Day 92: Brisbane

We collected our new landcruiser today. It is bliss to drive. Poor old Henry, we picked him up from the mechanics and it turns out that he is definitely only firing on three cylinders.

All the cylinders were replaced in Townsville at B & J Auto and had a three months warranty, but as we were in England for the three months immediately following the engine rebuild we haven't got a leg to stand on, or four cylinders to fire on, come to think of it.

Henry will be going into storage in Brisbane for a year, he deserves a rest and so do we. Our trip wont be the same without him but we just couldn't continue to pour money into him.

This week is going to be a busy week for us and a very boring week to blog so I will save you all from the pain of having to read about how many 4wd shops we have visited and how much sorting out we are doing.

Unless of course you really want to hear about it...

Emelie

Say hi to our new Prado! (OJG)

Well we have done it, we have bought our new vehicle, a Toyota Landcruiser Prado TX Diesel.

So how did we come to this little gem, well I'll go through it really quickly!

First off, Toyota Landcruisers are the 4x4 of choice in Australia. Well it's brother the Toyota Hi-Lux is famous around the world for being nearly indestructible. The Landcruiser isn't far off that title, but with a lot more comfort. It also wins just about all the 4x4 awards. Repeatedly.

Additionally, it is also the vehicle of choice for the various government agencies, and also their vehicle of choice in terms of "subsidised transport" (more on that another time).

As such, out of every 10 4wd cars, at least 7 are Landcruisers. To say they are popular really doesn't do the phenomenon justice. This in turn means that even in the middle of the outback, you are likely to find Landcruiser mechanics, some will even carry a few spares.

The Prado is a Landcruiser sub-species if you like, that has been shortened just a tad and given a slightly smaller engine. As such it is a bit more manageable. and a lot more fuel efficient. A bit more tourer than off-roader. That is not to say that it cannot handle itself off-road, far from it. It still comes 2nd or 3rd in most of the off-road awards.

So that is how we narrowed the choice down to a specific model. Next the model specifics.

Prados come in 4 standard version. In Effect: Value; Standard; Standard Plus; Deluxe. I had read of various problems with the value model, and in any case wanted some of the extras in the next package such as AirCon, ABS, Cruise Control, Remote Locking, and so on. The Deluxe was something I actually didn't want! Apart from the leather seats which I thought was giving the wrong signal when we go to certain places, it also has a lot of electronic driver aids and air suspension, both of which are a lot more prone to reliability problems. So either of the middle two would have been fine.

Petrol or Diesel. This debate will go on forever! The cost difference at new is about $1000 (£400). The cost difference on a 2nd hand vehicle is between $6000 and $8000. Additionally, even with that kind of price difference (the petrol ones are the cheaper for those that did not know), for every diesel Prado trying to be sold, there are at least 10 petrol Prados. So the technical differences? The petrol has a lot more grunt, no doubt about it. It also only needs a service every 10k as opposed to every 5k for the Diesel. The Diesel on the other hand has about 30% better fuel economy, is a lot more reliable, and has a 2-3 times longer life expectancy.

Minor Details: We wanted it to have done less than 150,000 kms. We were ok with any colour as long as it wasn't gold (we saw several gold Prados that the dealers simply could not get rid of!). We ideally wanted Automatic. This is no sports car, and realistically it will spend 90% of its time on the motorway.

Finally, price and year. Prados were introduced in 1996 (technically known as the Landcruiser Series 90 or Series 95), and since then have had one major change in 2002 (series 120). A new Series 120 with the above requirements costs about $56K. A 2nd hand Series 120 costs between $39k and $48K depending upon extras and mileage (and colour!). A 2nd hand Series 95 costs between $28k and $33k. Prados are available for less, but not with Diesel or with less than 200k on the clock.

So, we opted for the Series 95 (which should hold all of it's value if we decide to sell it again after our trip), and after a lot of research we found a real "bee-yute"! It was everything we were looking for, and although the price was a bit on the high side, we went for it. So far we are very happy!

Although we are not certain if it will get a name, we welcome any suggestions that you might have!

Day 91: Brisbane

We visited Cathy and Nina, friends of Oly's mother, this afternoon. Cathy and Nina own the Yeronga Natural Therapies clinic where Nina is an Acupuncturist.

They have a lovely house by the Brisbane River where we sat on the balcony and ate cream cakes and pastries while sipping English breakfast tea (without staples!) It was all very civilised, and delicious. Actually I am going on hearsay that the cakes were delicious, I was being good and refraining, Oly on the other hand was enjoying every crumb and flake! When beads of sweat started to form on my forehead I knew I had to stop staring at the plate.

