Australia

MAMBO team arrive to incredible blue skies in Perth WA yippeee Agent A had the delight of being seated next to a very pleasant gent from Melbourne and enjoyed the opportunity of asking if he were a cricket fan keep in mind that the Ashes had just been booked onto the next flight to go home.

Emus spotted in the wild

Heading north they end up in a small town Jurian Bay and camp up with some Aussies and relive the Ashes with some fine strokes from Agent B the ussie were noticibly quiet about cricket MAMBO helped them with their amnesia.

Agent B hauls the Land Cruiser through some dunes

Agent A takes over and sticks the ute in the sand Agent M starts to panic, Agent A digs out with a chopping board,result no more off road duning.

All agents spot their first ROO and are extremely excited

The team prepare for a voyage south to catch up with some more marsupials

The Graham Clan entertain the MAMBO clan Two team members hoofed off to the houch bottle shop and were rather taken with the drive in style!!! A big cheer to Angi who is doing an amazing job in bringing up 4 great youngsters,17 years on and it seemed only like yesterday big thank yous to all and Barry and Anne for a truly Australian BBQ and swim for the kids .
Maddie and Agent M perfom a show in the park well done gals.

The team arrive in Cairns FNQ we had been hearing and seeing the floods in Queensland and we had planned to drive from Cairns to Brisbane.

Arriving in Cairns at 4am the dawn appearing with some fabulous cloud formations. The floods were very bad and the campervan depot in Brisbane had been flooded and shut down so we decided to arrange the return of our van back to Cairns and avoid the pandemoinium little did we know that Cyclone Yasi was developing out in Fiji and would chase us out of Australia a few weeks later. Far north Queensland is stunning the flora and fauna so different and abundant that we were very bowled over. Very humid and piercing sun added to the atmosphere. We headed north to a coastal town called Port Douglas and found a site by early evening it was raining hard but we all fell asleep exhausted. I awoke midway through the night with torrential rain flooding all around us but until it started coming through the floor i decided to get back to sleep. I awoke early and there was a respite in the rain I knew that there was a beach nearby so I went for a wonder around. I found a path strewn with coconut palms and jungle foliage I decided to venture through but I was a little apprehensive after reading about the various fauna of the area. As I tramped through my flip flops flopped and I wish I had crocs on instead so as not to announce my progress. I reached the beach four miles of arched bay, sand, coral sea and tropical forest, awesome and gorgeous. I flipped my flops off and started running along the beach not a soul in sight as I ran the rain started and built to a good soak but rain in the tropics on a beach is a bonus and I pushed on, I became aware of a creek running fairly fast out to sea, I approached with caution and waded in slowly quite deep ,it reached my upper thighs it started to ease and I reached the other side I ran on, such a beautiful morning it would be be rude not to so when I reached the next creek I crossed again my mind fighting with the dual torment of crocs and stingers. Stray too far out to sea to avoid the depth of the creek and be stung by the Irakangi jelly fish 500 times more potent than a tarantula I pushed on pushing such thoughts out of my mind through another creek. Not too far inland I could see a sign similar to the type you see alerting roadworks with a path similar to the one I had reached the beach by, as I got nearer I could read WARNING CROCODILE RECENTLY SITED jikkes I span round and headed for where I came from crossing the four creeks was now a mental test and I weighed up the probability of where I could be most vulnerable my eyes wide eyed wishing I was fish eyed. Through two creeks with no problems as I waded through the third something plate like darted along at the shallower part of the creek from a cautious wade to a sprinkbok leap out I had only one more to cross and I decided to head further down the beach where there was a larger track. I spotted a stinger net swimming area and ran in I don’t think swimming in warm seas with tropical rain can be beaten.I headed up to the campsite and met the owner who asked where I’d been . ‘Cor I wouldn’t swim in the ocean I never do and as for crocs they had found a 3 metre female with its head severed not long back and used the remains to trap a 5 meter beast’ he seemed to delight in the fact of what I’d just done. Still floods cyclones crocs and stingers I had even contemplated the snakes. With the heavy rains and the stinger issue I decided not to expand to the team how beautiful it was and we moved on into the Atherton Tablelands this area was equally as beautiful and we spent a few nights in some very secluded places enjoying the slightly cooler airs with beautiful sunshine, a dawn walk through some tracks bordering a mini rain forest with parrokeits and toads squarking and croaking and an evening stroll with huge fruit bats flailing around us. Very peaceful with very few people about. We visited a farm where the Team fed kangeroos, alpacas, sheep, deer and goats and stroked a snake this was a real highlight and we didn’t want to leave, the kangeroos with joeys were beautiful, very calm and loving. The Great Barrier Reef was beconing and with a category one Cyclone called Anthony brewing up we booked our trip out asap even with it a while away there was a swell on the reef. The MAMBO team was first in the water and last out loving every minute, Beaka was treated to a turtle fly by her and a stingray for us guys, Meli went for a dive and I was black flagged due to a bit of sinusitis apparently its very painfull with reverse equalisation. It was magnificent jumping in with the whole Team snorkelling with them in their clown fish stinger suits, as your mask touched the surface and the underwater world came alive, the children just can’t wait to go again. So all there was left to do in Australia was get a tattoo, celebrate Aussie day and wrestle with a croc, we did this in our last couple of days and left as happy campers. We manage to slip out of Cairns with four hours to spare, the airport locking down behind us. Phew we had been hiring a 3.5 metre high campervan with a hefty damage bond attached to the rental agreement so we were extremely relieved to return the keys. Oopps I forgot about the spiders!!!!!!!

The Team head to the Atherton Tablelands to escape the floods