Our Return to the Sunshine Coast, Australia

We're writing this from Indonesia after a few months in lovely Australia. A lot has happened since our last blog post as we spent some time back in the UK for a scorching summer (no really, it was gorgeous) seeing family, friends and our doggies! Josh had his birthday where I planned a lovely day out with Roxy, walking through the countryside to end up at a quaint pub. In reality it was a day of sweating, Josh having hay-fever and us both getting stung by ridiculous amount of nettles, but it wasn't all bad as we ended it with a glass of wine in hand. The reason we were back in the UK was for the lovely occasion of my sister getting married and it was such an honour to be part of a truly beautiful celebration. The wedding day itself, as you can see below, went perfectly with Sheena looking absolutely radiant and Stuart scrubbing up alright too. There was an Irish Dancing performance, a memorable dad-daughter dance and a photo booth I just couldn't keep myself out of, and it was a day we'll never forget. Our days spent at home went by in a blur and after a lovely holiday in Portugal with the Bellamy-Lees, it was already time for us to head back to Australia.  

Arriving back into sunny Queensland we were tourists once again with a short stop in Brisbane to get a car and our bearings. We shot up to the Fraser Coast with a trip to see Humpback Whales in Hervey Bay. The best time of year to see these whales in Australia is between June, on their northerly migration, to October, on their southerly return, so we were right on time. This meant we were lucky enough on to see countless mothers with their calves resting, playing and socialising in the calm ocean. The sun was shining as we sailed alongside the pure white sand of K'gari which looked all the better for the turquoise sea glistening beside it. We watched different groups  of whales breach, fin slap and play as they enjoyed the calm waters in the bay, even having one group swim a full loop around our boat to take a better look. It was a full day of laughter, tears and sighs of wonder as we saw so many of these beautiful creatures, even managing to see a delicate Minke Whale. Australia feels as though there is no end to the wonders it can offer and we certainly felt very lucky to have experienced such a lovely day, even if our faces were tomato red after being in the sun. 

After putting some aloe gel on our burns, we began preparing ourselves to return to planting trees for our farm work days. We were working for a fantastic company with great people and of course Badger the dog, which made our final eight weeks all the better. It was still incredibly tough work planting those little trees and we also did a lot of fertilising which entailed carrying 40kgs around on our waist, but Badger was always there to provide licks and entertainment. Due to the nature of the work, we got signed off for our visa for a full seven days even if we only worked five. This was as long as we worked every day the rest of the crew was in and it certainly helped us get our days finished quicker. It was spring in Queensland but my goodness was it getting hot with days topping 33C and leaving us exhausted. This meant we were starting at 4am but there was a silver lining, we would finish around midday and have time to nap in the sun by the pool. Friday was a fun day of the week as we regularly visited the slightly dreary Maryborough Cinema with our German friends to keep us sane. It wasn't all plain sailing, we did have a few tough moments with a crazy biker gang member, witnessing some hard drugs and burnouts on the driveway, but luckily we moved on to live in a trailer park with our very own tiny home. 

Spring is an exciting time for Australian nature as everything begins to stir after the mild winter. This means birds start to dive from the trees at your head if you get too close to their nests and although hilarious to watch, they can cause a lot of damage. Cable ties can be seen sticking up out of the helmets of bike riders in an attempt to confuse the birds, but most of the time you have to cover yourself with anything you can find. Spring is also when snakes become more active which is definitely not something to think lightly of. Australia has many of the most venomous snakes in the world and a lot of them live in Queensland, preferring to hang it in the bush which was exactly where we were working. One day I was playing with Badger when his ears pricked up at something in the grass and he went over to investigate. Usually it is only a hare or a mouse but this time it was a 2m long snake which reared up ready to strike. I was frozen in fear only a metre away but luckily Badger is a clever cattle dog and jumped back in time to avoid getting bitten. We later found out it was a Taipan, one of the most aggressive and venomous snakes in the world, which could have killed Badger in minutes. We also had to get used to snake encounters at our trailer park where the even more venomous Eastern Browns would tumble out of the garden. Luckily not all the animals in Australia are scary and we lived near a huge roosting colony of fruit bats which could be seen sleeping in the day by the river. One evening we returned at dusk to hear these puppies of the sky chattering to each other and watch the magical display of them leaving in their thousands to find some tasty fruit. It was beautiful to watch them leave until the trees were bare again, even if I did get bat poo in my eye. 

We couldn't be back in this part of Australia without seeing our Noosa family which we did almost every weekend. We would drive into view of Noosa and feel like we had reached paradise again, this place definitely has a place in our hearts. We had so much fun playing on the beach, drinking by the river and generally causing chaos with Josh getting so drunk one time that we managed to adorn him in fancy dress after he passed out. It was a sad day saying goodbye to Melissa and Joe who's time was up in Australia, but we know we'll see those crazy cats somewhere in the world cleaning out the bar of beer and bubbly. Eventually even our time in Australia was coming to an end although we were happy to finish our farm days, 88 days in total, we were sad to leave an area of the world we had enjoyed so much. Our next stop was a holiday to Indonesia where we were ticking off a few top places we didn't get to see the first time. The next blog post will talk all about our time diving, exploring and frolicking in Komodo and then our adventures in Nusa Penida and Nusa Lebongan.