2929 words, just for you :-)

Ok ok ok so I didn't manage to post this when I intended, so i'm behind again, but mark is a laptop hog (anyone would think it's his or something!) So I haven't got time to write anymore right now... this should be enough keep you going though :-)

Days 39-42

Byron bay has been my favourite place so far, whether it was mooching around the pretty little market, or wandering to the arts and industrial estate and buying up little trinkets from the charity shop, or getting some arty supplies and sitting on a little lookout over the beach... It's a lovely little town!
Consequently, I have been very lax in updating my blog and my diary (which I am keeping so that when I write my blog I know what has happened) and have therefore forgotten what happened on what days! I can summarise that it would not be of too much interest to any of you though, as it mainly consisted of hanging around beachside and drawing whilst listening to Stephen Fry read Harry Potter to us!

The main thing of interest that we did was walk to the arts and industrial estate, which is full of art studios and the like (some very very cool and cute tin sculptures which we weren't allowed to take photos of). Anyway on the walk there I spotted the largest stick insect there has ever been (in my knowledge!) It was a full inch longer than marks hand!. Then, on the way back we spotted movement in the distant trees, and zooming in with the camera found them to be massive bats, and I mean massive – we think they are the huge fruit bats (which we saw at the zoo) which are apx 50cm tall, and have a HUGE wingspan. Anyway our discoveries were very exciting, and we were very pleased with ourselves for spotting them accordingly!

Day 43

Today we leave Byron for Surfers Paradise, and to meet up with Shaun and Charlie again. The bus journey takes a while (we arrive at apx 11am) so they are already at wet and wild (Australia's biggest and best water park!). We therefore have a lazy morning playing chess and doing free laundry. When we get peckish we head out to explore, and come across a little place called chickory chick, where the man behind the counter is so friendly and full of advice (where's best to go, other places to eat etc etc) that we can't help but eat there! He gives me the largest portion ever though, and although it is undoubtedly tasty, and I eat it all, it does mean I have to have a nap when we get back to the hostel!
Anyway... When I wake up S& C are back, and in their room we get chatting to a girl called Vivi, and decide to go out with her that evening, the hostel provides free bus, entry and first drink to a different bar every night, so its a very easy night out! I get talking to a Canadian guy, and when the others from the hostel decide to go home I stay out and don't get back 'til 4, because I'm not quite sure where I live!

Day 44

WET AND WILD! I'm pretty sleepy, as I didn't get much sleep, but the water park is still good fun, although I stay away from the really scary looking rides cos I'm a wuss!
When we get back Mark, Shaun and Charlie decide to go out, and I go to sleep, cos I am TIRED!

Day 45

Feeling much refreshed after a good nights sleep, it takes a while for me to get mark up as he was out the night before! Therefore we decide to give movie world (which is the other theme park S&C got unlimited tickets to – we used these for W&W as the pictures were rubbish – made it far cheaper!) a miss, and go shopping instead....
I'm pretty sure a blow by blow account of mine and marks gullibility when it comes to salespeople would be unnecessary, but suffice to say we bought a lot! I got sunnies, a dress and perfume, Mark got a didjeridoo and a sarong...
The most exciting part of the day (although I did really enjoy the shopping, and my dress has proved invaluable so far) was visiting Ripley's 'Believe it or not!' museum, full of the weird and the wonderful and the unbelievable. Unfortunately we took so long looking around, by the time we got out all the restaurant prices had been hiked up, and it was too late to make it back to the hostel before the kitchen shut! We found a relatively cheap and nice Indian, but it was an added expense to an already expensive day!

Day 46

Bus journey to Mooloolaba today. We meet S and C on the Bus in Brisbane, and then we're off. We arrive at apx 3pm, and after putting our bags down, suss out a campsite for the next few days. All seems good, so we go back and Me and C have a nap whilst the boys play with one of the free sea kayaks. Following such a strenuous afternoon we feel the only option is to go out and get all you can eat pizza for dinner! Yum!

Day 47

Our first full day in Mooloolaba begins with a HOT walk to the campsite – I have too much stuff, it is now causing me physical pain to walk carrying it :-(.

After setting up camp the boys go to borrow a kayak again, and me and C chillax on the beach waiting for them to arrive via the river (which we cant see but assume reaches the beach somewhere!) They take forever, but eventually they arrive with a kayak full of water, looking worn out and burnt!

