Australia........Ah Yeah!

We really thought we knew what Australia was going to be like. How couldn't we! We were all raised on a diet of Home And Away followed by liberal helpings of Neighbours (especially during the Holly Valance years). Most of us can recite the "Call that a knife, this is a knife" scene from Crocodile Dundee by rote. This was going to be a piece of cake.

We were meant to have decided our method of transport from Cairns to Sydney before landing but instead left it till the last minute (our overriding philosophy so far has been "it'll all be alright on the day" and it hasn't let us down yet). We spent two days in Cairns (or as the locals say Caaaarns) planning our attack. Suggestions included jumping on/off buses, renting a few cars, renting a massive Winnebago, stealing a helicopter. These were all discarded in favor of renting 2 3-person campervans (think a tall Hiace van and leave your caravan jokes to yourself). Micheal and Mark share driving one, while Conor and Eddie are in the other. We have walkie talkies to keep in contact so we make a proper convoy on the roard. As I can't drive (and cycling 4000km is not an option) I have been handed the rather difficult task of keeping the lads fed and watered. Some of the bbq's have been epic, my personal favorite being Mexican night.

Sleeping arrangements are slightly cramped but as the weather gets colder the further we go south it could turn out to be a blessing.

Cairns was good craic, big shout out to Josh who we had met in Thailand and ran into on our hostel (Gilligan's). Had a great night out with him in the local pub, the Woolshed. Next day we were eager to hit the road so headed south as soon as we got the vans sorted. Mick spends most of the journeys with his head out the window, see below.

Spent one quiet night in Mission Beach before making our first stop in Townsville. I loved it there; it has a beautiful beach side promenade strewn with open BBQ sites, flood light open areas for footie and free swimming pools. The standard of public facilities here is excellent and its heartening to see no vandalism or defacement. Mark has promised to upload a video on the place so won't go into too much but suffice to say I was very sorry to leave.

Next stop was Arlie Beach where we went on a boat trip to the Whitsunday Islands, a collection of around 74 beautiful islands just off the coast bordered by the great barrier reef. Things started well when a baby and mother hump backed whale decided to escort us out of harbour. The animal spottings continued with dolphin and turtles seen at various times over the 3 days. Got a chance to snorkel and finally put our scuba diving skills to test by doing a dive to 18 metres in the Great Barrier reef. Lots of amazing coral and fish (including a few clown fish, the main guys from Nemo). Brilliant but feckin' freezing!

My favorite place on the boat trip was to the beautiful white sand beach, Whitehaven. This is a 15 km beach with sand made up of 95% silica that is so fine that NASA borrowed some to make the lenses in the Hubble telescope. Just realised that this will probably only be of interest to me, my Dad and any other nerds/physics teachers out there!

In the evenings we had a bit of laugh with the other passengers, especially our new Irish friends Barrai and Sarah who promised a mention in their blog if we put a pic of them. Ball is in your court now guys!

One of the other passengers suggested a social bonding game (AKA drinking game) called Chicken goggles, as usual we were only too ready to look like idiots

PS, two new words for your vocabulary

• Goon - 4 litres of Australian wine of questionable content and dubious quality served in a box. The warnings of the box state that it may contain traces of nuts and fish eggs. Mark points out that caviar is made from fish egg, he was always the positive one
  
• Freedom Parking - finding a quiet place to park the vans and crash for the night, usually a shopping centre car park or quiet side road. Fine until security guard wakes you at 6am.