Brisbane

We are now back in Queensland and the sun is shinning! The mornings here in Brisbane have been chilly (a record low of 3.5 degrees this morning) but the temperatures are still around 22 to 25 degrees during the day. Brisbane is surprisingly nice as noone we've met has had a good word to say about it. We walked all around the city on Wednesday and saw some nice buildings and architecture. South Bank has a beach and nice places to swim but there are too many Ibis birds shitting on food tables! Minging!



Today we eventually got to go whale watching (4th time lucky!!) The tour was twice as much as the one in Byron Bay and had loads of old people. They played Elvis and Frank Sinatra music throughout most of the journey on the boat to entice the whales from the water. We sailed out around Moreton Island, which like Fraser Island, is one of the largest sand islands in the world and is only accessible with 4WD. It took us ages to see a whale and we were beginning to think we had wasted all our money. But then we eventually saw a humpback.

It didn't seem to be going anywhere in a hurry and just kept swimming close by the boat. It was really lovey and so big and because we didn't really know where it would surface it was hard for us to takes its photo. Unfortunately we didn't see any more and the glamorous Captain Kerry (the only female Captain in the South Pacific Rim) said that it was unusual for whales to travel alone which may be beacuse there are Killer Whales and Great White sharks in the area and therefore the others may have been ate. How nice.


But closer to Moreton Island the water was incredibly clear and we got to see others sea animals like funny looking jellyfish, jumping tuna, dolphins playing on the surf, stingrays swimming in big packs, hammerhead sharks and amazing great sea turtles which were so beautiful. We also got to watch episodes of Mr Bean on the return trip. So all in all it was a grand day and our faces are completely burnt beetroot!

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Byron Bay

We are now back in good old NSW. Nearly everyone that we have met along the coast all say Byron Bay is the best place but when we arrived it was pouring down. Apparently the storm was part of a cyclone that had passed from New Zealand.

So for 2 full days we had to stay indoors and watch bert films in the freezing TV room. On Saturday the sun was shinning again so we went to Nimbin which is a small town (200m street) which is full of hippies, freaks and backpackers, famous for selling marijuana. There's no relaxation of the drug laws it's just tolerated by a certain degree by the police.

They do make a few arrests every now and then but normally it's just let be. There were old ladies trying to sell you 'cookies' and all the people look weird and spaced out. A bad advertisement for the lifestyle. We went to the weirdest museum (or rubbish shack) with loads of old stuff obviously dumped there from the local's attics!

Saying that the Rainbow Cafe makes the nicest coffee and chips we've had in ages. The chips are all freshly prepared and the coffee is grown locally.


We were supposed to go whale watching but just like in Surfers Paradise the weather played havoc with our plans. On two successive days we were cancelled at the last minute because the boat couldn't get into the water.

Nightmare! We made the best of a little sunshine and headed to the famous lighthouse which happened to be right beside the most easterly point on mainland Australia. We had a little picnic on the way back. Classic stuff. Flat sandwiches, crisps with dips and a cheap bottle of plonk. Great fun.

Photos are at the usual place:

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Surfers Paradise

We have now travelled down to the famous Gold Coast which is full of theme parks and roller coasters. The town itself contains mostly high rise apartments close to the beach and it feels like a rich version of Portrush. The weather has become very cold, down to 16 degrees and Chris has started wearing all her tops a once. They have Tight Arse Tuesdays in the Gold Coast too so we went to see The Dark Night which we have been so excited about since they began casting. I think this was the first film we have seen without seeing any reviews or trailers and we assume there has been much hype about it here and back home.


We had planned to go whale watching but when our boat got to the open sea we had to turn back as the water was too rough. At least we got to see some millionaires houses along the water ways. Another thing about Surfers Paradise is that Chris is now once again covered in bed bug bites. We can not wait to stop living in smelly hostels.

Noosa Heads

Noosa Heads in the Sunshine Coast is beautiful! We are gradually moving down the East coast, having left the Tropical North and the weather is still really lovely considering it is the middle of winter.

Noosa has a Beverly Hills at the beach feel about it. It is full of rich people. But one thing we have noted about all the places we have been in Queensland is that everyone is so nice.

Even when our bus stops in the middle of nowhere for lunch the people are so kind and friendly. If we were rich we think we would move to Noosa as the surf and beaches are great and the small villages are surrounded by national parks. Fraser Island and loads of other islands are only a drive away.

We met up with our friend Martin from Switzerland whom we met on The Card and at 1770. Our hostel, Dolphins is really chilled out but it still has a high amount of Irish backpackers.

