OK will try to be brief.... catch up from Rainbow to Adelaide

Well first things first, at last we have photos, thanks to a) Sophie being able to post loads on her website using her laptop and b) me being at my cousin's place using a decent computer so I have been able to import one.

Yeah.... for more piccies covering some of my Australian adventures, please go to:
www.sophiehenry.com
All the Aussie pictures are currently in 3 folders: 1) Noosa, 2) Noosa, Fraser Island and 3) Rainbow Beach, Whitsundays. More will follow and as they do folders will be added.

So enjoy. I put this photo on as it captures the moment that I ended my last blog with. When we met up with Keren and Larissa again in Rainbow Beach and drank lots of wine to celebrate. I love those girls. They will definitely be friends for life.

Now when I left off we had departed Rainbow Beach and were heading towards Airlie Beach for our trip out to the Whitsunday Islands on a sail boat. Now the coach journey was 14 hours with most of it over night (we left at around 7pm and arrives gone 9am the next day). I did manage to doze in the fitful way that you do given the fact that your neck is starting to cramp up every 20 minutes and you have to move it, or face being stuck in that position for the immediate future. So it would be fair to say that Sophie, Margo and I were far from feeling fresh when we reached Airlie Beach.

As Sophie and I were going straight on a boat that evening, we weren't booked in to a hostel, so we went to the beach in order to catch up on a bit of sleep. Of course the minute I started to nod off it started to rain heavily so we had to run (or in my case stagger slowly, while swearing profusely) for shelter. We didn't manage to have a shower either. BUT we did bump in to Daljit (another Noosa trip friend) and have a catch up with him, plus buy some wine for our boat trip (4 litre box, but that is normal it was a 3 night trip and no we didn't actually finish it). We had an early dinner with Margo at the Beaches hostel restaurant (very nice salmon, yummy) before heading to rendez vous with our skipper, cook and the 10 other passengers of our sail boat, the Madison. We were in high spirits despite feeling smelly & knackered, as we had met some really fab people along the way, so were optimistic that this was going to be another fantastic trip.

Umm.. well we liked Roger our skipper and Christina our cook/2nd in command. They were lovely. However, we knew we were in trouble when it became clear that the other passengers, rather than being made up of a few more small groups of people, was in fact a group of 10 American college students who were all studying together in Brisbane. Sadly our first instincts were right and we really didn't bond with them at all. Well, they were pretty selfish and only interested in chatting to each other. The first night, Sophie and I couldn't even speak to each other over the racket that they were making. Fortunately Sophie had some neurofen on her, as I needed it. The wine just wasn't enough.

TO make things worse, the cabin space was worse than cramped with Sophie & I put in the 4 bunk room (all the other rooms were 2 bunk, so weird that we were put in with the group) where there was no where to put our stuff other than on the bunks. Which meant very limited space to sleep in. I was on the verge of making a bid to swim back to shore by this point. But with sharks and jelly fish in the water I was too much of a coward to try it.

We managed to avoid the Americans (sorry can't remember most of their names, just not interested) and hung out with Roger and Christina as much as possible. We did see some amazing things though and I would definitely recommend sailing round the Whitsunday islands to anyone. Unfortunately the weather wasn't as nice as it could be following the 2nd Cyclone that had hit Cairns just the week before, so we didn't get to go out to the Great Barrier Reef, as it would have been too rough. But we did go to some fantastically beautiful spots (don't just take my word for it, check out the photos on Sophie's site) as Roger had been sailing round that area for years and knew all the best spots.

This is definitely something that I would like to do again, but when I have enough money to ensure that I have the boat just for me and my friends. Plus, big shock, I was not sick! Not even once! Did have a few annoying 20 yr old facile conversation related headaches (conversations about Barbie dolls and who is the sexiest Disney character for example, plus loads about boys/girls they fancy), but otherwise felt fine throughout the trip.

So we spent 3 nights at sea, with stops to go to beaches for walks, visit look out points, see Aboriginal cave drawings and do some snorkelling (well Sophie snorkelled, I couldn't get a stinger suit that didn't have holes in it, so I stayed safely on board reading). Christina looked after us very well food wise and Sophie & I did almost finish our box of wine (but not quite)

When we got back to Airlie beach and were free from our annoying boat mates, we checked in to Magnums (nice hostel) where we straight away bumped in to John and Tylor from our Fraser Island trip. It was great to see some friendly faces again and realise that we are able to have intelligent conversations with 20 somethings... we were just unlucky on our boat. After bumping in to the Canadian boys, we bumped in to the girls... everyone was in good form. We checked e-mails and realised that Jamie from our Noosa trip was in Airlie, texted him and arranged to meet him that night, before bumping in to him on the street 10 minutes later. After that we saw Daljit again... before Margo & her cousin joined us for drinks that evening. It was reunion central. We just needed Larissa & Keren there to make it complete. How we laughed.... Sure that Sophie will put up heavily edited highlights of the photos I took up on her website soon, so what that space.

