Gday everybody! We are currently in hervey beach, an area to the north of Brisbane, where we depart for tomorrow! The last few days have included a bucket load of travelling - 19 hours on a bus over two days! We had a fantastic time in a place called Kroombit. Heard of it? No... nobody has! It's in the outback, and involved a twelve hr drive south west from Airlie Beach.We stayed at a Cattle Station (yeeeeeeeehaaaaaaaaaa!) and di so many cool things... first up we had lessons on how to crack a whip (anyone from Camp Farwell will know how much I loved doing that in the vaulting ring! - K) then we had dinner cooked over an open fire, and sat round fires enjoying the peace and quiet... so nice to not have the noise of the beachy places.After that wehad a bucking bronco competition, for which I (K) won a free drink, but I'd scarpered to bed to get an early night! It was really cool - the bar at this place was an old gypsy-type cart propped up by a cactus! In the morning we rose early for brekkie and then went up to the yard. We did goat mustering on horse back - so much fun! There were hundreds of goats on the land and we had to round them all up into a pen. It was so nice to ride again - I miss it so much! Fleur enjoyed it too and it was definitely one of our favourite activities so far. After lunch we had a rodeo! We did lassooing - first over poles, and then we entered the goat pen and had to lassoo a goat and pull it in. We took lots of pics, but unfortunately cant upload them here... be up on the pic pages in a few days. We also did fake branding where we had to run after and practically rugby tackle goats to the ground then turn and lift them while someone did a fake branding stamp on their butts - it was good fun, and apparently this is how the locals amuse themselves at their own rodeos! Some people had a go at clay pigeon shooting, which looked fun but didnt really appeal to us! After all the fun we headed for hervey bay, unfortunately with a bit of a blip just after we hit the highway outa the outback... our trailer and bus decided to part company and we had to have the towbar welded back on... thankfully we were in the first bit of civilisation and there was a mall! Today we've spent the day browsing the shops and buying essentials like long pyjamas - its so cold here at night! The weathers great here, although we're outa the tropic of capricorn so the humidity has gone and like I said, nights are cold! Leave here at 8am tomorrow and head for Brisvegas (!) via the areas of Rainbow Beach and Noosa where we're going to do some Aboringinal activities and stuff. We're hoping to visit Australia Zoo (home of Steve Irwin!) when we're in Brisbane - very excited! Right... better get around to cooking tea... Lots of love and upside down cuddles, Karen and Fleur xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx :-)