Early night tonight, we have to drop Henry off to the mechanics (again) and hopefully we can pick up our new vehicle if it passes the RACQ test.

Em

Day 90: Brisbane

Henry, Oly and I, limped into South Bank where we parked. Oly and I then jumped on the bikes to ride across the river to Brisbane.

We spent the rest of the afternoon cycling around the Brisbane Botanic Gardens enjoying the views. It was nice to do something other than worry about Henry and how we are going to transfer over to the new car. We always have another day to do that.

Em

Day 89: Brisbane

The rain has finally caught up with us. It is very soft and we hardly noticed it. As a result everything we left outside got wet, including our towels which isn't much fun when you need a shower of the soap and shampoo type.

Tonight we met up with Sue, a friend of Oly's grandmother, who lives in Brisbane with her sons Ted and Sam. We all went to dinner at Cinco in Camp Hill and had a truly fabulous meal, I had lamb rack and Ol had the fillet of beef. Peter, the chef/owner, is also a friend of Mam-mam and Sue and we were made very welcome. We will definitely have to go back before we leave Brisbane.

I am salivating already!

Em

FFS *%@#%$#%& Henry!!! (OJG)

About a week ago we decided to look for another vehicle to take us around Oz. We figured Henry would enjoy putting his tyres up and taking a rest, all we asked of him was to keep on ferrying us around until his new stable mate could take over.

He couldn't wait that long!

This last week has been Henry Hell. Slowly, gradually, but oh so definitely, he has been losing more and more grunt.

About 4 days ago, we struggled to get up a moderate ramp in first with my foot to the floor, with a half load. Several times, starting off at a green light, it felt like we were stuck in third, about to stall. We were not.

And about 2 days ago... I hate to say it, but I was really ready to drive him into a ditch. It didn't help that Emelie had put the wrong directions into the GPS, which was taking us the exact direction we did not want to go. It also didn't help that other Brisbane drivers were being less than sincere to the Kombi ahead of them driving at 40km/h on the freeway. And Henry was just acting like a stubborn teenager donkey refusing to do anything we asked. I was so close to giving him a good thrashing!

Arghhhh

And.... little things continue to go wrong with him! The panel on the sliding door has come off just enough to get wedged and blocked each time we open the main area. The step has also come loose on one side. The mould we thought we had dealt with, has returned with a vengeance in the seat pod areas...

We still love him to bits, but we are not impressed with this phase he is going through.

On a brighter note, today we found a nice place for him to stay whilst we go gallivanting around. A sort of OAP home for Kombis! (And it was cheap, but don't tell him that).

So, only a couple more days to endure, then good times...

Day 88: Brisbane

Henry is running really badly... so bad we are worried every time we go up a hill. He crawls at 5kmh with our foot to the floor and in first gear then threatens to stall whenever we slow down.

So we have decided to take it easy today and get things in order for the new vehicle.

Emelie

Day 87: Brisbane

Today is ANZAC Day.

ANZAC is the acronym for the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps who landed on Gallipoli, Turkey on the 25 April 1915. This was their first major military action.

This date became a national holiday in 1916 to remember those who have died in wars, past and present, and honours returned servicemen and women.

Oly and I went to the ANZAC Day parade here in Brisbane. It was good to see a huge turn out of spectators lining the streets and buildings, clapping enthusiastically as the servicemen and women, serving and veterans, marched by to the bands.

After the parade we went for a cycle around South Bank, the self proclaimed area "where Brisbane comes to celebrate"... It is south of the river from Brisbane and is very nice in a touristy way. Lots of restaurants and greenery. We didn't stay long, too many hills.

Emelie

Day 86: Brisbane

Oly has done lots of research on Landcruiser Prados and has called up dealers and private sellers for viewings which we have been doing over the last couple of days.

We have finally settled on a 2002 Prado TX all the way up in Cabulcha and have put a deposit down.

Now all we have to do is get the RACQ to check it over.

Simple as that...

Emelie

Day 85: Brisbane

Henry had to wait at Custom Offroad for 5 hours until his engine cooled down so Peter could adjust the tappets.