The next morning we were back on the coach and I said a sad farewell to everyone as, other than the Canadians and a couple of the Israelis from the Fraser trip, I won't have a chance to meet up with any of the others again. Well not in Aus anyway, but get togethers in Europe are already being planned.

We had a lovely 8 hour journey up to mission beach. It got very wet by the time we reached there and you could see a lot of the damage that had been caused by the cyclones. Glad that I wasn't around when either of them hit! We didn't really have a chance to explore Mission beach as it was late by the time we got in and we were feeling pretty tired. We got up in the morning early and were almost ready on time to get picked up to go White water rafting on the Tully River (ok, he had to wait as we ran around pulling our stuff together. Comments were made about how organised we are! I just growled back. Little did we know that our driver would end up being our rafting guide... but following an inauspicious beginning, but the end of the trip Sophie & I were trying to work out how we could keep him).

White Water Rafting was fantastic. There were loads of rafts but we ended up with Drew, who was smart mouthed and cheeky most of the time. I loved it and abused him back. Don't know what it is about Australians, but I fit right in here because I can give as much crap as they do. We laughed so much, which is particularly amusing when you are going down grade 4 rapids. It was definitely exhilirating. I would recommend it to anyone. We had a great team in our raft, and particularly got on with Gina, lovely American student teacher from Florida, who was being so polite despite being told that she was being rude by being polite, when she should be getting in to the flow of Australian abuse/banter, as that is getting in to the local culture. She had definitely got the hang off it by the end though, I like to think I inspired her! I am the queen of cheeky comments and dirty looks!

I would go again in a heartbeat (although being in Adelaide now, that is a problem!). Want to do more!

After White Water Rafting they dropped us off in Cairns. I will tell you all about that and our trip up to Cape Tribulation... plus my time in Adelaide, when I next get a chance to update. I think that Rebecca needs to us the PC.

Love to all xxx

Don't have time to cover it all so here is part 1

Hello All

Well sorry for being off line for a while but having been at sea for a while, my internet access has been very limited.

When I left off Sophie and I were going to watch a DVD with Margo in our room in Rainbow beach as it was raining. Well we had a fab time watching the Island and after that Margo (who is Dutch not Swedish as per previous post, I am a tad senile) ran off to get some food. Sophie and I were popping out of our room ourselves when a mop of long brown hair and outspread arms, shouting incoherently came running towards us. Before we could get too alarmed we realised it was Keren from our Noosa trip and the incoherent language was Hebrew.

Being girls we hugged and screamed, it was so cool to see her. She told us that Larissa was going in on the 7pm coach too so we had a chance to catch up before we lurked around the coach stop waiting for her to come in (of course her bus was delayed so it was 8pm before we could surprise her and scare everyone getting off at Rainbow beach with our screaming).

What followed was a pretty legendary night for us, so happy to be reunited for one last night. The 5 of us (as Margo also joined us and got on like a house on fire with the girls) dranks lots of wine, chatted, shared chocolate, got increasingly boisterous and than decided that we could sing louder than the group of 50 odd Brazilians that had invaded our Hostel bar. NOt bad going since we only seemed to know about 1/2 the words of all the songs that we picked to sing. They had to withdraw to the beach, obviously recognising our superior ability to be very very noisy. Later we exchanged bad jokes with a group of Irish lads, before prising an amorous Brazilian off Larissa and heading back to our room to watch sophie dance, chat some more, take more silly photos and generally have a great time.

the next day we hung around the beach as it had actually stoppped raining before saying a really sad farewell to Larissa and Keren (Margo was on our coach) and heading to Airley beach for a long 14 hour over night coach journey, before getting straight on to our sail boat (The Madison) that evening for 3 nights sailing round the Whitsunday islands...

Well I will have to tell you all about that another time as I am almost out of time on this computer but it includes our group being me, Sophie and a group of 10 american students. I admit that I contemplated jumping over board at one point... but more details when I have a chance. Hopefully when I am in Adelaide.

Love to all

Fraser Island Freak out

Well hello all again, as I am typing this it is obvious that I have made it back safe and sound from Fraser Island. Another fantastic trip with another fab group of people, with the added bonus that I didn't have to drive afterall! Phew!

So here is the round up of the Fraser trip. On Thursday afternoon we had a briefing before heading off on our trip Good Friday morning. There were over 50 people in the briefing and we found out that we would be in 5 groups of 10-11. We were told all about the safety elements (don't play with Dingos, how not to wreck the car, rules of the national park that is Fraser, why swimming in the sea round there will kill us due to currents, jelly fish and sharks, why you should never go anywhere on your own... etc..)

After that we were called in to our Groups and Sophie & I were in Group B. To be honest, when I saw Group D where a lot of the older people had been put and than turned to see a group of very young and excited people in Group B, my heart did dip a bit. However, within 5 minutes, Sophie and I were in love with our group and knew that we were a) probably going to be the loudest on the Island and b) going to have a great time.

