With nothing better to do we decided on a pub crawl round Yeppoon. On our walk into town we could hardly believe our eyes when we saw thousands of bats hanging in the trees. We have seen bats flying in the sky at a lot of places, but to see them like this was amazing - as was the stench coming from them! When we wandered around town we couldn’t see many bars - this can cause a problem when you are planning a pub crawl. Gem decided to ask a passing local. He told us that there was normally a good Sunday crowd at the Railway bar. While Andy and Kieran looked for a bank Gemma and I went ahead to check it out. When we arrived we were sure we must be in the ... read more

Most of today was taken up with driving. Without the mishaps of yesterday we made it Airley beach. This is apparently Queensland’s answer to Byron Bay. There were some guys from the campsite in Cairns that we have been bumping into since we left. One of them had recommended a campsite in Airley Beach. We found it and checked in while Gem went for a walk around the site. When she returned she had some bad news. There were hundreds of screaming kids running about. We went to get some shopping and returned to the campsite with a plan. Kieran ran in and gave them a sob story about having to cut our trip short due to some family news. Luckily they believed him and gave him a refund. We were all very pleased when we ... read more

Since being in Queensland we had seen a lot of leaflets recommending a place called Paronella Park. The leaflets all marked it as Number 1 thing to do in Queensland. None of the leaflets really give you much of an idea what its all about so it was all a bit of a mystery. The pictures looked beautiful so that was enough of a reason to give it a go. Entry to the park also includes use of the caravan park so for once we had our day planned and also somewhere to spend the night. There was a daytime tour and an evening tour to go on so after setting up we rushed back to the office for the daytime tour. We were in such a rush that we had forgotten to put on out ... read more

Waking up with slightly sore heads, we decided that driving would not be a good idea. Our hippy friends had decided the same, but were reminded of checking out time by the rather rude owner who knocked on their door and pointed at her watch saying “check out time is 10am sharp”. They were visiting friends who live on the site and were planning on stopping for breakfast so drove out the gates, parked their van on the road and wandered back in. We couldn’t get packed up in time so booked an extra half day on the site and walked into town to get a much needed breakfast. The café was busy but we managed to get a table outside. Breakfast was good - although not up to Melbourne standards. We did however have a ... read more

Today we were all sad to be leaving the apartment, but also excited to be starting our adventure together. We all wanted to see the Great Barrier Reef so decided to move to the campsite that we had stayed at before and check out the day trips. Arriving on site Gem looked a little apprehensive. She is not the best when it comes to bugs - but to be fair Kieran is not that much better,! The thought of sleeping in a tent was not filling them with joy. But give them credit, only once on a windy hill in Hastings have they been anywhere near a tent. This time they managed to put their tent up with only minor input from us. After setting up we cracked open a drink, Gemma’s idea being that she ... read more