After surrendering every single piece of fruit or vegetables, (including our polystyrene esky!) to the WA border crossing, we crossed over into WA. This part of the trip was a total last minute thing, we only decided to come here after hearing all the stories from other travellers,we met, it sounded so beautiful we had to come....We weren't disappointed. We headed on straight down to Walpole, which is famous for it's huge, tall Karri trees, we walked the aerial walkway in the "Valley of the Giants", which was pretty fun, then went to Pemberton where we BOTH climbed the Gloucester Tree, a former 60 metre fire lookout tree, it has metal rungs screwed into the trunk to act as steps, these iron bars spiral up for 60 metres, the views from the top are breathtaking and ... read more

This road really blew us away, the scenery and drive was spectacular, the ruggedness and beauty of the coast just can't be captured on camera. We took a couple of days to explore, it was well worth the drive.... read more

well, we made great time after Fraser and shot through down to Sydney as quick as we could manage(not before buying me a DIDGERIDOO!!Poor Jo!) , the most noteable small stop being in a small place called Nimbin, it's famous in Oz for being the weed capital of Australia, and we're not talking dandelions here folks!! you can buy cookies, cakes, whatever you want.....a really strange place!! On arrival in Sydney we had the pleasure of being able to stay with one of Jo's friends, she met him in Canada and still keeps in touch, his name's Gordon, he lives with his folks in a beautiful house in the Sydney suburbs, what a brilliant family, they made us completely welcome, fed and housed us like kings and we ended up staying a bit longer than we ... read more

We took three days to explore the Whitsunday Islands, which were absolutely beautiful. The sand was so white and fine, and the coral reef was amazing: we had perfect weather and alll was great.....except the boat that we were on was destined for the knackers yard...broken steering, broken toilet and the loss of one engine made the trip a little less than perfect but we still managed to have a ball. ... read more

We arrived in Cairns on Joey's birthday, (Great birthday present eh? I planned it that way...........HONEST!!!). Breaking with our skinflint tradition, we went straight to a hostel as finding a campsite would have been really difficult. As it turns out it's a good job we did as two days after arrival, a cyclone hit the coast just north of Cairns and brought with it five days of continual heavy rain, Oz style. Hostel life was a fair eye opener for me (Mark) as I've never stayed in one before, it was pretty good actually, apart from the single bunk beds!! 15th of March, having just bought a camper van, (not as anyone's interested but it's a Toyota Tarago 1984, 2L petrol) we left Cairns to work on a dairy farm/nursery for three weeks, the van's absolutely ... read more