QUEENSLAND: All critters great and small

It all started when an old man named 'Red' gave us a lift to the garage in his 'Ute'. It finished just after seeing a giant fish called 'Wally' on the ocean floor. In between, our road trip has taken us up the 'Bruce Highway' along the 'Sunshine Coast', and we've even followed directions to "turn left at the Koala Garage." You couldn't get much more Australian - except perhaps for the kangaroo that came skipping out of the bush and bounced around our campsite.


In the last twelve days we've clocked up 2640 kilometers between Brisbane and Cairns in a rented campervan. I've not always been the keenest of campers - as my parents will confirm - but having our own home on wheels has given us a lot of freedom. We've stayed beside an ocean beach, up a misty mountain, on the edge of a rainforest and, perhaps less exotically, at the end of an RAF runway. We've also eaten an awful lot of barbecues - and been eaten by the mosquitoes.

The highlight has been Queensland's National Parks, and seeing all its amazing wildlife. Although it sometimes meant walking for hours and braving the odd tropical rain shower, we've ticked off all the big names from our list - kangaroo, koala, kookaburra, possum, platypus, parrots - all seen in the wild. At one slightly worrying point we thought there was a crocodile following us down the river - but turns out it was just a menacing looking log. Yesterday we then went underwater - at the Great Barrier Reef - and that's where we saw 'Wally' - more properly known as a Hump Headed Maori Wrasse.

We’re leaving Australia tomorrow, but we've decided we'll probably carry on camping in New Zealand - at least for the first few weeks. Before the emails begin - I would however like to assure members of the Griffith family that this is not a sign of things to come in later life, its probably just a phase I'm going through, and there's no need to sign us up for the Caravan Club, just yet...