So to the group. There were 4 Israelis that were travelling together: Shai, Amit, Assaf and Yaniv. We could see straight away that they were going to keep us entertained. Plus 5 Canadians: Shell, Shannon, Lisa, John and Tyler who all seemed adorable. Fortunately a couple of the boys (Shai and Tyler) were cool about driving the great big 4x4 trucks, so I was off the hook and could relax knowing I wasn't going to have to get behind the wheel.

After a few drinks in the bar getting to know our travel companions, Sophie & I went for an early night so that we would be fresh for our early start in the morning. As our room was right next to the bar, it would be fair to say that that didn't quite pan out as I just couldn't sleep but c'est la vie.

The next morning we all met by the trucks to load them up with food, camping gear, stoves, tables, our bags, lights, water etc.. The boys got a quick introduction in to how to drive the monsters that were our trucks. After that we all piled in (8 in the back, 3 up front) and were on our way to the ferry to take us over to Fraser Island. The adventure had begun and everyone was in high spirits. The music was on full blast, we were singing and generally being boisterous in the back, so that no one could be in any doubt about the fact that we were planning to have a really good time.

The ferry journey was short but sweet, so before we knew it we were bombing along the sand with Shai (whose moto was to do everything we were told not to - naughty boy) driving and the rest of us hanging on as we bounced along the beach, screaming at him not to try and go through the water. In the end I adopted my most teacher like voice (what can i say you pick it up if you are related to a lot of them) and basically threatened to murder him once we were out of the truck if he carried on. Seemed to work, which surprised me as much as everyone else and we were peacefully bombing along the sand without any threats of kamakaze driving action.

Our first destination was McKenzie lake and we made it there uneventfully (well our bums were numb and bruised but those trucks aren't designed with comfort in mind). We had a lovely picnic (eggs for Shai as he can not eat bread at the moment as he it is not Kosher at the moment, the other Israeli boys weren't strictly observing that rule so they had sandwiches with us) before going down to the beach and the most beautiful lake on the Island. I had a wonderful lounge and read, plus laughed at the others who seemed to be trying to kill each other in the water. It was so much fun.

After McKenzie with headed to get more ice and water at Eurong, so that we could make sure that our food didn't get hot and rot, before finding our campsite off the beach not far from Eurong. How we laughed that evening, cooking steaks in the dark (well we admittedly should have set up camp a little earlier), drinking copious amounts of red wine (by the metallic mug full) and dancing to music. Plus I never anticipated that I would go to Fraser and be learning Hebrew, although many of those terms can not be used in polite sociey! I have some great photos of us all messing about that night, it was great fun. Plus have discovered that if I only get 4 hours sleep (as we were up at 5.30am the next morning in order to avoid high tide on our trip to Lake Wally) I am not actually grumpy in the morning! Could be that I was still a little merry though... ummm.

Unfortunately as we had the car lights on and music playing for ages the night before, despite the fact that we had regularly turned the car over (although admittedly not for long enough each time) we had a very flat battery. So next step was to flag people down on the beach to find someone that could jump start us. I love Australians, loads of them stopped to help and after problems finding someone with working jump leads we were finally on our way. So we headed Northward up the beach and found a nice spot to picnic before actually looking at the map to find out where the lake was and realising that actually we needed to go back to Eurong and in-land to get to the lake (oops, what can I say, we are full of enthusiasm but not hot on the planning). So we took our time over our picnic breakfast to allow the tide to start going out again before finally heading to lake Wally. For this lake you actually need to hike for about 30 minutes to get to it, across large patches of desert like sand. It reminded me of the Sand patch in Noosa.

As we get going over sand dune after sand dune, we started to worry that maybe this was a wind up by the tour operators. Although people going past us in the opposite direction wearing swim suits, did put our minds are ease. Finally we went over a sand dune and a gorgeous lake was lying at the bottom of the dune. The water was a beautiful dark emerald green, as while it was hot, there were clouds that were protecting us from the more aggressive sun rays. We ran down that last dune, threw off our clothes (well except for the swim suits obviously, wasn't that kind of a trip! what were you thinking) and jumped in the water. It was gorgeous. Lovely and fresh and clean. Swimming around I saw a turtle slowly glide past, before diving under the water when it realised that a great big, human creature was watching it. It was heaven, an opportunity for more silly photos and some lounging around to dry off post swim.

After an hour or so there we hiked back to the car, as we wanted to drive up North of the Island to go to Indian head, some cliffs were you get a fantastic view of Fraser Island. It really was stunning out there. We couldn't see any sharks or dolphins in the ocean though, as the clouds made the water too dark, but apparently on a clear day you get a good view of the wildlife. I wasn't sorry though, as it was already very hot for a cloudy day and with a clear sky I would have completely melted. We also had a lunch at Indian head before heading back down the Island so that we could find a camping spot near the ship wreck that is on the beach there (have great photos of that too, with clouds looks very ominous and dramatic).

