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Queensland - South inland to Brisbane
No children were hurt during the making of this photograph...
 I just found these photographs on the camera from our visit to the tropical fruit farm a couple of days ago. Charlotte is doing a project on tropical fruit – how they grow, where they grow, what they are like, what they are used for etc. And the visit to the fruit farm helped her to cover quite a few of them, to see the way they grow, and to taste some of the more exotic ones (we all decided that ‘Chocolate Pudding Sapote’ was YUCK!). Sarah also took some photo’s of Charlotte with the different fruit, and her impressions of them – if you click on the image on the left, you can find out what Charlotte was doing to make this face, and you can see what she thinks of the smell of Jack Fruit.
Let’s get a video for the night....
We’re finally back at Mission Beach after 9 days, which means that we’re heading back down south to Sydney after driving North for the first month – so far we’ve driven 2,000 miles in the month. It also means that we’re finally able to pickup our video of the BBC Holiday programme. (Oh, and it also means that we’ve got a chance of spotting the endangered Cassowary bird shown on the sign, but as there are so few left, we’re only likely to see them on signs). Anyway, back to the video. Since it was broadcast in England we’ve had a few emails from friends, making oblique references to my white legs and Sarah’s sandwich making technique. And we don’t know what you’re all talking about! Amanda at the BBC had arranged to Fedex us a tape as soon as the programme was broadcast, so that we could see ourselves on telly, but we had to leave the Treehouse before it arrived. We knew we were coming back, so we just had to wait.
And waiting turned out to be the game of the day. When we arrived at the hostel, they knew they’d seen a Fedex package, but they couldn’t find it. They thought it might have been sent back. They thought it might be for somebody else. Eventually they decided that Dennis the manager would know about it. And he’d gone out for 2 or 3 hours. So we sat and waited. Then we had lunch and waited. Then we went for a swim and waited. And finally, three hours later Dennis appeared, with the package in his hand – with the neat little BBC VHS tape inside.
 But the Treehouse doesn’t have a TV, and the video player in the staff quarters was broken. But Dennis offered to let us watch it at his house in town – but first he had a bit of business to sort out. So we waited. And waited. And waited. Four hours later, as the sun started to set, Dennis appeared and we started to go. And then, after 6 hours of waiting, one of the staff said “I’ve got a video in my caravan”, across the car park. So instead of having to traipse across town, we all walked across the car park and sat down outside his caravan (it was very kind of him to let us watch it outside his caravan, but I wonder why he didn’t mention it four hours ago!). Anyway, all of this waiting had served to rack up the excitement for us. Sarah had initially decided that she couldn’t watch it just yet, and would perhaps wait a week or so, but in the end the waiting of the afternoon was long enough, so we all sat down together, on a patch of sand, under a shade awning, surrounded by rainforest plants. Quite a setting!
So now we’ve seen what you’ve all been emailing us about. And now I know never to wear a Victorian bathing suit again. And that you look fatter on TV (please, please tell me that it’s the effect of the lens). Oh, and you still hate seeing and hearing yourself on the screen. But we did look and sound like ourselves, and we didn’t think we were made to look like raving loonies. So now we can stop worrying about how silly we might look, and whether they’d include this bit and that bit which we didn’t like........until next time.
Pressing the pause button
 Today was a chance to ‘pause’, to recharge our collective batteries, and catch up on some sleep. Every now and again we get to the point of needing a rest for a day – perhaps to catch up after having 24 hours a day with the girls being too energetic! And today was one of those days, which was handy because it was also a wet day – every couple of hours it rained for half an hour. And just to prove that not every day is sunny on our trip, I rather sadly took a photo of the rain running off the camper van awning. There, some people will be very happy now – David Hunt to mention one. And just to seal your satisfaction, let me add that when its raining there’s not much freedom – basically we’re confined to the van, watching the rain run down the windows, and the condensation block the view. And, under our breaths, curse a lady called Caroline for teaching Charlotte the ‘See, Chop, Knee’ rhyming song (with actions) that she likes at times like this!
And so, although we’re staying at a campsite called “Adventure Whitsundays”, our day was full of anything but! Oh, and not a firework in sight in the evening. Surely our former colonies would have kept up the old traditions of their mother country? What is internationalisation coming to?
Great Barrier Reef – Part 2
 Today was an antidote to yesterday – a day full of excitement and a bit of adventure! We’d booked a trip to the outer Great Barrier Reef from Airlie Beach. Run by a company called FantaSea, it involved a 2½ hour catamaran trip out to a floating reef platform moored just off reef miles out to sea. The first bit was okay, because it was within the islands, but then we emerged out into the open sea, and the waves started to get bigger, and we realised that taking a trip to the reef on a windy day – 20 knot winds meant 2 metre waves – wasn’t the best idea of this week. By the time we got out to ReefWorld, the floating platform, we were all on the verge of feeling seasick. In fact, I had the little paper bag in my hands, thinking that I’d be using it any minute. But fortunately we arrived in the nick of tine, and it all calmed down. The area we were visiting was in a narrow passage between two reefs, so it was calm, and surrounded by beautifully light blue water.