On the way back the boys decide to take a shorter route to the hostel (involving a short walk to the harbour), which requires us to drop the kayak off a wall into the murky harbour water. As we're debating how best to achieve this, without having to swim, a man comes up to ask what we're doing with his kayak – he's the owner of the hostel! Luckily he approves of the scheme, and gives the boys a hand!

We meet up at Coles, and later have a massive campsite meal :-D

Day 48

Australia Day!!

Unfortunately Charlie is ill, so instead of joining the 1,200 people on the beach running around in massive, blow up, haviana flip flops, we stay cool in the camp kitchen. Looking at the state of the beach later in the day, I'm kind of glad we didn't go there!

Day 49

Today we are booked onto a $15 Glasshouse Mountain tour, which turns out to be the best deal we have found so far! The day began with a car ride (as it was only us 4 on the tour) up to a lookout point and a rainforest walk. The view over the Glasshouse mountains are stunning, misty and majestic in the distance, and the rainforest is just as impressive! Some of the trees are MASSIVE, with roots as tall as Mark rising up in weird formations from the floor. We didn't see much more wildlife than turkeys (which are everywhere!), but we did hear the distinctive cry of one bird which sounds like a baby screaming!

After this walk (which was a gentle 45mins, unlike some of the other walks we've been on!) we moved on to visit a local swimming pool – a nice deep waterfall! On the way to it we see a red bellied black!! It's a very pretty little snake, and despite being very venomous, was very shy, and shot off into the bushes as soon as it saw us. I was glad it wasn't a water snake though!

The waterfall itself was quite nice, although not as pretty as the one we visited in Thailand. The main attractions we're 4 jumps though, 2 from the rocks, and 2 off rope swings (and one off of the tree the largest rope swing was hung from... if you're mental!) Shaun did all 4, Mark 3, Charlie and I none, because we're not silly!

Following this exercise the next stop was at maleny mountain wines, where we did some wine tasting. This consisted of a delicious sweet white, some not so tasty reds and a rose, and a tasty tasty wine based cream called mountain dream, which I bought a bottle of because it was so nice!

Believing that our tour was fully over, we climbed back into the 4x4, only to find there was another stop! WOW! We stopped for lunch in a little town called Montville, which has lots of lovely quaint shops full of crafts and oddities – the most impressive of which being a liquor store, which had alcohol in every flavour you could possibly imagine, in a variety of novelty bottles! We got to try a few here too, and passionfruit crème was undeniable lovely!

After this last stop, it really was hometime... back to the campsite for dinner and a relaxing evening on the beach.

Day 50

Today we leave for Noosa in the afternoon, so as we're on a campsite and have no strict checkout time, we have a leisurely morning packing up slowly. We get to Noosa around 3, and check into a twin room, much much comfier than a tent, and get a good nights sleep before we set off on our canoe tour of the upper noosa river!

Day 51

Very excited! Pack all our stuff into the Canoes, take our water taxi across the lake, and set off! Turns out we rushed off in the wrong direction, so 6k later we turn around... and then end up going wrong AGAIN! I will never again be shouted down by an arrogant spaniard! Anyway after going wrong at every turn , and paddling 30 instead of 6k, we are all very glad to find our campsite, and set up the tents before the rain began!

Day 52

More paddling today – I am soooo tired! At least we can't go wrong though, there aren't any turnoffs today! The 6k paddle serves to take us to the beginning of a 12k walk – oh no, I dont wanna I don't wanna, I don't wanna! However after exhausting myself in the heat I cheer up, we reach the cooloola sandpatch, and it is beautiful! The sandpatch is an isolated patch of sand in the middle of the rainforest! Its a bit of a mystery as to how it got there, but it does give a lovely view over lakes and rivers to the mountains on the horizon, so I don't care!

On the way back I appreciate the bush more (because I know i'm steadily getting closer to rest – yey!) It is a lot like magic seeing the regeneration of the Australian bush after a fire, and this area suffered ravaging fires in November, so the regeneration is in it's first stages. I got some fantastic photos, of green shoots with blackened stalks looking like macabre flowers still protruding from the top, trees which have a black core, peeling middle, white upper, and green leaves... it really is crazy to see!