We made ourselves busy by going to view lots of Landcruisers, we have decided a Prado is the way to go. It is sad to think we wont be doing this adventure with Henry and we are battling with our conscience, but he leaves us and our bank balance very little choice. I must admit I am secretly excited about being able to go more than 80kmh along the highways, not to mention comfortable seats and aircon (even tho we say we wont use it), offroading is just a bonus.

So here we are, Henry is tweaked and we are working out our strategy.

We have much to do.

Emelie

Oz Wildlife (I): The Koala (OJG)

Hey all,

Well this is another new blog sub series, bringing you all a bit closer to some of those very strange and wonderful Australian creatures (non beer drinking ones).

And today we are going to talk about that cute little bear, the Koala. I am starting off with this one in particular for a reason that will become apparent as you read on.

So, as all you keen readers will know, we got to spend a little bit of time with a few Koalas at a special sanctuary for them on Magnetic island. I highly recommend it. We learnt the following:

• The Koala gets its name from an Aboriginal word which means "no drink".
• The Koala does not drink at all, instead getting all of its water from its food.
• The Koala eats solely gum leaves, of which eucalyptus leaves are a sub species. It is one of 3 animals which can eat these leaves.
• Koalas are very fussy eaters, and although there are over 600 types of eucalypts in Australia, the Koala will not eat most of these.
  
• The Eucalyptus leaf is unfortunately very low on protein and really not a good nutritional source of food. As such it takes the Koala about 18 hours to digest.
  
• It is because of this that the Koala sleeps a lot, and appears slow. It is the absolute master of conserving energy, as it has very little.
• They have a very short attention span, the Koala brain is about the size of a pea, again an energy saving step!
• Koalas have a very keen sense of smell and touch, but poor eyesight.
• Koalas weigh an average of 9k, although the average weight differs depending upon region and climate.
• Myth 1: Eucalyptus leaves do not make Koalas high like marijuana. Read above about low energy!
• Myth 2: Koalas look really cute and dopey, but if you aggravate one it has large claws that can swipe very quickly and cause extreme lacerations.
• In the outback, male Koalas can be heard during the night barking like a large dog.
• A wild Koala will spend many days in one tree eating its eucalyptus leaves, until it has finished the supply, at which point it will just move into the next tree.
• Koalas used to spend just as much time on the ground, until Westerners arrived and started hunting them for the fur. They have since evolved to spend nearly all their time high above.
• A healthy Koala has a little bit of a belly, due to the long digestion system.
  
• If you tickle a Koala's rear, it thinks that this is another Koala encroaching on its territory and will go into "fight mode!". You have been warned.
  
• The koala can be grumpy in the morning, and only starts to get really active in the later hours of the day
• Koala babies are called Joeys, and once born the baby will make its way completely unaided to the mother's pouch where it will spend the next year growing. If the mother does not give birth the following year, the Joey will spend up to another year in the pouch. This will greatly improve this Joey's chances of survival.
  

If you need more Koala info click here

So let me recap: the Koala likes to sleep a lot; it is grumpy in the morning; it has a keen sense of smell, but poor eyesight; it has a short attention span; it drink almost nothing; it can look cute, but can go into fight mode in a split second.... Yes, I married a Koala!

Day 84: Brisbane

We explored Brisbane city centre a bit today, it is pretty small but nice. Everything is very clean and there is an interesting mix of old and new architecture.

We are back at Warrawee for the night and have had a lovely dinner with Danny's mum and dad. We really like what we have seen so far in Redcliffe and will have to come back and explore a bit more on our bikes.

Tomorrow we are up early again to take Henry to Custom Offroad for tweaking. We knew that having a VW kombi would involve being at the mechanics more than your average vehicle... but this is crazy.

Em

Tech Life (II): Time Lapse Photography (OJG)

It seems that we have rekindled people's photographic creativity with our time lapse photography videos.

So, after a couple of requests here is a short guide. It is still fairly basic, as I am still very much in the learning phase myself.

Personally, I think the most important thing about time lapse photography is having the right equipment. Critically, to have a camera which has an intervalometer. Luckily for me, I got one such camera at Christmas. I honestly do not know how many cameras out there have it built in, BUT, I have also seen on the web various camera remotes that will do the same job. Some are cabled and some work on Infrared. A lot of cameras both small and large are covered.

You will also need something to secure the camera into a position. Usually this is a tripod, any one will do. For the travel time lapse inside Henry I just rested the camera on various objects until I thought the camera was level. It ended up moving after a few hours, but I will sort that out in a session or two.

Once you have the basic equipment, it is easy to get started...