We had agreed with the other trucks that we would all try to meet up and camp together near the wreck and we spotted where they were so you soon had an area set up with tents and 5 trucks all spread out. John, Amit and I set to work on dinner and prepared a veritable feast of stir fried chicken, vegetables, rice, sweet chilli and red wine sauce, finished off with wraps for those of us not observing Hebrew holidays. It was gorgeous! There were a fair few other Israelis and Canadians in the other groups so we chatted to them. I got to practice the nicer Hebrew terms that I had learnt (Sababa baby) and drink more wine. Around 11.30 Sophie headed to bed, but I was still mid drink so carried on chatting away. Around midnight, when I was running away to hit my tent, I had to do a quick toilet (ie find private bit of bush) break. Being quite desparate to pee and not wanting to disturb the others I broke the rule and went off to find a spot on my own... Oopsie! As I was emerging from behind my bush, I could hear Shai over in the camp going "Hello Dingos". Sure enough, as I headed in the direction of ther camp, two dingos were heading straight towards me and I was alone. Fortunately, I think these dingos had been to London, I ignored them and they ignored me. I am a lucky girl. Those animals can be very vicious when they want to be. Obviously they had already had their dinner.

So I made it back to my tent unscathed and slept like a baby, until the Canadians woke us all up at 7am so that we could make a start on our final morning on Fraser (we had to be at the Ferry for 2pm). We headed off and ended up having breakfast in Happy Valley, where we could stock up on more clean drinking water before heading back to our favourite spot of Lake McKenzie. It was wonderful, more swimming, laughing and group photos (sadly not for me as my camera battery had died by this point) as we realised that the end was in sight. We stayed at the Lake as long as we could risk it (11.30am) before heading back to catch the ferry. Almost lost one of our bags en route, plus a particularly bad bump sent Shell flying across the truck, and caused Yasiv to bash his head on the ceiling but we literally made it by the skin of our teeth, as we drove on to the ferry it started to move out in direction of the mainland.

Too sad to face the fact that our trip was over, once we had dropped off the truck, cleaned & unloaded everything, we all went for a spot of lunch together. That evening at 7pm we saw the Canadians off at the bus station as they were doing the nasty night trip that Sophie & I are doing tomorrow night, up to Airlie beach. It looks like we should be able to meet up with them there on Saturday night. This morning (after failing to party last night, as we were all too tired, it finally caught up with us, so we missed the great Easter Sunday Toga party) we said goodbye to our Israeli boys as they were driving up north too. We are hoping to see Assaf in Sydney when we are there, plus both Assaf & Amit should be in London in October, so we know that we will see them again then.

It is amazing how attached you can get to people in such a short space of time. I think this is because you are going through some extreme experiences in quite basic conditions, so you all have to pull together. Sophie & I loved our group and are looking forward to seeing them again (Shannon & Lisa will also be in Sydney when we are and fly home the same day that I head to Rarotonga).

So it is now Monday lunchtime. Sophie and I will be popping out to get a bite to eat shortly. Our Dolphin Kayaking trip this afternoon has been cancelled as the weather is pretty bad today (windy, cloudy and rainy, we were obviously lucky when we were in Fraser as it was lovely most of the time). We are booked in to go tomorrow before we get the evening night coach to Airlie. I hope that the weather clears so that we can go, as it would be great to do something like that to wear ourselves out so that we actually get some sleep on the coach. From Airlie we get on the boat for 3 nights out in the Whitsundays and the greater barrier reef. Both Sophie & I are hoping that our luck with travel companions continues, as there will be 12 passengers plus crew on our boat. I am sure that it will! I will update you all with my on-going adventure once we make it back to Airlie beach on Saturday (heading to Mission beach Sunday and our white water rafting adventure on Monday.... it is all go go go!)

Right now, I need food before we curl up in our room (have lucked out and we are the only people in our room) to watch the Island on Sophie's laptop, as she brought some DVDs. Margot, nice Swedish girl from one of the other Fraser groups, is going to join us, as she is here on her own and there really isn't much to do in Rainbow beach when it is raining. It is all about the beach action!

Anyway.. love to all and Happy Easter

Noosa Nutters

Hello All,

Well my last update was from Byron and that already feels like a long time ago, but I will think back and update you on my final days there and what I have been up to since.

Well I last updated up to Wednesday. On the Thursday I got up early and went in to pick Sophie up at her motel (of course I managed to get lost and therefore be late, nothing like driving round in circles with a platinum blonde up your arse in her poncey car so you can't do a naughty U-turn to make you really late). But I eventually found her and we headed in to Byron so that she could pay for our trip up North. Of course this took longer than expected (well we do have a very full and complicated itinerary) but the lovely people at Peter Pan's sorted everything out for us. After that we went for a spot of brunch and did some last minute shopping for Sophie's preparations for the wedding (which was at 2.30pm that afternoon).

