It was on to Brisbane next. We spent three days there, managing to catch up with Jamie and Sue again. Like Sydney, Brisbane was also busy with preparations for the Olympics as many of the events are being held there. The centre of the city was a dusty mess of bulldozers and workmen, but we managed to find nice areas away from the noise and grit. The Botanical Gardens are a lovely spot, with a walk that takes you out over the mangroves at the edge of the river. Because of the sub-tropical climate, there’s a riot of brightly coloured flowers and birds. There are also many sculptures dotted around, most of which were commissioned for Expo 88 and purchased afterwards by the city. The site of Expo 88 is now a lovely park on the river’s edge. The Queensland Art Gallery was a great spot to while away a few hours on a hot day. It’s huge airy building with amazing water features and a wonderfully eclectic collection of artwork.

Our next destination was Bundaberg, because both of us are big fans of Bundy rum! Whilst there, we visited the Bundaberg Rum Distillery(the only thing to do in Bundaberg really) and purchased delicious aged rum. It’s almost possible to get drunk just by inhaling the heavenly fumes that waft from the huge wooden vats used to age the rum. The original distillery burned down in the thirties – and it’s not hard to imagine how quickly the place went up, fuelled by the potently alcoholic air. Tall tales abound about the intoxicated fish in the river after the vats exploded and the rum gushed out.

Bundaberg has a rather strange attitude to backpackers, perhaps because not many actually pass through. We had trouble finding somewhere to stay when we tried booking from Brisbane. Both the Youth Hostels said straight out nos because we only wanted to stay one night and weren’t planning on working. One referred us to the Grand Hotel, where we did manage to secure a room. Sadly, it was far from grand, although the cockroaches were huge, so perhaps the grand in the name refers to size, not grandiosity. Josh was kept awake by a domestic in the next room during the night. First a man knocked loudly on a door and yelled loudly at the room’s female occupant for about half and hour, then he started kicking the door. He kept this up for a while and then went away and got a chair to batter it with! Sarah managed to sleep through all this. She has been known to sleep through the noise of a car exploding so it’s hardly surprising! We must point out here though that the staff were all very friendly and locked our bags in their storeroom so we didn’t have to lug them around between checking out and getting on the bus. We watched the first of the Rugby League State of Origin matches between NSW and Queensland at the pub in the Grand Hotel. Queensland won by a point with a drop goal in the last minute, so as you can imagine, the crowd went wild! We were glad things went this way as it was easy to see that things could get nasty, after watching the amount of beer drunk by the local footy supporters.

Mackay. May 27^th to 29^th, 1999.

Following Bundaberg we travelled to Mackay. Mackay, although a very friendly town, was not what we imagined – our guidebook misled us and we were expecting beaches, or at least a beach. We walked for an hour to reach a windswept, seaweedy stretch of sand that was less than welcoming. To top this off, just as we arrived at the "beach", it started raining so we decided to find a pub instead. The same evening we had a rather surreal experience. We went out for a meal and a few drinks. Mackay is not known for its great restaurants so we ended up at the Hog’s Breath Cafe, eating greasy chicken burgers at exorbitant prices. While at the restaurant, an intoxicated local invited us to her son’s birthday party at a night-club across the road. We figured it was worth checking out. Unfortunately, it transpired that her son was celebrating his 18^th birthday with his friends of the same age. 18 is the legal drinking age in Australia so it was a big night for him, but we decided we had better things to do than boogy on down to bad Eighties dance music with drunken teenagers. While walking back to our hostel we saw bright lights and heard lots of noise coming from a small stadium at the end of the road. Intrigued, we walked up to the gate and stumbled across greyhound racing. The man at the gate was amused that we’d never seen greyhound racing before Apparently it’s a big thing in Mackay. He invited us in to watch as guests. The place was full of owners, trainers and gamblers and much money was changing hands. Lots of alcohol was being downed and there was a general party atmosphere. We decided that since we didn’t know anything about any of the dogs, we would remain spectators. Those skinny, scrawny-looking dogs can sure move!

