Since the last post which was actually written nearly four weeks ago but not published until today we spent our time in the van fluctuating between inland rainforest/waterfalls/incredible mountainscapes and beach stays with glorious sunrises and time in the water.
This has meant we have come accross many different animals be it on foot or in the van including a fleeting glimpse of a wild cassowary which led to a hasty three point turn and me very nearly getting the van stuck on a greasy bank in my haste

A moody sky looking over Govetts leap in the Blue mountains

Our view of the solar eclipse from byron bay beach

A kangaroo and her almost too big joey at one of our campsites

A wallaby checking us out

An evening spent at Mon Repos beach watching the Loggerheads come and lay their eggs

A fortunate encounter with a duck billed platypus in the wild

Me jumping into a slightly cold mountain watering hole called the wheel of fire

A metre long lace monitor on one of the many bush walks we did

Two shots of Estuarine crocs that we were lucky enough to see on a boat trip along the Daintree river up in the tropical north

And finally the cassowary that nearly left us stuck

 

 

The last few days have found us at Cheryl and Marks house enjoying there incredible hospitality

I'll try and post again before we leave Oz if i can, due to go and stay out on the Great barrier reef for a couple of days tmw and then fly to NZ on thursday

Hope you're all well, speak to you soon

IT TOOK US 3 DAYS TO GET TO AUSTRALIA! And I have just realised that Andy has tricked me into camping!

Something very odd is going on with the weather, unprecedented rainfall in South Africa, as soon as we leave the sun comes out. We arrive in Sydney and I am starting to feel responsible for the hail storm and tornado that greeted us, are we ever going to see some sun?

As those of you that follow me on facebook will know, I spent some of the run up to this trip trying to convince Andy that we would have plenty of time to go from Sydney to Melbourne then up to Cairns. He argued that it would be a lot of extra miles and time to try to get to Melbourne, I argued and won, so off we set. It turns out he was right, Australia is bloody massive! After a day of heading towards Melbourne it became apparent that we would have time to do the above mentioned trip but we wouldn't be able to stop anywhere and we would have to come home after Christmas because we had spent all our money on fuel.

After a spectacular (although freezing) night in a forest in the mountains (campsite called Bummeroo, childish laughter particularly when we saw a worried looking kangaroo) a very expensive night in a caravan park (we saw a wombat, it took us far too long to try and figure out what it was, had to text Dan who accurately described it as a small bear or a very large hamster!) We finally figured out how to do this camper vanning thing and finally the sun came out. We spent the night at a fantastic beach last night and a secluded bay tonight. It is tricky getting your head around having very limited electricity, maybe once every 4 or 5 nights and needing to constantly fill our tiny tank with water. We completely underestimated how expensive daily living and fuel would be and to be honest we are completely outside our budget without any activities. Here's hoping Asia is dirt cheap otherwise you could be seeing us sooner than expected!

To everyone that has sent messages to me on facebook, I will write back as soon as I have electricity and wifi at the same time!

Miss you all

Lou feeling the cold at camp in the mountains

Sunset at bummaroo camp

Sunrise at our first beach stay, Shelley beach