I was so pleased that we’d had an early night when the alarm woke us up at 4.30am ready for our sunrise Uluru trip. Jacqui was our guide again, and this time there were only about six of us on board. First stop was a viewing area to watch the sun rise over breakfast. Unfortunately there were so many coaches parked up with lots of tourists so it wasn’t the peaceful and serene view we’d been expecting. Plus there was cloud cover which meant we couldn’t even see the sun. Still it was engrossing watching as the light increased and the [View Full Entry]

---

---

I was gutted to be awake at 7.30am after such a heavy night of drinking - I’d have been able to get back to sleep if I hadn’t needed to walk the long distance to the toilet block. As it was, the bright sunshine woke me up and by the time I got back to our cabin and saw Matt was still sleeping I took the opportunity to nip to the campshop to buy some breakfast. The guy on reception could tell I’d had a heavy night when I placed the large carton of orange juice on the counter. After some [View Full Entry]

---

---

Our taxi arrived at 8.30am to take us to the airport, and by 10.30am we were taking off for Ayers Rock Airport. The landscape became more and more barren as we travelled further inland. It wasn’t long before the ground beneath us was a patchwork of browns and ambers. As we approached the airport the land looked like a red table cloth with black sand scattered across it. As we descended I realised the black dots were trees, against the red sand they looked so dark. As we stepped off the plane we were met with a full on blast of [View Full Entry]

---

---

Packing is never fun and in the confined space of a campervan it’s even worse. We were so grateful to have aircon as we lugged heavy bags around and gave the van a good clean up. Matt had a clever idea of booking into a cabin at the same resort for our final night in Cairns rather than getting a hotel in town. It meant we could park up outside and transfer our things over without any stress. It was mid afternoon when we finally drove to the twenty minutes to the Britz office to return the van. As we pulled [View Full Entry]

---

---

I was ripped out of a dream by the alarm at 7am. As usual I got up, made breakfast and pulled our things together while Matt carried on snoozing up until the last second. Not that I’m bitter! The coach picked us up on time and after a few more stops, took us to the marina to catch the Calypso boat to the barrier reef. We’d heard that Port Douglas was the best place to do a trip due to it’s close proximity to the reef (meaning you get more time at the reef rather than travelling to it) and the [View Full Entry]

---

---

The weather was humid and it looked like there was potential for more rain. The internet was back up and running (it was down the previous night) so after a massive fry up we used the opportunity to catch up on a few bits of admin online. Unfortunately we could only get a signal from the outdoor (but undercover) tv room which was infested with mosquitoes. Despite squashing plenty, we came off worst with a good 10 big red bites each on our legs. Somebody had obviously forgotten to tell them that they don’t like Deet. Around lunchtime, when we finally [View Full Entry]

---

---

In the early hours of the morning the rain started heavily and woke me up. It was joined by great flashes of lightening and thunder a few seconds later. Within half an hour the storm was above us and the sound of the rain hitting our roof seemed to echo around our van. I was convinced something in the park was going to get stuck. The rain poured down all night keeping us awake and it was still there when we got up in the morning. We were pleased to have decided against a visit to Magnetic Island (when we realised [View Full Entry]

---

---

I felt almost refreshed when I awoke at 7am for breakfast. The morning trip was to an aborigine cave which had paintings on the walls that were more than 500 years old. The dingy dropped us off group by group and we made our way up some steep steps that seemed to go on and on. It reminded me of the ice climb all over again. When we arrived on the boardwalk at the top of the steps, we took turns to look at the cave entrance. It was all a bit of a disappointment - not many paintings were visible [View Full Entry]

---

---

At 7am I was up ready for breakfast wanting to escape the intense heat in favour of the deck. Breakfast was bacon and eggs on toast, along with lots of goodies from the buffet. We were already feeling as though we didn’t want to leave the boat as the food and staff were all so good, although the lack of aircon was starting to get annoying. I kept my fingers crossed that it would be fixed before the night came around. After a leisurely morning on the deck chatting, and drinking coffee, we stopped at the bay for Whitehaven Beach. We [View Full Entry]

---

---

A continental was served from 7.30am with a hot option from 8am. We could already tell we certainly weren’t going to go hungry on this trip. After eating well, the anchor was raised and we set off around the corner for our first snorkelling stop. Thierry, the French dive instructor, was hilarious and had us in fits as he rambled on about safely when snorkelling. Matt had been tempted to go out for a dive but had decided to hang back and wait til we got to the Barrier Reef itself, seeing as the coral at Lady Musgrave Island hadn’ t [View Full Entry]

---

---