We parked at my lovely friend's lovely place near the Glasshouse Mountains for a few days. It was lovely to have a home base, and we even borrowed her car a few times to go to out rather than moving the whole motorhome up and back down the very steep driveway. The first time, coming in, was a bit dodgy - at one point the motorhome was leaning alarmingly to one side, so much so that I stood well away while helping to direct Nick in so that it wouldn't fall on me if it did indeed fall. It didn't.

Our kids played with her kids and had a ball. They had one school day while we were there, so our presence was a bit disruptive (knowing there are kids playing at your house with your toys while you aren't there - although we made a point of announcing that we would be out and unavailable for the day while they were at school). Once we got over the hump though, it was really great to be there. My friend is 20 weeks pregnant with twins, which is so exciting. Maybe the plane ticket fairy will deliver me a ticket to fly back to visit her and help out at the end of June or beginning of July when those babies join us on this side. That would be excellent. I looooooooooove babies, and a double dose would be so good for my soul. Oh yeah, and it would be good to be able to help as well, to make this not completely about me. I'm a tad self-absorbed if we're being honest.

I'm pretty sure I had the best cup of coffee I have ever had in my life at The Upfront Club in Maleny. Worth noting, so there you go.

After a wonderful birthday party at the beach at Caloundra yesterday, and after a swim in the deliciously warm ocean, we camped on a back road. For some reason our toilet was so stinky that Nick had to remove the toilet cassette overnight and of course emptying it was our first priority this morning. We woke up at 6:30 to cars all around us, which we thought was odd as we were near a scout hall and cricket club. Driving away, we saw that there was a farmers market on just down the road. Aha.

Also worth noting: We have now lost three pairs of shoes. Among other bits and pieces. Lost shoes #1: Eli's crocs. Well, croc-like shoes, but the cheap version. We noticed at our next stop after McLean that he no longer had shoes in the motorhome, and recalled them sitting on the table where we had had lunch. Lost shoes #2: My black Haviana thongs. This wasn't a great tragedy, because I'm pretty sure mine had been inadvertently switched with someone else's while we were staying with our friends in Sydney, before we left. There were always so many pairs of black Havianas there, and I noticed one day that mine seemed to be more worn than they had been, and a bit too big. So I wanted new ones anyway, and accidentally leaving them on the beach at Byron and not being able to find them when I went back for them was an excuse for new ones that fit. Lost shoes #3: Nick's new (less than a week old) crocs that he bought to replace the ones with holes in the bottom. He left them (and one of our water bottles, bummer) at the park where the birthday party was yesterday. They were gone this morning.

I was hit hard with some sort of sickness last night. Sore throat like swallowing razor blades, I couldn't sleep because every time I swallowed, which you do way more than you think you do, I was shocked painfully awake. A bit of a fever. I woke up rough, and we decided to drive up to Noosa and find a place where we could just hang out and I could rest and sleep and get better so that tomorrow I can be back to normal.

We got to Noosa early, before 8, and were amazed at how busy the town and beaches already were. The beach was packed! All of the carparks were full. We had a nice drive around and noted the natural similarity to Byron Bay. Gorgeous. But I needed sleep, so we found our home for the night. Other than realising that I was indeed being repeatedly bitten by a mosquito and hunting it down, I had a nice sleep. Eli napped with me a bit later on.

We are getting to a really exciting place for me. I have been looking forward to Noosa, and I'm looking forward to checking out the town and beaches tomorrow. We're getting very close to Fraser Island which is a place I have wanted to see since before my first trip to Australia when I was absorbed in pictures and stories of the land down under. The largest sand island in the world, home to the purest dingoes, only accessible with a 4WD. I learned yesterday that there is an Eli Creek there, so we'll have to check it out. I'm not sure what our best bet is for getting there. I'm thinking that a tour would be a better bet than hiring a 4WD since neither of us have any sand driving experience, and having a commentary would be interesting for the kids rather than being in just another beautiful place.

The reef isn't far off either. Wow, the Great Barrier Reef. I want to do a tour thing on a semi-submersible where the bottom of the boat is underwater and you look out at the reef through a glass wall, rather than a glass-bottomed boat. Nick was reading about one tour that spends 5 hours at the reef and includes snorkeling gear and a buffet lunch (never hurts). Not cheap, but this is once in a lifetime stuff after all.

My number one draw is to Cape York, the northernmost tip of Australia. It is impressively far from where the paved road ends, and there are lots of options for getting up there. You can hire a 4WD which we wouldn't do with kids - actually we probably wouldn't do it without kids either as some of those river crossings are scary enough without the possibility of crocodiles. There are week long tours that drive you up and either fly or boat you back down, but the kids would be miserable sitting in an off-roading vehicle for 4 hours a day. Nick suggested that, since I'm the one who really wants to get up to Cape York, maybe I should just do it on my own and do a one-day tour. This flies you up at a low altitude (billing itself as the "longest scenic flight in the world"), gives you some time at Cape York, and flies you back down higher up and quicker. Sounds perfect. Well, as perfect as we're gonna get travelling with kids. I think perfect would be doing a longer tour and getting up to Thursday Island as well. So Nick looked into that option a bit today, and I was supremely disappointed to learn that such a one day tour would set us back around $1100 for one person. Eek. Can't justify it. I'll keep looking and see if I can find anything else, but I'm thinking I'm going to have to count out Cape York. Bummer.