Mackay to Noosa

We left Airlie beach after a few really enjoyable days, drove through Mackay where we thought we'd spend the night, but having arrived there we saw that there wasn't much so we carried on driving. We saw signs for Awoonga Dam and decided to check it out. It was incredibly hot on this day, so we went swimming in the dam, which was really slimey and muddy at the bottom, but cool and refreshing too, and then found a nice caravan park nearby to spend the night. That evening it rained a bit and we were sitting in our van playing cards when a kangaroo hopped right past us. It was so quick that we couldn't get our camera on and snap him in time. We've also seen wallabies along the side of the road a few times and wild horses, but still no koala bears.
The next day we headed to Hervey Bay for 2 days. We met a really "nice" Australian couple here. The guy told us a few stories about things he'd been up to, including breaking into a zoo and fighting kangaroos and at present he's on parole for another offence and has to stay in Queensland. They unfortunately had to leave on the second day as the guy had a court hearing, so there wasn't much time to build on what might have been a beautiful friendship.
We had a relaxing couple of days here and didn't do too much as the weather wasn't great again, but we had a swimming pool, table tennis, pool table and tv here to keep us entertained.
The next day we drove to Rainbow beach and found a camp site just a few km's outside town, Sarawak inskip. Apart from compost toilets, there weren't any other facilities here, but it was right on the beach and had lots of big trees providing nice shade. From here we could see onto Fraser Island, it was the closest we could get without actually going there. We didn't dare get too close to the waters edge though, as we were warned about crocodiles and sharks lurking around these waters.
We wanted to be in Brisbane for the weekend, so had 1 more night left and decided to go to Noosa. This was a pretty place with lots of shops and a nice beach. The camp sites were quite expensive here, so we found a place in a little town a few minutes drive away. We knew as soon as we got there that it was going to be an interesting place and we weren't wrong. There were loads of caravans and tents / houses that looked like they had been there forever. And the inhabitants of these places had long grey hair and beards and funny bits and bobs outside there homes. The shower was also very interesting, I shared mine with really big spiders and bugs and I had leaves blowing in there too. And that night I got attacked by the Aussie mozzies and now have horrible sores all over me, I was absolutely fine through South East Asia, but here I'm being eaten alive.

Airlie Beach and the Whisunday Islands

After leaving Townsville we headed further south and arrived in Airlie Beach. We'd come here as this is the jumping off point for the Whitsunday Islands. Everyone had told us that we have to do the Whitsundays, and we also still hadn't been out to the Great Barrier Reef, and this would be our last chance because it's quite far from the Australian coast line and doesn't go much further south.
So first thing we did was book a day trip to the Whitsundays, which included a bit of snorkelling so that we could practice for when we did the reef. We got in a little boat which sped us over to a snorkelling point just off the islands where we had over an hour to see some reefs and fish. We were on the lookout for turtles, but only ever saw them from the boat, although we were warned about the turtles chasing us as it's mating season. Afterwards we hopped back on the boat to a track on the island which led us to a lookout point over Whitehaven beach.The view was really nice, with the pearly sand and beautiful colour of the sea.
We then got back in the boat and sailed to the south end of the beach and departed to have lunch and relax on Whitehaven beach. The sand was so soft and so good, not hot at all despite being in the sun all day. We had a really nice lunch, then spent the afternoon swimming in the sea (with our trusty stinger suits on, of course) and lying on the beach, before heading back to the mainland.
After this day we decided we definitely wanted to see the Outer Reef and do some more snorkelling, so we booked a tour for the next day.
We had to be up a 6am to get on the boat which left at about 8am. After quite a long boat journey, around 3 hours, we arrived at the reef and the pontoon where we would spend the day. The first thing we wanted to do was more snorkelling after enjoying the previous day so much. The reef and fish were even better than the previous day. The coral was beautiful and there were all types of fish swimming all around us. We snorkelled for well over an hour, but eventually swam back to the pontoon to rest after spending a lot of time swimming against the current. After some food, we went on a semi submersible to see the coral and try and take some pictures, but they didn't come out anywhere near as good as what it was like to see through our masks when snorkelling.
Back on the pontoon we went on a super slide that dumped us in the sea after twisting and turning about in the tube. This was Annastasia's second favourite activity here, although Colin managed to injure himself on the slide and didn't like it as much after this.
We enjoyed the snorkelling so much that we went back in for another round and stayed out until they called us back onto the boat to return to Airlie Beach. We had a fantastic day, so pleased we did this. And before anyone asks, we didn't take any photos of ourselves in the stinger suits... they were ridiculous and we didn't want the photos to remind us how awful we looked in them.

