We travelled up the coast by bus. Some of the distances were huge - to drive from Sydney to Brisbane it took 15 hours!
 
After visiting Brisbane, we stopped off in Noosa where there is a big national park. We did some lovely walks in Noosa and visited Steve Irwin's Australia Zoo where we got up close and personal with some friendly kangaroos!

One of my favourite places in Australia was Fraser Island which is the largest sand island in the world and the only place where a rainforest grows in the sand. The island is stunning, with turquoise water and an impressive sandy beach which is 75 miles long, stretching for as far as the eye can see. We took it in turns to drive a jeep around the island, along the beach, through the lush forests and across sand dunes. We visited a number of lakes on the island which were a variety of different colours depending on the minerals in the ground below them. In one lake, the water appeared oily and orange! Whilst climbing to the top of a cliff known as Indian Head, our guide pointed out Tiger Sharks and Sting Rays in the sea below us. As I'm sure you've guessed, it is too dangerous to swim in the sea around Fraser Island, but thankfully we could swim in the lakes. Sharks and sting rays weren't the only interesting wildlife around. Whilst we were camping we had a number of wild dogs called dingoes come to visit. We had to be very careful with our food, making sure that we didn't leave anything out because they can be quite aggressive. Below you can see the jeeps we drove, the main beach and Lake Wabby, a green water lake. Can you see that the water looks very green?

After our time on Fraser Island, we headed up to Airlie Beach. From here we travelled by boat for three days around the Whitsunday Islands, which were incredible. The sand on one of the beaches, Whitehaven Beach, was so fine and soft that you could polish silver jewellery with it and even use it to brush your teeth! We had a go at brushing our teeth with it which was an unusal feeling, but it didn't feel gritty as you would expect. We were told that the sand on the beach is 98% silica which gives it its bright white colour. Around the Whitsundays you can swim in the sea but only wearing a stinger suit because there are dangerous jelly fish in the water. In fact, in was interesting to see that on the beaches in some areas of Australia there were bottles of vinegar provided, because if you are stung by a jelly fish it helps to put vinegar on the sting. Thankfully our swimming was uneventful! We also had great fun paddling with small (harmless) sharks and sting rays.

During our tour of the islands we also had a few snorkelling stops. On one occasion whilst we were snorkelling, we were joined by a turtle which was about a metre long! It swam gracefully through the water, nibbling on underwater plant life as it went. We tried to take a few pictures but unfortunately our disposible underwater camera wasn't quite up to the job! We also saw lots of colourful fish, including a clown fish just like Nemo!