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We finally made it up to Cape Tribiulation in the far north of Queensland. Our tiny car's mileometer is reading that we've covered over 2000 miles since we picked it up in Brisbane and this is our final destination before we fly back to Melbourne and start our journey home.

Cape Tribulation is where the rainforest meets the sea, which creates amazing beaches that wouldn't look out of place in a Bounty advert. We stayed in a wooden bungalow on stilts nestled amongst the rain forest and looking down over the bay. We spent our time lazing around the pool and swinging in our hammocks.

Eventually we crawled out of our amazing room and hit the beach for some sea-kayaking. We paddled out to a beach only accessible by sea, watching dolphins chase flying fish. Inquisitive sea turtles popped up to watch us, probably wondering why we couldn't keep our kayak travelling in a straight line.

After breakfast on the beach we entered full castaway mode and tried our hand at husking coconuts. We took turns in bashing it against anything sharp we could find and eventually got our sweet nut. The milk tasted a bit warm and apparently too much coconut gives you the shits but the satisfaction of getting free coconut was still worth all the effort.

The rainforest here was amazing and with no one else around at times it felt as if we'd stumbled into Jurrasic Park. None more so than when we came across an endangered Cassowary bird. Like a big black emu it just strolled straight by. Apparently they can be quite dangerous and Helen had read up on some safety information telling you what to do if confronted. Unfortunately in the heat of the moment this all got mixed up with the countless other warnings we'd read for Australian wild animals so just took a photo and buggered off.

The weather started to get a bit miserable after the Whitsunday boat trip so rather than head to another beach on the way to Cairns we took a detour out to the Atherton tablelands. The area is like a 'table', 600m above sea level. There are big crater lakes surrounded by rain forests, waterfalls create amazing freshwater swimming holes and with free BBQs this would be a perfect place to visit in the summer. Unfortunately for us it was all a bit too chilly so we had to settle for just looking from the side. After some creeping around the different lake walks we managed to spot turtles and even a platypus, another Aussie exclusive animal ticked off our list.

We ate dinner at a local hotel where we were told they served big steaks. Since we were pretty hungry from the days walking around the lakes we thought we'd check it out. It turned out there were only two options, eiher the 'Lumberjack' 1kg of beef or half a Lumberjack. As soon as my half sized meak arrived I wished they'd offered a smaller one. The plate was completley filled with steak, the salad and fries had just been hidden under it. After 30 minutes of chewing I started to get the meat sweats and thought it best to give up rather than cause my stomach irreversible damage. Just as we left a guy next to us recieved the full sized beast and he got the same plate filling portion, except the meat was folded in two. He's probably still working his way through it.

The Whitsunday sailing trip was something I've been looking forward to since we got here. Mainly because I can pretend to be a salty pirate but also because of the sweet snorkelling that can be done on the barrier reef. Helen wasn't looking forward to it quite so much, mainly becasue she's inherited her mum's sea legs and as such gets sea sick watching Finding Nemo.

We set sail onboard an old fashioned timber framed schooner called 'The Friendship'. With only 6 other shipmates with us it was really chilled out. Unfortunatley our skipper didn't look like Captain Birdseye nor Uncle Albert but he was a bonafide sea-dog who most likely pissed salt water. We rocked the evenings aways listening to his tales of the deep stuffing ourselves stupid with the fine cooking.

After two nights in the extremely small quarters and a servere bout of sea-sickness for Helen the trip wasn't all plain sailing (ho ho!) The snorkelling trips off the side of the boat were incredible though with fantastic coral and thousands of fish. We saw a few turtles coming up for air and visited some pure white silicon sand beaches. Another great trip, but we are both still rocking back and forth as we write this.

On our drive up to the Whitsundays we chanced upon Myella farm, a homestay in the middle of cattle county. With a diet of beer and steak we spent two days living the cowboy life. Helen has had lots of experience riding horses whereas my experience is pretty much limited to sitting on donkeys in Blackpool. With visions of spending the next two days trotting around on a sleepy old horse I told stable hand I was a 'brave' beginner.

The idea with these homestays is that the guests do all the normal work because it's a real novelty. This meant after saddling up and being shown the basic horse controls we were chasing after huge bulls and herds of cattle. In the afternoon a group of us had to control 'the mob' whilst 20 particular steers were separated from the rest. One of the workers chased out the ones he wanted whilst we kept all the rest in check. Now this is a meat farm and the lucky few must have known their fate because they went ape-shit. We both got stuck right in and had a wild time charging them down.

The next day we were taught how to ride motorbikes and rode dirt tracks around the farm, spotting wild kangaroos and watching the sunset. The time inbetween was spent milking cows, feeding calfs and joeys, throwing lasoos and observing some minor surgery on an infected cow. The whole stay was exhausting but truly one of the best things we've ever done.

Fully loaded with camping gear and a shovel for bush toileting we headed off in our tiny Suziki Jimny 4x4 to Fraser island. After hearing plenty of horror stories about people rolling self-drive cars into the sea or getting bogged down in the soft sand we were pleased to discover that driving around the island was amazing fun. With our trusty Vietnam war era soundtrack blasting out through the stereo it was awesome ploughing through the sand tracks. I began to look forward to any part of the track that was lumpy just to test out the car.

