Blogs from Burleigh Heads, Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia, Oceania

Our second Oz adventure took us along Australian's Eastern Coast from Port Douglas in the north all the way down to Sydney. What better way to kick it off than by exploring the Great Barrier Reef! We decided to go all out and treated ourselves to a luxury snorkeling and scuba diving boat trip. After all, how often does one visit the Great Barrier Reef?! The visibility was only mediocre but we did manage to spot some white tipped reef sharks and lots of beautifully colored coral and fish! The snorkelling gave some of the better views and while we were willing to plunge straight down to 18 metres for the scuba dive, we needed the comfort of noodles to aid our buoyancy on the surface!! Collecting our second campervan (Skippy) in Cairns, we navigated along ... read more

Final Entry - The End Of The Road Well, this is it! The last blog entry for our, almost two year, trek around Oz. After leaving Adelaide we travelled through the towns along the Murray River. We made visits to Mannum, Walkers Flat, Renmark, Blanchetown and Echuca. Once again the weather was kind to us and the “Mighty Murray” was great to see. The “PS Murray Princess” was in dock at Mannum and was a magic sight. PS standing for “Paddle Steamer”. We took a trip up the river at Echuca, where the Murray is significantly narrower and dirtier than at Renmark. Nevertheless we ticked yet another box. From Echuca we headed for Bendigo where we caught up with my sister Jean’s son Steven. He was recovering from a serious back injury after being thrown from ... read more

Currumbin Valley is BLISS. Ellie and I are well and truly settled into Currumbin Valley Eco-Village and absolutely loving the homestay with our host family. Ellie has a new bestfriend in five year old Pia (perhaps the other way round) and I am getting the garden well and truly in order. The Eco-Village has a great community spirit and we are being made to feel very welcome. The garden has plenty going on (it was horrendously overgrown) and has plenty of banana trees which are producing bunch after bunch. The other day I took off 5 bunches and am currently the envy of the rest of the village as other gardens seem to be only yielding one or two every few months. I said to the owner here, Rob, that he should set up a stall ... read more

WILSONS FINAL DAY OF SCHOOL/WORK - PACK http://www.travelblog.org/pix/icons/24x24/smile.png Just finished last day of work and we are all madly packing to head off Sun am early - Kahanis Indian at Tugun for Clan meeting and dinner then home to pack !!! Tomorrow we head Brisbane -> Perth -> Bangkok -> Jo Burg -> Capetown to be met by Sarahs Aunt Hazel and her cousins . Long Haul but we are looking forward to sitting still for the first time in a long long Time ... read more

Today the real trip has begun. We left the Gold Coast and headed north about 7 weeks ago, on what now feels like a trial run. The weather was not warm enough to head south, so we spent a few weeks going north to Cairns first, then back down to the Gold Coast again. But now the big trip has started. The Big Lap. Tripping clockwise around Australia towing a caravan.... read more