The van is now alive again, and fixed up ready to sell, but Alex is now ill, and so we remain in Brisbane. Last weekend we, aided by anne-marie and mark, painted and tidied up all day to make the van look smart. So it now not only has a new engine but lots of new licks of paint. We have spent the last few days doing very little. Yesterday Alex had a visit to the doctor with a throat infection, and I went to get my legs waxed. Never again will I go there. The woman was off her [View Full Entry]

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We are taking some time to assess the Murphy Family's new home town- fortunately this coincided with our van needing a new engine- what luck! Don't let the blue skies fool you, it's rapidly approaching winter, and this week Mark (our host) assures me, there's a cold snap coming, it's going to get bitter- it could even get down to 24oC!! We have been staying in Calamvale with the Porter family, who have fed us well and kept us entertained with family life, jokes at my Dad's hair's expense and combining with us to make a work force to tidy [View Full Entry]

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Yes it does rain in Australia- but only where we seem to be! We made some friends for life on this trip, aided greatly by the many bonding sessions, always in the rain! Only half an hour in we had to change a tyre in the rain, with the spare being at the bottom of the pile on the roof-rack! We set up camp to discover tents with more holes than canvas, and spent most of the evenings huddled under a tarp. Thankfully we all got on, the beer lasted and everyone had lots to talk about and jokes to [View Full Entry]

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So, you may be wondering what we've been up to! We have covered nearly 2000kms since our last entry and taken in a lot. The rainforest and tropical queensland is now behind us! We embarked for our 3 days sailing around the whitsunday islands from airlie beach. we took advantage of a sunny afternoon and began the process of pimpin' our ride- see pics! the islands are stunning and the views from our ex-America's Cup racing yacht made a magical weekend.we met some great friends and enjoyed some of the most fascinating corals and fish since arriving in Australia. simply [View Full Entry]

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After allie declaring it as the must-do dive here in oz, we decided to take the plunge, and wreck dive to 30m. We had to do some deep dive training, including a number game underwater to see the effects of nitrogen narcosis at depth. I was rather affected and didn't take a lot in on my first dive! As usual i used a lot of air though. The second dive was amazing. Between the vibrant corals we could see glimpses of life on the SS Yongala, most noticeably the toilets. We swam with some amazingly big fish, shoals of hundreds of [View Full Entry]

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Trip up the Rainforest Australasia » Australia » Queensland » Atherton Tablelands By anneandalex April 22nd 2007 Round the World After a brief stop to watch Leanne take a flight in a microlight, we tripped up the hills inland o [View Full Entry]

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After sifting through the millions of available dive charters, we found a company who did a day trip to the outer Barrier Reef which was currently on special! Once aboard the stylish catermaran (sp?) we shot off the coast from Port Douglas to the Agincourt reefs. It took one hour of being thrust up, down, side to side before we arrived for our first dive. The boat anchored and our group jumped off the side of the boat and commenced our dive. The bommie of coral was grey and dull toned- I immediately began to appreciate the good fortune of [View Full Entry]

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If you look at the pictures you can see why it has taken us so long to decide to move on! It's possibly the good company, the great hospitality, the Phillipino food or simply the rainforest backyard, but we've really enjoyed staying in Smithfield! However, we shall soon be moving on as we have eventually purchased a campervan. As you can see from the pictures it is rather beaten up and old, but hey, it drives and has a mini house in the back so it can't be all bad! It took forever to find one that we could even [View Full Entry]

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A short drive out from Cairns, Northbound along the coast highway, Leanne took us for a quick swim, on what turned out to be a rather overcast afternoon. Today was the first day since our arrival in Australia, where it has not rained! It was so refreshing to get wet, even though the water seemed pretty cool (in reality it was probably quite warm!) and mess around swimming between large boulders half submerged in the rapids and pools [View Full Entry]

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We arrived into Cairns at 10.30pm, after a three hour stop in Sydney airport. No idea what Sydney even looks like though! It was great to be picked up by Leanne, who took us to a mates house where we have had a mattress on the floor for a couple of nights. It always makes travel better when you have a local to stay with and show you what the culture really is like. Yesterday we were taken to a game of Aussie rules football. We still have little idea of the rules, but we are not sure even the [View Full Entry]

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