Monotreme-tastic

Well, what a long time since I've written! You've all probably lost interest! The last couple of months have been a meander up the east coast of Oz (check out Pete's site for some earlier photos)... In summary: Pete bought a lovely surfboard (Floyd) and we've had fun falling off him - but not enough as the surf has not been kind; we've stayed in a big lovely house in Bellingen and have seen fruit bat colonies; we avoided all the drug-heads in Nimbin and stayed in a tent in a field; we ate ourselves stupid in Byron Bay; JANE ARRIVED (HURRAH!) and we've been leading her astray (more like her leading us astray); we got too drunk playing shark top trumps and ended up spending a lot of money on a swanky meal in Noosa; we visited the lovely Fraser Island - where it pissed it down on us for 3 days and we made some good friends by drinking lots of red wine with our group of 9 sat in a 4WD van; Jane and I spent the scariest night of our lives in Tinkerbell at the top of a big hill in Eungella National Park (there were werewolves looking in through the windows, we were sure); and we've just come back from 3 days sailing in the Whistundays where today I touched a 3-ft fish called Elvis whilst snorkelling. Just a few highlights.

A quick run-down of this lot as I've been to Queensland before, so a lot of the places (but not the experiences) have a touch of strange deja-vu for me.

There is one think I didn't do when I was over last time though and it really has been one of the best bits of Oz for me so far... we went to Eungella National Park and watched 2 wild platypuses swimming around below us. They're normally really shy but at Broken River they've become posers somewhat. Those of you familiar with my platypus obsession will understand how much that blew me away, seeing them - I had tears in my eyes! It was amazing.

Now we chill out here (in our 10-bed smelly dorm!!) for 2 nights until we escape north. I think we're going to check into a motel as we're all feeling decidedly old after all the alcohol and 18 year olds of the past couple of weeks (spending time with them, nothing else!). Yawn, where's my Horlicks?

Love to you all.