Magnetic Island

Thank you again to Adrienne from Fantasea Adventure Cruises, who organmised for us, at very short notice, the ferry ride over to Magnetic Island. Above and beyone again. Thanks to Jason, the manager, who ok'd everything, and to Michelle, who gave us the tickets and was a charming, lovely person to us smelly people.

It was a pure pleasure to have stayed with George Hirst and Penelope Sheridan at their beautiful spread in the bush. Lovely people, interesting, down-to-earth and funny too. George runs the Magnetic Times the local paper and Pen cycles the most awsome hill on the island to get to work each day. We learnt a lot working with you two. We enjoyed every minute of it.

Thanks to Louis and Louise who were charming and who donated tobacco to two very cheeky impish fidgety fellas

Muchas gracias to Jan Perry of Nelly Bay who invited us to fix some Possom Boxes for her. We did, and thanks for your donation to Book Aid too. Nelly Bay

Steph Chaffey, of Nelly Bay, thanks for giving us more work to do. We loved getting into the mulch and spreading it around. Very Mulch!

Thanks a million to Lindell Vaudrey also of Nelly Bay, who gave us work to do in riddng her yard of 22 years worth accumulated stuff and taking it to the dump. Thanks for your donation to Book Aid and for the gifts you gave us too. Love them thongs! Top Notch belts too!

Thanks to all the people who came and chatted to us, who donated to us, who fed us, gave us beer and said hello at the Friday Night Markets by the RSL Club. We had a great time and raised a few bob too. Good on ya!

Bowen

Peter Madison, who we met in Airlie Beach Markets the day before, hosted us for a cup of tea, where we met up with the delightful Gertrude. Thanks mate, it was a pleasure.

John McLean. They call him Crazy, we call him a gentleman. Brother of Lach McLean, who donated to us in Brisbane a case of wine. John met up with us in Bowen after sailing all day in Townsville, and gave us a place to stay, then organized some work for us to do the next day, acquainting us with Bill Johnston, a true blue Aussie, introducing us to his lovely wife Lynn, manager of the local IGA, who donated to us some lunch, sent us off to The Grand View Hotel to help with the deliveries, where we met his brother Mike, who bought us a cold beer each, then he organised the local paper, the Bowen Independent, asking its editor Stephen Darwen to print some flyers for us, and to forward a story to the local papers up the coast. He also cooked us a barbie and filled us up with fuel. Relentless. Beeeeautiful.

Lynn McLean, at the IGA, who donated to us a trolley full of groceries and gave us the support of the good people of the IGA on our way round. Fantasticly generous.

Gertrude Tissen, she helped us out enormously. Another vibrant, busy, energetic, adventurous, lively, lovely person. Another Queenslander then. Too easy.

Stephen Darwen, manager of the Bowen Independent, who printed for us 500 flyers to take around, and who promised to forward their story onto the local papers all the way up to Cairns and accross to Mount Isa. No worries kinds guy. Thank you.

Strictly Strathdickie? Absolutely Airlie!

Special mention to Cate Morris, living on Percy Island, but visiting her house in Strathdickie, near Proserpine, not far from Airlie Beach, for a bit of a tidy up, and we are eternally grateful to her for that. She donated to us while we were at the servo in St Helen's Creek and then invited us to stay with her, to use her place as a base for a few days. We did, digging some storm trenches for her, and from there things went spectacular.

In Airlie Beach things got off to a blinder! Fantasea Adventure Cruising offered us a visit to the Great Barrier Reef on Friday, if we agreed to dress up as King Neptune and a Mermaid on Saturday in Airlie Markets. Did we hesitate? Of course not. Adrienne and Portia are beautiful. Truly.

To Shane, at Tropix Photography, who cleaned Anne's camera filter for her.

To Beeches Backpackers, who allowed us to collect some money for Book Aid, despite the stern frowns and attempted intervention of an irate bouncer. Cheers dude.

To Con Raptis, of Neptune's Fish and Chips, on the Esplanade in Airlie Beach, who donated to us a fish platter when we needed it the most. Finger lickin stuff.

To the lovely girl at Tribal Travel in Airlie who saw no reason not to let us just have a little time on the internet. Thanks.

To Gordon at Wisdom Health Lab in Airlie, who donated to us three sandwiches for lunch on thursday.

To Flamos kebabs, Airlie Beach, who donated to us our Friday fill. Pretty good too.

