Brisbane up the Coast

Left Brisbane to go up the coast and see some of North Queensland and although we didn't get all the way to the top trying was fun. From hostel to campsites and back to hostel we've tried cooking in more kitchens than different beers. We've of course given the beer tasting some priority but only found two which are any good James Squire and Coopers Stout both of which we think come from South Australia.

B4 The Light

Finally saw a koala about 100m from the car park after we'd walked 8km through the national park at Noosa. This town is so far east it's almost out of Australia, in any case it's the first point to see the sun in the morning (no we didn't get up for it).

Beach Hopping

We met a number of people in the campsites and shared varying quantities of alcohol with them, it has to be said that the Irish are champion at this, consuming something like 2 litres of wine (otherwise known as goon - wine from a box) per day.

Airlee Beach is a party town with everybody coming in to jump on a sailing boat around the Whitsunday islands which are not really in Australian waters. Simon left Dom to party in town whilst he disappeared two days on Boomerang, photos will have to wait since the nice new camera was left on land. Hopefully the disposable bought for us by a dear friend will include some interesting snapshots, those taken by other guests at the last night party should be fun.

Big Boomerang

After here it's some of the most boring driving around 600km or so of nothing to stop for or see. Ok not quite we did stop for some ice cream in flaggy rock, run by a danish guy he sells all sorts of flavoured ice creams from some beautiful gardens we bought 8 scoops for 5 dollars (real pigs!!)

Arriving in Townsville there really is not much to do but we did talk to our first aboriginal, they were painting in the street market and talked a little about the colonnisation. It seems that they are trying to preserve their language by writing down everything they learnt from their mothers, but whether or not the youngsters are interested is another question. From Townsville you take the ferry over to Maggie or Magnetic Island which has loads more koalas (spotted 2), 160 or so different birds and probably just as many different butterflys. The island is more than peaceful but is being overdeveloped and losing its character, a real shame considering you can walk around it in couple of days.

Bush Tree

Dinner Again

Dom finds Beer

Find the Fishy

Flaggy Rock Garden

Koala

Maggie Koala

Moonrise on Maggie

Mt Morgan Smelting Tower

Mt Morgan Station

Scottish

Swinging Bridge

View from Forts on Maggie

With the Light