Well we made it, in the end covering 3000 kilometres (or 1864 miles) in 4 1/2 days. We took an interesting route, definitely off the beaten track at points but was worth it for the sights. We saw a number of kangaroo and wallabies, wild pig, eagles and lots of cattle. I don’t have any snaps from the journey, I have some on the camera which I’ll upload when I get to a computer.

We have a fair bit planned for Darwin, seems a lot of things to see and a lot that are free to see too. But for now I’m happy to do anything that doesn’t involve a long drive….

We have worked our way as far north up the east coast as we can go without the need of four wheel drive. We have been too Townsville, Mission Beach, Cairns and Port Douglas. Today we drove to the Daintree national park, crossing the Daintree river by ferry. Got as far as you can go on sealed roads (and a bit further by accident…) before visiting an icecream factory and doing a rainforest walk (see pictures attached).

Tomorrow we leave Queensland on our way too Darwin….

EDIT: I previously wrote this would be a 12 hour journey time as Claire had informed me after looking on satnav… the 7pm arrival time was actually for the next day, this is a 36 hour drive! 2700 kilometres. We are hoping to do this in 5-6 days.

For the past week we have been staying at Airlie Beach, nice place and nice campsite (apart from the very noisy birds). On Friday we did a sailing trip around the Whitsundays Islands on a catamaran called Camira www.cruisewhitsundays.com/camira.aspx. Was a nice day, best part for me was the snorkelling. Got to see lots of coral and hundreds of fish. The water was about 2-3m deep so I was glad of my underwater breath holding abilities as you could see everything much clearer up close. The colours of both the coral and fish were amazing, I’m defiantly planning on doing more snorkelling.

Currently we are in townsville, spent most of yesterday driving here with a couple of quick stops in Bowen and Ayr. Not a lot there but we did spot a school fete to have a mossy round and buy homemade fudge and pumpkin scones. Will be here for a couple of days seeing the sights.

Relaxing at Airlie beach for a couple of days.

Campsite on the the beech, what more can you ask… this is a really nice place with amazing views, nice and quiet. The name comes from the year 1770 when Captain Cook landed here, the first place after discovering Sydney. The pic was taken from our bed in the van, good view to wake up to.

Did the tour, got to see how its made and learned the history, but more importantly got 2 free drinks! Very nice, bought ourselves a bottle.

Went on a snapshot tour of Fraser Island last Thursday. It was a one day tour starting with the 8:30 ferry from river heads and getting back for the 4:30 return ferry. We got to see a lot of the island but not much time to look at each place. The guide was very good and the driving was crazy, never drifted in a full size coach before! And doing 80km along the beech was quite an experience, but it is classed as an official highway, road signs and all. I would love to go back again for a few days in a 4×4 and really explore the place, saw quite a bit of wildlife including Dingos, Sea Eagles, etc. Lunch was pretty good too in the Eurong resort. There are a few photos from the day in my gallery, link on the top right.

Been working our way up the coast over the last week. Caloundra and Mooloobla were both nice little towns with a good beach, we didn’t stay in Noosa as the weather was bad over the weekend but will go there on our way back down I think. Rainbow Beach and Tin Can Bay are nice remote spots, really wished I had a 4×4 though to drive on the beach! Camped virtually on the beach at Inskip point, was nice to wake up and go for a 7:30am swim in the sea. We are now in Hevery Bay staying at Megan and Brett’s house (Thanks again!). Got up early at Tin Can Bay to watch dolphin feeding, was cool seeing the wild dolphin taking the fish out of peoples hands about a meter from the shore. Apparently in the 1950′s a fisherman hit a wild dolphin with his boat and felt so guilty he kept bringing him fish everyday while he was recovering in the bay, since then the dolphins have returned every morning for a feed, the one we saw was the grandson of the original dolphin.

Bill is going well, although the lack of power up hills when using the LPG is quite comical, but the fuel consumption definitely makes up for it (as well as the fuel prices over here! 75p a litre for unleaded and 40p a litre for LPG) . Haven’t worked out Bill’s MPG yet.

Just realised I hadn’t created an Australia section in the photo gallery. The first few pics are from an open zoo in Bungaberg, the guy was really nice and actually let us into the cages! Thanks goes to Scott for charming him, lol.

This was so cool, imagine just popping here on your lunch break.