'We're Baaack...'

Wow - 3 glorious days sailing around the Whitsunday Islands. 74 Islands off the coast of Northern Queensland - in and around the Great Barrier Reef. Can't begin to describe it other than to say that if you ever do take the plunge and tour Australia, we well recommend it.

We ended up on the ship called 'Whitsunday Magic'. It is considered the deluxe cruise ship around the Islands and we can certainly attest that the efforts made in the meals and to make us comfortable certainly took it into the 'deluxe' category.

Our cabin was small, but perfectly formed. Karen graciously took the upper bunk - and allowed Lei the comfort of the lower berth. We did a couple of bush walks, one was a 2 1/2 mile hike up to the top of the South Molle Island so that we could look around and see almost everything the world had to offer. Another was to a lookout over the amazing white sands of Whitehaven beach. This sand is so fine that you can use it to exfoliate or clean your jewelry and because it is so white, it reflects the heat and you can walk on it in the middle of the day in comfort barefoot.

We also managed some snorkelling in and around the reef. It's Jellyfish season, so you need to wear stinger suits to go into the water which we can attest to are very flattering and OHHH so much fun to put on. Imagine 100 degree heat with 95% humidity and you are trying to put on a skin tight RUBBER SUIT - Oh yes - it was fun.

The only downer for the trip was the fact that 1 day into the cruise, Lei started to experience the discomfort of an abscess tooth that just went from bad to worse. By the last night, her face was swollen the size of a basketball, and agony doesn't even begin to cover how she felt. We were lucky in that on our return to where we had parked the caravan, we noticed a large advertisement - DENTIST - and his phone number. Karen called them immediately and after some serious pleading managed to get Lei an appointment that instant. So believe it or not, we got off the boat at 1pm and by 2, we were stocked up on antibiotics and pain killers and on our way to Cairns. We needed to make the 650 Km trip and turn in the Van by 4pm on Saturday - so that meant Karen had to step up to the task and take over the driving - which she did like a trooper -

So here we are - in Cairns, minus the Van and staying at a great B&B - tucked quietly away in a small rainforest, overlooking a waterfall. We're going to take tomorrow to check out Cairns and then Monday morning we are off again - this time for the centre of Australia. We'll keep you posted...

Got our 'Sea legs' on...

Well - three days of relaxing at Cape Hillsborough leading up to 3 days of relaxing on a Tall Ship - sailing around the Whitsunday Islands. Could be worse...

We enjoyed our time at Cape Hillsborough. Definitely we can recommend the campsite to any who are travelling around Queesland. We have been here during the Australian national election where the ruling party (the Coalition) have been tossed out of power after 11 years and the Labour party has come to power. Since our TV reception is definitely limited - we have only been able to watch election reports for the past few days - so its a good things that the campsite had so much more to offer so we weren't dependant on the TV for entertainment.

Now we are at Arlie Beach, waiting on being picked up this afternoon where we will board the ship and begin the cruise. Not due to be back till Friday afternoon - so we shall not be blogging anything till then.

Hiding out in Queensland...

After two days of road weariness we have found an absolute corker of a campsite - it is part of a national park - called Cape Hillsborough. The site is occupied by wallabies, kangaroos, bird species a plenty and people in simple harmony.

We discovered this this morning when we got up to take a walk on the beach and came back to find a small family of wallaby's checking out the campsite to see if we had accidently left anything lying around (we hadn't) then over to our neighbors' spot for a similar scrounge around.

The site is lovely, pool refreshing and the Ocean so close that we have decided to stay another day and not risk driving on a Sunday with the van even though is has been perfect for over a week. We still have bad memories of being stranded on a Sunday and don't want to go through that again.

Since we won't be doing much but relaxing the next few days - we probably won't have much to add until next week unless we get some great photo's to share....

Queens of the Road...

We have put over 1000 Km behind us (that's 600 miles to the less metric friendly) over the past few days. Mainly because there isn't much to see or do over that large expanse. We left Noosa in the morning - drove to the coastal town of Bundaberg - which was well worth it - an absolutely corker of a town - picturesque wide streets and lovely little shops. Very homey feeling.

Then back on the road and off to Emu Park - a coastal village off Rockhampton. We found a great caravan park - got in so late that the owners felt sorry for us and begged some dinner for us from our fellow campers. The sausage tasted great.

