Janet and John Sign Off

Back to Melbourne for our last night before heading off we still managed to fit plenty in.

Firstly our last night out for beer and pizza in Brunswick. A great night had by all! We caught up with Craig and Eng, Susie and Ben Jones (sadly I got so excited about chatting to them all, I neglected to get a photo with them), Josh and the great Trudini. 

For our last full day we checked out the Old Melbourne Jail 

Before a last explore around town. 

So that's it for our Australian adventure. See you all again soooooon

Janet and John on a Roadtrip part 5

Our arrival back in Rockhampton marked the end of our epic road trip and what a nice way to end it. Janet's folks looked after us once again as we tried to make the most of our last day in Queensland.

My initial plan had been to walk the 12km footpath down Mount Archer only to find it was closed for the day for controlled burning. Instead we headed out of town to the Capricorn Caves, which is a dry cave system that is home to some do the worlds rarest bats and some cool Indiana Jone styly rope bridges

That evening we had our last night out in Rocky with Janet's friend Zac before a lovely meal with Janet's folks to end our stay.

Janet and John on a Roadtrip Part 4

Our last leg of our road trip was the twelve hour Townsville to Rockhampton leg via the beef road... Which for any non Aussie is via the middle of nowhere....

Our first stop was the fascinating mining town of Charters Towers. An original Aussie gold rush town it had some fantastic period buildings and the most attentive museum volunteers I've ever known....

The next leg after Charters Towers was a 380 km!!! Straight road to Clermont where apparently after 5 hours drive you still can't eat on a Sunday!. So after a quick stretch of the legs, we embarked on our drive to Emerald.

After another 4 something hours, we finally arrived in Rockhampton with a viewing tally of 4 wild Emu's, copious amounts of Kangaroo road kill, gorgeous skyline and amble air conditioning. Janet's folks were up to meet us when we arrived in Rocky.... More about that later.

Janet and John on a Roadtrip Part 3

After what was a much calmer return to land we hit the road for the Townsville leg of our trip. Janet's Nan Nola put us up in a lovely hotel for the few days and we set out to explore.

First up was the barrier reef aquarium and turtle hospital. This was our substitute for not actually making it out to the reef.

Lizzy in this picture was in the hospital after being hit by a propellor and being attacked by crocodiles...

Townsville was lovely but felt like the Newcastle of Australia. Every evening the town centre was descended upon by youngsters wearing very little. God I felt old....

The strangest experience was the day I doing the heritage walk along the old Main Street and realised whilst reading the info plaque that I was staring at a strip club! Honest Gov was reading the plaque...

This old building was designed by Tunbridge and Tunbridge which is close enough that I'm claiming it.

The nicest part of our time in Townsville was at Janet's Nan meeting five of Janet's cousins who were in town from the country for a bucks night (stag do) a great bunch of lads it was a pleasure to meet them.

I had a great walk up Castle Hill to stretch my legs before we hit the road for out next leg...

Yes I was as tired as I look...

Janet and John on a Roadtrip part 2...

Next up was one of the most exciting parts of our entire trip, our night camping on Whitehaven beach!

Janet had never been camping before so was quite wary when we arrived at Shute Habour to catch our water taxi to the beach. It didn't help that it was blowing a gale and raining for the first time on our trip....

This was before it got er... Interesting....

We were told the journey out would be wet but by the time we got to Whitehaven Island we were both a bit green around the gills! We settled into our campsite and were the only ones camping on the island!

It was busy during the day but in the evening we had the place to ourselves!

So in a rough order... Campsite

beach...

Goanna trying to eat our food....

private beach I found...

Sunset...

Following day...

Next stop Townsville!

Janet and John on a Roadtrip part 1...

Its been a while and it's our last night before catching our flight home but we finally have some internet!!!

So what have we been up too?!?

Well we were at Airlie Beach have just driven the 5 hours up from Rocky. We settled into our cabin on the strip in Airlie and set out to explore. Because we had the car we were able to drive the half an hour out to the Cedar Creek Falls in the National Park on the peninsula. It had been a wet few weeks in Queensland with the cyclone so it was perfect time for visiting falls

And Wight the weather being nicely warm we were able to go for a swim.

The area around Airlie Beach is lovely and we were able to find a few isolated windswept beaches.

But back to party Central we made the most of our evening by joining the backpacker scene for one last time before heading out to sea!

Janet and John are Silenced

In case you wondered we've been without any internet for the past few days and are not likely to have any access until Sunday.

Promise we'll update you as soon as technology allows...