Well mostly easy. Having a plan and thinking out your time lapse session is an absolute necessity. Each time I do it, new little things appear for the checklist. Intro in? How to change the scene? What parts of the scene are going to be interesting? Continuity with the clouds? etc. Once you start recording, it is impossible to go back and add bits.

That's it.

If you get past the immediate time lapse trend and want to do greater and bigger stuff (as I am trying), then you will need to consider the following:

1. Memory Storage: time lapse uses up a ton of images. Obviously you can vary this a bit, but for a film of a couple of minutes you are generally talking about 1000 images. You can reduce the photographic image size as video has a much lower resolution than still photos. But still, if you want a video to last 5 or more minutes, you will have to buy a large memory card. Also try and make it fast!
2. Battery Life: My previous camera could take over 2000 shots before I had to change the battery. My current one struggles to reach 900. This is a huge problem. Fortunately my camera can take a direct power cable from the mains (or a converter hooked to the 12v in a vehicle). If your camera cannot take an external power supply, then I suggest practicing the battery change over and getting it as quick as possible! Buy plenty of spares.
3. Fixing: If your time lapse is going to span longer than a few days then I suggest you find a way to fix the camera mounting solidly to it's base. In terms of a tripod, weigh it to the ground and make sure you have rain cover. Inside a vehicle, bolt the mount to the dash or wherever it is going to go. Most modern tripods have a shoe which can easily come out. Use the shoe to get the camera out of the mount.
4. Settings: Make sure you record the camera settings, and check before each session that they are correct. This is especially true for focusing, which I leave on manual just to be safe.

Now a complete how to with some figures:

1. I shot both of the driving videos at 1 frame every 10 seconds. I do intend to try all sorts of faster time lapses in the future, but 10 seconds is my limit with my current battery situation.
2. I then uploaded the images to the computer, batch reduced the size (Picasa will do this, as well as apply Feel Lucky) down to 640 by 480. Don't use large images in the video program or it will slow to a crawl.
3. I then used Adobe Premier Elements 3 (most video creating programs will work fine) to import all the still images.
4. Next, I changed the settings in Premier to make still shots last 3 video frames each (about 1/8th of a second). I then dragged all the images to the video time-line, and voila, the video is now ready.
5. I then added a few transitions, a few titles, and a soundtrack. All modern day video programs do these things easily.
6. Exported the whole lot as an MPEG designed for "Cable/DSL" downloads.
7. Upload the video to Youtube.

If you decide to shoot the frames faster than 1 every 10 seconds, you can reduce the amount of time each of these frames will need in the video. I reckon that shots done every second or less can easily be played back at 1 frame per shot.

Next steps for me? I am waiting for a power cable to give unlimited battery life, and then I might make a small jig which I will fix to the dashboard for absolute continuity. Also a wider angle lens might give some interesting results! Apart from that, it is all a big fun experiment, I hope you enjoy it as much as we do!

Oly

PS, if any of you do try this, please let us know and we will add the links to our blog.

Day 83: Brisbane

After a wonderful nights sleep at Warrawee we decide to try another caravan park after the last one was so bad.

We ended up in Newmarket Gardens Caravan Park and it wasn't much better than the last. The tiny pitches are all on top of each other and we are bumper to bumper with the row behind as well.

Our instructions are to nurse Henry until we get him fixed on Monday so we are taking it easy with him. We wouldn't want him to feel left out!

Emelie

Henry?!

Well the last few days have been a little sad. Some of you will probably say this day has been coming for a while, but we never thought it would. Really. So what have we have been doing the last few days? Well nothing to do with adventure, that much I can tell you. We have been looking at buying a new vehicle! Yes, we have decided to let Henry have a rest for a while.

We feel terrible, but we have just come to the conclusion that if we are ever going to make it all the way round Oz we will have to buy something which is a little more capable. I started to get doubts around Cairns, as little problems popped up here and there. After several visits to the Mechanic, we left for Brisbane. In Bundy I noticed a small oil leak, and by the time we finally got to Brisy it was quite serious. Yet another day wasted at the mechanic.

I honestly think that Henry has breathed a sigh of relief. He enjoys short journeys cruising at 80km/h, with long rests. He also likes to build a rapport with just one mechanic, not a different one every few days! I hate to admit it, but I checked back on actual days driving any serious distance, Henry has done 22 since Perth, and covered a not so bad 7,500km. However, he has also spent about 20 days in workshops with 12 different mechanics, and cost... well too much.