This morning - a quick effort at the laundry, then back on the road to MacKay - We have booked a sailing holiday of 3 days and 3 nights around the Whitsunday Islands - so we have been trying to get here. Now that we are here - we actually don't need to be here till next Tuesday - so we are going to work out what to do over the next few days tonight. We shall keep you posted...

Why God gave us 4Wheel drives

We now know the reason 4 wheel drives were invented. It is so people in Queensland can get around their state...What a day.

It started at 6:30am when we were picked up outside our campgrounds. From there, a short drive to a ferry across the Noosa river. We then took the shortcut (since we would end up doing about 300Km today) and drove down the 40 mile beach - avoiding the surf where possible. It is quite an amazing experience to be driving around 50 m/h through the sands and surf of this amazing beach. We ended up having to leave the beach and go over some old logging roads to get to our next ferry ride over to Fraser Island.

After we got to Fraser Island, we stopped for Champagne and Orange juice on this hugh expanse of beach, then off again - finally going into the interior of the Island. This was once primarily a logging area, and is the largest sand island in the world. It is covered with a large rain forest, and although it is over 125 Km long and 80 wide, only has about 50 permanent residents on it. It is also a listed World Heritage area - and as such protected for future visitors to see.

The roads are just sand tracks and how they get these vehicles up and down is a mystery to us. After a very rough ride through the forest, we ended up stopping for a short walk through a section of the forest - then back in the Land Rovers, and on to an amazing fresh water lake with the whitest sands we have ever seen. We spent some time in the water and on the beach, had a class A lunch and then back on the road again. By the time we got out of the forest and back to the beach - the tide was only a couple of hours away from high tide - so we had to hurry along to get back to the ferry point without getting washed out to sea (just kidding - we are sure that they had a back up plan).

We ended up stopping for tea next to a river in the state forest on the mainland, and then home. An absolutely brilliant day.

Queensland - here we come...

We have left NSW and entered Queensland. There is a small town on the border of the two states (think it's called Twin Towns or Twin Heads), which has a street that separates them. Since Queensland doesn't go onto Daylight Savings Time (remember - it is spring over here...) we have gone back an hour so now it is only 10 hours ahead of England and 15 hours ahead of Michigan.

Spent the day travelling up the Gold Coast (lots of high rises, looks alot like Spain's coast), then through the mountains standing at a lookout which we can see the ocean from about 25 miles away, finally to Noosa Heads - a very quirky spread out town - with no town centre that we can find.

Tomorrow, we intend to take a day tour overland in a 4x4 on Fraser Island. Should be a blast, and we shall tell you all about it when we get back.

We were wrong - Flower Power has been truly found...

When we said that Byron Bay was a throw back to the 60's - we were wrong. It is nothing but a false front. We left Suffolk Bay on Monday morning having had a relaxing 2 days and decided to drive north via a very convoluted path through the hinterlands of the North Rivers area. We first stopped in Lismore - a pleasant community inland from the coast about 30 Km. After spending some time in an internet cafe - and doing some guitar shopping - (yes Chris - I did get one!!!) we were off again through the hills into the Nimbin Valley.

We arrived in Nimbin an hour later to find the true exiles of Berkley - living peacefully in this small community. Throw back doesn't quite cover it. All you childen of the 60's would feel at home here.

After a wander through the town (it is quite small) - back on the road through the Tweed Valley on some lovely twisty/windy roads till we came back to the coast and ended up in Tweed Heads for the evening. Now we are sitting on the border of NSW and Queensland - ready to cross over state lines, change time zones (Queensland has chosen not to participate in the Daylight Savings Scheme) and begin the final leg of this part of our journey.

Reliving the 60's...

Today we have left South West Rocks, driven to a small village called Nambucca which has such a lovely feel about it, and investigated small town life in New South Wales. Nambucca has many things going for it - but one of them is this fantastic Mosiac Wall that really draws your eye to it.

From there, up the coastline stopping for lunch at Yamba - and taking a well deserved walk on the beach enjoying the kite surfers and their antics. Even managed to do a self portrait of the two of us. We then continued northwards till we got to Lennox Head where we watched someone being taught to Hang Glide - must be an amazing experience.

Finally, we have arrived in Byron Bay - home of some real 'alternate' living and some people who looked like they simply moved from Berkley, Ca. in 1969 straight to Byron Bay and have hidden here ever since. The good news is we can break out all of our old outfits from our University days and they would be right in style. The bad news is - they no longer fit us - life just isn't fair.

