Wilson Island Gladstone

The day after our whale watching trip,we set off bright and early. and stopped for petrol. Here we were approached by two Israeli girls, heavily laden with rucksacks, who were after a lift. We agreed to give them a lift to the outskirts of town where the road split and we were heading in different directions. Then it transpired that they wanted to divert to the supermarket en-route. We agreed to this as we needed to pick up a couple of things ourselves ...

... years and years of talking, not doing, has gone into to this.

To be able to drive it into our old street felt great for us, but probably just another bunch of hippies to a couple of others........Chris spent so many nights under Rocky when he came back from his new body makeover. Sometimes I would ring from sea and I had in actual fact woke him up from under the Kombi. He would say that he had ...

... and had shoved Steven and he hit his face against one of the posts. You never saw two children and a family leave as fast as they did after Steven started crying! Steven had a fat lip for a day or two and a little bump on his head but is now fully recovered. With the weather at its hottest so far we headed further north and arrived at Gladstone. Following such good progress on day two we had ideas of reaching Cairns, but by ...

... was the Botanical Gardens which had a little zoo with a few animals. We stopped off at the chimps enclosure and this chimp climed up a ladder so he was directly in front of me and then spat straight at me! Oh my god how gross, Loz couldn't stop laughing and was just annoyed that he hadn't got a picture of it, after this I wasn't that impressed with the zoo so we went into the gardens for a walk instead. Then we ...

... at these locations, was too busy just to pull over. Just take it from me, banana trees can look seriously un-sexy and funny dressed like this. Continuing along the Bruce Highway I started to pass a lot of sugar plantations, I didn't know Australia grew so many things, including sugar, I followed the Clarence River which was fringed by these plants (photo). The town of Tiaro, I think it was there - again forgotten, but it rings a loud bell in my brain but it had a ...

... overcast and rained on and off all day. We still managed to have a great day despite the weather though and went to the local Surf Lifesaving Club for lunch where we sat on the balcony looking out over the beach. We were entertained by a group of rainbow lorikeets who were flying down to the balcony in front of us and drinking water out of a dish someone had left for them. I also noticed at one point that a group of people were standing on the beach all looking in ...

Fraser island is a sand/tropical and totally undeveloped island. Clambering aboard an antique Toyota Landcruiser 4x4 we intrepidly heade out... and what an Island!!! FOr once my driving wasnt the most probable cause of death as the the box jellyfish, randy tiger sharks, and the usual cast of crocs, snakes, scorps and sids. And lets nto forget dingoes... (wild pack dogs ...

... we passed looked a bit morbid at times, we were happily singing along with Mr. Hasselhoff, as this was the only cassette tape we could get hold of. We saw Dingo (thats a native wild dog by the way), Dolphin, a Snake and Whales. Camping at night meant fabulous clear skies and its blanket of stars, whilst attempting to whip up the proper Ozzie Barbie with a few Stubbies in the dark. Beautiful island, but I guess what you really take away is the experience...and that was a lot of fun.

... along a beach with the sea on your right, more scenic than the M1 anyway! Have to watch out for creeks though, i take one a little too fast, don't think the Dutch were too impressed with that, still no harm done! We visit a ship wreck then take in a viewing point from which you can see Whales, Dolphins and Sharks in the water, don't see Whales but see a Dolphin and a Shark. (by the way you cant swim in the sea here due to sharks, jelly fish etc) Set up camp in the evening ...

Hi people, Teddy Sheringham did his best by scuffing his penalty (remember that conversation a few weeks ago Ashley B?), but still, as per usual with football, the mighty Arsenal came out on top! This one goes down in the history books up there with Sol Campbells transfer and winning the league at the Lane. Anyway, back to Australlia. From Sydney we went up to Byron Bay, which was basically an ultra nice holiday resort. We had a room of 8 ...