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The last entry had something of an omission (or rather, it didn’t. Er). I neglected to mention that we drove up into the Queensland hinterland on Thursday last week, and visited Eungella national park to see Platypus in the wild. We were braced for disappointment: They’re largely nocturnal, solitary and shy, but we’d been told by others that we stood a good chance here. We weren’t disappointed. After a group of school kids had thankfully been bundled back into their bus and had given up on their abysmal Pop Idol efforts (really. Kids. In my day we were chronically embarrased by ourselves. tch), things settled down somewhat, and we did get to see a platypus industrially diving down into the rivers bottom (I would have said ‘beavering away’, but it seems rather inappropriate…).

So, after seeing our platypus, we hit Bruce highway again, and drove up to the Whitsundays (an anecdote we discovered whilst on the trip is that Captain Cook didn’t account for the international date line, and actually hit them on a Monday, not Whitsunday as the name implies). We then continued on to Tully, before returning the camper van on Sunday, and glad we are to now be encamped in a hotel with en suite.

We booked up to visit the reef on one of the many (oh, so many) cruises on offer yesterday, and after a quick beverage, went along to Reef Teach, which was worth every cent of the cost. We learnt a lot and had a great time, and can highly recommend visiting prior to going out on the reef. As the company says, “with learning, comes appreciation”, and snorkling around the reef today was so much more enjoyable as a result: We recognised fish, knew what to do and not to do (ish), and got a lot more out of our day.

Today then, has been out on the reef (with Sunlovers if you’re interested). What a stunning place it was too. Really rather special in every way. Lots of colourful fish, beautiful coral and opportunity to snorkle, take the semi-submersible, glass bottomed boat, or in Frances’ case, have a 20 minute dip underwater in a Sea-walker: Which she loved. Highlight appears to have been seeing a turtle up close, and feeding some huge fish. Whilst we did our guided snorkle with the on-board ‘naturist’ (Matt), we saw some beautiful creatures we would perhaps of missed, including the big ugly Maori Wrasse, the oh-so-famous Clownfish, plus a feeding turtle. Superb.

Another anecdote, apparantly if ‘Finding Nemo’ had tried to be more accurate to nature, Nemo’s father would have turned into a female rather than head all the way to Sydney (they seem to do that a lot, tropical fish. Change gender. Not so sure about the Sydney bit). And Nemo himself would be coloured black so young.

We both loved our whole day, and have added it to the (ever growing) list of “serious highlights of our trip”. It really is one of the natural wonders of the world.

Now for the bad news. We didn’t pay enough attention to Paddy at Reef Teach, and rushed out to our guided snorkle a little too quick. I didn’t put on a t-shirt whilst snorkling, and we were a little slow to re-apply sunscreen. Consequently, we’re both rather sun-burnt on our backs, shoulders and arms. I can hear mothers, friends and other readers tutting at this very minute. Yes, we should of known better. Heck, we did know better after our lesson. But we’re sunburnt. And it’s not nice. Still, we’ve poured on the after-sun, drunk lots of water and generally felt sorry for ourselves since about 5pm today…

So, a brilliant few days, and lots more to look forward to. Trust everything is well back in Blighty!