First of all we would like to apologise to everyone for our lack of contact since our road trip commenced! Its been harder than we thought to keep in regular contact,. either the internet cafes are few and far between or cost the equivalent of our weekly shop!!!!! (Although that is only a massive 20 quid a week for us two big galahs!!)

With that in mind, this is only going to be a shorty, no flowery language, no comedy, no nowt, no frills (our favourite brand currently!) Ah well, have to laugh sometimes!

Atherton Tablelands

Paranella Park

Mission Beach

Airlie Beach
Open Water Diving

Whitsunday Island Cruise

Townsville

Reef HQ

Queensland Tropical museum

Palluma Range Nat Park

Bowen (found a 1940s cinema and guy showed us round the projection rooms for nowt!!)

We know that was a long time coming and a bit short but we will catch up again soon and show you one of our other 1002 photos we have taken.

Byeeeeeeee

Queensland Adventures!! remains copyright of the author chumba, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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· How are we both?

· What have we been up to?

· HOW LONG WILL THIS CHAPTER TAKE TO READ?????

We guess those of you that are interested (or still awake from the last instalment) will be asking at least one or more of the above!

In answer to the first question, we are great, no injuries, illness or snakebites so that’s something! We are only suffering with the cool nights, this being something we didn’t read about in the brochures! It seems that a few months in a hot climate, your expectations of the weather become very high and a bit of wind gives you cause to complain! (I mean of the weather kind of wind, although both types are not unheard of round casa John & Lou!).

In answer to question 2, We have been busy this last couple of weeks fitting in activities we want to do with our remaining time in Sydney and coupled that with the quest to find THE VAN.

Big things to report this month have included a fantastic visit to Taronga Zoo. Brilliant and well worth the money! The zoo is on the side of a hill facing the harbour, so a ferry is required. Lovely boat ride, (cheaper than the tourist cruise option!). On arrival the entrance is at the base of the hill, a cable car was provided to take you to the top, so you can work your way around and down the hill. A full day was spent exploring the zoo and we saw all kinds of wild and exotic animals! The lions were pretty scary and took a liking to Lou (We weren’t sure if they thought Lou was a distant relative or lunch!) The highlight of the day was watching the zookeepers feeding the ape / gorillas. There was a King Kong type of monkey that was very greedy & unwilling to share his booty with the rest of the tribe; it was v.comical to watch him shining an apple before he ate it (More table manners than john!).

Ideal camera opportunity you say………..DAMN THE DIGITAL CAMERA!

Why say ‘full battery’ one minute and then after the first snap display the ‘empty battery’ warning! Luckily (for the zoo) we were able to be fleeced nearly 15 quid for a disposable! So we got some great snaps and even managed to go inside a koala enclosure and have a pic taken!

This month we have fitted in many treats including Thai, ice cream, Turkish, ice cream, Tapas, ice-cream, Italian, ice-cream! You get the picture on that score we guess!

Also this month we have been to ‘Susannah Place’, which is a preserved set of terraced houses that are located on ‘The Rocks’. These were some of the first houses built in the area for the early settlers who were less than wealthy. They have been restored to look like they would a fair few years ago, but don’t worry; you too can share our experience by visiting one of your elderly relatives that live in a terrace with dated décor & original furnishings from pre-war days!! It was quite funny to hear other museumgoers ‘oohing and ahhing’ at the mystery’s of the tea caddy, pastry cutters and peg bag. Joking apart tho, it was nice and quaint in a funny kind of familiar way.

So big news left, the quest for a van! We searched high and low, visited Kings Cross market and dealerships and eventually found the one! We are now the proud owners of one 1983 Toyota Hiace Savannah pop-top campervan! It’s like a time machine! Every thing is in excellent condition but old! It was ironic that the only radio station we could find on our first drive was a 1960s channel!

We took our first mini adventure on Sunday and navigated our way successfully across the city to Coogee Bay and then onto Maroubra Beach. Excellent effort considering the amount of one way systems, impatient taxis and that we are driving a tank with the gear stick protruding from the side of the steering column?! This van is an olds mobile…but it’s our olds mobile so we love it.

And now just before the end of this slightly shorter update we would like to offer you all free entry into our competition. Don’t worry we’re not going to ask for all your bank details in exchange for a dodgy porcelain dog ornament (although we could nick you one from Susannah Place if you like)…all we want you to do is email us a possible name for our mobile home. Send your entries to john4lou@hotmail.co.uk and the lucky winner will be sent a genuine piece of Australiana.

