Hi all, can you believe it?.... I'm actually doing my next blog and it hasn't even been a week yet but this way it won't be so long and hopefully you won't lose interest! hee hee
But anyway, on Saturday we left Hervey Bay after nearly experience cardiac arrest thinking that someone had been into our accounts and stoeln what precious money we have left. Luckily it was just one stupid bank that got it wrong - we checked another ATM straight away and found that our money was still safe and sound (touch wood). Because of such a scare to the old ticker (mine, not Ria's) that the only way we could repair the damage was having a crepe each for lunch! It wasn't the nicest of crepes though - very slimy and only cooked on one side.... I think it's a sign that we shouldn't eat out! Anyhow.... moving on we headed for the Town of 1770 and found a site 'in the bush' unfortunately it wasn't the site we'd originally wanted but we never booked ahead so we got stuck with this on. Needless to say we sprayed lots of DEET on ourselves and hoped for the best we weren't gonna wake up with loads of mozzie bites (which we didn't!). That evening we had a takeaway; prawns in loads of breadcrumbs, chips and a greek salad. As I said before I think it's a sign that we shouldn't eat out as it was really greasy and made us feel pretty yukky afterwards! And then after that I called home just to say we're still alive ... only just, after that takeaway though!
Sunday we woke up early - 7.30am! Ria got to call her folks and say hi and then we made our way into the village and passed a market. We stopped off and had a nose about and ended up buying 3 books between us - I'm glad we have our little van coz the books are big! One of those books was about an alien abduction and the man who was selling it was entertaining us by telling us that he'd seen hundreds of UFO's and also about the 10 million kids that go missing in America each year. Our reaction was just to stay quiet and nod, then luckily he got interrupted by another customer and we made a quick run for it! After our escape we made our way further into the village up to the lookout which was the start of the Southern Great Barrier Reef and took a couple of photos. Not much else to do so we made our way to Rockhampton and found a nice site right near the town centre and had some lunch. As it was Sunday everything was closed so not much for us to see or do so we bought some food for dinner and later on had a very delicious tuna pasta salad. That evening we did our laundry (we leave it til the last minute) and somehow got talking to this nice aussie bloke who was only 21 and seemed to take a liking to me - , he was always looking at me whilst talking, gave me a far longer handshake than what Ria got and said he thought my name was lovely.... very odd but amusing!
Monday we were up and showered early again as it gets humid so early and the nights are even worse. We got talking to an Australian lady we'd met a couple of weeks ago in Port Macquarie who was also heading our way but she was stopping in Rockhampton. We talked for a bit and then said our goodbyes. So our plan to leave early was a little delayed but we still left at 9.30am which is a first for us! Drove to Mackay which was quite a long distance, found a site but thought it didn't look too nice so we went to look for another one, found that one but decided we'd go back to the first one so all in all we arrived at about 3pm. Had lunch, did some shopping and had a cooked chicken again with loads of veggies.
As there was nothing to actually do around Mackay we left the site at 9.30 (seems to be becoming a habit). We shared the driving to Airlie Beach (only about 2 hours worth) and parked up in town looking for travel shops so we could book a day trip around the Whitsunday Islands. We didn't book anything straight away so we then looked for a site and the one we found is just about a km out of town. Had some lunch and headed back into town where we booked a trip. We also looked around a couple of shops and then made our way to a shopping centre which is way cheaper for goods... we were on a mission you see - my camera was dying very slowly (it kept saying there was a lens fault which I later found out was because very fine sand from Fraser Island had gotten into the nooks and crannies). But anyway, we found a camera shop where I bought a lovely Olympus FE-320 for about 80 quid - looks exactly like Ria's so we now have hers and hers cameras.... except mine is newer and a lovely shade of blue! hee hee. Later on we had some tasty chicken fajitas for dinner which we cooked on our little portable stove.
Wednesday we planned to have a cheap day (especially after yesterday). Therefore, we went to the lagoon in Airlie Beach and sunbathed for most of the morning and early afternoon. Went back to the campsite for lunch then headed back into town as my bikini top has now become almost see-through around the stomach area and if you've seen me poor belly it's not a good site! Again the prices are somewhat inflated so we drove back to the shopping centre and found a couple of tops but they didn't look too good. Back at site we had a delicious chicken tonight creamy tandoori sauce with chicken, rice and naan bread.
Yesterday we were up at 6.30 as we had to be ready by 7.45 for our pick-up for the day trip around The Whitsundays. We left the marina and sailed straight to Whitsunday Island, then got a dinghy to the shore where we walked up to the Hill Inlet to see the beach from above and how the sands sweep across to show the different shades of the ocean. Took a few pictures and walked down to Whitehaven Beach (one of the 10 most beautiful in the world, apparently) where we spent a while lazing around on the beach - the sand is so fine (about 99% pure silica...whatever that means!). We went back to the boat and had a buffet lunch - unfortunately no prawns :-( and then made our way over to Mantaray Bay where we did some snorkelling. We had to wear 'stinger' suits as there could be some nasty little blighters out there. Ria and I had bought ourselves a waterproof camera so we tried to take some pictures of the colourful fishes - there were some tiny little fish and then there were some ruddy great big ones .... up to about 3-4ft in fact! From the surface they looked like sharks but were pretty harmless. We haven't developed the pictures as yet but hopefully we've got a good few. The reefs were also very pretty too. We had some afternoon tea (chocolate cake and tea) where I had less than one piece of cake whereas Ria had 3 plus my leftover piece! We got back to our site about 5.30ish and had a shower and then some beans on toast for dindins and did some laundry. Oh and I forgot to say we also met an English couple (female) and talked to them most of the day.
And today, well it didn't start off to well for me - woke up with an awful migraine and was sick a little bit from the apple juice I had recently consumed with some pills - love the detail?! lol I tried to sleep it off but only managed to doze for a little while but Ria was being sweet and was playing nursie (no outfit though - we didn't have enough space in our backpacks for it!) hee hee. Anyway.... it started subsiding around 11.30ish so I had a little bit of brekkie and then showered. We then drove to some shops looking for a tankini/bikini top for me and luckily found one - I got a whole swimsuit as they didn't do singles but it was still way cheaper than they are in Airlie Beach and that's for just a single item. Ria also bought a pair of cute shorts as she's been surviving on like 2 pairs! We then did some food shopping and headed back to the site for lunch and then waited for 4 o'clock where we took part in the daily lorikeet feeding session on-site. The man feeding the birds offered everyone a handful of the bird food - not for us to eat but so the birdies would eat out of our hands, silly! They certainly did, they were very pretty birds and some of them landed on our heads...we've decided we want one as a pet, but only if they do the same thing! lol
So that's about it.... I really didn't think it'd be that long! They're having a reef festival here this weekend so we're staying til Sunday as we want to see some fireworks they're going to let off tomorrow night. We're not 100% sure where we're off to next, maybe Ayr or maybe just straight to Townsville - who knows!
But for now, that's it...... bye 