The Tourist Information shop let us use the internet also. Cheers Big Fella.

Denise and Adriaan Vanderlugt, of Strathdickie, people we inadvertently bumped into at the market when Adriaan donated to us three caricatures, who as it turns out are friends and neighbours of Cate, and very talented, creative and interesting people. Went for lunch at their house the next day - an eye-opening experience.

Cheers to Peter Madison, one of the stallholders in Airlie Market, who invited us for tea in Bowen. A true blue and lovely man.

To Dave and Julieann at Cafe Mykonos on Shute Harbour Road, Airlie Beach, who donated our dinner to us. Bloody top tucker too.

St Helen's Creek, north of Mackay

Thanks to Yvette, the fetching girl we met at the carstop near Mackay, who helped us out and gave us a sterling good on'yas. Good on you.

What happens when you're out of fuel and homeless near St Helen's Creek, north of Mackay? You pop in to see Lex and Merle, Col and Fiona at the St Helen's Caravan Park that's what. We mowed the lawn and cleaned a caravan and they were fantastic to us. Lovely folk who gave us food, toiletries and fuel. Couldn't havebeen more please with the way we were looked after and treated with respect. Lovely people.

Thanks to the lovely lady at the servo, who allowed us to collect donations outside. You helped us greatly, thank you.

To Gary Cox, an Organisational Psychologist from Brisbane, we met at the Caravan Park, and had a really interesting talk with. You needn't have donated to the fuel fund, but thank you.

Alpaca Farm, Cobraball, Yeppoon.

To the Grice family at Cobraball, near Yeppoon. Leah, all the Davids, Musical Anne, Cheeky Charlie, Jonathan, Glenys, Nathan, Emily, the alpacas, the dogs, the cats, the llamas, the horses, you were all wonderful, funny and a pleasure to get to know and spend time with.
Who knew of the eight countries of Norway and the ways a man makes a woman go 'ooh'. Comedy gold. We loved the set up, large family meals, lots of laughter, talking, piss taking and sharing.

Best and worst? The best was feeling like part of your extended family, and the worst was having to leave. Truly memorable.

To Mike Dalton of Yeppoon, a very interesting guy who was a pleasure to talk to during the Alpaca/Cheekyfellas Open day at Leah and Davids.

To the irrepresible Alby Wooler. The term legend couldn't be more aptly applied. We hope the trees you donated to us to plant on the Grice farm will grow. Bloody Alby!

To Jane Keilau and Luisa Choyce who donated some groceries to us. Thank you ladies.

To Andy Tandoh, and Kerrie Hall who came over to the Open Day and chatted to us for a good while, giving us great ideas and support.

To Gary, who came to the Open Day with his three lovely kids, then came back the next day to give us a fuel voucher. Cheers bud.

Thanks to The Dreamtime Culture Centre in Rockhampton who taught us about Aborigonal life and living.

1770/ Agnes Waters

To the fine people st Miriam Vale Roadhouse and Caravan Park - Mary and Stan, Emma, Christie, Hayley, Jan and Penny and Cindy and Pam at The Star service station. We askled for enough fuel to get us to 1770, and you threw in some pies too. Times like these...

If you ever meet Don Growcott, of 1770 Undersea Adventure, shake him by the hand. He lives in the town called 1770, and runs a dive boat. We didn't get there till late, and only had a day to travel up to Rockhampton. We were gutted we couldn't take you up on the offer of a dive. A gentleman who provided us with a bed for the night nonetheless and educated us on Marine life in the process. Thanks again. Don.

Heaven in the Hills, Reesville, near Maleny

To Carol Curtis at Heaven in the Hills we owe much. We can't thank her enough. She was so good to us. We tried work in proportion to the kindness she showed us, but we didn't even come close. She was amazing and we wish her all the best. Above and beyond. Assistance, support, donations, wisdom, friendship. A trly phenomenal woman.

To (King) Kevin and Jenny, at Heaven in the Hills, Reesville, near Maleny. We can't thank you enough either. Your donations were greatly appreciated and, in one special donation, made two boys very happy.

To Suzie and Giancarlo, who donated to us some funds towards the video camera after we painted their office and did some gardening. Friends of Carol, no worries people, our kind of folk.

This is going to sound trite, but we were overwhelmed by the response we received here. Genuinely beautiful people. Our stop here made the world a very good place.