[Our cabin]

This being water week, we're off to an aquarium today. Not just any old aquarium, but the biggest in the Southern Hemisphere. Iain saw a documentary about it in the UK, explaining backstage details like the way they pump Genuine Seawater[tm] around the tanks.

So once again I'm up at 7.30am. I haven't slept well; I'm still coughing and my throat is raw - getting to the point of coughing blood, which is worrying, and not terribly comfortable. Iain drags himself out of bed at 8am, and somehow takes an hour and a half to get ready. We ignore the wonderful looking pool and spa, and have a quick breakfast at the hostel.

Iain's driving, so I play Dire Straits whilst he can't change the CD. I later catch him singing along, which is amusing, since he allegedly hates it. I went to see Mark Knopfler in concert the night before we came to Australia, which was wonderful. A brief interlude - on the way to Cape Tribulation last week the guide told us he'd play some "light music". It kicked off with Bon Jovi. Iain dubbed this "Estate Agent Rock" and came up with ideas of potential tracks - Eric Clapton, Road to Hell, Chris de Burgh etc. I jokingly said Dire Straits. To my humiliation the next track was Money For Nothing. Iain laughed. We've got over 50 CDs with us, in a carry case. It's been great to have them when we're driving,

[Gympie]

Trees, cows, hills, same old. I get bored, and scribble some random thoughts into the diary, which I'll impose on you today.

We pass through a town called Gympie. This is hilarious, since gimp is a bit of an insult back home. Gympie Ice, Gympie Motel and Gympie Boaring Supplies have me in fits of laughter - clearly the drive is beginning to get to me. Sadly we've missed the National Country Music Muster earlier in the year. Thankfully a "Huge shipment of dry chlorine just arrived!" will continue Gympie's fervour.

There seem to be myriad car showrooms in Australia (a mile of them down one road in Melbourne), though perhaps it's just because we pass through so many main roads. Businesses like this surprise me at their ability to make a profit in the middle of nowhere.

There are some odd billboards, advertising everything from churches to dentists - reminds me of America. The government sponsors plenty of drink driving ones, with subtle slogans like "Rest or R.I.P.", "If you drink and drive you're a bloody idiot", "From 10kmph over to 6 feet under". My favourite was "Passenger is your driver alert?". Iain was driving. Answers on the back of a postcard. South Australia has markers on its main highways indicating accident sites, back for fatality, red for injury. I nearly hit one, craning round to look for one. There are a disturbing number of wooden crosses and flowers along the Bruce Highway. Talking of death on the road, we've seen plenty of roadkill - mainly roos and small mammal. Thankfully no koalas yet. Marsupial babies can sometimes be saved if rescued when in the pouch when the mother is killed. Damo (our Kakadu guide) told us of when he hit a roo which had been flipped into his path by a roadtrain. It came through his windscreen into the back of his car, live, and ruined his upholstery. He had to put it out of its misery. We've also seen a ute with a dead kangaroo in back - dinner?

[Big Pineapple]

[Big Macadamia Nut]

[Nuts...]

Finally, we reach motorway - our first for a month. Sadly it only has one lane each way. Not sure why it's a motorway, but it eventually reaches three lanes - Heaven!

The Big Pineapple (and Big Macadamia Nut) is another stop, as exciting as it sounds. We pop into a nocturnal house to finally see a possum, miss a bandicoot, and random stuff. When we get to where we're staying, later, possums are walking round the garden randomly, so we could've saved $12.

[Giant Crab]

[Feeding rays]

[Stonefish]

Underwater World is pretty good, but we've been to loads of aquaria before - as you may know I'm a fish fan. We see an enormous crab, the usual fish, plus a seal show. There are otters, which are stressed and running around panicking - the staff have forgotten to feed them, until I remind someone. I feed rays with salmon stuck on a stick. There's a shark tunnel, with two metre wide rays. The aquarium holds sleepovers for schools in here. We also see sea jellies - like on the wonderful BBC documentary Blue Planet. There's a simulated ride through the eyes of a dolphin, but it was rather jerky. Altogether okay, but nothing much I haven't seen in the UK or America.

[Hungry otters]

[Feeding otters]

[Swimming otters]

[Close encounter]

[of the toothy kind]

[Brisbane by night]

Two hours gets us to Brisbane at 7pm. We're staying with Iain's father's cousin John Shaw, and his wife Pam. Their daughter Joanne is here tonight to see us too. Their other daughter Jennifer lives in Melbourne - we saw her and William last month, and their son Jeff lives in the UK. John gives us excellent directions, and we're pleased to arrive somewhere for a few days. We have a good dinner, then drive up to Mount Coot-tha, to look over the city at night - it's nice, and not something you see often from a height. After dropping Joanne home, we drive around the University of Queensland, where John lectures and Iain's mother studied.

It's great to be welcomed by family and we sleep in the best room we've been in for some time.