Day 169 - Mon 24th Aug: The hostel, Brisbane

Temperatures soared today, with Brisbane hitting it's highest winter temp in ages. The mercury hit 35c (it's meant to be freaking winter!), which is 10 degrees higher than the average for this time of year. Given the heat, I didn't do much today. Here's a pic of the rooftop swimming pool at the hostel.

Day 168 - Sun 23rd Aug: Noosa Heads

A quiet day spent surfing this morning; general pottering around in the afternoon so lacking in photo opps. But hey, here's another sunset! (The PSC: 48)

Day 167 - Sat 22nd Aug: Noosa Heads

The trip's picturesque sunset counter (The PSC) now reads: 47

This one's over Noosa Heads

Day 166 - Fri 21st Aug: Lake Birrabeen, Fraser Island

Got the 'artsy' photographer's hat on today: some seed thing on the beach at Lake Birrabeen.

Did you know that Fraser Island is considered to be the world's largest all sand island? FACT!

Day 165 - Thurs 20th Aug: The Maheno Shipwreck, Fraser Island

I'm suffering from bloggers dilemma today...too many candidates for pic of the day! The view from Indian Head - awesome; the sunset at the jetty - awesome; pics of crashing waves - awesome. But I've gone with this one of the Maheno Shipwreck. As I'm a slightly lazy blogger at times, I'll just post a link for more info on the boat: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maheno_(ship)

Day 164 - Weds 19th Aug: Lake McKenzie, Fraser Island

There's so many good photo opps on Fraser Island. This is the white sand beach down by Lake McKenzie - a fresh water lake that's been created only via rainfall.

Day 163 - Tues 18th Aug: Agnes Water to Hervey Bay

Mmmm....bit of a quiet day today as I made my way to Hervey Bay. So quiet in fact that I took no pics, so here's one from the beach yesterday evening.

Day 162 - Mon 17th Aug: Flying over Agnes Water and 1770

Went for a flight in a lightweight aeroplane around this awesome coastline. Bruce (the pilot) even let me have a (quick) go at flying the plane!

Day 161 - Sun 16th Aug: Scooterooing around Agnes Water and 1770

This guy in Agnes Water (Hot Rod, he's got an awesome handlebar moustache) runs this motorbike-kangaroo-watching-tour-thing and you get to ride these bikes around the towns of Agnes Water and 1770 for a couple of hours. Saw some kangaroos and sunset over the ocean, blah, blah, blah. More importantly I got to do some catalogue posing on my bike.

Day 160 - Sat 15th Aug: On an island somewhere in the Whitsundays

Went for a morning walk around one of the islands (can't remember which one) on our last day on Condor. No pure white sand at this beach still an impressive place nonetheless.

Day 159 - Fri 14th Aug: Whitehaven Beach, The Whitsundays

Holy coastlines Batman! We cruised on up to Whitehaven Beach (99% pure silica sand) and there were soooooo many good photos taken today, it was tricky just picking one. Here's an arty driftwood type one.

Day 158 - Thurs 13th Aug: On Condor, The Whitsundays

Today saw the start of a cruise on a boat called Condor, around the unbelievably scenic Whitsundays Islands. Here's Captain Mikey explaining something at sunset time.

Day 157 - Weds 12th Aug: En route to Airlie Beach...

...but I didn't take any pics today. Time to dig into the recent back catalogue - here's a novelty warning sign from Magnetic Island.

Day 156 - Tues 11th Aug: Bungalow Bay Koala Park, Magnetic Island

Koala bears are all the rage on Magnetic Island. The Koala Park on the island allows you to get up close and personal with them - cliched touristy picture of me holding koala bear has been taken.

Day 155 - Mon 10th Aug: Bungalow Bay YHA, Magnetic Island

These rainbow parakeets are loud, hungry and poop. A lot.

Day 154 - Sun 9th Aug: Reef HQ, Townsville

Townsville is a bit of a dead end town, and there's not much going for it, except the aquarium. Look at all those fishes!

Day 153 - Sat 8th Aug: Coconut Beach, Dunk Island

Another day, another stunning beach! C'est la vie!
Went for a pretty cool walk around Dunk Island, climbing up a big hill, walking down via a rainforest and then ending up at this beach.

Day 152 - Fri 7th Aug: Mission Beach

Overcast day and not up to much today...but here's a view of Dunk Island. I'll be heading over there tomorrow.

Day 151 - Thurs 6th Aug: The Great Barrier Reef

They should upgrade the name of this place the Awesome Barrier Reef! I went on one of those day trips from Cairns and went diving with a hired underwater camera. It's tricky to get great pics down there, but here's one of my best snaps.

Day 150 - Weds 5th Aug: Was in Cairns but...

...the place isn't proving the most inspirational to take pictures. Here's one from the back catalogue - a bored looking dog down at Cape Trib.

Day 149 - Tues 4th Aug: Jungle Surfing, Daintree Rainforest

Still poor weather today, so no chance of a boat trip to the reef so headed to the Daintree Rainforest for some jungle surfing (zip lining through the forest). Don't worry mum, it was all safe. Here's me going upside down. Did you know that the Daintree Rainforest is the world's oldest at 120 million years old (the Amazon's only 40m years old)? FACT!

Day 148 - Mon 3rd Aug: Cape Tribulation Beach

Cape Tribulation is meant to be one of the most picturesque places in the world. Bright blue skies, great beaches, crystal clear waters, etc, etc. But for the whole time we were there it was cloudy with spots of rain. The weather was so bad today that they cancelled our boat trip out to the reef. Rubbish! Here's two random guys coming back to the (grey and slighly miserable) beach.

Day 147 - Sun 2nd Aug: Cape Tribulation

Went up to Cape Tribulation with my friend Anita for a couple of days, so we could go see some of the Great Barrier Reef from there. On our first day we did a bit of sea kayaking - cue overenthusiastic photo posing.

Day 146 - Sat 1st Aug: Cairns

Wow, August already! There's not a great deal going down in Cairns; here's some coral reef related sculpture down by the outdoor paddling pool.

Day 145 - Fri 31st July: Flew to Cairns but...

...this isn't Cairns. Got the 5am flight from Darwin to Cairns and didn't take any photos today. So, here's a recent 'filler' photo from the harbour area of Darwin in the daytime.

Day 144 - Thurs 30th July: Mindil Beach, Darwin

There's a sunset market down at Mindil Beach in Darwin, here's the view from the nearby beach.

Day 143 - Weds 29th July: Darwin Harbour

Call that IKEA prints salesman again...I've got another pic he might be interested in; this time it's the sunset down by the harbour area in Darwin.

Day 142 - Tues 28th July: Twin Falls, Kakadu National Park

Oooh! Waterfall!

Day 141 - Mon 27th July: Ubirr, Kakadu National Park

Loads of aboriginal rock art down at Ubirr - but check out this view from the top of the rocks.

Day 140 - Sun 26th July: Mary River Wetlands

What's a crocodile's favourite card game?

SNAP!

"I'll have a crocodile sandwich please....make it snappy"

Any more?

Day 139 - Sat 25th July: Top Didj & Art Gallery

This is Manual, he's an artist that paints in a traditional aboriginal way. He taught us how to use grass paintbrushes and a patterned line style to create our own mini-masterpieces.