there were 60-70 in one area of the golf coarse and many more inj other areas I do not know how you would play. pop all over

My batteries are dead in my camera so I have to wait and get them charged overnigh then I can download them to my computer . I got some good loreeke and kangeroo pictures on the golf coarse . so check in tomorrow

Oct 8 Monday Ballina to Arrawarra 3hr. 110 miles. Sunny this morning. We try to go to an Australian Art Center but it is closed on Mondays. We go to lluka world heritage park. I take a 3mile hike in the rainforest. What an experience all by myself, no noise ,exhilarating just listening to the birds chattering and calling. I never got a good enough look to take any bird pictures. We stop for lunch at Evans Head and have fish & chips. We are in Lorekeet Tourest park in time for the lorikeet feeding of bread and honey at 3pm. We see wild kangaroos in a field next door. We car pool it to a golf coarse a short distance away and see about 50-70 on the field. At 6pm most of us go for Chinese food. www.arrawarabeachholiday.com.au

We see many strange fruit to us

Oct 7 Sunday-Surfers Paradise to Ballina. Today we zig zag our way past numerous pristine beaches. We leave Queensland and are in New South Wales. We stop here and there at different beaches before meeting at tropical fruit world at 11am. www.tropicalfruitworld.com.au Here we get a train ride, Trolly ride,and boat ride through 500 different kinds of tropical fruit. At the end we get to taste many of them. Yum. We arrive around 3pm at Ballina Lakeside holliday park www.ballinalakeside.com.au We have a quick briefing and retire to our rigs It rains off and on all night. www.discouverballina.com

mama kangaroo & joey Lorrike fairy duster

Oct 6 Saturday a free at Surfers Parsdise. We watch the breakers roll onto the beach the length of the Gold Coast. Red and yellow flags denote safe patrolled swimming ares. There are 4 theme parks in town- Wet-n-wild, Dream world, currumlin wildlife scantuary, sea world and also Warner Bros movie world. We go to nun .We opt to stay on the beach and relax. There is an over abundance of highrises ,man made cannels, luxury homes and yachts. The Gold Coast also boast the greatest concentration of duty free stores in Australia. It has more than 500 restaurants offering every kind of international cuisine

Bindi(Terri) Irving was at the Australian zoo. Crocodile dundee's daughter

We see many funny signs this is Echidna's crossing. Kangaroo's on golf coarse

Oct5 Friday-Tewantin/Noosa to Surfers Paradise for 2 days. 147 miles 8 hours.this includes a stop at Australias zoo owned by Steve Irving. www.crocodilehunter.com and www.australianzoo.com.au Before we leave the park this morning I take a quick hike to see kangaroos on the gulf coarse across the street. What a sight. I found 6 of them . After a quick briefing we are off to the gold coast and the popular travel destination. We pass beautiful beaches, then go along the top of a mountain ridge overlooking both sides of the valley. After passing numerous wineries we finally arrive at the zoo. We are privileged to see Bindi .(Terri) Irving performing . Her mom and little brother were there too with oodles of kids as it is there Spring break. We watch a one and half hour show in the large Crocoeum that holds 1500 people. We walk around a little then leave early as we are afraid of rush hour traffic in Brisbane and it being a holiday weekend. We make it fine to Ocean Beach tourist park just across from the beach. Awesome. Surfers Paradise is just what is says . Tonight we go out for dinner . We get picked up and go to Nobby’s beach surf club. A great meal. They also drive us back.

Oct 4- Thursday Hervey Bay-Tewantin/ Noosa. 108 miles 3hours drive.A short drive today. Over half of us go on a whale watching tour. We board another catamaran-the Tasman Venture in Urangan boat harbour for a morning of humpback whale watching. They take us to the west side of Fraser Island this time seeing wonderful displays of whales breaching ,tail slapping and pictorial fin slapping and we listen to males singing when they lower a microphone. Very exciting. The only down side is that everything happens so quickly it was hard to get good pictures but the give every couple a CD to take home. We are late getting back and the rest have left but we have very good trip logs to follow. http://www.tasmanventure.com.au/ The tour was $89 each not included. We arrive at the Bougainvillia (Big 4) Holiday Caravan Park around 4.

we were surprised to see airplanes here too

More on Fraser Island- Fraser Island containd more sand than the Sahara. It is a words heritage site. It is 630 square miles and the largest sand island in the world. Fraser Island has no soil only the nutrients from the decaying vegetation feed the rainforest. It is a giant sand box for ATV’ers. It is famous for housing wild dingoes. We do not see any . One can stay on the island in luxury resorts, cabins or camp in campgrounds. http://www.fraserisland.au.com/

Josephine falls Murry falls and Dugon sign- We did see this animal in the ocean off the peer sorry some in twice as I didn't resize and can remember how to delete

One can really get carried away with Great Barrier Reef pictures. It sure was beautiful

I had time to post more pictures so here goes View from our room Cairns. Spoon bill on Espanade and boat we went to Great Barrier Reef on

