So.
I'm so majorly far behind with my blogging that I've decided to stop trying to catch up and just carry on from where I am currently - Glen Innes, Australia!
I'll back track a little to give you some of the best bits...
So we left Singapore on the 23th and arrived in Cairns 24th where we picked up our high top campervan and proceeded to travel down the east coast...
April 1st - Cape Hillsborough, very beautiful beach, particularly at night, a very tame wild kangaroo was hanging around outside the camp kitchen so we had a little stoke but didn't feed it as 'a bread fed roo is a dead roo'. It was a bit surreal, also saw wallabies, bush turkeys, and possum and some huge frogs, as you do...
2nd - Rockhampton, there was a free zoo, got to see some koalas (so cute but all asleep... Lazy bums), dingos, wombats, Edward the emu, chimpanzees, more kangaroos, and many other animals :)
3rd - 1770, didn't do much, but there was a very nice, very empty beach, again beautiful at night with clear skies...
4th - Bundaberg, did even less, hung about in the pool, had a lizard sunbathe just outside the van :P
5th - Hervey Bay, went on a catamaran and saw 2 species of dolphin: indo-pacific humpback and bottlenose. Totally awesome!
6th - Tin Can Bay, went to a really not very great Good Friday service... About 2 other people under 20 there, called Matt Peters and Charlie Reeves, the rest over 80 and looking a little miserable... :S
7th - Tin can Bay again, we got up and fed these 2 dolphins that swim into the harbour every morning to be fed by hundreds of people, a pretty good set up if you ask me...
8th - Landsborough, went for a walk in the rain forest and then down to a waterfall with a pool at the bottom, it was FREEZING and probably full of snakes, but so worth it and so much fun I want to go again... although I'll need to work on my changing under a towel gracefully!
9th - Brisbane, stopped at the glass house lookout on the way (google image it), went to the cinema in the evening, took us about 2 hours to find it... I was driving with the lads directing... Not good, crossed the river about 5 times, drove the wrong way down a street right in front of a police car, and skipped a red light... Oops! But we made it eventually and watched The Hunger Games... and the people 2 rows in front, who would go down the whole row introducing themselves everytime someone joined the row... Is this standard Australian etiquette we wondered...
10th - Gold coast, stopped off at Surfers Paradise where it was so windy! We passed this one girl holding up some bread for some seagulls who were flying madly towards it, suspended by the wind about a foot from her! Then this ball went sailing past, its owner in hot pursuit... I think it took him about 5 minutes of flat out running before he finally caught up with it! Highly entertaining :P that night we each bought 50 cent creme eggs, Charlie 1, Matt 2 and I bought 4... And paid with a $50 note, successfully confusing the checkout assistant...
11th - Byron bay, our most expensive stop yet and it rained for most of it :S but we managed to get some stone skimming in first :)
12th - Glen Innes, challenging drive, the boys fell asleep so thankfully didn't see my struggling up steep corners in second gear! Unfortunately Charlie, slumbering away in the middle seat, started leaning my way so I was having to support his weight whilst sweating over the dangerously low petrol gauge and trying not to roll the van down the large drop to my right... Fortunately we reached a station in time... Unfortunately he woke up just in time to see me hit a kookaburra :S thankfully it flew off :)
13th - Glen Innes, so today we went fossicking! I know most of you will be laughing at the thought of me slaving away in a pit, hacking away at rocks, which is why I avoided that bit... But the up to my knees in a creek sifting through rock was fun :) Steve, the guy who owns the ranch, was great; I found a couple whilst he was showing us so he nick named me hawk eyes, "women tend to be good at spotting gems" he winked... unfortunately my luck ran out when he left, but Charlie found a couple :) these horses also walked by and one of them started sniffing me out, I gave it a stroke and then it wouldn't leave till I made and effort to ignore it, urgh, I loved it, so want to live on a ranch! Anyway, we dropped the stuff off, shook Steves hand, patted his dog, then drove off into the sunset, complete with orange, pink and blue skies, tree silhouettes, and a dozen jumping kangaroos...
Moments like those you just watch and think to yourself 'yes, this is Australia, beautifully breathtaking, created by God'
