We didn’t do all that much yesterday, took it easy, and got slightly pickled last night.

We dropped up to the Gibbons houshold for a spot of lunch (after a late start and a swim in Botany Bay). Christmas at the Gibbons cannot be explained, it has to be experienced. We had a fabulous afternoon and really appreciated the invitation. We caught up with Fiona and Tristian and look forward to joining them later this week to celebrate their marrige. Mary and the rest of the Gibbons clan were there along with a host of others.

Also, Micheal and the lovely Tanya announced their engagement, I hope they don’t mind me putting their happy faces up here. Congrats!

We returned to President Avenue, and after a bit of a rest, we had a bit of a “barbie”, it can be summed up with

and

The pudding wasn’t quite as good as at home, but liberal quantities of brandy helped significantly.

Happy Christmas everyone!

We’ve arrived! We left Port Macquarie this morning and stopped for lunch in Toronto along the way. Unfortunately our time in Port Maquarie was short (as in Byron Bay) so we indulged in a bit of retail therapy to console ourselves.

We called to the Gibbons household this evening and had dinner with them, cooked by Micheals chief financial advisor, thanks Tanya. We met most of the Gibbons clan, although the lady of the moment wasn’t in situ. A return expedition to St. Ives is currently in the planning stage.

We’re staying with David and Nuala, in Presidents Avenue, a stones throw from Botany Bay. Happy Christmas everyone, its blooming hot over here!

We left Byron Bay this morning (beautiful place), to continue the journey towards Sydney. After a few flirtations with speed traps, we arrived safely at Coffs Harbour just in time for lunch. We had a wander around and had a look at the marina and the town centre. A good bit bigger than Byron, but no less scenic on the waterfront. Just as we were leaving the Marina, and after putting the camera away, some dolphins broke the water some meters away. By the time the camera was out and armed again, they were gone (sniff!).

A few more flirtations with speed traps saw us in Port Macquarie.

Sydney ~400k

Last night we did the Brisbane Lights Tour. Mark, the owner, was driving the bus. We had actually met him earlier in the day as he drives the city tour buses, and when they stopped running the night time tours, he decided to start running one himself (with is wife’s blessing of course). Its a great tour, there is an excellent view from Mt Cootha both before and after sunset.

Today we diverged completely from the usual. We went to Movie World why? I’ve no idea (ask the boss). The best rides have to be Lethal Weapon 4 (80 kph, 4Gs), Scooby doo (In the dark and backwards for part of it), and then the two shows, the excellent Shrek 4D and the hilarious Police Academy Stunt show. The stunts are only peripheral to the comedy act. The silent (whistle blowing) usher is a scream, and thats before the show even starts.

After that we had a look along the sunshine coast, before heading for Byron Bay (and Australias most easterly point, Cape Byron) to catch the sunset.

We spent yesterday and today doing the Museum Trail. The Queensland museum, the Brisbane Museum and the Maritime museum. Thats a lot of “eums”. They were interesting, though a lot of it would have gone completely over my head. The Maritime Museum was quite interesting, as were the two sprightly octogenarians (one an ex Navy engineer, the other ex special forces) that assisted us in navigating the museum exhibits and on the Diamantina. Also, yesterday we used the Brisbane “City Sights” Tour, to get around and get a feel for the place (jumping on and off at various locations), this morning we took a trip down the Brisbane river on a tour boat, it was extremely relaxing to have a coffee and watch Brisbane literally float by.

Some interesting facts(?). Brisbane has more sunny days than Florida and warmer winter days than the Bahamas. The oldest building is a Windmill, that was never really used as a windmill (not enough wind).

What has really impressed me about the place is that all along the waterfront is accessible to the public. Anyone developing a property on the waterfront has to allow public access. This means that there is over 20kms of walk/cycleway along the river front. Also, there are ferrys (citycats) with pontoons at strategic locations up and down the river. Rather than just go over and back, they go up and down allowing one to get from one end of Brisbane to the other on river based public transport, how cool.

Another thing that has surprised my about the country in general is, given that there is so much sun, there is relatively little use of grid tied Photovoltaic power systems. There are however, some houses, (more further North) using Solahart Water Heating systems, and even the odd house using a 2 inch Black Plastic pipe (works quite well in the sun). I can only assume that the economics of doing so still ísn’t attractive except over a much longer term, like at home.

Time for a swim. Oh yes, I nearly forgot, we are here.

