Having spent a few weeks in sunny Sydney, making the most of the beaches, it was once again back to the Wicked van depot where we picked up "Sabbo": a bright blue van with the faces of Black Sabbath painted in black down each side.

It once again has "Wicked" painted over the front (which causes every kid we drive past to shout "WICKED!" at the top of their lungs to us) this time painted in red and spattered with red paint to give a blood effect. The boot reads, "The world today is such a wicked thing!" and indeed it is...

This van also has the added effect of making people roll down their car windows and point their index and little finger in the air in the "ROCK!" sign. Ozzy would be proud. Once again not a very girlie exterior but at least this time we have power steering and mossie screens!

We have just over three weeks to drive up the east coast of Australia to the Whitsundays and back to Brisbane - a task that causes every tourist information officer we speak to to ask if we actually know how far that is? No problem.

Our first morning in Sabbo and we awoke to the manic laughing sounds of the Kookaburras having parked up for the night in the beautiful Terry Hills outside of Sydney.

After stumbling across a surf lifesaving competition and wild pelican feeding we found ourselves in the truly magnificent Myall Lakes National Park parked under bendy eucalyptus trees with the ocean on one side of us and towering bright white sand dunes behind us. Sleep was easy that night as there wasn't a single man-made sound to be heard.

A morning stroll over the dunes took us to a completely deserted beach and allowed us to practice our tracking skills, seeing the tracks of dingoes, kangaroos, goanna and having to make arrows ourselves so we could find our own way back. Nearing the van we spotted two yellow and black stripy goanna lizards about two feet long - perfectly camouflaged to the trees.

After a long surf at Hawks Nest for Mike we were on our way again with wet towels, shorts and bikinis hanging all over the place. Mike has treated himself to a 7ft 4" surfboard, which he is getting plenty of practise on (I'll leave him to fill you in on all his surfing exploits).

After stopping at Port Macquarie we drove to Nambucca Heads - a sleepy seaside town which we had heard had some great (free) beachside overnight parking opportunities. (Thanks for the tip Blues Brothers!). We parked in a little empty beach car park with beautiful views of the ocean. Even had a free fireworks display halfway through the night to watch!

The morning routine of surfing and beach running continued with a wash in the sea using a very handy biodegradable ocean soap (thanks Mum & Dad!).

After another free night parked up at Minnie Waters we were at Byron Bay - a quaint hippie/travellers town with loads of character. We met up with two friends, Jess and Martin and quickly polished off excessive amounts of alcohol chatting for hours about nothing in particular.

Mike was glued to his board and as happy as a pig in muck. A strong rip had us all knackered by the end of our three days in Byron: knackered but happy.

A visit to Cape Byron (the most easterly point of mainland Australia) provided stunning views of the bay and mountains behind. It also provided the best view ever of a pod of about 60 dolphins speeding along surfing and jumping through the waves. Brilliant!

I didn't think the day could get much better than that but by the evening we (myself, Mike and Martin who is now travelling with us for a bit) were camped in the middle of the rainforests of the Nightcap National Park, eating curry cooked on our camp stove, drinking VB Beer, watching the large fruit bats fly above us and the Wallabies bounce around us. A great end to a great day.

Laura(UK)