really something I would do again but definately an experience... I'm not really a 'natural' camper at the best of times but add in a whole load of sandy, yucky toilets, no shower and not much food and well yeah, let's just say it wasn't 5 star luxury! haha. We got to see some amazing fresh water lakes though and got to swim in them too so that was cool. The final day on the island was my birthday. The night before we all sat round the camp fire (there were lots of other backpackers on our campsite, not just my group of 8) and at midnight (the turn of my birthday) everyone sang to me! I also had lots of happy birthday's the next day. We got back to the mainland at around 4pm so at least I had chance to speak to Chris :) and Mum :) We were supposed to be going for a meal in the bar at the hostel but by the time everyone had showered (best shower ever!) and gone to shops etc, they had stopped serving food. I was so gutted, i had already decided what I was eating and everything and had been pining for garlic bread all day! so guess what i had to do - yep, I cooked MORE PASTA of course! just what a girl wants on her birthday... oh well, a few more weeks of pasta can't hurt can it?! When I get home I will have a proper birthday meal.

I stayed last night in the hostel then today I am moving on. My bus is in half an hour so I better hurry up, but just so you know my plans for the next couple of weeks is as follows:

Sat 19th - sun 20th - 1770 (name of a town here!)

mon 21st - thursday 24th- Airlie beach

Thursday 24th - Saturday 26th - saling on whitsundays islands

sat 26th - sun 27th - back in airlie beach

sun 27th - tues 29th - Magnetic Island (off Townsville)

tues 29th - tues 6th july - Cairns area (may move around)

Then I fly home on the 6th - only 2 and a bit weeks to go now!

Can wait to see everyone. Lots of love, Rebecca xxxxxx