Hello from Brisbane!

We have finally escaped the rain - at least for the time being! The humidity here though comes as quite a shock! It was 80% today and is set to stay at that sort of level for the rest of the week! I have no idea how I will cope in Asia!

Brisbane city is much smaller than either Melbourne or Sydney. The shopping is pretty good and I have replaced much of my wardrobe already! On the Southbank there is what is known as 'City Beach'. It is a wonderous spot, an artificial beach with none of the nasty things you find everywhere in the sea over here! It is one of the few places you can swim in and actually relax! The beaches like Surfers Paradise are quite a distance from the city and so the City Beach is overwhelmingly popular!

In that I sadly won't have time now to visit Fraser Island we decided to do a day trip to Moreton Island. It's much closer to Brisbane and is the worlds third largest sand island. Drivind around the island in an enourmous truck was so bumpy, you needed your seatbelt done up extra tight just to keep you in your seat! We drove to the sand hills and had the chance to go sand boarding! I am such a wimp and find sitting down sledging pretty hairy so when I was given a waxed piece of chipboard and told to lie down head first I wasn't exactly loving the idea! The first time was by far the worst, once you had climed back up what felt like a mountain of sand going down again was great fun! We even tried three of us go down on the same board - I led on top of the tour guide and Eve sat on my back - it was awesome fun although we did end up in a bit of a heap at the bottom! After lunch we went snorkelling around ship wrecks - the colours of the fish were amazing! The diving instructor was looking for the shark which had been there for the last few days and kept saying how unlucky we were not to have seen it! Unlucky?!? All that was going through my mind was relief! It was a great day though and meant that I was quite content to be missing Fraser!

On Wednesday Eve left Brisbane to get ready for the start of their uni term. I was alone for the first time in Australia! Pretty scary at first but I soon met some really friendly British girls, Emma and Sarah (not Thomas - how funny is that I've only just noticed!) and we went out together to the Down Under bar. People rave about it and claim it is a must visit but none of us were that impressed. We made our way back to the Valley insted which is much closer to our hostel and went to RGs and other places around here.

The following day Emma and I went to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. We got to cuddle them and had a picture taken! They are so cute although the males kept making a territorial marking noise which just sounded like really loud farts! Quite funny when some guy was trying to do a talk about snakes with a python wrapped around his neck! There were kangaroos in a large field which we were brave enough to approach and even touch! They also had Red Kangaroos, Tazmanian Devils, Dingoes, Wombats and lots of horrible snakes! There was even a farm and a sheepdog show although we didn't bother with that as we had both already seen Babe! It was a really good day though seeing some of the more friendly Aussie natives!

I have a trip planned to the Whitsunday islands tomorrow to see the Great Barrier Reef although what with the Cyclone in Cairns, flooding all over and rain forecast I'm not sure quite how much I shall get to see!

x