So, due to laziness last time we just put up some photos. Now our creative juices have been restored (we basically lay in til 10.30 this morning and feel much better now), here's some info on what we have actually done.

Fraser Island
As we mentioned, world's largest sand dune island, with a rainforest on top of it. Apparently, this isn't meant to happen but hey, it has. You can't swim in the sea off Fraser Island but you can swim in the lovely lakes and creeks (as featured in our photos). We did a 2 day tour here and met some really cool people. Oh, and a bunch of teenagers we didn't speak to (they were in to young people things, like flirting and terrible music) and some Germans who just wanted to speak German. Very loudly.

Rockhampton
Staying firmly on the backpacker trail we headed to Rockhampton. This is steak and rodeo country. So, being traditionalists at heart, we ate steak and watched a rodeo. Shhh. Don't tell the Aussies. Argentinian steak is a lot better.

The rodeo was a junior competition, the eldest being 20 and the youngest 5. There's something quite amusing about watching a 5 year old boy, in a cowboy hat, glittery chaps, and with his own rope, sitting on a tiny bullock that's trying to buck him off.

The really impressive thing about the rodeo wasn't so much the guys trying to stay on these mental, bucking horses and bulls (there were some BIG bulls), but the chaps whose job it was to get the rodeo rider safely out the way once he was thrown and then get the animal back into its stall.

For those of you who think rodeo means men in jeans, checked shirts, cowboy hats, drinking beer, with women wearing the same but with long hair and chirpy smiles, with an undercurrent of red neck going on, don't change your views. Some stereotypes are there for a reason. Yes, we did stand out. But not as much as the Malaysian tourists, with the women wearing headscarfs.

Bundaberg
So, we wanted to see logger head turtles hatch. This means you go to Mon Repos, which means you stay in Bundaberg. Many people come to Bundaberg to try the rum and ginger beer. We ended up trying what it's really like to backpack in Australia.

Our hostel was clean. The owner was very pleased to have some adult conversation. It turns out you stay in hostels in Bundaberg to pick fruit, when you have caned all your money away on beer in Sydney. Sometimes a one word description is best and the word we'll use here is: functional. It was so designed for 18 year olds on a gap year. The air con came on automatically. So did the light in the morning. You were given a bag of crockery and only got your deposit back if you returned it. There were surveillance cameras in the kitchen to check you washed up.

Anyway, it was clean and safe, so that's what counts.

We went to the beach at dusk to see the turtles. The magic of watching little turtles push their way up the sand to see the world for the first time was awesome. Slightly dimmed by sharing it with a school class on a trip. But hey, we got the best view of it all as they felt sorry for us.

Bundaberg made us realise: we are now flashpacking.

Airlie Beach
So, why break a good thing... still on the backpacker trail, we headed to Airlie Beach, where you can access the lovely Whitsunday Islands. Our guide book mentioned not to get too excited about the accommodation. It was right. Still in a hostel, we paid our highest price yet for a semi-clean room. The best you could say about the air conditioning was at least it drowned out the noise of the disco opposite. And the torrential rain one night (Martin didn't even hear this).

So, most people go to Airlie Beach to sail the Whitsundays or scuba dive or get drunk and laid. Given our limitations (Kara gets sea sick, the cyclone had stirred the sea up too much to see anything, we're really spending too much money to waste it on beer and we're married), we did the best we could. Which was a pretty cool boat trip on a BIG (ie stable) catamaran to see 3 of the Islands. The nice thing about this trip was you GOT OFF THE BOAT at each island. Perfect for Sea Legs Stanford.

We did some snorkelling. So much better than last time. We thought of you Nicky – you'd have enjoyed this one. First, we actually had some tuition on how to snorkel and where to go. The new snorkellers were given life jackets or floating tubes to help them out. Then we walked off the beach, into the sea to the reef which was only at 2 metres depth. Then there was the dude in the dinghy, putting around keeping an eye on us all. Unfortunately, the visibility was poor but the dinghy dude cheated and threw food in so the fishes came to the surface for us to look at. We dived down a bit and saw some of the reef. Basically, to see anything we have to wait til we hit Cairns, where the sea wasn't stirred up.

Townsville.
Getting sick of overpriced, do a tour, backpacker trail, we made a detour to Townsville. This is a really sweet city. Fantastic beach side pathway to stroll, run, or potter along, stopping off for a cheeky smoothie. It's clean and full of pretty, old buildings that sparkle in the tropical sun. We've a few chores to do and have spent the day sorting them out.

The big excitement is that for the first time since we've left the UK we are going to the cinema tonight to watch Alice in Wonderland, in 3D. We even managed to pay student prices.

Heading on tomorrow, we're staying off the beaten track, going to a national park and staying at an eco-lodge. The next few days are going to be full of walking and chilling out, before we meet Sarah in Port Douglas, ready to do more activities.