The end of another continent

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So we continued our trip in Australia with a long day driving up the east coast. We eventually arrived in a place called Mackay, to find that most of the motels were full and those that weren't were too expensive for us. We found a pub that had rooms but all they had was a dorm for 10 people. Luckily there weren't any other people in the dorm - just us 4. We were up early (mainly due to the fact that someone was cleaning the outside seating area from about 4am) and drove to Airlie Beach.

We went straight to the tourist info centre and booked a 2 day 1 night sailing trip arround the Whitsunday islands. The boat was called Iceberg and was owned by two brothers, one of whom was our captain for the trip, and his girlfriend was the deck hand / cook. The trip was fantastic, the beaches were outstanding, the food on the boat was great, the company was good (there were 12 of us), the snorkelling was amazing and at night we sat and watched the stars. We also had a window in our cabin so we could lie in bed and watch the stars as we fell asleep.

We saw loads of fish and had to wear suits as there were stingers in the sea, not box jellyfish but other little things that really hurt if you get stung. Luckily none of us did.

The day we left Airlie Beach was Miles' 36th birthday. He decided that he would like to spend the day in Townsville so we set off. When we got there we found out that Australia were playing a Davis cup tennis match and that like Mackay most of the motels were full. We eventually settled on a hostel which was OK. We walked along the beach front and had a lovely lunch, treating ourselves to a bottle of wine.

During this time we found out that Chris' dad will need to start a course of treatment shortly for his cancer so we have decided to cut short our trip. So it turned out that our last night with Mandy & Miles was on Miles birthday. We spent the night talking about our trip and the places we had been to whilst having a few drinks. We will still go to Vietnam and Cambodia, missing out Laos and India from our original itinery.

The following morning we drove to Cairns airport and after a tearful goodbye with M&M Chris and I managed to re-route our flights and got a flight to Sydney. We managed to see parts of the Great Barrier Reef from the plane - will look forward to seeing it from a boat and to seeing Ayers Rock the next time we go to Australia (probably when England next play cricket there).

So after a night in Sydney we got a flight to Bangkok where we are now. We will be here for a few days whilst we arrange our Vietnam visa. The plan is to fly to Hanoi on the 18th April, then work our way down the east coast, cross into Cambodia, then get a bus back to Bangkok. We have rescheduled our flight home and will now be back home on the 6th May - in time to see Fulham retain their Premiership status (or am I just dreaming?)

Love to you all.

Tina

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Photos

Iceberg - a beautiful boat
With the penguin at the back