Up to and including Kakadu

Magnus and Dad in the river at Lawn Hill National Park where we saw our first crocodiles.

Willows face here sums up our amazement of the Undara Lava tubes, where we went on a tour to see the caves.

Willow and Seamus working up a sweat in the Innot hot springs.

The boys playing on the rocks of Mataranka.

All the boys have caught quite a few fish, but this nice big brim of Magnus's was the only one we took home, and he was delicious.

How crazy is this highway on the ocean?!


Magnus swimming in Cairns



Magnus and Seamus 'plotting' at Tully Gorge.

These free water playgrounds seem to be everywhere in Queensland. Here is Willow and Seamus waiting for the bucket to fill and tip, and Magnus, running from the tipping bucket. - Jon

At the top of the 'Bruce'

We made it to Cairns today, at the top of the Bruce highway, which I think is like some kind of funny monty python thing. This will be where we part from the sea and head inland for a while. We have driven through about a thousand kms of sugar cane. Danielle and I reckon that the only two jobs in Queensland were cutting cane and selling xxxx Gold. She reckons its everyones job to drink it though. We saw our first Cassowarie from a distance, and although we have seen lots of signs on the beaches warning against crocs, we haven't seen any yet. We did some swimming yesterday in Tully Gorge. But it was raining, so we left that area. Tully Gorge is Australias wettest are, getting almost three times Bellingens anual rainfall (four metres!!), so it is little wonder that we ran into a bit of wet. Hope you are all well, Jonathon.

We stayed in Airlie Beach for a few days, but it was more like a backpackers Mecca than a nice spot to relax. We drove north to Bowling Green National Park, just outside (20km South) of Townsville. There is a rather stunning river here, which is pictured, and I have never seen so many very large fish. There are also turtles here. There are of course, also bush turkeys and goannas. I have also included a couple of pictures of some more unusual birds. One was like a cross between a pigeon and a hawk, the other was a blue kookaburra, which is some kind of king fisher I guess. Mum or Tosh might know what they are.
We went today for an excursion into Townsville, and made the day very big and touristy by going to the Aquarium AND the Museum. It was a very long day, but we all had a great time.
Tomorrow we are heading North again, up to another beautiful gorge, about 200 kms away. Internet access in these national parks is a bit (or a lot) impossible, even with our wireless internet, but when we move into town next, I can add some more pictures.

Into the thick of Queensland

(As we are on the road, content on our blog will often look rushed, like we might be running out of battery on our laptop.) (A Quick disclaimer for the previous post:)

We stayed at a small town last night, where we saw our first cane toads. When the boys excitedly found the first one, I got the camera out, but as you can imagine, he was fairly uninteresting. Made more so by the 80 or 90 that we saw in the next ten minutes! We are now in Airlie Beach, in the Whitsundays, though we haven't been here long enough to look around yet. Either our turkey mates are following us, or there are millions of them everywhere you go. Yesterday at our fuel stop, we encounted an emu which very much wanted to know what was going on in our car much to the boys delight. When we have had a look around, and have some pics, I will put them up. We are trying to find a good Island to live on for a few days.  - Jon.

The Journey Begins!!

Here are the boys in a tree at Wreck rock, just below 1770. This is the best place any of us have ever been i think. It really is paradise.

We got very badly bogged and had to camp the night by the car before being rescued by the NRMA. Seamus took the opportunitty to make a little mud man, which he left for the next people. Magnus just got muddy.

This lizard and his turkey mate were our pets in the first national park we stayed at in Queensland. We stayed for 3 days before moving off to

This is at the bottom of Mt Warning.

The easter hat parrade

We're ready to go!!!!

Tomorrow is the last day of shcool, and we're heading off for 4 months around Australia. Should be a bit of blogging as we go, but just showing you all our car canopy which Danielle and I made. It opens on three sides, to get stuff in and out easily

More from the road.......