We camped directly on the beach miles from any other people with only hungry dingos for company (trying to barbeque food without attracting these wild dogs is pretty tricky). After dinner we took a short walk along the beach, then in the light of a full moon I asked Helen to marry me. After a brief spell of shock she agreed and we toasted our engagement to the sound of crashing waves.

We've driven over 2400km so far and the distances between places here are huge. So much so that little excuse is needed to take a break from the road. With this in mind we present the number of 'big things' we've seen so far. Obviously we'll be keeping our eyes peeled for more fiberglass monstrosities on the rest of our trip.

We've been really busy recently on our Queensland tour. After leaving Sydney we flew to Brisbane and picked up our rental car which we've now had for about 10 days, clocking up about a 1000 miles so far.

With little time to put full posts and pictures on, here's a basic run down of what we've been up to so far. If we get a chance we will hopefully elaborate on a few of these and add some pictures. In 2 hours our boat leaves for the Whitsundays and we still need to get our sailing booze so I'll be quick:

- Relaxed briefly in Byron bay and paid Nimbin a flying visit
- Spent a day in a deserted Wet 'n' Wild riding each slide over and over again
- Drove our own 4x4 through the sand on Fraser island without getting stuck once. Fought dingos for our evening bbq.
- Stayed on a homestay out in the bush. Rode horses, herded cattle, milked cows, threw lasoos and sped around on motorbikes.
- Fed, chased and almost run over Kangaroos

So it's off to spend 2 nights on a Schooner sailing around the Whitsundays... bye for now.

We joined Skanky on her flight back to Sydney for a few days in Australia's biggest city. Her apartment is on Bondi beach with an amazing 7th floor view looking over Harbour bridge and the opera house far in the distance.

Skank had booked off some time from work and acted as our resident Sydney tour guide. The weather here was a world away from Melbourne with bright sunshine most days. The Bondi-Bronte coastal walk was full of body beautifuls on their ritual workouts while we stumbled around trying to clear our red wine hangovers. The beach reminded us of something you might find in Cornwall rather than a Baywatch type affair. A pool built onto to rock face, fed by the seawater looked a pretty dramatic place for a morning dip, especially when giant waves crashed into its side spraying all those inside.

The city itself reminded us far more of London than Melbourne with its sprawling layout and hectic pace. After an interesting tour around the Opera house we took a ferry over to Manley, a northern beach resort. The views of the harbor from the boat were incredible and easily worth taking the ferry to see. On Manley we mooched around the beach and shops as the sun went down.

Driving around Sydney was done in style, courtesy of Monty, Skank's fancy new jeep. Whether driving around the beach or into the city we always felt uber-cool, especially on our trip out to Palm Beach, aka, Summer Bay. We took the obligatory photos outside the Surf Shack that even had 'A Stewart' noted as the chief steward above the entrance.

We met up with Nessie and Rowan last night for dinner, it was great to catch up with them and the whole stay with Louby has been brilliant. Our flight up to Brisbane is tomorrow and we can't wait to hit the open road for the next leg of our journey.

From KL to Singapore to Melbourne, we finally reached Australia after 23 hours of flying. The personal TVs were back in action making the flight seem really short. We stayed with Tan and Ben and the baby-bump on the outskirts of Melbourne. We luckily ran into Ben at the airport who had just returned from flying a Qantas jet to LA. So as well as being a pilot he also got chance to be our taxi driver for a few days.

Melbourne was really cold, just like a British winter, quite a shock to the system after 35C+ in Singapore. I think we both immediately developed colds. We spent our time walking around the city, taking in the museums and the great mix of new and old architecture. There's a great pub culture in Melbourne and we worked our way through most of the breweries plus a local beer tasting festival.

On Saturday night we witnessed a patriotic frenzy during the quarter final 'soccer' match between the Soccer-Roos and Japan. Australia got knocked out on penalties, a feeling us Brits are all too familiar with.

Louby (skank) joined us for the weekend to repeat much of the same drinking, eating and exploring we'd gotten up to so far. Despite the cold weather the barbies were still out in force and we ate our first snags by the riverside. We also pumped a few dollars into the pokies at the Crown casino (Australia's largest) until Helen got worried I'd blow our entire budget on the Blackjack tables.

It was great to stay with friends in the city and we got to see some great places we would never have discovered otherwise.

A sleeper train took us from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur for a quick overnight visit. 8 hours of snoring, bright lights and a bumpy track made us wish we'd got the bus instead.

Our first visit to the Petronas towers was part of the tourist trip to the sky-bridge. This took place in the middle of a thunderstorm, so though it was impressive the views were a bit spoilt. Luckily for us the company I work for has offices higher up on the 51st floor. I'd already made some plans to visit and after changing into some more respectable clothes we turned up on 'official business'.

This time the sun was shining giving amazing unrestricted views across the city. We managed to get up to the 83rd floor, it's pretty weird going up in a lift that high, your ears keep popping. After a certain height your legs start to wobble too. Even back on the ground we felt like we were on a boat.

The rest of our time was spent hoovering up local delicacies and chilling out by the hotel pool. Back to Singapore on the sleeper train we had our own private cabin. Complete with TV and our own private bathroom it was plushier than some guest house's we've stayed in.