We love Henry to bits, and we really will miss not having him with us. But we intend to store him somewhere, and pick him up once we have found a place to live. We are also wary that the rest of our journey around Oz might not be quite such an adventure without him, except that we are looking to a buy 4x4, and as such we will be able to go a lot more places! So the adventure might have changed a little, but it has definitely not lessened! Henry will be with us in spirit all the way.

With a change of vehicle, our daily routine and setup will also change considerably. Specifically most 4x4s have no bed or table, so our temporary home will move from the vehicle to the tent. We'll see how it goes, and no doubt keep you all updated!

Oly

Day 82: Brisbane

We have spent the morning at Custom Offroad in Stafford.

Henry went in with an oil leak and Peter kindly fitted him in between working on an iguana beach buggy.

So what was wrong?

The seal on the oil filter was damaged and Henry was not performing very well. So after lots of testing we found out that number 4 cylinder was giving no power at all. So we had only been running on 3 cylinders, who knows for how long?

At first Peter thought this would be a big job, but then he checked the tappets and found they were out of alignment. We booked Henry in for Monday as they had to be fixed when Henry's engine was cold. Oly asked if this would give back the full power of the cylinder and Peter was doubtful.

We went the the shopping centre for a coffee (artistic licence as Oly doesn't drink coffee, I am just setting the scene) and after much deliberation we decided to go and see what was out there in the form of 4WDs, namely Landcruisers.

When we got to the car sale forecourts on Gympie Road, Henry decided to dump a puddle of oil which was quickly followed by a billow of smoke. We limped back to Peter and he fixed the gasket seal which wasn't tight enough and off we went again.

We have had a look at a few vehicle and have decided a Landcruiser Prado would be a good choice if we were to retire Henry.

I think we are going to sleep on it, luckily for us we are staying at Danny's parents B&B, Warrawee, in Scarborough. I think we will sleep very well...

Emelie

Day 81: Bundaberg - Brisbane

Here we are, at the end of our Rockie to Bundie to Brissie dash via the biggest pineapple we have ever seen!

We arrived in Brisbane late afternoon and only had time to find a caravan site before it got dark.

Trusting the Big 4 brochure we booked in to their 4 1/2 star Gateway Village Caravan Park. It was really disappointing, there was a strange atmosphere, the sites were tiny and the neighbours near and far were very noisy... I don't know where Big 4 get their star ratings from as they are not consistent.

Did we mention Henry has an oil leak, Oly noticed it in Bundaberg and it seems to be getting worse. Early night for us, we need to find yet another mechanic...

Emelie

Big: Pineapple - Woombye, QLD

"This isn't New York... I said I wanted to go to the Big APPLE!"

Day 80: Rockhampton - Bundaberg

From Rockie to Bundie along the Capricorn Coast.

We couldn't stay in Bundaberg without visiting the Bundaberg Rum distillery. As soon as we arrived we parked up Henry and cycled over for the 3PM tour.

The guides took us through the necessary "How the rum is made" tour, finally leading us to the "How the stuff is drunk" finale. This we enjoyed very much. We started off with a Pink Polar Bear (rum liquor, cream, lemonade and grenadine, quickly followed by a rum liquor with cream, by the time we finished that one we had forgotten what it was called.

Only then did I agree (actually I suggested) to have my picture taken with an animal. No cute, cuddly koala bears for me... polar bears all the way.

The story goes, the bundie rum folks were looking for a new mascot for the brand and wanted an animal that lived in a cold environment to imply that the drink would ward off even the coldest chill. Unfortunately the Australian "Fairy Penguin" did not give off the right image so they settled on a big brave polar bear.

Emelie

Movie: Rockhampton - Bundaberg

Big: Crab - Miriam Vale, QLD

Henry was feeling extremely crabby today.

Day 79: Rockhampton

Rockhampton is the beef capital of Australia as well as being smack bang in the middle of the Tropic of Capricorn.

With over 3 million cattle in the region, you would think you would be able to get a decent steak at 4PM in the afternoon, especially as bulls are everywhere you look, welcoming you into the town, offering valu-bull re-moo-ver-bulls and unbelieva-bull deals on your exporta-bulls. As it was, only one restaurant was open and a fillet mignon was not on the menu. We opted for the enchiladas, they were rather tasty.

We have done a fair bit of cycling today and the caravan park we are in is very nice which makes all the difference to our stay.

The sun is shining and all is well...

