Síle & Bruce’s Travel Blog

So it’s been ages since we’ve last written and we done loads so I’ll try to fill you in on the adventures!

We left Cairns and headed straight to Townsville to stay with Bruces friend Phil and his lovely girlfriend Jodie. Our plan was to make a quick buck then get travelling again, but we ended up staying 3 weeks and woring in a fruit processing factory for 7 days - my gosh it was depressing, and we had to pretend that we “loved” the work and that we were gonna hang around for another 8 months!! Anyway, we had fun in Townsville, camping with Phil, Jodie and Chris was awsome, thats where we jumped into waterfall, it was beautiful! And not forgetting that BBQ …

So after Townsville we heading back up North a little to the Atherton Tablelands. It was beautiful, Bruce spent a lot of time fishing (or at least trying his best to fish). After winning a meant tray (16 sausages, 4 meatball typr things, 5 lamb chops and 2 MASSIVE steaks!), next on the plan was Airlie beach, this is where everyone spends far too much money to go snorkelling or diving on the Whitsunday Islands! We went for a cheapo trip on a sailing boat and had the best time. We were told to look out for whales but didn’t really think we’d see one, but, sure enough, about an hour into the trip the captain saw some in the diatance. As we got closer we could see it was a baby and mother. The baby was jumping all over the place - it was awesome. But then the mother came leaping out of the waves, incredible - eveny the crew were amazed saying they had never seen anything like it before. Even though the snorkelling was rubbish the whales made the day brill!

Then came Fraser Island - a MUST! A friend from uni, Rick, happened to be in Melbourne so flew up to Hervey Bay to meet up. The 3 of us hired a 4×4 for 3 days and headed of to Fraser Island, I had never driven one before but have now decided I’d very much like one and a big field to drive it in. Fraser Island is the biggest sand island on earth, with beautiful fresh water lakes with pure white sands through out it. We may not have had showers, we may not have had toilets, we may have been living off tinned food, but my gosh did we have fun!

JUst when we though things couldn’t get a whole lot better they did - AUSTRALIA ZOO! Ok so it wasn’t cheap to get in but it’s worth every single penny and more - I mean you can (kinda) get your photo take with Steve Irwin! Its just outside of Brisbane and you couldn’t miss it! you’re met with a huge billboard, it’s akinda Irwin/animal montage! Inside it’s really well done, of course you kinda have to get into the Irwin way of thinking, but it’s also a lotta fun! We went to watch one of the ‘Shows’ and I was completely blown away. Was nice is that the whole thing is really conservation and education heavy without being, well … heavy! This could have be my favourite day in Oz so far!

Next came Sydney, it was only flying visit really, just 2 days. We saw the Opera House and a very flexible lady fit herslef into a small box!

We’re just on our way down to Melbourne, we want to get good jobs and live somewhere that has a built in toilet and shower! We’re both doing well and looking forward to getting settled somewhere for a change!

We love you all and love hearing form you
xxx

Hello all, Just a very quick one.

We left Bali of the 18th of June, and to be honest, we would have loved to have stayed a little longer! We flew from Bali to Darwin and the in-flight meal was … wait for it … MEAT PIE! It was honestly the best airplane food I’ve ever had, and an awesome introduction to Australia!

Bruce got stopped by immigration, I was very excited and was hoping that we may be taken into the interrogation room! It was due to his terrorist style beard … and the small matter of a drink driving charge a few years back. But within a few mins we were out and hanging around the airport for 4 hours waiting for a flight to Cairns.

We got ot our hostel and went straight out on the Campervan hunt … nightmare! We’ve walked the whole of Cairns about 6 times now. But, yesterday we finally got the keys to our very own van! The only slight issue is the fact that it’s bright red, but other than that its a very “good runner”.

Oz is very expensive, it’s hit us a little harder than we thought it would. We even think it’s more expensive that London!

The hostel experience was interesting , I couldn’t do it for much longer though. Very noisy and not much going on. Although we met a few decent guys there … and some VERY racist Americans too!!

We’re off to Port Douglas, just north of Cairns, tomorrow morning. It’s meant to be very beautiful so looking forward to getting the van on the road.

We’ll get the rest of our pictures up shortly, can’t wait to show all of you our van!

Love and you all

xx