Anyway in a conscious effort to keep it short, that’s all folks!

Will update you shortly with our news, we are due to be leaving Sydney on the 29th June, our itinerary is outlined for your information below:

· NORTH

Then…………

· SOUTH

(Heheheheh!!!)

Speak soon!

John and Lou x

Please read this...it'll be shorter...honest!! remains copyright of the author chumba, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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How are you all, well we hope? Well since our last update we have managed to tear ourselves away from the restaurants long enough to have some more adventures to tell you all about.

We took the opportunity to go somewhere a bit farer a-field with the Easter long weekend and went to the Blue Mountains. As the name suggests they are mountains that are blue and we booked to stay in a place called Katoomba, which is about 2 hours west of Sydney on the train.

Before we even got half way there the adventure began when we changed at Lidcombe to get on a train, which had over 900 adventure scouts on it. There was no place to sit so we both got comfy (as you can) sat in the doorway of the carriage.

The journey was quite funny as about 20 of the adventure scouts kept running through all the carriages shouting “give me high 5’s” and “touch my nose” to everyone. Also we got talking to a couple of ozzys on the way, which was great and made the time pass quicker.

Anyway we got there eventually and after we had dumped our stuff at the hotel we headed off. We went straight away for a walk on a footpath called Prince Henry Cliff Walk. The views of the mountains were unbelievable and every so often there would be lookout point that over hung the cliff edge and when you looked out it was bloody scary.

This cliff walk took us all the way to the three sisters which is a rock formation that is pretty famous over here and has a whole Aboriginal legend attached to it, but we wont bore you with it.

From there we took the giant stairway, which is 1000 steps down the mountain face to the bottom of the valley. The stairway was this set of dodgy metal steps that were very steep and very rickety.

By halfway down we were both knack’d and totally demoralised when we saw what looked like a 99 year old Chinese lady…going up!!! Anyway we managed it in the end and like the wobbly legged Shaken Stevens we then followed the Federal Pass walk.

This took us to a thing called the Scenic Railway, which is an old mining railway that used to take coal up the mountain face to the top. Now it takes people up the mountain face to the top at an angle of 52 degrees, which was a bit scary.

After that we went back to the hotel and went out for food and a drink, which was nice, we also looked round Katoomba and found allsorts of shops and stuff that looked interesting. Especially interesting was the Paragon Café, which in the front had the biggest selection of homemade chocolates you have ever seen.

The next day we set out to a place called The Zig Zag Railway, which has a private train line where they run old steam trains up and down the mountain in a zig zag formation like they used to in the old days. To get there you have to take a train from Katoomba to this stop where the private line is a short walk away. But the platform for the Intercity is small, in fact only big enough for 1 carriage and is so rarely used that you have to ask the driver specifically to stop there for you and when it stops you have to go to back carriage to get off. Anyway we got off and walked to the private line and got on the Steam strain and it was brilliant and gave some good views when you passed over the viaducts and when you went over mountains also the sounds of the old train chugging away and whistling was nice.

So that took most of the day and after that we returned to the main line to go home via our Intercity but wondered how the train would know to stop for us since we had to tell the driver to stop on the way there. That question was answered when we got to the platform and there was a sign saying that the train would not automatically stop at the platform and that if we wanted it to stop for us we had to take the big green lollipop lady style stick out of the holster and wave it at the on coming train for the driver to see and stop!!!!! And we thought Thorne South was a bit of a dodgy stop but never had we had to wave a train down.

We had planned to go to Blackheath another place along the way home that has a great gorge called Govetts Leap that we intended to walk but we must have spent to long at Zig Zag and didn’t have enough time so we called it a day.

The next day we had booked a bus trip to a place called Jenolan where they have fantastic caves with stalactites and stalagmites and all that. Also Jenolan has lots of walks and scenery and a green pool where platypuses play (yes we know it platypi, but we’re common alright!!). So before our cave walk we went for a look round the area at all the huge outdoor caves and round the pool.

We saw signs all round the pool telling us about the snakes in the area as well as about the platypi (ok happy!!). But while walking in the area Lou actually spotted one of the snakes the sign was on about. So we were both snapping pics away happily and the thing was turning round and hissing at us but we didn’t mind too much as the sign said nothing about them being poisonous, eventually we left it alone coz we didn’t want to get bitten poisonous or not.

We went for our cave walk and enjoyed the caves; although the guide kept turning the lights completely out to demonstrate how dark (really really dark) it was which was a bit scary.

