The long drive North

Hello everyone!

Ten days or so on, 2000 miles later were a little bit nearer to our final destination in Oz-Cairns. We've had great fun, the three of us (Me Tan and Charlie) and apart from a few leaks and some funny noises (all coming from Tan I may add) we're getting on brilliantly.

From our last entry in the blue mountains, which incidentally seems like years ago we've visited quite a few different places, some great some not so. Our first stop was Stockton near Newcastle, i've never been to Stockton in the U.K but i'd imagine it has about the same amount of charm and character as Stockton-Aus..... none! we made a quick move from there north, heading towards Byron Bay the hippy resort down under. We made a few other pit stops on the way but nowhere either of us can remember so I wont waste typing time on them.

Byron Bay was great, we finally hit our first patch of good weather (sunny and about 21c) the town reminded us of an upmarket Goa minus the rubbish and with a little bit more class, kind of hippies who werent really hippies they were loaded (lots of nice cars) but just dressed scruffily, not neccassarily a bad thing but just what we picked up on. The beach at Byron was stunning, apparantly 17kms of unbroken white sands altough not having walked the length I cannot confirm or deny that fact. We spent a couple of days there relaxing, we also managed to spot Dolphins at sunset and Whales at sunrise which we were chuffed about, it saved us a packet on paying for a whale watching trip thats for sure.

We headed to the Gold coast from Byron, about 4 hours drive. The Gold coasts a kind of upmarket Costa, spending too much time there is just a bad idea, everything there costs lots. We just had the one day there, after winning a bet a few weeks back Tan had decided to give a rollercoaster a go, which is something i've never been able to convince her to try. We paid a visit to Movieworld, a kind of Warner brothers Disneyworld. True to her word we went on a double looping corkscrewing 150foot terror ride and to my total suprise she loved it, and after we went back to the van and she changed her undies I couldnt get her off the rides for the rest of the day.

Us and Wayne Rooney on a day off from the world cup.

Brisbane was next, we were just an hour too late to catch a footy (Ozzie rules) game at the Gabba which was (Quote-Tan)"dissapointing" so we had to make do with a look around the stadium and a visit to the club shop. We only spent a few hours in Brisbane as the nearest we could camp was about 10kms out, we did meet up with a couple of people we went treking with in Thailand which was great as they are doing the opposite journey to us we compared notes went bowling and had a few stubbies.

Tropical rainforst in Gladstone.

Turtle power!

From there we went to Rainbow beach, the jump off point to Fraser island, the largest sand island in the world. Although it rained like we've never seen before for 4 hours straight during the morning it didnt take anything away, the place was amazing, we went on a 4X4 bus day trip, visited Shipwrecks, lakes, Lagoons, desert, swamps, rainforest and the famous 65mile beach all of this on an island which is just 15kms wide at its widest point, mindblowing!. We didnt know what to expect but we were blown away with how much life there was and with the amount of different enviroments that were packed into such a small area. A great day out and we'd love to come back again and camp here for a little longer, if thats ever possible.

Shipwreck on Fraser island.

Lake Mckenzie.

We're now about 800 miles North at Airlee beach, part of the Whitsundays. Wednesday we take a day trip out to a few of the islands to see what all the fuss is about a bit of snorkelling too, We end up on Whitehaven beach which apparantly has the whitest sand in the world, we'll let you know.

Bye bye for now, Ant and Tan xx xx