Don't feed them DINGO'S!

We spent three days on Fraiser Island on a 4x4 self drive tour. There were 9 of us in a bright pink Range Rover Discovery. Yes, Pink. The group was made up of two Israelies, three germans, two dutch and us english. We were left to ourselves to drive, camp and eat on this stunning world heritage site and try not to destroy anything in the process. The place is stunning but slight confusing and frustrating. The sea was clear with wonderfully high waves.........but we weren't allowed in at anytime due to tiger sharks, stingers and numerous other little munchers. It was a hard one to resist. We we're also warned on what felt like a thousand times that we must not approach the dingos, we must not feed the dingo's, we must not talk to the dingos.....hell, we mustn't engage in a game of cards with the damn things. Now, Dingo's are wild animals, that will bite you soon as look at you...........the last thing I was going to do was offer them some of my snadwich!

We've now just come back from a three day trip around the Whitsundays where we saw Whitehaven beach (The pic at the side of the blog) and it's as stunning as any of the pictures seen. Clare & I loved it. We both snorkled around the barrier reef and even did some scuba diving. It was like going to someone's house and jumping in their tropical fish tank (Do recommend that you don't try that though!)

We're now in Cairns and have booked ourselves on a outer barrier reef tour and a trip to Cape tribulation with Daintree rainforest. Can't wait!

Photographic proof.

Now, there is a rumour that we are not in Australia at all but are part of the Corby ASBO relocation programme. I can confirm that this wild rumour is untrue. Photos will be on the way, but we're having such a great time I can't be arsed to put them on the blog.

We all live in a wicked camper van, wicked camper van....

....a wicked camper van!

Yes we're on the road with our brightly coloured camper. When we picked it up, we were waiting in the garage and around the corner came the van............with Robbie Williams on the sides. Shit. Thankfully, that little rudebox just kept on driving past and in came ours. Rock band Ween is our side mural and it looks pretty damn good. We got in, and started the 1760k drive up the coast to Cairns.

Now this bad boy can hit a whopping 80kmh (55-60mph) on the flats, there ain't been much that hasn't overtaken us so far. Going up hills, people have tended just jog past, but we look good, so it not all bad. What is bad, is that the country is so frickin' big we're without any decent radio reception for a good 2-3 hours at a time, the only thing we seem to be able to pick up is Christian radio. Listen to god, or sit in silence.....we sat in silence. Yesterday we went into a discount store to by some cheap CD's (Emphasis on the word cheap!). Our situation doesn't seem to have improved much! Then again, pay $15 bucks, what the hell do you expect!

Dude, its all good.

Well this week's gonna seem rather familiar to previous ones.

Beaches, clear sea, great weather.............it really is taking its toll you know!

We started off the week by going to Bribie island which was great, no big waves but good to swim in until little creatures started nibbling at your toes!

We then went to Byron bay for a couple of days. Well I say Byron, we ended up about 15 minutes outside of Byron in a place called Lennox Head which was fantastic. Apparently it has one of the best surfs in the whole of Oz and the waves were pretty damn big. We also went to the Tea tree lakes which, unsurprisingly, were filled with tea tree. Now, it's not a little lake and someone decided to pour 350 gallons of tea tree in there for a laugh. Its a giant lake with the trees around the edge, and the tea tree seeps out of the tree into the lake making a weird murky brown. After having a swim in there though your hair will look shiny and great!

We then spent a day in Nimbin. Now, for those of you who have been to Nimbin or know about it should have a little smile across your face. Nimbin is a very unique and odd place. Started up in the 70's by a bunch of peace loving hippies, it's a town dedicated to the legalisation of cannabis. It is just one main street which looks like something out of Glastonbury. The funny stuff is freely available to smoke or have in cookies and we past numerous people who looked a little dazed to say the least. One guy on our trip had one cookie and laughed all the way home (45 minutes by the way!). Clare and I absconded from indulging but I'm sure the passive smoking was enough!

Today, we finally get our hands on the camper van. We're heading up north towards Cairns and looking to make Noosa our first stop. Photos will definitely follow.

Beard update: Due to public demand (M Clark) beard update makes a welcome return to the blog. I regret to inform you that after three weeks of cultivation, beard 1 has been removed (With great difficulty it has to be said). Beard two though is well under way and is possibly looking even better than it predecessor.

Mozzy update: We've been attack numerous times by the little gits, Clare especially. Clare's taken on a personal mission against them, and its fair to say the battle will be a long one. Clare is also extremely weary of flying things and spiders. She has jumped twice so far thinking that she was a landing ground for these things. The first time was a small moth.......the second was her own sarong bushing on her leg. At least she's prepared!

All we here is Radio Ga ga

There seems to be one undelying theme in Brisbane (Possibly Australia in general), and thats the overwhelming amount of 80's music that gets played everywhere. Shops, bars, radio stations..........you name it, 4 out of 5 songs are 80's. And the radio presenters seem to be caught up in the 80's time warp as well, in the 'Smashy and Nicey' kind of way -

"Doin' that for charidy?"

"Certainly am, great mate"

The links between songs are just as fantastically cheesy. Two examples:

"We may be on level 5 water restrictions, our grass may be fading and our plants maybe dying..............but at least we can recycle great hits like this - Here's Cyndi Lauper and Time after Time"

"Her new album maybe called loose, but she's turned down $500k to pose for playboy - Here's Nelly Furtado and Maneater".

Crickey!!!!! Look at that!

As week two comes to a close, it's been pretty busy.

Sunday, we went to Aussie Zoo (Steve Iriwn's place). A giant of a Zoo with snakes, koala's, elephants and the impressive Crocoseum (A stadium to watch shows on how easily a croc can rip your leg off!). After holding a koala, Clare's now looking to adopt one as her own!!! Plenty of 'Crickey's' and 'Don't come a cropper mate'.

Just a little info for you (and parents and other caring people may want to look away now): Of the worlds ten most poisonous snakes - All are Australian! Five of its creatures - The funnelweb spider, box jellyfish, blue-ringed octopus, paralysis tick and stonefish are the most lethal of its type in the world. There's little seashell creatures that don't just sting you, they'll actually go for you..............oh yea, and there's the saltwater croc. Such a deadly killing machine, it's not needed to evolve for over 80,000 years. Sounds great doesn't it.

On Monday, we went to Straddie for three days (See picture). Picture the scene, a mile long beach, beautiful sand, crystal clear waters, blue sky and burning sunshine.................and Clare and I are the only people on it.....that's it, no-one else! It really quite odd. Because it the Aussie winter (around 28 degs) it was the off season. Unbelievable! The life guard looked rather bored as all he had to do was watch over the two poms, jumping around in the waves like it was the first time they'd ever seen water. Was great fun for us though!

The rest of the week we've been around Brisbane city centre, taking boat rides, playing a bit of tennis (Bron has a tennis court in her back yard) and generally lazing about. It's been great!