Comfort Inn Marco Polo Motel Mackay

... br>Wayne and Gill joined us for a swim in the beach before a BBQ dinner at our van, courtesy of the meat tray from the TAB at Airlie Beach!

A “Juicy Tarago” (the East Coast “Wicked Van” equivalent –sans the cutting edge graffiti) pulled in beside us for the night which eased my nerves a little, safety in numbers…

Maegan’s birthday on Monday saw Greg and Max leave the van early for their usual walk. Maegs and I ...

... we stopped in Rockhampton at Clarke Rubber and whilst I was inside, a Dutch woman our age crossed 4 lanes of traffic to take a photo of Rocky. She was travelling around in a wicked camper with her fiance and thought the Kombi was smoken! Chris took much pride in showing her the interior, introducing the puppies and even showing her some resto photos. The man from Boyne Island Caravan Park was now very very far in the back of our minds ...

... and weigh the hand luggage and I saw some hefty hand luggage. However we were sitting right in front of the attendants with the scales right beside them...do we confess or try to casually walk through and hope they don’t stop us. djd already saying we will just refuse to go on the plane if they stop us. djd also ...

... into relatively shallow and calm sea just a foot below me, but instead a perilous high dive into a rapidly moving river filled with rocks, the climbing prowess I demonstrated then completely abandoned me. I took two steps, cautiously working out where to balance my weight as I took each one, but on step three I slipped and sat down very ******* a large wet rock, liberally covered in leaves, mud, moss, and oh yes, spiders and ants. I gingerly picked ...

... a flame. Instead, I employed a little trick I call "Stick a rolled-up sheet of paper into a live toaster until it bursts into flame, light the gas stove with the burning torch, but don't stand there and admire your handiwork because the piece of paper is still on fire, and it will burn your fingers ...ouch!" [Dumb Thing #2]. Fortunately (or coincidentally?) we had an almost finished bottle of wine nearby to douse the flames. Safety tip: Don't try ...

... animals in the world - looks like a small beaver with a duck's beak and it lays eggs. Is it a mammal or a bird...? Alarms were set for 5.30am since platypuses are at their most active in the hours just before sunrise. Not our most active hours! We managed to drag ourselves up and a good thing we did - spotted many many many turtles in the river and were already excited about them but the best was yet to come - the beaky beavers! The water was clear enough to see one of ...

... only 128kms south of Proserpine and after a brief visit to the bank we headed off through sugar cane country. We stopped for lunch about 50kms north of Mackay and Dianne received news from Ange that a friend of ours, Noel, had passed away last night which is not unexpected - just earlier than expected. It's a great loss. The Ballarat Conference for AHSFMA is being held tomorrow and Friday so Ange and Emma are heading up there today to set up - Dianne is feeling a little left out and ...

... hours up the coast from Sydney. It is located on the Great Barrier Reef and surrounded by beautiful forests. We arrived and settled in at Airlie Beach, and began the process of searching for work. It was beautiful. Every morning I woke up and went for a run along the harbour, seeing the sun reflected off the boats and the water, being surrounded by forests. After my run I'd go for a swim in the lagoon, and head back for some coffee and ...

... backpackers were trying to quickly make some hefty decisions based on little to no information/misinformation. The local hostel industry enjoyed this unexpected boom as all two hostels in town filled up in no time. I wasn't worried about that though - I didn't plan on sticking around. I was very fortunate I suppose - the ladies at the bus station were kind enough to let me use their phone, the girl who booked my trip was very ...

... Bucasia Beach Resort: 2 nights @ $31 per night Food Shopping: $38 Sunday, 9th September, 2007 (written by Suzanne) Mackay We made some pit stops this morning, first gas for the car, then BFC which is like Anaconda or Rays Outdoors' to buy a bait pump for Stephen, this is a belated Fathers Day present. We headed off to the tourist information in Mackay and decided on a free bus trip ...