 First off, we went to the underwater observatory, with huge thick glass windows looking onto the reef wall. Following the reef feature we’d attended in Cairns, Charlotte was keen to spot each type of fish and coral. The attraction of being fed meant that loads of fish swam past the windows, from weenie striped ones, to huge dark green wrass.
 Then it was off to the semi-submersible – for the second time in 2 weeks. This time the coral was more impressive, as we were able to follow the wall, and were over quite deep water. The girls loved it, especially as they now had a greater appreciation of what they were looking at – Emily didn’t tire of shouting ‘parrot fish’, ‘soft coral’ etc etc (Don’t know what the ‘reef interpreter’ made of this, sitting alongside us trying to do a commentary!)
 Then it was time for lunch, and then back out for a snorkel over the reef. Charlotte showed no hesitation in gearing up with snorkel, flippers and float jacket, and jumping into the ocean, 30 miles from the nearest land! We swam for about half an hour, with Emily happily sitting on Reefworld watching us snorkel around. Then Charlotte decided to dry out, while Sarah and I carried on snorkeling for another 15 minutes. And then Sarah went in, and I carried on snorkeling long enough to dive down and wave at them through the underwater observatory windows (after all, that’s the kind of things that Dads are invented for!).
  Then finally, it was time for another trip on the submarine, before heading back on board the catamaran for the trip home. (By this time, you may be wondering what a ‘reefworld’ looks like, hence the very sad diagram alongside! Well, at least you now know. Overall it was a fantastic day – not the kind of thing we’d have done if it was just two of us, but ideal with the girls.
The trip back was just as rough as the trip out, so we took the precaution of taking a motion sickness tablet, which worked a treat, and before we knew it we were back in Shute Harbour (well, it took about 2 ½ hours, but the girls slept right through, which made it very relaxing. At normal prices, it would have cost us AU$400, which is just over £160 – which we’d never have paid for a single day’s trip. But with our YHA cards, the price came down to AU$210, about £90, which didn’t seem too bad for the whole family, including morning coffees, lunch and afternoon tea with fresh fruit and chocolate cake.
We find that some of the things we could do in Australia, that we know the girls would get a lot from, are too expensive for our budget. And this day was a good example, because in Cairns the same trip didn’t have discounts, and so we’d decided not to do it. We were really pleased to be able to do it here, and the girls certainly enjoyed the day as much as we thought they would, and we’re sure it’s been an educational experience for them both, as well as a fun activity. I wasn’t able to stay for the second half of the reef lecture in Cairns, as the presenter didn’t like Emily moving around during his talk (she had spotted an open biscuit barrel in the room), so we had to leave halfway through. But Charlotte had obviously been paying attention, as she started to tell me things about the reef that I didn’t know, that she’d learnt during the part I’d missed. Charlotte’s classroom this year is definitely turning out to be in some interesting places!
Heading through the Outback
Heading through the Outback
For the last day we've been driving through the Outback. Although our drive up north was entirely along the coast, we wanted to see some of the inland of Australia as well, so we opted to turn inwards from Mackay, and drive down for a few hundred kilometers through the inland areas.
 Pretty soon we realised that it was going to be very, very boring. Or at least, the scenery was, as it was mostly just dry lands with thousands of eucalyptus trees clinging onto life. After 300 kilometres we stopped for lunch in a town called Moranbah, which was is at the centre of the open cast mining area of Australia. Mmmm, nice landscapes! Anyway, its major claim to fame was yet another big - The Big Bucket - which they'd put outside of town for all to see as you approached. It may not look so big on the picture, but look out for Emily standing in front of it. So there you go, just one highlight of our drive inland - and more of the strange 'Big' phenomenon here in Oz.
 Further driving simply reinforced the loneliness of the outback. The drives between towns were up to 80 miles, and often the 'towns' were no more than half a dozen houses, a petrol station, a chip shop (or Chippo as the Aussies call them) and a newsagent. And every 20 or so miles we'd pass a house alongside the road, or a dusty orange road heading towards a house in the distance. All of the houses have windmills to draw water out of their boreholes, but we know that they're rapidly running out of water after 2 years of drought.
We also saw quite a bit of wildlife, including plenty of kangaroos in the late afternoons, eating the roadside grass (beyond the fences there's no grass at all, as the cows have grazed the land down to nothing), and then a real treat when we saw 4 emu's running alongside and then across the road.
