Hello my little people,

Safe and sound we still are, currently residing in Brisbane - bit of a hooker zone but across the road from Chinatown.
Since we last passed letters, we had just finished our Whitsundays Islands cruise. Coming south since then, we then did our 3 day tour of Fraser Island. This was the 4WD self drive journey all over the island. It was Incredible!! Cruising along the 75mile long beach at 85km/h is so sweet. We stopped at lake Whabby, surrounded by a Huge sand dune - so big you'd think you were in a desert. Also took a walk up Ely Creek, - a creek that pumps out millions of gallons of filtered water a day. The water is so pure - filtered through sand over 800 years, we emptied out our bought bottled water to stock up on Ely's finest.
The feast and the piss up on the first night was one to remember. Me and Jacqui cooked up a mean BBQ for our 10 strong group. During the course of the night, we managed to somehow lose most of our kitchen utensils - including a 14 inch heavy cast iron frying pan! Yea, I know... we were pretty drunk. Played drinking games most of the night until we were screamed at to shut up a couple of times. So much fun, havn't laughed like that in a while.
Across the rest of the weekend - We visited The Champagne Pools - Huge rock pools on the edge of the island that fill up with a warm fizz when the waves crash into the sides. Every time it happened, we'd shout CHAMPAGNE!! So much else happened, lots of beaches, lakes, shipwrecks, Dingos, sun , sun, and GOON - basically a bag of wine. The only way to roll when you're backpackin'. Jacqui had a great time driving too, along the beach at 85k's and through the bush on a sandy, bumpy track. Nice 1 J.

After that adventure came another. Gagaju Bush camp in Noosa - to be honest, I actually thought this was just a name or maybe it was beside the bush.... No... This place was in the MIDDLE OF BLEEDIN NOWHERE! Ok, it was livable, just about. Gas stoves, hammocks, hammock beds in big tent dorms, - and my favourite - a tree stump fitted with a tap and a little mirror for our wash up sink. You just gotta see it to believe it.
Anyhoo.. from here, we went on a canoe trip up the Noosa River. A black river ( filled with tee-tree oil) thats so still, its like canoing over a mirror. As if the bush camp wasn't remote enough, we camped somewhere along the river in No-mans-land. Where civilisation ends and the Goanas take over ( like a cross between an Iguana and a crocodile - weird creatures!) Our group of 6 pitched our dome tents and cooked over just one little... flame.. for dinner. Once again, the Goon came out along with the multitude of drinking games till the Goana came down and screamed at us to shut up. So cool to not have any neighbours for about ....20 kilometers? The canoing the next day was a challange but really nice. Took a swim in the tee-tree filled water which is supposed to be great for ya.. ?
After those few days, we've never been so dirty and actually not cared. Brings a great feeling of freedom. Would love to do it again.
Which brings us to Brisbane, back to civilisation. Nice city - not as hustle bustle and grumpy as other cities. We're taking our time here and will be soon moving to Surfers Paradise then Byron Bay - which are both supposed to be wicked. Moving our way back to Sydney at some stage then off somewhere else that'll let us in.

Allo,

Right now we're still on Mission Beach. We've been stuck here for a while due to flooding of the roads ( it's wet season here and its been the heaviest rainfall in 6 years), buses were going north most of the time but - going south has been a nightmare. We have to get to Airlie Beach to collect my wallet and credit card that were posted to the hostel and from here we go out on our boat to do the Whitsundays sailing ( 3 days, 2 nights on a nice posh boat ) Everyone who does it says its an amazing experience. When we get to Airlie beach, we should.. Hopefully! .. have reception on our phones to keep in touch again.

