Lichie

We're at the end of our trip! We can't believe that 10 weeks have passed since we left Oz, and that our final leg of the trip in Thailand is ending. We sadly left Samui on Friday for Bangkok after a totally chilled time there. We'll greatly miss the safe haven of Shambala with the owners', Jess & Julz, friendly welcome (and appreciate their tolerance of us turning our bungalow into a cats' home!), Pom & Pun's lovely cooking, and Em's endless smiles and kind heart. We'll miss the calming sound of the sea on our doorstep and the revitalizing sea breeze blowing across our balcony. And we'll miss the 4 kittens and mum who 'stayed' with us at Shambala for the last few weeks, all demanding breakfast at 7 in the morning and a free ... read more

Sawadee Ka! That's Thai for hello, spoken by a female; men say 'khrub' at the end of phrases in stead of 'ka'. But in some phrase books it's 'khrap'! And I've heard some blokes say 'kup'. It's a bit confusing but we're trying... We also know the Thai for thank you - khorb koon ka/khrab (or khrap, depending on which book), and custard apple - noi naa, which has proved very useful during the Lich's quest to feed his custard apple habit; he keeps going up to staff in supermarkets and street markets asking, 'Noi naa??!' in desperation. But typically we're here in Thailand during the off-season for custard apples, and even the Tesco Lotus has stopped importing them from Oz or wherever. So the Lich has resorted to sampling lots of other strange looking asian ... read more

Panorama: View From Balcony At Novotel, Clarke Quay It was a bittersweet moment when we arrived at the Wicked depot in Cairns to drop off the van. 007 Shaken was washed and vacuumed (as much as is possible without actually hoovering up the holey bits of carpet that remain in the cab). And the woman in reception didn't even check the van, just gave us our bond back no question, with an element of surprise in her voice that 007 Shaken had actually made it all the way up the coast. She didn't think Wicked have any vans over 10 years old - 007 Shaken is 20! So, in this light, perhaps this was 007's final walkabout?? For a moment, it felt like we were taking faithful old Neddy to the knacker's yard for the chop... ... read more

Leaving Airlie Beach and the lovely Whitsundays, we headed up the coast to Mission Beach, staying overnight at the posh but remote Rollingstone Beach Caravan Resort. We spent a few days hiding away at the quiet Mission Beach Hideaway Holiday Village before heading further north, bypassing Cairns and arriving in Port Douglas. Port Douglas is quite posh with its 5 star resort accommodations and boutique shops, and it seems to have been visited at least a couple of times by Bill Clinton, judging by the photos of him displayed in the windows of various eateries. Amazingly there's still a van park in town and apparently a council one to boot (Tropical Breeze Van Village - compact sites but a very well managed park), sandwiched between a street full of expensive 'resort' buildings. Actually, there are 2 ... read more

We left the Town of 1770 campsite and drove about 300 km north up to Yeppoon, near Rockhampton, staying a night at the Beachside Caravan Park in Yeppoon before doing the next 350 km stretch up to Mackay. The road from Rockhampton to Mackay is long and lonely, with only a few small townships dotted along. And as we feel every bump we go over in our Bond-mobile, the past few days of long drives have been a bit testing. We counted teens of road-kill roos along these long stretches of road; it's illegal to swerve to avoid an animal on the roads here, so it's coco pops for umpteen poor roos each night on the roads of Oz... We spent a couple of nights communing with nature at a remote wilderness camp at Cape Hillsborough, ... read more