Suffice it to say things got very tight timing wise in the end but I managed to get Sophie to the wedding on time (following hair curling frenzy and me popping back in to town to pick up the final paperwork for our trip) and she had a great time. Having wrecked a lot of my clothing and trainers on my travels I headed to Ballina (larger town South of Byron) where I managed to get some bargains and now have trainers again (so may go horse riding soon) and some summer trousers so that I am no longer relying on only 2 pairs.

That evening was a mellow one with Jo, Craig and I enjoying a lovely supper (Jo is a fab cook) and a bit of TV.

On Friday I had another mellow day with lots of reading, talking to Poppy (the cat) and popping to a place called Clunes (which has one cafe but a beautiful village park) for a spot of lunch. That evening Jo and I were dropped off in Bangalow by Craig and went to the pub that Jo had worked at for many years while she was a student round here. It was great fun. A proper Aussie pub and most of the people in there knew Jo, so lots of hellos all round. Only had about 4 beers, but both Jo and I felt a little bit grubby the next morning, so that seemed to be enough to see us on our way. Obviously I am turning to a light weight.

The next morning Jo & Craig when to a Christening, while I had to pop back to Ballina to drop off my car (sad farewell to my little manual Hyundai Getz, very cute car, not it's fault that I wanted an automatic) before getting a bus back to Byron Bay to catch up on e-mails. Good thing that I did, as had an e-mail from Janina (Galloway ex Eurosport for those of you that know her) saying that she was in Byron and leaving her mobile number. I texted her and found out she was on Main Beach so grab a fruit smoothie and headed there to join her. We had a lovely chat and Emma (Sanders ex Nat Geo for those that know her, what can I say it was media tastic in Byron that day) joined us after recovering from a bad reaction to a jab that she had that morning in preparation for her trip to China (she fainted and hit her head quite hard on her way down poor love).

Unfortunately I didn't have that long to spend with them as Jo & Craig were coming to pick me and Sophie up from her motel, as Sophie was spending her last night with us, so that we could get dropped off together in the morning at the coach stop - plus also meant that we could all have drinks and not worry about driving. But while it may have only been for about 2 hours, it was great to catch up with Janine, who looks fab for her travels and is definitely having a great time.

So that evening Jo, Craig, Sophie and I headed out to Lennox Head for dinner (after Sophie, Jo and I had had a good wonder round the land around their house, through macadamia tree orchards, palms, fruit trees etc.. it really is gorgeous round there). We had a fantastic Thai meal and some nice wine, before heading back to the house for wine and great conversation (squeezing in a lovely ice cream from In the Pink - who do the loveliest ice creams before heading back). It was such a top night. I even got to brush up on my tarot reading skills which was fun, although we didn't have a full deck but we didn't let that stop us!

So the next morning we said a sad farewell to Craig and Jo drove me and Sophie downn to Byron in time to have a spot of breakfast before we caught our coach. It was really sad to say good bye to her! It was so lovely to see her and Craig, hope that it isn't too long before I see them both again! Good to see them so happily settled back at home though.

Well once on the coach Sophie and I were starting our big adventure, heading Northwards via a quick stop in Brisbane to a place called Noosa. We were met at the coach station by John, who works at Dolphins, the hostel that we were staying at in Noosa. As he had to wait for another coach to come in before heading back, we had time to look round the shops and check our e-mails. Sophie & I loved the hostel when we finally got there. Really near to Sunshine Beach, outside of the main city of Noosa it had a great vibe. Really relaxed and friendly. We re-packed our stuff so that all the things that we would need for our trip the next morning would be in a small backpack (no small feat as we were going camping for 2 nights and had already been warned there would be no showers and very primitive facilities available).

That night we went to eat in a restaurant called Stella near the beach. The food was fantastic and we really had a great time, as we knew that we wouldn't be having a nice meal like this for a while. After that we headed back for a relatively early night as we were being picked up at 7.45am to head out to Sandy National Park near Noosa where were going to be camping and canoeing in the everglades.

It turns out that this is a self guided trip (shows how much I was paying attention) and there were 9 of us going out (although Nina was only booked on for 1 night not 2 like the rest of us, so was coming back the next day with people returning from their 2 night stay). First step was to be taken to pick up all the equipment that we would need (tents, cooking sets, drinking water, a group lamp, washing up stuff etc) and the whole group met each other for the first time. After that we were taken to get a water taxi out in to the National Park where we were picking up our canoes and being told what to do. Being told what to do involved being warned not to dive head first in to the water, being reassured that while there were bull sharks in the water they had never been known to attack anyone in the everglades and that we would be lucky to even see one, and to be given a very topline map of where to go, plus this is how you paddle a canoe 2 minute overview. After that we were on our own.

