Stars and Snakes

G'day mates

Our Australian adventure is well under way again and we are making our way up to Cairns in our trusty steed. Our journey began in the Warrenbungle National Park (yet another place that a two year old seems to have named). It was a long drive to get there and yet again the McKinleys somehow found themselves putting up a tent in pitch dark. After 3 months of camping you would think we would work out when the sun goes down. However, it wasn't a total disaster arriving in the dark as there were hundreds of kangaroos who came out to witness our arrival. In Australia the warrenbungles is the best place for observation of stars due to the number of clear nights they have a year. The perfect place to do some bush walking and star gazing. The bush walking was spectacular as there were all these old volcanic rock formations that we could walk to the top of, slightly tiring but worth every bit of effort. It is harder to walk in Australia as it can be pretty hot! We went out with an astronomer one night and he had these huge telescopes that enabled us to look at Mars, Saturn (with her rings!!!) and the craters of the moon. Cool or what?!

The view over some of the Warrenbungles from the top!

Us at the top

Skippy


We then had a good few days at various beaches and took on the waves. We celebrated our anniversary in style at a 4 star bed and breakfast. (Jess refused to camp!) It was good though as we were treated like royalty and had these huge cooked breakfasts.

We then went to Mount Warning National Park which is the first place the sun hits in Australia as it rises. A gruelling climb takes you to the top where you are met with sheer rock face and a chain at the side to pull yourself up the last 500 metres. A bit different to hill walking at home... The view from the top shows you the contrast of where you are and where we were going to be in the next couple of days. Far in the distance we could see the high rises of the Gold Coast, which for anyone who hasn't heard of this before is the Miami of Australia. The high rises are built right on the beach edge and in the late afternoon they actually block the sun out! Anyway, before we left for the city we thought we would have one last encounter with the wildlife and went to a snake show that was being held in our campsite. They guy who ran the show turned out to be a real life Steve Irwin who looked like Billy Connolly (strange or what!) For just over 1 british pound each we had the potential to be killed by the 5 most deadliest snakes in the world. We thought this was money well spent. Gav held a python which isn't deadly but is still big! The scary thing was the guy told us that all these snakes are common to the bush area... crikey, we were walking in it the day before without a care. After leaving the snake show we were very careful where we took each step.

Top of Mount Warning with high rises in the distance (if you look closely)

Billy Connolly look-a-like and Gav


We are now staying just above Brisbane and this week a trip to the Glasshouse Mountains and Steve Irwin's Zoo are on the cards. I am sure the next blog will be full of Steve Irwin phrases and pictures of crocodiles.