As we entered the final few weeks of our Australian adventure, we are a little lost for words over how quickly it had flown by. The first few months away floated along quite nicely, leaving us with the feeling that we had so much time still to enjoy. Before we knew it, it was January, with December flying by (what actually happened in December??).
We had decided as early as November that we wouldn’t be spending the entire 6 months in Australia, like we had originally planned (for money reasons more than anything) and had looked at the end of January as a rough guide for our departure date, but we were not prepared for how quickly that came around.
After leaving Fraser Island on the 14th January, we had some pretty big decisions to make regarding next moves. We started by giving our beloved Pam some tender loving care with a full wash and hoover out to rid her of as much of Frasers sand as possible before heading an hour away to a little place called Wallaville, staying in the hotel grounds, run by the wonderful Nola and Bob – they make a mean pizza! It was the perfect setting to do some research and make our plans for the coming weeks.

We knew we wanted to spend time on the Great Barrier Reef but popular tourist spots such as Whitsundays and Airlie Beach were a 10+ hour drive away and with just a few weeks left and our money dwindling by the day, it was a fair old distance to travel!
As Dave always says, its nice to be nice and it was whilst chatting to a friendly receptionist at the garage we had taken Pam to to replace her wheel bearings, that we found out about the Lady Musgrave Experience that departing from Bundaberg, just half an hour away! For the same price as a half day tour alongside 400 other people at the Whitsundays, we could enjoy a full day with just 100 other people on the reef surrounding Lady Musgrave Island including scones and tea midmorning and lunch. We were sold and headed straight to the booking office, arranging to return at 7am the following morning. Rather wonderfully, my parents had given us some money as a Christmas present which covered the cost of the trip – thank you, thank you, thank you!

We arrived promptly the next morning and boarded the boat at 7am, enjoying a coffee whilst we waited to depart. As we set off on the 2 hour trip, staff started handing our sick bags and for good reason. The sea wasn’t remotely choppy but that had no bearing on how hideous the crossing was – it was like something out of the exorcist. For the entire 2 hours, all you could hear was the sound of people vomiting, people being escorted to the toilets, people falling about all over the show – you could even hear the staff saying “IN the bags, not ON them!!”. One member described the upstairs seating area as ‘carnage’ and as having ‘sick everywhere’. Nice. So much for scones and tea.
Im super proud to say I was in the 5% of ship occupants who DIDN’T vomit – that was despite enduring extreme period pain with just Paracetomal in my system (those who know me, know Ive been hospitalised before now for the pain that I experience during my periods, so… go me!!). Dave, on the other hand, wasn’t so lucky, bringing up his cappuccino an hour in.
We arrived (mostly) in one piece and found out that our group, the clownfish group, were first to snorkel. OH. MY. GOODNESS. We were greeted with the bluest water, ever. And snorkelling amongst the fish was like swimming through a David Attenborough Documentary. We saw sea cucumbers, dory and nemo fish, parrot fish (the ones that poop sand!) in all sorts of iridescent colours, puffer fish, angel fish AND sea turtles!!
There are 7 species of sea turtle, with 6 of those species calling Australias waters home. We were privileged to witness 3 of the 7 species in their natural environment that day – Loggerhead turtles, Green Turtles – not for the colour of their shell but the colour of their insides – and Leatherback turtles. What a blessing!!
Next was lunch, which I most certainly enjoyed before we escaped to Lady Musgrave Island herself and enjoyed a tour with Natalie, a marine biologist who had lived and worked on the island.
Lady Musgrave Island is home to no mammals or reptiles and is therefore a haven for 20,000 nesting Nodding Turns. Their only predator is the very tree they nest in, which produces a sticky twig which can attach itself to their wings rendering them unable to fly. As a result, they are unable to find food, slowly starving them before they die and become food for the trees – nature at its finest.
We were lucky enough to see the nesting sites of both Green Turtles and Loggerheads whilst admiring a reef shark swimming just off the shore.
Next, we jumped back on the glass bottom boat to enjoy a tour of the reef with Phil our tour guide and his sarcastic, English sense of humour. We learnt that sea cucumbers breathe out their butts and his favourite fish is a Queensland Grouper Fish who eats sharks and can create a sonic boom with his fins! Super Cool!
Our final excursion was a quick 20 minute jump back in the water, just the 2 of us, before we had to start heading back to shore. Away from everyone else, we headed for the turtle cleaning station that had been pointed out to us during the morning session. There we were able to witness THREE turtles, just going about their day, totally uninterrupted. Again, what a blessing!
Thankfully, the 2 hour ride home wasn’t anywhere near as bad and we disembarked the boat, happy little clams.

Without being aware, we had entered our final week in Australia and our final week in Pam.
It consisted of A LOT of driving – 1252km from Wallaville to Sydney, totalling over 16 hours of driving!!
The advert for Pam was live.
During this week, we celebrated 9 years of being officially together (although, Ive loved him for 10!) by heading to a drive in cinema @ Yatala to watch Aquaman from our bed with popcorn.

We also did A LOT of admin – doctors appointments for more medication (the simplest, most efficient experience with a doctor/pharmacy I’ve ever had!!), printing necessary forms to sell Pam and TRYING to develop our underwater camera – can you believe it, we didn’t find a single place in Brisbane or Sydney that developed camera film??

When we arrived at this laundrette, there was a strange photoshoot going on, so Dave obviously joined in ..

 

We were lucky enough, during our final week and our mad 16 hours of driving, to stay at 2 of our favourite places again – Alstonville, where we spent Christmas and Coopernook, where we spent a week enjoying sun and cows back in December.
We were also able to spend our final 2 nights back at Warragamba, just an hour outside of Sydney.

On 23rd January at 10:30am, we met Pams future owner in a train station car park. By 11.15, we were on a train, heading for the airport.
Our goodbye was bitter sweet. We have had the most amazing time in Australia and made some incredible memories, but it was time to move on.

BUCKET LIST ITEM: turn up at an airport and catch the next available flight out of there – DONE.
We boarded the plane to our next destination just 6 and half hours after selling Pam!

Goodbye Australia and HELLO Bali. We are excited for the next year ahead…