Well the group was composed of me & Sophie, plus Jamie & Daljit from England, Noelette & Sharon from Ireland, Larissa (Spanish, Swiss, England educated), Karen from Israel and Nina from Denmark. It is fair to say that none of us had extensive canoeing experience, so it was funny from moment one. Particularly when me and Sophie were floating off in the wrong direction failing miserably to turn the damn thing around (before you laugh at how stupid we were being, bear in mind these are big old fashioned canoes not kayaks, not the most manoeuvreable thing on the planet, espectially when fully ladden with camping gear). But we all soon got the hang of it and were canoeing through the everglades, admittedly zig zagging a fair bit but beyond that you would think we were pros.

All was fine as we took a detour up a side river since we had a lot of time before we needed to set up camp at Harry's Hut. That was cool, and we wer laughing a lot, After that we headed in the direction of the Hut but missed the main turning, so decided to go an alternative but longer route. However, after going most of the way, we discovered that there was a tree down blocking the route we had taken so that we had to go all the way back again and find the original turning. We made the camp for around 5pm, having started out at around 10am so that is a lot of canoeing. We were aching and knackered, but tents had to go up and food needed to be cooked before it got too dark. It gets very dark out there by around 6pm, so we didn't have much time! But that is where team work comes in and we really did have the loveliest group of people. We helped each other out and despite being tired and being a bit worried that we would never find our camp site, we were still laughing.

A very basic meal and after that we had Jamie desparately persuading us all that it was morally wrong to go to bed at 7pm. So we kept chatting and laughing until around 8.30pm when we just all had to sleep. The next morning we woke up, staggered out of our tents feeling bruised as the sleeping mats didn't really do anything to soften the hard floor, especially given how much our shoulders were aching from the canoeing the day before. It was a beautiful morning, with the sun shining already at 6am. We managed to even have some tea (sponsored by our Irish friends, the great bringers of tea bags) with our cereal bars before hitting the road to go up to camp site 3 (6km canoe up river) and trek up to an area called Sandy Patch (12 km return trip from Sandy Patch).

This is when we really realised why we were doing this trip, despite some stress the day before. The water was still (the river is all tea tree water so lovely warm colour of tea) and mirror like, so everything that we saw around us was clearly reflected in the river. All we could hear other than the sound of our paddles going through the water, was the chatter and singing of all the native birds. I don't know what they were talking about but it sounded quite exciting. It was pure heaven. I didn't care about my burning arm and shoulder muscles, this was just amazing. It only took us about 1hr 40 mins to canoe to camp 3 before we set off on our trek up to Sandy Patch.

That was a very hot trek, as by this point it was around 9.45 so the sun was starting to really warm us! Plus a lot of the hike is up hill so I hope you won't mind my admitting that I was sweating like a pig for most of the trip. By this point we had not seen anyone else at all, we were alone up there.

Having seen the sandy patch from the distance (it looks like a huge blob of sand on the side of the hill) I was not prepared for the reality. It was like walking out of forest straight in to a desert of fine white sandy. There were dunes of this white sand stretching out around us. It was amazing! How this had ended up up there, I do not know but it was stunning and we loved it! Walking around sand is hard work but we ploughed through it stopping to take the silliest photos, laughing as Jamie decided to roll down a sand dune and ended up covered in sand (he was still finding it in his ears later that evening) and generally being really silly. It was also an opportunity to stop for lunch, although my sandwich did end up living up to its name, each time there was the slightest breeze, but hey it adds to the crunch factor. We could even see 40 mile beach from up on the dunes, but didn't head down as we were worried about not getting back to the camp before dark. So after a really good explore of the sand patch we headed back to the river.

First step was not to get in our canoes though, it was swimming time. I was too hot to care about these sharks that wouldn't hurt me "honest". I would have tackled a great white, just to cool down and the water felt fantastic. There is something just great about swimming in tea tree water at the best of times, but when the water is so clean and cool, and you are so hot and sweaty and miles form the nearest shower.... well it was heaven. All I can say is that I definitely cavorted. That is the only word for it, plus it was fun hanging off the end of the canoes and just splashing around. Even Daljit, who was worried as he can't swim, ended up giving in to temptation and was hanging off the end of the dock in the cool water. Only Noelette & Sharon didn't jump in, they don't know what they were missing!

So refreshed we canoed back to camp and made our dinner. Once it was dark we started sharing scary stories (well as much as we could before going off on a comic tangent), made Jamie show us his audition dance to get in to study dance at uni (well our view was he was already covered with sand anyway...) and generally joked around. At some points I was laughing so hard I was crying.. We really didn't have the best group and we didn't want to think about the fact that it was our last night out there, but instead joked about going AWOL in the wilderness (I say joked as without much food or drinking water left we won't have been AWOL for long).