Anyway we got back to the coach to go back to Katoomba and we got chatting to the bus driver and told him we had seen snakes. He seemed really interested so I showed him the pictures and he looked and said, “bloody hell, I hope you used the zoom lens for those pictures, they would have ruined your day they’re red bellied black snakes and they’re deadly!!!!” Oh well lesson learnt I guess, snakes are to be kept away from regardless of whether you think they are deadly or not and dont rely on the signs to keep you alive, but believe them to get you home.

Anyway as well as seeing the snakes we also saw lovely spiders…yes we finally got to see the S word that John has been dreading so much since touching down in Feb (and Lou to be honest).

Although we still haven’t seen tarantula type spiders yet, just house spiders on steroids. Either way they’re bloody horrible and hopefully they won’t feature too much in the coming road trip as John may freak out and in the small campervan and that might not work out so well!!! If the vans a rocking!!! Sorry mum and dad!!!

Other things weve been up to, during another sunny sunday afternoon we took a trip to Tumbalong park to the Thai annual festival. It was pretty cool! There was alsorts going off and alsorts of nice treats to eat too! Im sure we have all thought of what can you do with fruit to make it more eatable/appealing than a bag of crisps,.. but the sculptures at the Thai fest were really something else!

Walking is fast becoming our favourite free past time during our stay in Sydney and after the festival we caught a bus to bondi junction and walked to the beach and followed the Bondi to Coogee beach walk! It was pretty spectacular! Especially cos all the beaches were officially closed due to the enormous crashing waves, even the more hardy surfers were put off!

Anyway thats all for now, hope to hear from you all soon, take care.

The Hills Are Alive With The Sound Of Screaming!!! remains copyright of the author chumba, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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We continued Lous birthday celebrations by going to see Olivia Newton John and the Sydney Syphonic Orchestra at the Sydney Opera House, on the 18th March 06. We decided to start the night early with a cheeky G & T at a swanky vodka bar on the harbourside - a cheeky 'one' turned into several and we had to run, only just making it to the start of the concert!(No,.we never change do we!?) We took the ticket instruction literally and so we were dressed to the nines and left the camera at home,.only to arrive and see everyone sat in their jeans snapping away!!!The night was fantastic! We had to do a sing a long 'summer lovin!'at the end! It felt very exciting and surreal to be sat in the opera house! Just every now and then we remember where we are and what we are doing and it still makes us giddy!! After the show we went for a few extraordinary cocktails and stumbled home for our own after show apertifs(cheese spread on toast,. v glamourous!)

On Friday night we went to a Night market in China Town. They take place every week. It felt like we had left Oz for the night and we took full advantage of the chinese cuisine on offer! However we didnt take up the offer of a free chinese massage, infact we had to wrestle an old lady to the ground who wouldnt take no for an answer!

On route we also stumbled across Darling Harbour and spent some time wandering round and viewing the maritime exhibits, including a submarine, lighthouse and battleship!

This harbour is also yet another place to eat drink and be merry, not that we need any more encouragement on that score!

Every Sunday we go for a walk that includes going to some of the tourist spots and some of the more off the beaten track beauty spots. We make up a packlunch and head off on an adventure for the day! One weekend we walked to Sydney harbour from our flat and took some time to visit the 'buddy bear' exhibition. This was a collection of over 250 7ft bears that stood outside the Contemporary Art Museum. Each bear represented a country and so was decorated by an artist from that Nation. The exhibition was to promote world equality and peace and moves from nation to nation on a world tour. Although Lou thought the best way to promote world peace was to be a 5'6 immitation 'loubie bear' .. well we thought it was funny anyway! Not sure everyone else did as we ruined there pictures!

From there we followed the coastal path around the harbour , past the opera house and around the edge of the botanic gardens and then proceeded on to a local beatuy spot, Mrs Macquaries point.

From there you get another great view of the harbour, similiar to the view you see in most postcards taken of this area. On the way home we went through woolloomooloo (a mouthfull to say!), past St Marys Cathedral and through the grounds of Hyde Park. We clocked up over 16km!

Anzac Memorial - Hyde Park

Hyde Park Cone

On the saturday of the following weekend there was an Indian festival at Tumbalong Park. There was a number of different performers including troops of dancers, comedians and singers! There was also lots of stalls selling goods and tast treats! We had samosas and thali!(the samosas were the size of T.Ps!)

We then went to the Chinese fridendship Garden and spent a couple of hours looking around he various gardens, water falls, chinese buildings, sculptures and wildlife,..including giant fish and SPIDERS!!!!