Checking back I forgot to post September 26 so here it is way out of order Thankfully I have every day typted in Word.
Sept 26 Wednesday Cairns and Great Barrier Reef.-We are up early today as we meet at 7:35 for a full 9 hr. excursion to the outer Great Barrier Reef (Michaelmas Cay ). Breakfast first, a full buffet, hot and cold, complements of Fantasy tours. We sure do not go hungry. A short trip to Cairns marina and we board a huge catamaran “Ocean Spirit”. $189.00 each but it is included in out trip. After a pleasant boat ride we arrive at a sugar white beach and view the biggest living organism. It is the largest marine park in the world. A 1240 mile long underwater coral fairyland with electric coloured bizarre fish, warm water, and lots ofsunshine. The Great Barrier Reef is the only living structure visible from the moon. It is larger than the United Kingdom and larger than the Great Wall of China. We have 5 hours to enjoy Michaelmas Cay, a picturesque reef sand island surrounded by magical coral gardens teeming with an incredible diversity of marine life. Snacks, tea or coffee is included, latter a scrumptious buffet hot and cold lunch is provided. Bill and I take a half hour snorkel tour with a marine biologist. I get to test my new underwater camera .I can’t wait to download them. We also get a half hour tour on a glass bottom semi-submersible boat ride. We have an unusually low tide while we are here. A bird sanctuary is roped off for the birds protection as it is a nesting area. An incredible pristine environment. A visit here is an experience never to be forgotten. No wonder it is on the wonders of the world list.

Bill just about gets stuck in Capricorn Caves
Fraser Island

Oct 3 Wednesday Fraser Island. What an exhilarating day! A .bus picks us up an we head to the marina for the boat to Fraser Island. A quick boat ride gets us there. We get on a special vehicle made to drive in soft sand. We just start out and the clutch goes so off the busand wait half an hour in a gift shop (was this planned). We get on another bus and heading from Kingfisher resorts we go down the middle of the Island we can’t make it up a hill after 5-6 tries. The driver gets out and releases air from 60 to 30 lbs. We buck our way to the beach. Finally we are on the 75 mile beach hard sand. The tide is coming up and we are getting less and less sand. Very exciting as vehicles everywhere even airplanes. We take a break at Eli Creek and walk min the water. Then we head way out to the wreck Maheno. It is now 1:15 and past lunch so we go and get a buffet lunch ( included) Off to the rainforest next. We go on a one and half mile hike, after the guide explains the surroundings. What beautiful surroundings. Next is Lake Mackenzie where some people take a swim in fresh water. We are too late to make the 6 o’clock ferry they give us a longer tour and include dinner. Not a bad deal! We catch the 8 o’clock ferry back . I download todays pictures and get on line

Fraser Island. sorry pictures out of order

Oct2 Tuesday-Yeppon –Hervey Bay 7hrs 275 miles. We start off our day with a briefing at 7:30am . We stop at Coles as my watch has died. They said the battery was good but the watch needed an overhaul. So much for buying a Gussi. I buy a cheap $20 watch for now. We drive through Rockhamfort the beef capital of Australia. We continue on the Bruce Hwy passing pineapple fields and more sugar cane. We fuel up $90.53 @ $127 a liter. We stop at the famous Bauer’s for some meat pies. I walk the town of Childer and I find an internet café for $2.50 for 15 min. So I check my e-mail. Arrived at the Happy Wanderer Village park around 3.30. Maryann and I walk the beach again. I get 24 hours of WIFI for $8.00. We are here for 2 nights. Tomorrow we spend the whole day on Fraser Island. This is the 4 wheeler’s paradise. At 630 sq. miles it is the longest sand island in the world. A world heritage site. It is the only place in the world where tall rainforest are found growing on sand dunes. I gave the wrong web site for our rv’s here is the correct one http://www.maui-rentals.com.au/

Banana plant and cassowary crossing sign. We also see koala crossing signs


Oct I Monday-Mackay-Yeppon 6hr 224 miles. Today is Australia’s labor day. We pass many more sugar cane fields. Our only two stops are for fuel-$53.22 @ 1.39 a liter and to see the Capricorn Caves at our own expense $20 each. They are no where near as good as Carlsbad or Kartchner but we can say we have been in Australia’s caves. http://www.capricorncaves.com/ We stay at the Capricorn Palm Holiday Village Park 1 block from the beach. Maryanne and I walk the beach to stretch our legs. I log on for $5 for half an hour. That only allowed me to post about 10 pictures. I will try again tomorrow for 1 hour. At 6pm the park gives us all a fish fry. (box lunch style) It was very good . It included salad chips and desert plus all the wine pop or beer you wanted. We were bitten alive by mosquitoes.

areb we having a good time ? You bet we are. Here is our hone

Sept 30 Sunday-Townsville- MacKay 237 miles 7 hrs--Today is exciting as we go to the Billabong wildlife center. www.billabongsantuary.com.au They give us a hot breakfast with the animals. We get a ranger lead talk and we get our picture taken with a koala. I get a live boa wrapped around me .We scratch a wombats head and pet kangaroos and wallabies We finally get to see a live cassowary. What a beautiful coloured bird . We see a kookaburra and hear his call. What a fun 2 hours. We continue down the Bruce hwy and see lots of road kill ( wallabies) Now we know why a lot of Austrailian vehicles have roo bars on them. We arrive at The Park around 4. relax until the 6pm briefing for tomorrows journey. Still no WIFI for 2 more nights .A sign on the laundry room said to look out for swooping magpies.