Emelie

Day 78: Mackay - Rockhampton

We got out of the awful camp site alive and had a really boring drive down to Rockie (as it's known to the locals).

Half way down, during a quick cup of coffee and toilet break we decided to try making a movie of the drive. (I have asked Oly to go into more detail in a separate post) We think it worked rather well and have great "plans" for future ones.

We picked up our Black Wolf Turbo Lite tent from BCF in Rockhampton and "oh my god" it is the best tent ever... it takes SECONDS to put up... SECONDS! It is all attached as one piece. You lock the four steel struts on the sides, then go inside the tent and push up the roof, it locks into place, and that is it. You can put on the outside cover with the awning, which we did, and that only takes seconds as well. This is tent is amazing.

Emelie

Movie: Mackay - Rockhampton

Day 77: Townsville - Mackay

We set off early this morning on our jaunt down to Brisbane. We have decided to dash down there and then come back up visiting all the things we have missed on our way to Darwin.

When we were hunting for the Big Mango we stumbled across the idyllic beaches of Bowen. As well as being the mural capital of Australia, the town is to be portraying Darwin in the 1930's in the new Baz Luhrman epic, Australia.

There was a lot of building work going on. Several large apartment blocks were being built right on the seafront, prices starting at $605,000! Bit out of our price range for a holiday home.

Our caravan park in Mackay is not quite as good as the one in Cairns. After driving past the nice cabins at the entrance the rest of the grounds appear to be full of permanent residents in their caravans with ute's and huge awnings.

Everyone stopped and looked as us as we parked Henry in the empty camper van area. The camp kitchen and the ablutions are dire. We can't wait to get out of here in the morning.

Em

Distance: 400km
Time: 6 hours

Big: Mango - Bowen, QLD

Henry knew when he had been mangoed!

Day 76: Townsville - Thuringowa

There is a rodeo in town!

Well there's a rodeo in Thuringowa which is around 30km from Townsville.

We had to go, it was going to be fun getting down and dirty with the locals.

For those that the closest you have got to a rodeo was Brokeback Mountain, well it reminded us of the crowd and atmosphere of banger racing that you get in the UK.

So we settled down as the entertainment began. Out came the bucking horses. Then the bucking bulls. There seemed to be alot of angry livestock in the ring...

Oly asked me how they make the animals buck all the time and my highly experienced rodeo going self answered, "Oh, they use horses that aren't used to having riders on their back, like wild ones, and of course the bulls don't like riders". I don't think I have been to a rodeo before, I do tend to have a pretty bad memory, however I have seen most of Brokeback Mountain (it was on the airplane and we landed before I got to the end) and the Horse Whisperer, so that makes me an expert.

"So how come as soon as they loosen that strap the animal is fine and not bucking?"

"They have a strap?"

I looked closer and saw that the bull had a strap around its flank. After the bull had thrown its rider it did not stop bucking until the strap was loosened. We carried on watching and it dawned on us that the strap was not a good thing.

It was nice to go to a local event with cowboys and cowgirls. The horse agility racing was great, as was the "pumping" country music.

We do, however, have mixed emotions about the bucking horses and bulls. We do not like cruelty to animals, even cane toads. As we don't really know what goes on behind the scenes at these events and I would like to give it the benefit of the doubt.

Emelie

Site: Links

The Where Are We? and Our Oz Map links at the top of the page are now working.

On Our Oz Map you can click in the blue and red (where we had a problem with Henry) markers for blog links and pictures and also the road itself is jam packed full of info.

Have fun!

Oly & Em

Day 75: Townsville - Magnetic Island

We jumped on the ferry to Magnetic Island which took all of 18 minutes.

As we were getting off, a five year old boy whined to his mother "I don't want to walk" to which she replied "I know, I'll just pull a car out of my arse, mate". This has become our favourite retort to each other now, its amazing what we have managed to pull out of our...

As far as the islands we have been on go, Magnetic Island is pretty big. We hoped to cycle but it was far too hilly. Even the bus we caught really struggled.

Today, Friday the 13th, is the Full Moon Party and the island was heaving with teenagers and young backpackers. With that in mind we set off for the Koala Sanctuary in Bungalow Bay. You get to hold a salty (salt water crocodile), koala (for a small fee), python and at the end we fed the parakeets.

We didn't get to see that much of the island, by the time we got there it was around 1PM and we jumped on the 6PM ferry home. If we went again we would hire a mini moke to do a bit of exploring and probably stay over night.

Emelie