On our way from Airlie Beach to Rockhampton we stopped off for a game of bowls! first time any of us had played the game and its really quite hard - i have new respect for people who can play this game! our first few attempts our balls ended up nearer the games' next to us' white ball rather than our own! after a few attempts we were about 1m away from the white ball but by no means consistent! we had fun as you can see and ended on a draw!


Ok, so next stop was Rockhampton, beef capital of Australia so theres a giant model of a bull in the street! the town itself is not overly fantastic, a small high street with lots of shops but not much bigger than sevenoaks! theres also an industrial park and other high streets but its very much just like any other town!

It was here we went bush walking with capricorn Dave! this was the day after gav's birthday and the idea was to see as many poisonous spiders and snakes as possible! our first spider was a funnel web as shown - yes the guys crazy he loves holding poisonous spiders! one thing I learnt though is that all spiders have some sort of venon and can bite but most don't poison us, thank god! we saw so many spiders on this day, red backs, st andrews, garden orb, pearl ... loads, and i really have no fear of them at all anymore, after seeing how much they hate being handled and won't come near us they seem harmless really! we also saw black swans (dont have white ones here), turtles, green ants (gav tried licking his first green ants bum and i think he enjoyed it!!!), loads of different birds - was a really top day! The day actually started with a tarzan style swing into a billabong which was so refreshing because it was a really hot day. i really had to persuade gav to have a go, but eventually he did and he loved it! was so much fun, we've got funny videos of us doing tarzan screams and all!

After all that bush walking a insect hunting we had a mud bath, i was the only one to do it and my skin felt beautiful afterwards. exfoliating mud, then tea tree oil mud and then whilst washing it off we trod in amonst these reeds and it released oxygen bubbles so it was all bubbly and tingly! was really relaxing - who needs a spa!

ah, yes more spider hunting! this was the last spider we saw and the biggest, this is a huntsman spider, if it bites its like a bee sting. at first i had it on my hand then the guide dave said a really good picture is to have it on your face to i rose to the challenge and let it crawl up my face from my shoulder to my head! as you can see im really enjoying myself! it felt kinda funny, warm and incredibly soft! kinda cool huh!

we also went to visit the capricorn caves which was pretty cool, did a bit of a cave walk, walking amonst the formations of millions of years gone by! back on the road our last stop was at a meat eating at farm where the idea is to stamp on the ants nest, annoy all the ants then they come out and eat your feet! it took me a while to build up the courage to do this one, apparantly steveo from jackass lasted about 6 seconds! you have to brush the ants off from climbing up your legs so they form around your ankles and it looks like you have ant socks! the guy we were with lasted about a minute - i dont now how, i had a go and i think i lasted 3-4 seconds - it hurts! got a very funny video of that too!

just in time to watch the sunset we saw a family of kangaroos, even a joey poking out the pouch soooo cute! we also saw 2 kangaroos fighting, thats an image i won't forget, its hallarious! We had an absolutely fantastic day, big big big thank you to joe, sally, ian, steve, charlene and al for your prezzie which meant we could have such an adventureous day! we had an amazing time. love you guys!!

Back on the road, our next stop was at a cattle station. lots of stories here too! the first thing we did was have a go at the bucking bronco bull thing, gav did really well, he lasted 17 seconds - the longest out of everyone, of course hes jewels also felt the pain of victory! i didn't do quite so well, i only lasted 4 seconds but it was all good fun! doesn't gav look sexy with that hat on!