On our first day we took a walk along Sunshine Beach and did the coastal walk along the national park. There were loads of surfers along the way and we once again walked through a nudist beach!



The following day we went to Australia Zoo which was class! We weren't going to go because we have been to so many wildlife places but we are really glad that we did.

Everywhere had pictures of Steve Irwin and we were so impressed how the staff were involved with the issue of conservation and were all around the park educating us about the animals and how important they are. We had loads of fun. Chris got to cuddle a koala called Ellen and Dave fed Bimbo the elephant.

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Fraser Island

Fraser Island is the largest sand island in the world and is only accessible by 4WD. We were a bit worried about our trip as the Whitsundays nearly killed us.

But everything worked out perfectly. Our lovely group was made up of 5 French, 2 Basques and an Italian so we had a very civilised time with no crazy drinking like we had on The Card.

We set off in our 4WD on Wednesday morning and drove from Hervey Bay over to the ferry. When we arrived at Fraser the roads seemed grand, just a bit sandy. We headed straight for Lake McKensie which was beautiful and even nicer when we visited it on our last day as it was so sunny. The other lakes were beautiful too and the sand was like snow. We camped at Lake Boomajin where we had toilets and a sink for washing the dishes. The next day we set off for Indian Head. The inland road was crazy! It was really bumpy and overgrown but we made it grand. The 75 mile beach was beautiful but we had to watch out for planes landing from above.

The French guy Flo was driving over 80km per hour on the beach which was cool. At Indian Head we saw loads of dolphins and turtles. We think we saw whales too.

After lunch we headed to Rainbow Gorge which had so many different colours of sand. We camped at the beach and watched the sunset and the stars come out.

And of course we drank some goone and Dave did a flip off a sand dune and another French guy Perreek dived into the shark and jellyfish infested water. The next day we set off for Lake Wabby which was fantastic. Lake Wabby will not be there in a few years as the dunes are slowly caving in. After visiting Lake McKensie for the last time we drove home and even got all our bond back despite Dave breaking the shovel. What a great experience!

The town of 1770

We were feeling a bit crap and sore after the madness of the Whitsundays so we really needed a rest which was not helped by a horrible over night bus from Airlie Beach.

But we arrived in the small town of 1770, North of Bundaberg, so called as this was the year Captain Cook first set foot in this area. Our hostel was in a large ranch about 5 minutes drive from the beach and it had two massive doggies!

One was called Scoobie but we don't know the name of his sister or girlfriend. The hostel also had a cat called Shadow and a nice horse which looked very sad. The town is basically a beach and a few shops and you really feel cut off from everything.

We just chilled in 1770 for a few days and Dave took some surf lessons and was really good at it, (Chris couldn't do it because of her sore arm). The beach at 1770 is the most northern surf beach on the East coast. The Internet here is shit so we don't know when our photos will be uploaded. Poo.

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The Whitsundays

Our 3 day trip on The Card around the Whitsundays was awesome! The Whitsundays are a group of 74 islands off Airlie Beach and is the 3rd best sailing place in the world next to the Carribean and the Greek Islands. Our group had the coolest people and our crew were crazy! We had an amazing time! Check the photos to see what we mean.








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Magnetic Island

Magnetic Island is our first tropical Island that we have been on. It is beautiful but really sleepy with hardly any shops and places to eat.


The first night we arrived we saw toad racing where locals and tourists bet up to $50 on toads to race each other. Crazy but loads of fun!

The man running it was a character. We have spent our time here doing bush walks (we got to see a baby koala) and sea kayaking. We have also been battling with some annoying Irish culchies from our dorm. We hate them! Lets hope we get some sleep on the Whitsundays boat. We doubt it!



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Mission Beach

We arrived in Missions Beach Monday morning and the sun was finally shining! The place is basically one big beach and there are lots of activities to get on with like bush walking and swimming. We both did the 14,000 ft sky jump which was so amazing! Going up in the plane and having to move ourselves to the edge of the door was the scariest part! The 60 second free fall was unreal. It was quite hard to breath as the air just shoots up your nose. As the instructor pulled the parachute the views of Mission Beach and the surrounding islands were spectacular! It was really beautiful. We have a DVD of the dive but it does not capture the nice views that we saw from up there.


Today we did the Extreme White Water Rafting in Tully. Not only did we get to crash down the river but we also got to jump off rocks and go down shoots. The forest and mountains were gorgeous. This place is class!

We have most of our photos and video on DVD so you will have to wait till we get home to see them. The sky dive one is really embarrassing!

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