 At one point we came across some cattle drovers who'd come from further west, where it was even drier. They'd basically led their cattle for 4 months towards the east, where a small amount of rain had fallen. They were following marked stock routes, and using the verges to keep their cattle alive. To us they looked incredibly thin, but apparently they are a lot healthier now that when they set out. There were 4 drovers looking after 1,300 cattle. In Oz they're not called cowboys, but Jackaroos and Jillaroos. They had a very fatalistic view of life - when we asked when they'd be going back with the cattle, their answer was "When it rains."
 We finished our drive in Emerald, a town which was obviously the hub of its local area (it was the largest town in a 1,500 square mile area). We spent the evening at the RSL club in town (all towns seems to have a Retired Servicemens League club, which seems to exist mainly to have somewhere to put Pokies - one-armed bandits) watching the England versus Wales game on the big screen.
Another Outback day
 Today was spent driving from Emerald to Roma. On the way out of Emerald we found yet another example of the 'Big' phenomena - the Big Easel. The small picture on the left doesn't really do it justice - click to see the real size. There's something strange in the Australian character that makes them create these nutty 'big' sights. Why do they do it? Do they think it will make people flock to their town to see it? Certainly some of them are used as attractions (we got sick of seeing the "Only 200km/100km/50km/20km/10km to the Big Pineapple" signs on the way up).
 The rest of the day was taken up with more boring outback scenery - I really can't say much more - 300 miles of looking at this, and spotting the occasional animal, or even rarer, a car coming the other way. The only thing which really disturbed the drive was when a road train came charging towards us - huge artics with two trailers. They're okay on main roads, but if one's heading towards you on a narrow road, you need a good grip on your steering wheel as they approach, because of the drag and the way you end up so close to them.
Emily's Birthday day
 This morning we woke up to Emily's birthday - and like Charlotte she was excited to open her presents and cards, including some from home. We've had to choose presents carefully, as when we leave the camper van next month we'll be back to carrying everything in our rucksacks - so most things will be used up by the end of the month. I'm praying that the Barbie Bingo game, that a friend sent from home, will wear out by then too - especially if we carry on having to play it 16 hours a day!
 Then it was on the road again, towards the coast. Again, it was miles of boring scenery, which got even more boring when we drove through a wheat growing area - we didn't even see any wildlife there, nor any trees - just like at home the farmers had removed everything to create a flat, yellow landscape with nothing to break up the view. But the most exciting thing happened to be on the road in front of us (yes, after 700 miles of outback, this was really exciting!) when we got pulled over by the police in order to let a house go past. We knew that they did this - lift up wooden houses and move them around - but we hadn't expected one to come down the road towards us. It gave 'moving house' a different meaning. It set us wondering - If you move house like this do you have to pack up? Can you stay in the house while it's moved? We decided that there was probably a couple of pensioners sitting on the sofa, trying to stop their teacups sliding off their laps!
 We ended our day in a small village called Crows Nest, in the nicest location for Emily's birthday tea party - tonight the camper van will definitely be a room with a view!
Crikey! Nice necklace!
 We’ve finally arrived at the Australia Zoo, home of Steve Irwin the Crocodile Hunter. The visit was part of Emily’s birthday present, but just before going in she told us that she didn’t really want to see any crocodiles, which makes up 60% of what’s in the zoo! (Actually Emily told us that she didn’t want to see any “trotodiles”, as she still pronounces C’s as T’s. And she still pronounces G’s as D’s – so both “dog” and “God” come out as “dod”). We’d called into the Zoo on the way up the coast, but we hadn’t made it past the packed out car park – it was the last day of the school holidays, so we decided to come back once it was quieter.
The zoo featured almost exclusively Australian animals, some of which we’d already seen at a distance, so we set out to get a better look at them. We watched two crocodile shows, where they got the crocs to come out of the water to grab some meat – it demonstrated to us all how vicious they could be, rather than the docile animals they appear when they are sitting on river banks, and then we wandered off to see some gentler animals.
  The girls were able to get right up to the kangaroos, and stroke their soft fur. They were amazed to see a joey sticking out of it’s pouch, although because it was a bit bigger, it was the legs and tail that stuck out, with its head buried deep down. And when they saw the koalas, they decided that they bore a striking resemblance to their Naughty Uncle Euan, because of their ability to sleep anywhere, in the most uncomfortable positions!
 The highlight of the day was the photo session with the python. Charlotte loved it, but Emily sensibly decided she didn’t want a python draped over her shoulders! I was lucky enough to get the tail end, which just felt like an arm moving around me. Sarah, at the other end, started laughing hysterically when the head moved around towards her instead of looking at the camera, and then it’s forked tongue started darting out towards her face. We were all relieved when it was all over, and a bit relieved that the fear doesn’t show in our eyes in the photo!
It was a great visit, where we had some fun and Charlotte and Emily both learnt some more about the animals of Australia.
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