Return to civilisation

---

Hi folks,

We last wrote in Alice Springs after a huge drive through the outback and, after a short stop in Alice itself, we continued in that veign for five more days.
The outback is, as you'd expect, pretty desolate and, apart from the few and far between stops for inordinately expensive fuel and nights spent in the free campsites with the grey haired nomads, our experience consisted basically of getting and driving until the sun went down.
About a week ago we finally arrived at Townsville on the east coast where, it seems, civilisation has camped up for the winter.
From Townsville we took a short day trip to Magnetic Island (so named as it has its own magnetic field (which the numerous wrecks around it are testament to)) where we took a tour around the koala sanctuary (giving Linz her long awaited opportunity to hold one). This was an excellent tour and gave us the chance to get up close and personal with many of the local (and imported) wildlife.
After departing Townsville we headed north towards the rain forrest, stopping at Cairns. From there we took a day trip to Green Island and were a little disappointed by the reef there (and the freezing cold waters, but then it is winter here). We did manage to see a venomous sea snake whilst snorkelling, which was a little worrying, however.
With the tyres on our van wearing quickly and the crack in our windscreen (courtesy of the 53.5 metre long road trains in the outback) getting longer and wider spread it was time to take some action. This did, however, lead to a very boring day ringing around mechanics but it turned out to be our luckiest day in a long time. Tyres were randomly discovered in workshops for $50 and a bloke even mixed us some paint for the van (so we can finally remove the word sh*t scratched into the side).
With the van in moderately ship shape condition we headed back south to mission beach for a night and then onwards beyond Townsville and finally to the picturesque surrounds of Airlie beach and the Whitsunday islands.
A day trip around the islands is planned for tomorrow (although budgetry restrictions aside we would have liked to do a few days sailing here 😞 ) followed by yet more driving south towards Frazer island.
Having clocked up more than 12000 Km we're starting to look forward to being able to have a break when we arrive in Sydney (hopefully in about 11 day's time).

Take care all and blog you soon,

Bri and Linz

---