Wonga Beach to Townsville

From Wonga Beach we carried on down south and stopped in a little town called Kuranda for lunch, we've found a lot of little towns like this that have cute centres with bakeries and local stores. We drove past a few more small towns and through the Atherton Tablelands and eventually stopped at Lake Eacham, where we spent the night. We parked up at a camping spot and walked through the rainforest before getting to a national park with Lake Eacham in the middle. It was really pretty here and we put on our swimmies and joined the locals for a swim. The water was cold and deep and we had a great swim here. That evening we had much better luck with the weather and cooking and camping seemed like the easiest thing again and it was nice to sit outside and have dinner.
The next day we continued on our road trip, but took a slight detour to see a Waterfall circuit. We stopped at 3 or 4 big waterfalls that were so beautiful and it was very tempting to dive in and cool down.
So far we hadn't seen too much destruction from cyclone Yasi, until we got to Mission Beach. The beach was a mess and driving through town you could see people working hard to get their homes and businesses back up and running. We stopped at a place called Scotty's which had been recommended and the lady there was very friendly, but we felt so sorry for her. She walked through the place telling us how things were before the cyclone hit and she recalled the day it happened and told us how they came out of the shelter during the eye of the storm and how devastating it already was, bearing in mind the second half was still to come. She said the second half was worst and that when she came back to her place and saw everything lying around and lots destroyed, she burst into tears. They had managed to clean a lot of it by the time we got there, but there were mattresses out in the sun, hoping to dry and fridges that were still lying on their sides.
We spent the night here and they were so happy to see people in the place again.
After Mission beach we drove through Tully, which was more affected and you could see houses without roofs and lots of work on the roads going on, and arrived in Townsville. There wasn't too much here, but we found an internet cafe and a nice camping site with a pool just outside of town, where we spent one night.
It is incredibly hot and humid and even the shade doesn't give much relief, but it's great to be here!

Atherton Tablelands

Roadtrip north of Cairns

We picked up our van and after getting some supplies headed north from Cairns towards Port Douglas. It was really nice to be travelling by ourselves, on our own time and be able to stop where we wanted. The first drive was along the coast and we stopped at some really nice rest stops.
Port Douglas was a really nice little town and we just stopped here for lunch as we wanted to get to Cape Tribulation in one day. Once we'd left Port Douglas the scenery was even better, but it started to really rain, and when we got to the ferry to head over to the Cape Trib area we were told that the roads were flooded and we won't be able to get through. So we decided to head a bit further another way and after crossing a bridge where the river was so swollen it can only have been minutes from flooding the road, we didn't want to get stuck so turned back towards Port Douglas.
On the way back we found a nice littlevillage, Wonga Beach, with a campsite, so we pulled over for the night. The rain still hadn't stopped, but this town was close to Cape Trib where we wanted to try again the next day.
This was our first night in the Spaceship, and it  proved to be a little tricky. We had to wait for a break in the rain so that we could cook and even when we got a few minutes of it being clear, the rain kept threatening to come back. But we did have a good curry that night... in the end. The next trial was trying to fall asleep with the humidity and stuffiness in the van due to us not being able to open the windows without getting drenched by the rain which at this point was heavier than before. I'm not gonna lie, we did wonder whether Lex Luthor was going to be any good for us but eventually we fell asleep and woke up to a beautiful sunrise and an amazing view from our campervan window, which made it all worth it.
Next morning we were advised that unfortunately Cape Trib was still closed, so we drove back towards Cairns, but this time detoured inland to the Atherton Tablelands.



View from our campervan in the morning, beach and sea beyond trees



Cairns

We arrived in Cairns after an early morning stop and 3 hour wait in Darwin, where we got stopped at customs. All was fine for me, but they asked us to wait around to check something to do with Colin. We got a bit worried when the lady they spoke to in front of us was held back for having a suspended drug sentence and I asked Colin if there's anything he wanted to tell me before we got to the friendly customs lady. It turned out that Colin hadn't put his middle name for his visa and they had trouble finding him on the system.
Next we had a very quick stopover in a random place called Gove. The weather was lovely in Darwin and Gove, so we were slightly disappointed when we saw the rain in Cairns. Luckily it rained on and off, so we got to explore the city a bit. Cairns is a lot smaller than we thought and there wasn't too much to do there and it was also a lot quieter than we expected, but we heard this was partly due to the fact that loads of people left to get away from cyclone Yasi, which missed Cairns in the end.
After months on buses and staying in hostels in South East Asia we decided to try something different, so we've decided to hire a campervan to drive down the east coast. The vans are called spaceships and our particular one is named Lex Luther (Superman was off saving the day or something like that). Here's a photo of our home for the next month or so.

Kuta and bye to SE Asia

We only had one night in Kuta before catching our flight out of South East Asia. Kuta is a very touristy and busy centre of Bali and in hindsight it was a shame to end our time in Indonesia here. There's a big beach that usually is really nice, but wasn't great the day we were there, but the main irritation is the hassle you get from everyone. You're constantly bombarded with offers of transport, sarongs, hats, ice-cream, DVDs, massages, drugs, beach mats, happy hour deals, bracelets, etc, etc  and you're stuck between acknowledging the hawkers and not appearing rude (but this leads to further "offers") or totally blanking them out. We escaped the hawkers and the heat or rain, depending on the time of day, by heading to the malls and even the cinema on our final day (2 tickets cost around 2 pounds) although it clearly was a dodgy copy.
After a final dinner in Indonesia and SE Asia we got in a taxi, headed to the airport and got a flight to Australia.

