Surfers Paradise and nearby....

Well although Surfers Paradise was a little like Magaluf (bit disappointing and not very Oz) there were still some beautiful areas nearby, such as Coolongatta and Burleigh Heads. The first photo is of a free beach party that is held every Sunday with fire throwers and live music. Unlike the UK there is no charge to attend and no health and safety officers. Everyone just sits around and enjoys a few drinks - lovely. The last photo is of a sun down where we sat and watched the sufers until it was pitch black. Two mad surfers were still out there when we left (after dark). Ah, the lovely east coast....

Rainbow Beach & Fraser Island.....

More Fraser Island pictures....

Rainbow Beach & Fraser Island

This is Rainbow Beach and Fraser Island, East coast of Australia. In the first photo, you may be able to see a white campervan going over some terrain - this is what we navigated in our 4WD. It was a bit scary but a good laugh. Fraser Island is one of the only places where Dingos are isolated enough to breed and keep their numbers up. The last photo is of a camp site we stayed at (Rainbow Beach). We had a lodge by the pool which was cheap but sort of luxourious! Lovely!

Byron Bay

Byron Bay - Backpapers central. They say it has 5000 residents and 5000 backpapers, this could be true. It has a reputation as being very 'hippy' but we found it to be more modern and varied. It is one of our favourite places in Australia. There are loads of independent shops and no McDonads; KFC; or other chains.

The photos are of: our campervan which we drove from Sydney to Brisbane; then a hire car with a hire surfboard on it; me surfing; the main street and a campervan with drying clothes all over it! Anything goes in Byron.

Hamilton Island, Whitsundays

Most of the Whitsunday Islands are uninhabited. The most developed one is Hamilton Island which is small but has a Marina, a few restaurants, a few shops and two hotels. No cars are allowed on the island so everyone uses glof buggies to get around. For the lucky few who own a holiday home there, they seem to have posh buggies with alloy wheels on them! We hired a buggy for the day and it only took about twenty minutes to drive round the whole island. Still had time to stop for a spot of golf and a dip in the pool before getting back to our home on the water.

Whitsunday Sailing....more photos.....

We Are Sailing

So this is the boat we hired for one week to sail around the Whitsunday Islands. It was 11 metres long and could accommodate eight people (at a push) but just had our big bags instead. It was called Divocean and after a four hour briefing, we were on our way! Paul got in there as Skipper and I was First Mate.

The first two nights were a bit noisy so we didn't get much sleep. We kept getting up to check that we hadn't drifted off of our anchor. After this, the next five nights were fine. Three of them were spent at two different Island marinas and the others were spent out at sea anchored up.

We sailed around approximately ten islands in the week and saw some beautiful sights. This is Tongue Point which overlooks Whitehaven Beach. The beach is five miles long, white sand, blue sea and voted one of the best beaches in the world. Lovely!

We saw fish, turtles and small sharks.