Day 53

After torrential downpour yeaterday evening, we're all (all 14 of us) glad its dry whilst were packing up camp, unfortunately it doesn't stay dry for the paddle back along the river, across one lake, along another rive, and across the big lake – by the time we're in the middle of the lake the weather is so bad the rain is painful, and waves keep on trying to jump in our boat!!! I did not sign up for that! The silver lining of this scary journey across the lake was that we are let off the $65 local payments, meaning the entire trip only cost us $25 :-D Also we get to see some pelicans sitting on an upended tree, which is pretty cool.

After putting the tents up, and then down again, and washing up all our kit again etc etc... we get back to the hostel and get to have a shower! Yay! I feel human again!

Once I have recovered from the hardships of the trip (ie once I am dry and comfortable) I realise that although it was a lot of effort, the trip was definitely one of the coolest things I have so far experienced, being completely within one of Australias national parks, self powering ourselves on tours to geological wonders, and seeing bush regeneration first hand... what more could I want!?

Day 54

Todays main aim is to get a phone (as mine had an accident falling into the waterproof barrel, and isn't quite working as well as it could be...oops) however it fails. We don't do a lot today – we do walk up to the shopping area, but I can't find a nice or cheap one, so I give up! I'm quite glad I didn't spend my money as (touch wood) he seems to be working ok again now (he's a fighter)!

Day 55

Australia Zoo!

On the bus at 8am, watching Steve Irwins mad escapades with murderous crocs on the bus T.V, and then straight to look at the very same crocs in real life! Unfortunately as its quite early in the morning the crocs aren't up and about yet, so we move on to see the other inhabitants of the Zoo (although we do get to see them later, and very impressive they are too!). First we go off to see a bearcat – which is adorable, and wakes up especially for me! Then we see Cassowarys, tassie devils, wombats, echidnas, koalas... before its time for the wildlife warror show in the Crocoseum (named by steve not because it's like the coloseum, but because its where the crocs go, so people can see 'em!)

The show starts with a showcase of how well trained the Zoo animals are, which is cool, but a bit weird, and then we get to see a croc attack! Well... we get to see a croc 'fed' I for one will not be going within 10foot of any crocodile I meet though, I can tell you!

After this we walk through 'hoparroo' heaven (THE most hilarious argument between a small boy and his mum about them being 'kangaroos' not 'hoparroos'!) where you can feed and pet them – they're so stupid though, I managed to trick one into thinking I had food for it at least 4 times, they're very soft though, so I forgive them for being stupid! Also one had a joey in the pouch, which was adorable!

There is a Koala walk too, and so I get to stroke a naughty koala called chloe (after she walked off, walked back, and bullied her friend by sitting on its head and biting it... Lol). Koalas are just as soft as roos, and even cuter!

The last thing we did was by far the most impressive though. We went to tiger temple, and watched a presentation about how their keepers exercise them. The bond between the tigers and their keepers is very strong (the zoo got them at 2 weeks old, and the keepers spent 24hrs a day with them!). They play with them with simple homemade toys, coaxing them to play in the water and practice pouncing etc. I took around 400 photos – i'l show you them sometime!!!

The entire day was fantastic, and although it's smaller than Taronga Zoo, its more interactive (and we had as much time as we needed, which was nice – we didn't have to miss half of it like we did with Taronga!). But it's a little weird how much steve irwin is still evident. His picture is everywhere, videos of him on all the screens, stuff about him in the zoos magazine... And i'm not sure how much I like how commercialised his 10yr old daughter has become...

Day 56

Eumundi markets today – hundreds of little stalls full of lovely stuff to look at! I really enjoyed it, and as we all split up pretty much as soon as we got there, I was under no pressure to be quick or move on :-)

After a few hours browsing I find Shaun and Charlie in a didjeridoo stall, bargaining with the owner over prices (not that that was difficult, he lowered the prices everytime he spoke!) and listening to him play his wares. After a while choosing and chatting the three of us end up with 4 didjeridoos and a cover for $210! I only got a small one for myself, but Shaun and Charlie got a large one each, and a spare mini for a present! Bargain!

The evening is spent practising playing our didj's... so far Shaun is the king of making didgy noises, but i'm best at making them all sound like a trumpet.. Lol.

Day 57

Today! I am actually up to date (as I have spent the morning typing :-D) I hope you enjoy!

Later today we will be catching the bus to Rainbow beach, which should be beautiful, so we have spent a chilled morning in the hostel courtyard passing time until we need to go to the bus stop.

Love you all, hope everything is ok at home! Xxxx