We've had an amazing few months in SE Asia and would really recommend all of it, even the bits that from our blog posts don't sound great. It's all part of the experience and makes the good parts seem even better. The highlights for us have been Vietnam, Malaysia and parts of Indonesia, all places we'd love to come back to and explore other parts that we've not had the chance to see this time. If we came again we'd also like to go to Burma and East Timor, two places we'd never considered before, but seem really interesting from stories from other travellers.
So it's bye to SE Asia, for now, and G'day Australia!

Nusa Lembongan

From Ubud we went to Sanur for 1 night, which is the port that takes us to a little island off Bali called Nusa Lembongan. We decided to take the public boat, which takes 90 minutes rather than 30 on a speed boat, but is also a third of the price. It's an understatement to say that these public boats are a bit scary, especially when you've got the waves crashing over the sides and your stomach going worse than on a roller coaster ride, but we got there safely only to be "welcomed" by a massive rain storm that lasted all of the first day that we were there. We only wandered round for about 20 minutes before the rain came again and we went back to our hostel and spent the day playing cards.
The next day was a lot nicer, so we walked around the island to the different beaches and bays, none of which were safe enough to swim in. The waves at all the beaches were humongous, and it would've been very hard to even get in the sea, let alone get out again.
This was a really peaceful and relaxing island, we had no one here hassling us about buying things, hiring taxis or having massages. The people and especially the children here were really friendly.
The island is also home to many sea weed farms and local people spend the day collecting it fresh from the sea, everyone seems to join in, even the smallest children stand in the sea with little buckets. They then have to leave in the sun to dry which unfortunately makes a bad smell in these areas.
We spent our evenings chilling in our hostel, looking over the beach, eating good food and enjoying the nice atmosphere.
It was nice to relax for 2 days off the mainland, before we headed to Kuta for one final night in Bali.

Ubud

After Gili Trawangan we went to Ubud, which is the arts and culture town of Bali. We checked into our hostel and the guy asked me where I'm from, so I told him South Africa. And he said to me: "Ahhhh, waka waka Shakira!" I didn't bother mentioning my annoyance that almost everyone thinks of Shakira when they think of the World Cup 2010, even though she's not bloody South African or even African. To make matters worse, he then asked me if I like Gerrard... need I say more??
There's not too much to blog about Ubud, as although we enjoyed our time here, we spent our days either walking through the town and down the roads filled with arts and crafts or relaxing at our hostel which had a nice pool and outside area. So instead I thought I'd share a few extra photos of this pretty town.

Gili Trawangan

We got to Gili Trawangan and immediately liked it. It's a really pretty island and it's the perfect mix of tourists and realxed locals.  After we found a hostel, we went for a walk around the island. It took about 90 minutes to 2 hours and for a lot of the walk we were wading through the water along the beach. The scenery was just absolutely amazing, out of this world beautiful and both Colin and I said that it's what we imagine a proper island paradise to look like (and also what we thought Thailand would be more like). There are no cars or mopeds on the island, which makes a nice change, and the only transport they have apart from the boats are horse-and-cart.
Once we'd made our way all around the island it was really hot, so we went for a swim on the main beach. It was fantastic, the water was perfect, although a bit scary as it was so clear you could see everything at the bottom and there was a bit where it got really deep, it just drops all of a sudden.
In the afternoon it got a bit overcast and looked like it might rain, but we'd already spotted a bar showing the Australian Open tennis final. We went in and watched Andy Murray  lose a final yet again, but this time we were on a beach in Bali watching the sunset as opposed to last year when we watched it early morning in a cold flat in Kilburn.
The next day Colin felt really unwell and he spent the day in bed while I played nurse. I did go out a few times to have a quick look in the shops, but I was good and didn't buy anything despite having control of the money wallet for once. After a day of tablets and relaxing to help Colin recover, he felt a bit better and we caught the speedboat back to Bali.

Padangbai - Bali

We left Java on a long overnight bus journey and headed to Bali. The journey also included a ferry at 3am followed by another 3 hour drive to Denpasar. Apart from the bus station and airport, there's no reason to stay in Denpasar, so we got a bemo (minivans to get around Bali) and went straight to Padangbai.
Pedangbai is a small beach town and we only spent 1 night here. We went to one of the little beaches for a swim and the water was really nice, but it wasn't sandy in the sea, it was all smooth rock.
There wasn't much else to do in Pedangbai, so the next morning we got a speed boat to Gili Trawangan.