After Mackay, we travelled to Bowen, or more precisely Horseshoe Bay, just out of the town - a top spot aimed more at local holidaymakers than backpackers. This was a welcome relief from having people continually trying to sell us tours and daytrips. We stayed at the Horseshoe Bay Resort (read "Holiday Park") in one of their on-site caravans and passed our time swimming, snorkelling and generally relaxing. Horseshoe Bay is a beautiful, sheltered little beach with white sand, fringed with palm trees and surrounded by huge boulders. On the town side of the boulders is a long sandy stretch of beach that goes on and on and which is perfect for long rambles at sunset. On the other side of the bay is a large hill. From the top, you get a great view in all directions and a rocky path leads down to another bay with some wonderful coral formations. It was the first time either of us had snorkelled properly and it was good practice for the rest of our time in Queensland. We were befriended by the resident wallabies and we enjoyed delicious meals at the local beach cafe, under the palm trees and the stars. We discovered why no-one else was swimming in the evenings – we charged into the water only to discover that it was thick with small sting-rays!

From Bowen we travelled directly to Magnetic Island off the Townsville coast. Captain Cook named the island Magnetic because upon discovering it, his ship’s instruments went crazy. It was later discovered that the island is not magnetic, but by that time the name had stuck. The island is a rock really so the main attraction is the sea. We hired a Mini moke (a bit of nostalgia for us, having owned three Minis between us) and drove around visiting the beaches and the old hilltop fortress. The long hot climb to the top was worth it. We saw a koala sleeping happily in a tree - the first time either of us has seen one outside of a zoo or wildlife park. The views from the top of the hill out across the Pacific Ocean were stunning. The water was clearer than at Bowen so we ended up sunburned from spending hours at a time in the water, dazzled by the beautiful colours of the coral and the sheer numbers of impossibly coloured tropical fish. After we left we discovered that the local rangers regularly catch 3m tiger sharks off the bays and that there are no shark nets. Not only that but they bait sharks with large chunks of mackerel on huge hooks. Let’s hope the sharks prefer mackerel to humans. This said, no one has reported a shark attack off Magnetic since 1927 and there has not been a fatal shark attack in the island’s history. We obviously made it out without being eaten.

On our last day on the Island we splashed out and took a tour to the Great Barrier Reef - the Kelso Reef to be exact. What a mind blower! Forget stories about the reef being damaged beyond repair – it is so vast that there are always areas that have been storm-damaged or attacked by natural predators such as the crown of thorns starfish, but there are just as many areas which are untouched or have regenerated. The reef is incredible! It teems with life and the water is crystal clear. The tour company we used have a pontoon moored on the reef from which they do short excursions in glass bottomed boats along with fishing and snorkelling. We did the glass boat thing first to get an idea of the place and then agerly jumped in the water with masks and fins which are provided for you. It's an unforgettable experience and we highly recommend it. We could go on at great length but suffice to say that you can see everything that's happening around you and that there is a great variety of wildlife. The coral comes in colours you wouldn’t think possible and to swim with fish as long as you are is a great feeling. The water is so clear that it is impossible to tell how deep it is. It seems close enough to touch but in places it is up to ….ft deep. We also went fishing. The only person to catch a fish was the guide - a nice big coral trout. Sarah said that she would have felt guilty catching one after swimming amongst them anyway.

The following day we bussed to Cairns and flew to Darwin. We'll go back to the north Queensland coast because we really didn't allow ourselves enough time to see it properly. It sounds stupid but you don’t realise how big Australia is until you travel by road. So much time is spent between towns and cities and it is hard to judge how much of your time will be spent travelling. The flight to Darwin was short though we did have drama at the airport. We failed to realise that the flight was the first leg of an international to Singapore so the airline were not pleased with us turning up thirty minutes before departure. We had to dig around for our passports as they rushed us through customs, all the while telling us we should have been there an hour ago. In our defence, it didn’t say anywhere on our tickets that we had to check in as for an international flight and it was obvious we weren’t the only ones to make this mistake as the take-off was held up by people arriving even later than us, minus their passports!