I am not 100% sure but I think this qualifies me for full Australian citizenship.

I would love to meet the marketing guru behind some of Australia Zoo’s material. Deep within one of their brochures is the fantastic line, “all over the world the colour khaki is recognised as Steve [Irwin]’s signature colour” (!!) It goes on… “But khaki is more than a colour – it’s an attitude”. So deep. So profound. Pure genius.

By the way, do you know how many kangaroos there are in Australia?? Go on, have a guess. And how many rabbits? It’s quite staggering. There are a mega 100 million kangaroos bounding about Oz. And 300 million rabbits. Unbelievable!! That according to the wonderful Bill Bryson, who is currently accompanying us on our drive Down Under.

We walked carefully down the beach not wanting to tread on any other hatchlings who had already started their dash.  We soon found the nest markings on the sand thanks to our guide.

As we watched the sand started to move and churn and suddenly a heaving squirming mass of little turtle hatchlings started to emerge.  They were surprisingly active and ready for action considering they had never seen the light of day or rather dark of night before.  As they scrabbled and climbed they started to instinctively head towards the ocean. They formed the most amazing procession over the grassy sand and then down to the beach towards the frothing waves.  They were soon washed away into the waves to start their journeys around the coast of Australia and further afield to South America and Indonesia.

It was quite simply amazing.

Photos to follow.

Then we toured the Bundaberg Brewed Drinks factory, where the famous ginger beer is produced. It is lovely and is one of the few ginger beer producers left in the world that still use real ginger root rather than faux flavouring (at least, that’s what they told us!) At the end we got to do a tasting of their 12 or so different fizzy drinks. Ginger beer, diet ginger beer, lemon lime and bitters, diet lemon lime and bitters, cola, fizzy peach, apple ale, lemon ale… To say we burped slightly afterwards would be an understatement.

We then mooched along to Bargara beach where we scoffed some delicious ice-creams (maple and walnut for me, old English toffee and mint choc chip for Will) before finding our campsite for the night, conveniently located next to the Mon Repos turtle hatching beach. At 7pm we donned our invisible cloaks, took a torch and headed out along with a plethora of other keen-eyed and keen tourists to try and spot a few little hatching turtlies. And we were not disappointed. Within minutes we found a tiny mound of sand just about to hatch. Moments later dozens and dozens of teeny little TMNTs (well, sort of) emerged. Scrambling over each other whilst still learning to crawl the little beasts wandered in a sort of stoned-like manner towards the sea. Very cool little guys.

Chish and fips and a bottle of red for dinner. A rather good day all in all.

xx

If you had told me before I reached that counter that I would have come away with grape I would never have believed you.  Before I have been a strict devotee to raspberry with the very occasional dabble with cola but grape, never.  It was a bit leap for me to put my trust in this individual who was recommending grape but I had to try it.  We also discussed mango flavour but neither of us were getting drawn into that.  Mango just doesn’t work as a Slush Puppie flavour.

So I went for it and ordered the grape.  What a decision.  It was amazing.  Not as good as raspberry, but nothing ever could be.  It was as good if not better than cola though and it was great to try something new.  I felt on top of the world.  The grape flavour really did deliver.

After a quick review with my new Slush Puppie friend I returned to my table with a spring in my step.  As I walked away I wanted to share some special Slush Puppie Club handshake, swap email addresses and perhaps organise some sort of future Slush Puppie appreciation event but I was just lost in the joy of grape.

A happy happy day.

I was not disappointed.  The delight of the false raspberry flavour combined with the aesthetic genius of avatar blue makes for a drink beyond description.  This is further enhanced by the extreme heat of Australia that quickly melts the ice ensuring you are not left with just a fairly solid flavourless icey mess that can so often happen is colder climates.  No, this Slush Puppie was perfect and so good that I am now heading off to purchase a second.  The dilemma is, should I mess with the perfection of the raspberry flavour I have just experienced and move to a Cola flavour or stay with the classic raspberry and continue surfing the wave of icy delight to the shore of Slush Puppie nirvana?

I will make the decision at the very last second and report back in a follow up blog.

Ahhh bless. Little sleepy koala fella.