The rain hasn't been too much of a bummer, we've all been just hangin out at the hostel playin cards, swimming in the pool, drinking, just having a good laugh really. The people here are great, we've met some really sound people and the hostel is really cheap too. I think its been 5 days weve been here now, but i think we've had enough. We could have done Rafting here, but I'm not too mad about that... or Skydiving - but thats a bit outside of our budget until I get my credit card and Jacqui gets her Taxback from home.
They put on great food here if you want to pay in $7. Had a bbq one night, Chicken Sate was yesterday. But Tonight is Irish Stew - ( The Chefs being - Jacqui and Simon! Jacqui's the head chef, but I'm still workin away too. So free food for us tonight ! )

Even more importantly.. I went up to the local bar here on Mission beach. I asked about DJing for even a little bit, maybe an hour some night. After getting a bit of hassle ( the guy I was talking to forgot who I was and didn't remember talking to me. I spoke to the owner and she got me up for a while. i thoought i was going to play for an hour, but after only 30 minutes, the main DJ came back from his break to take over again!! Just as I was getting into it.... Anyway.. I still got to play in Australia . The guys at the hostel were well impressed. 20 of them came up to see me, Fair play to them.


Please keep in touch

Si

Right now, we're in Cairns, up the north east coast of Oz. It's rainy season now, so in between the scorching hot sun and the super humidity it rains pretty heavy. A bit of thunder and lightening outside now, but I'm sitting in our hostel sweating away.

Before we came up here, we did two Wicked day trips - The first was the Penguin Parade. Our first stop was The Gurdies Winery where we sampled about 6 wines and had a small lunch. I tried all the wines to see if there was any wines I DO like, but no, I still don't like wine. Certain places in Australia are swarming with flies, this was one of them. It's SO annoying.
Next stop was a wildlife sanctuary. We saw - Wallabies ( like small Kangaroos), Dingos, Alpakas ( like llamas), Wombats, Kangaroos, Koalas, Emus and a crocodile. We fed the Roos, wallabies and emus and we saw the croc being fed a chicken - dead one. It was incredible, love those Wallabies. On again to see The Nobbies - big rock formations along the coast where the wind almost blew us into the sea.
The main part came at the end where we visited the penguin parade. You sit by the beach and watch the return of the smallest living penguins (fairy penguins) - all about a foot high - to their nest for the night. Once we saw them emerge , we made our way to one of the boardwalks nearby. Nobody really thought of it but you see hundreds of fairy penguins waddle up alongside the runway - only two feet away from us. Such cute little guys, the highlight of the day.

Our next day trip was The Great Ocean road, a huge 400km stretch of beautiful scenery along the coast of Australia. Our first stop on this was a Aboriginal culture centre where a guy taught us about the different territories and the tools and weapons they used. Jacqui got up to try and make fire with sticks, almost got it too, she got a bit of smoke. The guy then took out a Digeridoo and played the best I've Ever Heard! Bought his CD on the way out.
A lot of driving along this huge stretch of road with the craziest guide - like Santa with an attitude! Bernie was his name - the funniest smart arsed guide in Oz. Saw the beach where some of Point Break was filmed ( Bells Beach). Then on to Otways rainforest for a short ramble through the tallest flowering trees in the world.
The highlight of the day was The 12 Apostles. Huge rock formations up to 45 meters high carved out of the coastline. We and Jacqui were the only people on our tour to pay the extra $50 to take a 7 minute helicopter ride over the coast for some Amazing views. Took plenty of pictures and videos. We had a running commentary from the chopper pilot, but he shouldn't have bothered. It went in one ear and out the other, too busy being amazed!

Here in Cairns we took a day boat trip to The Great Barrier Reef for some of the best snorkelling in the world. Hundreds of brightly coloured fish cruise past you as you lay on the surface of the warm water. We had a blistering hot day but we were the only 2 people on the boat - including the guides - that didnt get burned. The mums will be proud.
Plenty more adventures to come as we make our way down the east coast of Oz, including our Whitsundays - 3 day boat trip and our 3 day Canoe trip in Noosa. Will keep you all informed.

We're sorting photos at the moment so they will be up for view on our sites shortly, will let yous know where and when.