Australia

Us overlooking Whitehaven inlet, weather-not so good.

G'day Mates, how is everyone, thanks for the comments, its always great to get them!

Since we last updated we've done more driving (in fact the last section) seen some more great things, met some top people and have finally got some good weather, so we're not just as jealous about the weather reports from back home as we were!.

We got to the Whitsundays on a cool and rainy day and even thought twice about spending a princely amount to go and visit them, but it would have been like going to Burger king and not buying a burger..... it just doesnt happen. We plumped for a day trip on an ocean raft, which to give you an idea is a large Dinghy with 2 aircraft engines as outboards, they are the boats which you see going down large rivers in the U.S and NZ, great fun. The boat took us (rather quickly) to a small island for some snorkelling first off, it wasnt quite as warm as snorkelling in Thailand but with a wetsuit and some moving about it wasn't too bad either. saw some weird and wonderfull things under the water including a shark spotting claim by Tan, she did say it was just a baby though. We then went onto to Whitehaven inlet and beach, both absolutley breathtaking you can see why it gets voted worlds number one beach regularly, although we didnt have perfect weather the sun did appear for us at lunch when we arrived at the beach, it gave us a chance to go for a swim and feed some fish. Also included was a bushwalk which included licking an Ants bum, now the conclusion most of you have jumped to is not neccassarily the correct one, although it is the same one as I jumped to when the guide first suggested it. The Ants are local and green-arsed ones which taste kind of like lime, i'd imagine they're pretty good draped over a Margerita, we'll see if tesco will stock them. The journey back consisted of the driver breaking the speed of sound doing various dounuts and handbrake turns, several of the older people in the group making full use of their colostimy bags and me loosing a flip-flop (thong!) But it has to be one of the best days we've had all along.

Fishy, on the great barrier reef.

From Airlee beach (the Whitsundays) we headed to Cairns, our final destination stopping off a few times on route, including a day long stop in Atherton just West of Cairns, it had 5 or 6 beatifull waterfalls which we're glad we spent the time going inland to visit.

Us at a waterfall in Atherton.

Making use of our waterproof camera again.

We're now in Cairns and have dropped charlie off *sob* but as soon as we land in icy cold New Zeland we're taking another loudly painted 'wicked camper' out!

Hope everyone well, Love from Ant and Tan xx xx

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

We're going to turn over a new leaf and update the blog quicker than it takes to complete a menstral cycle, we'll see how it go's.

Well a new country, a new language (sort of) and definately a new climate, crikey! I think the cerimonial 'shrimp throwing on the barbie' will have to wait, its brass monkeys out here. You'd think coming from Wales we'd be hardened and used to cold weather, but it seems not. Arriving at Sydney airport 6am in flip-flops (sorry thongs, using the local talk) a t-shirt and shorts probably wasn't the wisest decsision but it was a bit of a shock to the system and we're slowly but surely acclimatising.

We spent out first 3 days in Sydney, it felt like a cleaner, friendlier and generally nicer Britain (maybe the weather helped us reach that comparison?!) we had a great few days, did the usual sight-seeing bit, Opera house, Harbour bridge, Bondi etc... but as with lots of capital cities it was pretty expensive, not quite as pricey as home but having got used to staying at hotels for 3/4quid a night and both eating and drinking for a fiver it was back to the 'real world'.

We've hired a camper van to travel up to Cairns in, its a bit of a shed and covered in some very distastefull graffiti but its got (almost) everything we need, bed, table, cooler, sink, oven etc... no toilet or shower though, we're hoping that our Glastonbury experiences can see us through the hardest of times in 'Charlie' we've not travelled far from Sydney as yet, just a couple of hours West to the Blue Mountains, its a beatiful area there are a few national parks here, caves, lakes and (youve guessed it Mountains, although we've yet to see a Blue one yet!) we spent our first couple of days here camping (in our van) in one of the national parks. Within 20 minutes of geting into the park we realised we didnt have any drinking water then proceeded to get our van stuck in the mud, CLASSIC! we had to get help via some Indian tourists who passed on our S.O.S call to the Rangers who turned up an hour later and rescued our "sorry Pomme arses" (they didnt say that, but they didnt need to). We also thought we'd make use of the skills we had picked up from the Ray Mears 'bushcraft' show and collect and boil our own drinking water from a local source, great idea but it tasted like vomit and our tum's seemed to almost instantly repel it, ah well we did try.

The park was great, we were the only campers there, not unsuprising as the night temprature hovered around freezing! but we had Kangaroos nearby as well as dozens of different brirds including some lovley white parotts who let us hand feed them.

We're now in Katoomba going to spend the night here before making our way back to the coast up toward Newcastle and hopefully to sunnier climbs!

Take care all, Anthony and Tania xx