We decided since it was Saturday that we would spend Sunday as a relax day - not drive anywhere and not tempt fate with the Van since if it were to break down again we would be without any assistance until the Monday - so we have had a lovely day - sitting and reading on the beach, window shopping in Byron Bay and just taking in the atmosphere. Due to Karen's son Chris' constant nagging - Lei has also decided that if fate takes a hand and we see a decent Guitar for a reasonable price - we are going to buy it so that we have some music for the beach in the evening. Wish us luck on that...

Back on the Road Again...

Well - we managed over 350 km yesterday without an incident - will try again today - but first - a short delay to take a whale watch cruise. It is at the end of the migration season - so we only had a small chance of seeing some stragglers - but the day is lovely - the cruise fun and we did see some dolphins and stringrays - so it wasn't a total loss.

Then - up the highway - taking short stops to look at some lovely coastline. We decide to go off road a bit and visit a small town called South West Rocks where we stay for the night. On the way to check out a couple of campsites - we see a herd (assuming that is how it is referred to) of wild wallabys. Managed to get a video as well as pictures as they seems as interested in us as we were in them.

We are over 500 km past our visit to Penrith - so God willing and a fair wind - maybe it is behind us.

Less we forget - NEVER TEMPT FATE...

Well - here we are on Thursday morning - only 10 miles down the road when our Van reminded us once again - to never tempt fate. The van stalls in the middle of the motorway in the beginnings of Sydney traffic - and we have to return to our original point of departure to see the service people again.

This time - a happy ending to our story (we think). Met up with a transplanted Scotsman who has a brother living in Ann Arbor, Michigan - and has taken a liking to us. He is the service manager for the dealership and after much discussion - believes that the Van's problem is due to a service issue by the rental company - not something that is our fault - hence works with us to solve the problems and gets the rental company to start admitting some culpability. What a break to what has been a fairly stressful time. His name is Brian and if anyone ever ends up stuck in Penrith, Australia - we highly recommend contacting. HE IS A DREAM.

So, after some further tender loving care and some time to visit with some local wildlife - we are back on the road at 2pm - looking to make up time. After a shaky start worrying if it going to happen again - we start getting back into the holiday - by 6pm - we are at a lovely place called Forster.

We are beginning to get some confidence back with the Van - and realising that we really do love the freedom of the road...

Never Tempt Fate...

I can assure all of our friends and family who are following our adventures that I shall never crow about a cunning plan again - Fate has taught me a lesson - one I shall not forget.

On our last day in Sydney we were probably reacting to the stress of this all but still managed to...

1. lose Lei's credit card (and found it again fortunately)
2. lose Karen's phone (and found it again fortunately)
3. arrive in Penrith with no idea where we were going to stay or if there was even a hotel here (which there was - and we managed to find and get booked into - FORTUNATELY)

So the good news is that we have taken possession of the Van again (hurray) and have plans to be back on our way early Thursday morning. We have targeted certain destinations so that we can begin to get back on schedule and still arrive as planned in Cairns on Dec 1st.

We have the camera on charge so the next posting will be back to our usual high standard of presentation (just kidding there). Wish us well on the second half of our journey.

Languishing in Sydney

Well... Blog delays and travel delays until who knows when. The van is ill and the company haven't got back to us yet. We have a 2nd night and 3rd day in Sydney so that's a bonus although we did want to be on our way. Until we get back to the van where all the gear to charge the camera etc is stored this blog is closing down........

We saw:

The Bridge

The Opera House

Manly Beach

Darling Harbour

The Chinese Friendship Garden

Cockleshell Bay

And a Great Outdoor Photography Exhibition www.yannarthusbertrand.org/

We are on our way to The Botanic Gardens and The Rocks ....... and whatever else we choose....

Deja vu...

I am beginning to think that at times I live in a dream world - where sometimes my worst fears come true and sometimes I am both blessed and cursed with getting what I want...

Here it is - Sunday morning and we decided to break camp and head to Sydney from the Blue Mountains. Not a long drive but one I am not looking forward to as the idea of driving around Sydney in this camper doesn't appeal to me. So I have a plan to minimise the amount and area of driving I will have to do.

My plan is simple - have the motorhome break-down again (this time is wasn't my fault) and need to be towed to the nearest dealer - who of course isn't open on a Sunday. Then have to go to a hotel and spend the night till the dealer can look at the van on Monday morning and diagnose the problem. Pretty clever - right?