The next morning we got up early and took down our camps, packed up our canoes and set off with plenty of time to meet the boat by 10am at the pick up point. We had time for a stop and a paddle en route. Again the water was clear as a mirror, the birds were sinking and you could hear scattered laughing from the canoes. It was another heavenly moment. I don't think my photos can ever do it justice. We made it back in plenty of time and the boat picked us all up. Once back in Noosa we unpacked all our kit, refilled the water cans, spread out the tents for cleaning and realised that there was nothing left to do but say good bye. Fortunately e-mails have been exchanged, so the Noosa Nutters will keep in touch, but it is amazing how sad I could feel to say good bye to people that I hadn't even meet 50 hours before.

So that was the Noosa Everglades trip. As Sophie kept saying, life doesn't get any better than this. The funny thing is we were bruised, scratched, our muscles were burning, the bugs were biting and we were all dirty without access to a shower, but I don't think any of us have ever been happier.

That afternoon Sophie and I had a lovely lunch in Noosa, to celebrate access to real food, with two refreshing glasses of Sauvignon Blanc. We hit the beach and sure enough fell asleep (Sauv Blanc effect methinks) before having to go and get our coach at 4.20pm to Rainbow Beach. So that is where I am now, the sun is shining, it is early, I was up at 7am for the free pancakes and now desperately need a shower to fully wake up before doing a clothes wash and hitting the beach. Tomorrow morning we head to Fraser Island for another 2 nights camping, this time with 4 wheel drive cars not canoes (guess who will be driving, hehehehe) and hopefully another set of every cool people.

Byron Update

Well I am still having a great time in Byron. The weather has been a tad changeable to say the least, but the one consistent thing is that it is hot and sticky (whether it is sunny, cloudy, raining or storming - the heat remains).

I have basically been taking it easy. I spent all of Tuesday (which was sunnry and hot) lounging around in Jo & Craig's garden reading. It was all I could manage in the heat. I just couldn't face getting in a car

Wednesday I forced myself in to action(after storm the night before, it was still hot & sticky but overcast, so I thought I could manage it) and went to Mullumbindy to visit the town before driving out to the Crystal Castle (place where they have lovely grounds with lots of crystals, buddhas, life affirming labyrinths etc..). It was nice to wander round surrounded by the gentle waft of essential oils. Nice mellow thing to do on a drizzly afternoon. After that I headed to Byron to meet up with Sophie. We had a giant fruit smoothie each which was heavenly. After that we popped in to Peter Pan's to look at tour and travel options up to Cairns from Byron.

They planned us a great itinerary, gave us a great discount and from Sunday I have a very full fortnight of tours, sailing trips, 4wheel driving, canoeing, kayaking with dolphins, snorkelling, white water rafting and national park visiting... among other things. It is going to be incredible. Plus we only have 1 night where we actually have to sleep on a coach, which given the distances that we are covering is quite amazing. So it looks like I will only get a couple of nights in Adelaide (probably from 27th April to 29th or 30th April) before heading to Sydney. Really depends on flights prices though if I make Adelaide, will be checking that out next.

So as you can tell from the above Sophie is coming travelling round Australia with me, which is great. Really looking forward to it! It should be fantastic.

Anyway, I had better head off to check out flight prices for Cairns to Adelaide and Adelaide to Sydney.

Byeee

Sunny Byron Bay

Well when I left off I was planning to go out drinking on my second night in Melbourne. This didn't quite pan out as me and two of my dorm mates were sat around chatting for so long in our room, that in the end we decided not go out (more money saved!)

The next day i managed to spur myself in to some semblance of action and headed up to the Botantical Gardens for a pleasant wander before going to the Shrine of Rememberence. I always find war memorials quite emotional and this was no exception. It is a very beautiful building and it is always sad to remember all the people that have died in the wars of the last century (obviously we haven't learnt much from it as people are still dying in wars today). After that I pottered back to town and had a naughty moment where I bought myself a ticket to go see a play that evening. I just couldn't resist. So that night I went to see a play called Ray's Tempest. It was a new play (first performed in 2005) written by an Australian actor, with an Australian cast. It was brilliant. I laughed and cried, which is always a good sign. Some of the very Aussie referenced funny moments went a bit over my head, but that didn't mar the enjoyment at all.

So that was a great way to spend my last night in Melbourne! It really did fly by as I felt very comfortable in Melbourne and just seemed to keep finding nice spots in which to lounge and relax with a book.

On Friday morning I got up at 6.30am in order to get my stuff together and head back to the airport for my flight to Ballina with a short stop and change of plane in Sydney. i was a little worried that my backpack wouldn't be waiting for me in Ballina (as the girl checking me in seemed quite new and for some reason thought I was going to Berlin, fortunately I realised in time to tell her I was in fact going to Ballina which wasn't an international flight... my bag had gone through at the time but after she had finished checking me in correctly she ran off with a new luggage sticker, so I can only assume that she tracked my backpack down).

