Crikey, what a ripper of a day mate!

Well, after leaving sunny Bryon Bay we headed north up to Surfers Paradise, which was anything but paradise, a beach surrounded by tall skyscapers, almost a more glitzy version of blackpool. We stayed one night down a residental road and then took off sharpish the next morning to head to brisbane. We only spent one night in brisbane, as we had a look around, went up the old clock tower in the musuem to have a gander at the view, and then thought it was a bit like being back in a city, with the same shops and things that you get in other cities. Our plan to meet dana, our friend from sydney went down the pan as she was in melbourne for the weekend, and there are no easy places to free camp in the middle of a city, so we drove out to the coast, spent the night there, and then split the next morning.

next stop was Yandina, a small town in the middle of nowhere but more importantly it was close to the awesom Steve Irwin Australia Zoo!



We had an absolutely brilliant day at the zoo, unfortunatly there was no sign of big steve, but we still had a godd look around and went to see some of the shows. The zoo was mainly full of crocs, as you expect from the crocodile hunter, but they also had tigers, elephants, wombats, roos etc, all with loads of room to run around. some even had enclosures you could walk around in, although sadly not the tigers. Lex even managed to overcome another phobia by having her photo taken with a snake wrapped around her neck (a prize which adam one by doing the best impression of a monkey in front of 200 people).



After our day at the zoo we headed up to the big pineapple, which is just what it sounds like, a big pineapple, its three floors high and has some rubbish models in it explaining how you grow and harvest pineapples, it would have doubled quite nicely as a 'how to gather dust on a rubbish old model' exhibition.

That night we slept in another rest stop by the side of the road, another camper also pulled up with three germans, and we ended up playing poker in our van to pass the night away.

Next day we headed back out to the coast, and noosa. Driving around noosa is a bit of a challenge as its made up of noosa heads, noosaville and noosa sound. Why they couldn't just call the place noosa, and be done with it we've got no idea.

We cruised around a bit looking for somewhere to camp (a daily chore) and ended up stopping by a lake to admire the view. There was lady there canoeing and as we helped carry her canoe to the water, we got chatting, and she said we could camp for the night on her drive way (result!!). That night we went to the cinema to see the davinci code (average we thought) and then drove back to the house to sleep. We turned up to the house that we thought it was, and realised that A. we hadn't asked the lady her name, and B. we hadn't confirmed exactly which house was hers! After prowling around like crooks for a while we decided to drive up to the best contender, the only house with lights on, make a bit of noise so as to announce our arrival and hope for the best. It turned out this house belonged to the ladies neighbours, and they kindly pointed us in the right direction. The house was pitch black, and we didn't know if the lady was asleep, or out, or in the basement worshipping the devil. Either way we parked up and crashed out.



The next morning the lady let us use her shower and generally clean ourselves up and briefly showed us in her house (which was like a palace). Her husband worked for the government and is clearly minted!

We're spending the night in nossa again tonight (although not on the driveway) and then heading to ranbow beach for two nights before our trip out to fraser island which is booked for sunday!

We've had an expensive few weeks on the east coast (too many fish and chips) and so are both looking forward to heading inland, where we're hoping to stay at a cattle station for a while, but its only a small one 55,000 acres...

Also, after about 4 years marc and owen have got there website up and running (nice job boys, looks good) so check out www.owenandavery.co.uk and tell all your executive mates who need design work doing to give them a call!