So, with the van down for the count - no one open - we had the tow driver drop us at a train station in the Blue Mountains and headed for Sydney where we ended up at a great apartment/hotel right next to Darling Harbor. You have views of the Sydney Aquarium from the balcony and a 5 minute walk takes you directly to the Ferry docks. Couldn't have been better.

We toured the harbor and out to Manly Beach by Ferry - enjoyed dinner overlooking the Pacific, and back to the hotel. Added bonus - we even got access to the internet so that we could update our blog...

Tomorrow we get the news on the Van's prognosis - but either way - I am happy since I ended up seeing Sydney without actually having to drive around here. What a cunning plan...

Did you ever wonder why the Blue Mountains are blue?

Yes - there is an answer to this - and if I could find the marketing buff - I would give it to you. They even have a name to explain the phenomena, but I can't remember it. Suffice it to say that at times they do appear blue.

We camped in Katoomba - next to the scenic look-out over the Three Sisters and Katoomba Falls. We decided to spend the day going out to the Jenolan Caves (about 40 miles into the mountains over some very dangerous roads. We took a coach tour for this one - Karen didn't trust my driving there). The fact that Karen convinced me to tour the Lucas Cave with its 910 steps (NO - I didn't count them - the guide told us the number to ward off the less able prior to going into the cave!) tells you just have awesome it was.

Then back to the campsite where we decided to spend another night - and where we met Claudia and Oli - a couple of teachers (I just can't get away from Karen talking shop - even in Australia) from Hamburg, Germany, who decided to take a year off and travel. They have been touring Australia for the past 4 months and will go on to New Zealand, then Fiji and finally to San Fransisco before returning home.

Things can't always be exciting...

Well, sorry for the delay in posting again. I have a couple of reasons - one is that again we have had difficulty in getting access to the internet. The other is that for the past couple of days - things weren't that exciting. Scenary is still beautiful, but then you know that. People are still nice, so that isn't new. Couldn't come up with something different to tell you.

On thursday we travelled through the Eurobudalla region and onto the Illawarra region. Our goal this past few days has been to book onto a whale watching trip - each time we enter an area with this available - we have either just missed the time they left, or they have cancelled due to weather. We stayed in Jervis Bay hoping to connect with another trip Friday morning - only to have no luck again - so on to Kiama to see their famous blow hole. Then we visited some of the places that Karen's brother Steve had lived when he first emmigrated to Australia.

So that's been the past few days - now we are on our way to the Blue Mountains...

Sorry if our posting seems sporadic - but we end up having to wait till we get access to the internet prior to putting our adventures on the site. So we go from nothing to 2 or 3 that we have on file. Hope that this works for everyone.

How do you tell the difference between Beautiful and Awesome???

Mallacoota is beautiful. Just seems to be difficult to decide what is pretty, what is beautiful and what is awesome.

We have left Victoria and entered New South Wales. Eden, our first port of call has an amazing 24 hour tourist information area. So we collected all the goodies we need to get beyond Sydney. The terrain is often like Scotland (if it was hot), rolling hills and forrestation with the occasional block of palm trees! Tried to do a Whale watch - but was cancelled - sea was too choppy. We'll keep trying.

This is the amazing bay that we stopped at for lunch (from our own kitchen of course) and ended up in Turroes Head at a beachfront site.

WOW! Dolphins playing in the bay, rabbits playing on the site, flocks of parrots and cockatoos divebombing us and Karen saw an Emu on the sandbank. It's all so unreal - can't wait for the next leg of the journey.

...And the Holiday begins!

We're off - It's almost like it has taken us a couple of days to get into the swing of the holiday - but into the swing we are now. We are touring Gippsland - in eastern part of the state of Victoria. The land is quite diverse with us going in and out of low country, forests, rolling hills and farmlands.

Today we saw our first Wallaby as well as being greated by a Kookaburra (although it wasn't in a Gum tree - not that we would recognise a Gum tree if we saw it!). We are also seeing a good number of black swans - no white ones though which seems a bit strange. The coastline is beautiful and though we missed the 90 Mile Beach (how do you miss a 90 MILE LONG BEACH YOU ASK???) still feel lucky to be here.

Tonight we camped in Malacoota - which is a small village right at the end of Victoria out of the way of the main roads. Locals were friendly, giving us considerable advice on how to back into our campsite. Almost looked like it was their only entertainment for the evening...