The following weekend we decided to spend a full day exploring the botanical gardens as it is so huge! As well as the fantastic flowers and trees there is also plenty of sculptures and water features. Within the gardens also sits the Governers house from years gone by. Which is a very English looking mansion sat in its own beautiful grounds.

In the grounds there was also a sundial in the garden, which was more accurate at telling the time than our mobile!

Further into the gardens we came across an area where all the trees were full of bats! They looked like giant rats with wings and made a lot of noise!

On the way home we found St James Church, this is the first christian church that was built in oz and is still standing - now dwarfed by the looming towerblocks of the modern city!

We also took some time recently to take some photos of some of the things we pass on a daily basis - its funny how quickly you become accustomed to things and take it for granted what you see everyday!

John has got a fab new job working for Citigroup for the next 3 months! So that is great news! We are now able to plan in some more of the pricey stuff we hope to do before we leave sydney. Both of us are starting to get itchy feet now,.. well not sure whether it is itchy feet or more that its coz we are both working now!! Either way we are starting to plan the rest of the trip . We are looking to move on in about 10 weeks all being well. It will be hard to leave sydney cos it is so lovely here but we cant wait to go and explore! It will also be interesting leaving the luxury of our city flat for a combi van! Whatever will be next you ask!??? We have gone from an apartment in Dewsbury with fold into the wall bed, downsized from that to a micro unit in sydney,..and next we move onto combi van living! (We are looking into if we can move into a phone box when we get back to the UK!)

How many clowns can you get in a phone box anyway!!???

Ohwellawellawella! Tell me more! Tell me more!?? remains copyright of the author chumba, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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We started looking for a little flat at the beginning of the month and after searching through one roach infested hole after another we struck gold when we found a web advert for a flat in Newtown which is very close to Sydney. This place is cheaper than the hostels and is a brilliant location for us (its as near as you can get to the restaurants, pubs and music venues!!) and it even came with a BBQ....it was a sign!

We mentioned in the last entry that we had been for a meal at the top of the Amp tower for valentines day, well here are a few pics, try turning your head while looking at them and it will be like your there.

Also this month we went to the Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras which was excellent, half a million people turned out to watch the parade and I think they were all stood infront of us, we had to run through the streets of Sydney trying to get ahead of the procession to get to a quieter spot. But we had a great time and there was plenty of colourful floats and parties of people marching such as.......

We also went to a few museums....the Sydney museum was having a display on the history of Bondi which was very good. Also the Police & Crime museum were doing a limited display of some unusual pictures of criminals that they have found. They are from the 1920's when photography wasn't widely used so all the arrested criminals are doing these strange catalogue poses and looking pleased with themselves for being photographed. Whilst in the Police and Crime museum John found one of his ancestors.....no no not a community minded upstanding police officer...a low down dirty crook, looks John don't you think!!

We also took a trip out to Luna Park this month, which is a amusement park set under the harbour bridge with excellent views of Sydney Harbour.

We went on a ferris wheel that from the outside appeared pretty tame and safe but from the inside was worse than any roller coaster we had ever been on....I think it was held together with chewing gum and bluetack.

Also at Luna Park we won some cheapy tacky prizes on a dart game. When they open their mouths a streamer flys out and they make terribel annoying noises, kept us ammused on the train ride home, not sure about the other passangers though.

While we have been here Louise has had a birthday (duh we are here for a year) so to celebrate we went out for a meal to this African restaurant which was fantastic. The place offered all these authentic African tastes and the drink to accompany was made from African flowers. After that we mixed it up a bit and went for an Italian "Gelato" ice cream from a palour up the road. They do dozens and dozens of flavoured ice creams from peanut butter to forrero rocher. Then from there we went for a drinky poos at a bar in town.

Also this month we have been looking for work...honest!! Louise did well to get some work at Louis Vuitton which was a good start and now she has gone on and got a 3 month contract for the health service which is fantsatic. I know I know I know John is still unemployed or is that unemployable!!

Still In Holiday Mode..... remains copyright of the author chumba, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Well...we think we are into our third week and...we think it is also coming to the weekend although to be honest we haven't got a scooby as we are still stuck in holiday mode with no work to go to, no where to be other than where we fancy and when we fancy. We were laughing today about how its a nice suprise when we realise the weekend is coming around, rather than when we were both in England and on Monday morn at 8:31am sharp we were both already dreaming and wishing for next weekend.