On our roadtrip so far we have been very Australian – we have spotted two massive kangaroos, seen a cute koala sleeping in a eucalyptus tree, almost run over a big red snake in the middle of the road*, cooked up some delicious barbie food and eaten a ton of advocados ($2 for eight at the Cairns fruit and veg market!)** We have also been swimming in the wonderful waters at Josephine Falls (mum, we got lots of photos for you!), checked out the tropical sands at Mission Beach, spent the day on beautiful Magnetic Island and survived freedom camping in a hot hot hot metal box (just).

Will is still getting to grips with the new camper-car. He keeps accidentally leaning on the horn whilst driving along. Last night we pulled into a shaded, clandestine spot to illegally freedom camp, and just as we were getting settled Will did his little trick, beeped the horn for 4 seconds or so and attracted as much attention as he could muster. The wall(ab)y.

Magnetic Island View

It didn’t bode well. We were woken up at 1.10am by a flashtorch and a bellowing voice, “Security”. The very sweet security man asked us kindly to move on or risk a $1,500 fine from the police when they came along later. So we grabbed our clothes (it is so hot here we are having to sleep naked***) and made a swift exit up the road. At least now we are proper freedom campers, fleeing the law.

New Aussie words:

Bogan -  Used to describe a particular section of society, the lower classes, or to refer to individuals of the working class flavour. Similar to the UK ‘chav’. Derives from ‘bogan moth’.

Sunbaking – Aussie term for ’sunbathing’. And it does feel like you are sunbaking. It is stupidly hot.

Esky - Slang for a chilly bin (or a cool box).

We found the perfect spot to stop for peanut butter sandwiches

*I think it may have been one of these bad boys.

** Btw, we do know that it is really ‘avocados’, but Will’s family insist on calling them ‘advocados’. As they call Bill Cosby Bill Crosby, and thermos flasks thermosk flasks. 

*** Well, that and the fact that since Spencer Tunick we cannot get enough of being sans clothes. We are such exhibitionists.

The sky looks so much bigger.  Can anyone explain why that is?  When you look out at the horizon you can see the curve of the globe and the sky just seems to go on forever.

The barrier reef was amazing and I even managed to dive without going deaf, quite an achievement for me and my strange ears.

The romance of the open road and the campervan has sadly not quite worked out as we had planned and I am typing this from a rather lovely motel in Airlie Beach.

The open road bit is lovely.  The AC is on full and the temperature is almost comfortable but as soon as you stop the car rapidly reaches a sweltering temperature. Sleeping in the back of the mobile oven once the AC is off is sticky to say the least.

Last night we stopped on a highway in the middle of nowhere and cooked a lovely

 steak with tomatoes and avocado salsa.  I felt very Keith Floyd and just wanted a nice glass of red and a bow tie to complete the look.

A word of advice when sunbathing in Australia, apply sun block liberally and pay close attention to the inside of your belly button.  Yesterday I was laying on the beach generously covered in factor thirty but I had failed to work the factor thirty into my belly button and I really paid the price.  I have burnt the inside of my belly button.

Finally, one quick Jo observation.  As we lay on the beach yesterday on Magnetic Island she came out with a classic.  A boy was walking towards a picnic table with his lunch of fish and chips and sadly just a few paces short of the table he dropped the box and fish and chips were strewn over the floor.  Quick to react he started scooping up the fish and chips back into the box and cited the well known 5 second rule.  Jo looked over and commented “Oh, I read in a magazine the other day that the 5 second rule doesn’t actually work.” “Oh” I say waiting for the explanation. “Yes they have proved that bacteria can easily attach to food in under 5 seconds”  Thank God for the complex research undertaken by the scientific journals she reads.  I am sure this was either New Scientist or Nature magazine she was quoting.  Or was it the Australian version of Heat?

In An Octopus's Garden

Yesterday we went out on the Great Barrier Reef and went diving around with all the little fishies. And big fishies. And sharks. And sting-rays. And turtles. And sea cucumbers. And stuff. It was lovely.

Last night we hot-footed it over to the Shrangri-La where Under The Table Dave’s friend, James manages the cocktailaroonies. It was lovely to meet such a nice chappy, and he whisked, muddled, shook and stirred us some amazing concoctions whilst we put the world to rights.  

Found Nemo

Today we start the big Road Trip. We are very excited about getting our new little campervan. We’ve gone with Jucy and managed to get a very good deal after quite a bit of negotiation. He/she won’t be Samson, but hopefully we will form a strong bond. We have 2,797km to do, so we should!! x