The flights were uneventful and I landed in Ballina at 1pm, feeling pretty relaxed despite the very heavy rain that was waiting to greet us on arrival. I picked up the keys for my hire car, ready to head off and try and find Jo & Craig's house. But when I got to my car I discovered that it was a manual and not the automatic that I had deliberately booked (as I am now so used to the damn things, all manual driving skills have gone out of the window). Well I thought, I'll be OK but I couldn't get the damn thing to start either. Nothing happened when I turned the key in the ignition. Well not exactly nothing! I got the radio and the air con to work, which is nice but not very helpful in making the car actually move! So I had to plunge out in to the pouring rain and run back to the terminal to find my friendly rental car man and tell him I was having problems.

Suffice it to say, I was not very happy to discover that he was gone. The booth was empty, as were those for all the other rental car companies. The airport itself (not exactly a huge building) had pretty well emptied out so I was stuck there on my own with a car that wouldn't start. I noticed that the Europcar counter had a telephone on it, so I pulled out my rental agreement and found the number for them and called them on their own phone (well I wasn't going to pay for the call). I got the same guy that had given me the keys. Turns out that I need to press the clutch down and turn the key at the same time to get the engine to start. Apparently he neglected to tell me this handy fact because I had said I had booked an automatic. I pointed out that I had booked an automatic as I wasn't used to manuals anymore. His response was that it would be good for me! Bloody Aussies! After the friendly Kiwis, how am I going to cope with loads of Cheeky Aussies.

Anyway, I than had to drive, get used to a manual, see where I was going through the pouring rain and generally try to cope with not being 100% sure where I was going, not being able to see very far out of the window and trying not to kangaroo hop round roundabouts. Not sure why in Australia this is considered good me for! Rrrr

After taking a very scenic route with lots of tangents in the completely wrong direction, I finally made it to Newrybar (the nearest place to Jo & Craig's) where I called Craig for directions. Having been driving around for over an hour, I realised I just wasn't going to find my way without additional help. Sure enough, their place was just round the corner off the Pacific Highway and I finally made it in there. It was an "interesting" journey so I was really glad to make it to Jo and Craig's unscathed. I tried calling the rental company to sort out the mix up, but found out that there were no other cars and I was stuck with my manual car.

Jo & I popped out in my car (I refuse to be put off using it because of their mix up) to get in some wine in the afternoon. Once we got back I was so happy to have a glass of red wine, I can tell you! Plus it was just so great to see both Jo & Craig, who look the same as ever! I also have met Poppy (sorry can't call her Popcorn) their very affectionate cat, who likes to lie around and relax a lot!

That evening, one of Jo's oldest friends, Erica, came round for dinner and we had a lovely meal with nice wine and great conversation. It was great. I slept like a baby that night I can tell you!

On Saturday, which was a beautiful sunny day, we watched the Melbourne Grand Prix final qualifiers. I was so happy when Jenson Button got pole position (for those of you that watched the actual race I was screaming on Sunday when his car brokedown within metres of the finish line - too cruel). Once again jo and I popped out, and I insisted on driving so that I coudl get used to the car. I think that this is when Jo actually started to get a bit worried about me and my manual, what can I say, it is coming back to me but I still forget stuff, particularly re hills! Never my forte. We went to the most easterly point of Australia, where there is a lovely lighthouse and we could see dolphins swimming off the coast quite happily. We could see surfers too and I was happy that we didn't spot any sharks, as those things scare me. Beady eyes and nasty teeth... not a nice combination. Jo tried to reassure me about the fact that only 2 people have ever been taken off the beaches round there and both of them were divers (not at the same time) with the name Ford (not related). I still think it will take a lot to get me swimming in the sea. Maybe a bit of wave jumping but I am not going out there to be shark bait!

That evening we relaxed at home, watched an Adam Sandler double bill on TV. It was good!

Sunday was again pretty relaxed. Jo & I headed in to the Byron market in separate cars (no my driving isn't that scary, it was so that I could stay on longer if I wanted to, as Jo had an assignment to work on, as Sophie as going to be meeting us there). Sure enough I got a text from the lovely Sophie (Sophie Henry for those of you that know her, as she is in Byron for a wedding) saying she was in the market. It was great to see her. We went round the stalls before buying some cold drinks so that we could sit in the shade and have a really good catch up. I am not getting my hopes up but Sophie is saying that she may well join me for the rest of my travels! That would be so cool! I hope that she does, it would be great fun.

After the market I headed back to Jo & Craig's and managed to get lost AGAIN! Man oh man. Fortunately I eventually realised where I should be going so made it back without needing to call for more helpful directions. that evening we went over to Craig's dad's place down the road, as it was his girlfriend Annette's birthday. I met lots of the family, who are all really nice and we had a lovely birthday meal to celebrate. It was really great.

So now it is Monday and I have come in the Byron. Sophie is feeling rather ill (flu poor thing) so I may not see her today, although may pop round just to check on how she is doing. After this update I am going to pop to the tourist centre and look at my options for my trip up to Cairns with stops en route, so that I can discuss these with Sophs. Oh and the sun is still shining, which is great.

So that is the latest from Australia. Love to all