So have we been up to then?!?

Well as you can see we have been visiting the sites and also getting used to using t'internet cafes to download pictures which they dont like by the way so I hope someone out there appreciates this. The pictures above are of our 1st trip to Sydney that we talked about in our last entry.

For the first two weeks we got into Sydney there were ongoing celebrations for the Chinese New Year so there were plenty of street parades and dancing dragons and people in very very colourful dress.

Also close to Sydney ferry harbours there are often guys sat playing with their diggiry doos, I know I know you wouldn't get away with that in the UK but here its acceptable.

Since the last entry we have been to see Louise's cousin Mary and her husband Paul and there daughters Teigan and Teal who live in Avoca north of Sydney. They were very welcoming and we spent a few days with them having BBQ's and visiting the local beach (which is only about 5 mins walk away may I add....I know...lucky buggers!) and it was lovely. It was about a 3 mile stretch of untouched, virtually diserted beach hot enough to fry an egg on. Anyway I know it all sounds like sweetness and light but after the 1st night the kids learnt of our dislike for spiders and couldn't help themselves telling us about the Huntsmen, Redback and funnel web spiders they have living under their house. Well of course as soon as the lights went out that night we couldn't relax. At about 2am I (John) heard a faint rustling on the floor, Louise was asleep but I couldn't relax so I had to wake her, she turned all brave and turned the light on to show me there was nothing to be afraid of but when she did shock horror there was this sodding big black sodding spider draggin its dead cockroach pray over the floor. Well we were both up on top of the bed scared out of our wits. At this point men, I would like to say I took the situation in hand and clobbered the spider and protected the woman I love, well I would like to say that but unfortunatley I can't Lou had to come to my rescue and got the bugger for me. Below is a picture of us both on Mary's verander enjoying the sun.

We also went across the harbour to visit a place called Manly which is just cove after cove of beautiful beaches. We sloped around all day long and hopped in and out of the shade. One of the best bits about going to Manly was the ferry crossing to get there. Its very cheap and you get fantastic views of the city....below is one.

For valentines day we went for a meal in the Amp Tower. Its this unusual shaped building a bit like a round spaceship on a pole but a very very long pole. We got in the lift and now joke it took about 10mins to get up to the top. Anyway the views were fantastic and to make sure you get an all round view the floor and everything on it rotates around slowly throughout your meal...it took some getting used to and at some points we weren't sure if it was the wine or the spinning making us dizzy but we had a good night either way.

Also we recently got ourselves a little flat in the centre of Newtown. The Hostel was nice and all but in comparison was costing us an arm and a leg, that and all the staff kept argueing and crying with each other, it was like Neighbours outside our door. So now we have a nice one bedroom flat fully furnished and is a lovely little haven with a balcony and BBQ.

We are still looking for work and at first we were worried but things are looking up and we have a few things lined up, infact Louise has an interview set up for tomorrow. So all is well with us and we hope all is well with you, speak soon.

The Holiday Continues...... remains copyright of the author chumba, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Thought we would drop you a quick message to let you all know that we have arrived safely! The 24 hours of travelling was as unbearable as you can expect,..although we got plenty of inflight meals and free booze which helped!

As you can imagine we have slept like 'john and yoko' since we got here! But have still managed to force ourselves up and out to see the sights! The town we are staying is called Stanmore but we are also adjoining Newtown, which is a great location. Newtown has a 2 mile stretch of pubs, bars, live music venues and restaurants. More restaurants than you can imagine,.thai, chinese,greek, vietnamese, portugese, lebonese,turkish,african, indian,nordic and DOMINOS! (Not one chippy insight! haha!) You can expect us to return in a years time like the size of a house end! We are already saving for extra seats home to accomodate the growth!
We are 1 train stop from Sydney city centre.

Our first trip out was to see Sydney central, we saw the harbour,the opera house and the amp tower to name but a few! It was fantastic but hard to take it all in that we are really here at all!

The second trip we took was to Bondi Beach, the weather that day reached inxs of 30 degrees!
Scorchio! So we took advantage of the weather (and got burnt to a crisp!). The view over Bondi Beach was awesome and really was like a postcard scene!

But now we have to face a few facts and start looking for work, although how you can do a serious days work over here is a mystery, surely it will be friday feeling everyday!

Anyway, we will keep you updated on our adventures, we need to go now, it is soooooo hot in here!!!! haha!

We've landed! remains copyright of the author chumba, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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6 Weeks To Go........ remains copyright of the author chumba, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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