The Queensland adventure Day 1

Setting off for Queensland and an adventure which should see us:

1) tenting in the Bunya Mountain National Park for 3 days( haven't heard of it -me neither ,they have a lot of national parks!!),

2) cruising on a houseboat on the Great Sandy straits between Fraser Island and mainland Australia-near Hervey Bay,4 days looking out for dolphins and other wildlife

3)tenting on Fraser Island 3 days -4 wheel driving on island with no roads only beaches and sandy tracks

4) motel 2 nights and visiting Dreamworld -Aussie version of Disney/ Thorpe park-just for the kids obviously

The best adventure on the 2 hour plane trip to Brisbane was sitting next to a rather unusual gentleman .About twenty minutes into the flight , this character opened up his rucksack and produced a giant thermos flask like apparatus and began to unscrew the top of this strange device. All I could see as he huddled over it protectively were various white sockets and multicoloured wires. I flew back into my seat trying not to look like I was spying on him but aware the air hostesses were also giving him wary looks as they went about their business.

I decided after 5 minutes or so of not being able to see a damn thing , to risk leaning forward again , not sure whether I was about to reassure myself or begin worrying even more. This time all I could see as he sat huddled over his contraption was a big black letter B on the side of the flask.

At this point he turned to me and smiled saying " you put your earphones in at the side if you want to watch T.V "

Suffice to say we survived the flight unharmed and collected our hire car. The man behind the counter announced proudly that we had been upgraded and Grant began to wonder if indeed it had been a bomb on the plane and we were in fact in Heaven. However we were quick to realise that this had not happened as instead of the Lamborghini Murcielago God should have given us we were upgraded to the Toyota Camry . Still can't complain as it was a lot more spacious inside than the corolla we had booked.

After 30kms into the drive we saw a road sign that could only be possible in Australia. It listed the distances to various local towns followed at the end by a distance marker for Darwin showing 3537km or in English roughly 2500 miles ! Don't think we'll be doing a day trip there then on this holiday!

Eventually we arrived a little later than expected ,due to Bush road conditions and the odd dead squished kangaroo lying in the road at Burton's well campsite, high in the Bunya mountains. The other family whom we'd arranged to meet there were nowhere to be seen although eventually we found them in the pitch black huddled in their tent to escape the 40-50mph winds and freezing cold temperature . I can safely say that it felt more like a mountain in Scotland then one in Queensland . Bes then confirmed my worst nightmares that indeed the campsite only had a bush shower ( detail later ) and a composting Eco toilet . The only saving grace was that we were the only nutters camping here in the winter !

We raced into the tent and fought over the seats ,plates and ' head lice torches' as Ciara liked to lovingly call the Archard's head light torches they'd bought that day. Straight after eating the Archard children immediately fell asleep as if drugged by the sausage and lamb casserole ( it was only about 8pm) . Our children joined them if only to escape the cold and Grant and me were then exiled to a 2 person tent conveniently located just out of earshot to the main tent . The cold wind that night was a killer!