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We’re in the wettest place in Australia right now. A small town called ‘Tully’, which boasts rich rainforest on it’s fringes, and a huge, vast, 7.9 metre fibre glass reconstruction welly (or ‘Gumboot’ in this neck of the woods). Obviously we climbed up it. It has a spiral staircase in it too (a slight diversion from a true reconstruction of a welly, I suspect). So, picture of Frances waving merrily from the top will feature in our photo-montage of Australia.

Well, we’ve had a long day of driving up from Airlie Beach, where we stayed for a couple of nights. Yesterday we went out on a boat tour of the Whitsunday islands, stopping off to do a little snorkling in Frances case, and I signed up to do an introductory Scuba dive. And boy, was it good. After going through the necessary skills for a first dive, the instructor took myself and the two others (Jorg aus Deutschland, and John from the UK too) down to the stunning depth of 6 metres, for about 15 minutes or so. Wow. The fringe reef around the island was something else to see in person. Visibility wasn’t brilliant, but we were up close to some beautiful fish and corals. So, it was all over far too quickly, but it was good enough that I’m already working out how - if at all possible - I can fit in a certification course (only 3 days in total) during our trip, and avoid the wrath of Frances. Which is to be avoided at all costs. So probably a swimming pool in Glasgow and British summer coastal waters if I’m serious…

Whitehaven beach also featured in our tour. Easily one of the most beautiful beaches I’ve ever seen. White silica sand underfoot made the landscape seem almost snowy. Very surreal, but beautiful. And even Frances ALMOST liked the feel of the sand. Which is saying quite something, believe me. She’s normally heading in the opposite direction when sand is involved.

The weather out on the boat wasn’t brilliant at all. A few very green faces amongst our fellow passengers. But I think everybody enjoyed their day out.

We’re almost at the end of our campervan holiday. We return the van tomorrow. Have to say we’re looking forward to an en suite bathroom, and a bit of space to swing the metaphorical cat. And having more than 5 inches of headroom above us. We’ve rather sore heads (and elbows) right now. I’ll leave you to work out how elbows come to be sore.

We’re off to Cairns next, planning on visiting the Great Barrier reef amongst other attractions of the area. Our house sale is still ongoing (it’s going back on the market today due to lack of mortgage offer on the part of the buyer after three months), so do let us know if you know of anybody looking to buy in South East London! Still, fingers crossed, as there is some hope still there.

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 29th, 2004 at 8:49 am and is filed under Travelling. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.