Made it this far, stopping for a few days, time to check out the shops! Oh yes, there are many, many, many shops (well compared to what we’ve seen so far). Deirdre reckons we are back to civilisation at last. Also it’s cooler here than it has been so far, whether this is due to the weather in general or us getting further south we’re not sure, but its welcome. It’s still 30 degrees during the day though!

Sydney ~900k

Fraser Island to you and me (the direct translation of the Aboriginal name translates to “paradise”). We went on a day tour with Kingfisher. Basically 30 or so passengers sat in the back of a 4X4 truck (with seating), while our diminutive driver (about 4 feet high, could hide behind a rake, of Malteese extraction and daft as a brush), Natalie, drove with alarming speed along the narrow, bumpy sandy tracks around the island. Great fun. During the tour there was an option to take a trip in a light plane for a scenic flight over the island, for $60 I couldn’t resist, the take off and landing was from the beach (they moved along the beach with the tours).

The island itself is a magical place, a 74km beach, 124 miles long and entirely made from sand. Lake McKenzie, a beautifully clear freshwater lake bordered by white sand high up in the sandy hills. We were out there today and didn’t want to leave, it really has to be seen to be believed.

Departed the forgettable Rockhampton Plaza hotel about 8 this morning (though the food was nice), arrived in Hervey Bay at lunchtime. We are camping out here tonight and tomorrow night before making a bee line for Brisbane. Hervey Bay is Queenslands ‘Tramore’ by the looks of it, campsites and mobile home parks all along the extensive beachfront.

We are visiting Fraser Island tomorrow, which we can see from the beach. Looking forward to it as the trip should be very interesting.

Sydney is now only about 1100K away. Getting there slowly but surely!

Monday we we went out to the reef, Deirdre and I enjoyed our first snorkle. Nearly bumped into reef shark while rounding a corner and I’m still not sure which of us got the bigger fright. I remembered the camera after that, and hopefully I have a picture of a Tortoise and some other fish. All in all, it was unbelievably fantastic.

Tuesday morning we were up at 4am to go ballooning. What a blast! I did two 30 minute flights, and the landings were less bumpy than Aer Lingus! We departed Cairns after that, stayed in Townsville last night, and arrived in Airlie beach just before lunchtime (Wednesday).

We are heading out to Long Island for the night to chill, have some beers and generally to relax.

Only 2100K left to run to Sydney 🙂

We spent the day on a tour around Daintree National Park, including, of course, Cape Tribulation. I think I managed to get a some photos of some of the more unusual creatures such as the Peppermint Stick Insect, a Gecko and a Saltie (aka the Estuarine Crocodile). He wasn’t very co-operative and just sat under the vegatation eyeing us up (lunch?), though thats about as close as I ever want to get to one as apparently, he could have closed the distance between us in less than a second. We also took some photos of the most beautiful beach at Cape Tribulation where we couldn’t go for swim (water was even nice and warm.

Why? Well, this time of year (“the wet”) it is quite dangerous to swim due the fact that Chironex Fleckeri (aka Stingers or Box JellyFish) inhabit the water near the shore, down about as far as Brisbane, the feckers.

Something we’ve found is that everyone, absolutely everyone is very helpful, polite and will help out however possible. A real ‘can do’ attitute seems to permeate the place. Well actully not everwhere, the two eateries at the Uluru – Kata Tjuta National Park were terrible, but other than that everyone is great. And, other than the the “diversion” in Katherine, all the tours have been great.

Cairns was a bit of a shock after coming from Darwin and Alice Springs. Darwin was hot and humid, Alice hotter and less humid, both relatively quite places. Cairns is completely different, a bustling city, with night markets, open air concerts and lots of shops (important for The Boss). Something else as well, though I couldn’t put my finger on it initially. On the way down from Darwin to Alice on The Ghan I was a bit uncomfortable, anxious even, and I couldn’t figure out why. It dawned on me today while looking up at the mountains on the way back down to Cairns.

For long parts of the train journey there wasn’t a hill (never mind a mountain) to be seen out either side of the train. I guess I must be a ‘hill’ person then :).

Another thing that was quite surprising for me is how close Cairns is to the rain forest. Across from the Marina, the forest comes right down to the water. Pretty much everywhere that hasn’t been cleared for buildings or agriculture is still forest. I guess I was surprised at the greenery after seeing the semi-arid land around Uluru.

Anyhow, tomorrow should see us out on the Reef mingling with some of the more colourful locals. And I’ll be trying my hand at ballooning the day after.