Central and Southern Queensland

It was a last minute decision to go the Tablelands and Atherton. Although very close the coast and wet tropical forests, it was much dryer here, rich red colours soils became more prevelant. Being dryer, it was more suited to farming. We stopped at a mango winery(!), peanut farm shop and went to a food festival. It was similar to a British one, minus rain and wind!

At the town of Yungabarra, we spotted wild platypus at dusk. From here we went to a picturesque little lake with “bottom breathing” turtles. They seemed to be using their mouths though! We had also heard that tree-kangaroos were in the area. We had to give up looking after hours of trying to spot them!

On the coast we stayed at a number of coastal towns;

Mission beach;
Beautiful narrow beach with quiet town. We stayed at jackeroo hostel nestled in the forest. Olly almost walked straight in to the web of a 40mm long spider!

Airlie beach;
Backpacker-heavy town with great public lagoon which offered swimming without jelly fish! Was also a gateway for the…

Whitsundays;
We took an entertaining 1 day trip which included reef snorkelling (we saw turtles, anemony fish and many others we saw previously), a tour of the islands and an afternoon on one if the best beaches in the world, Whitehaven beach.

Seventeen Seventy;
Very small but chilled village, we did a 3 hour surf lesson in warm shallow waters.

Rainbow beach;
Massive beach which 4×4 vehicles drive up to access Fraser Island. We relaxed for a day and visited the impressive Carlo sand dune.

1770 mangrove

…and another!

Scary looking spider! (Golden orb)

Curtain ficus tree

Giant sand dune near Rainbow

Certified surfers!

Mmmmm peanuts

Whitehaven fish

Whitsunday turtle

Whitsunday boat/hairdryer