Saturday 20th January 2007. Capricorn Caves to The Whitsundays.

After an early breakfast we hit the road heading North. Our first stop is at Flaggy Rocks Exotic Fruit Garden on the Bruce Highway. Located some 210Km North of Rockhampton this is our pit-stop enroute to MacKay (the sugar capital of Australia).

I just don't seem to have much luck. In many ways this project year has confirmed my status as Frank Spencer and I have another BETTY moment today. On the bus to Airlie Beach we have a competition and this simply involved some origami and holding a mint in your mouth. In keeping with my health issues this week I managed, somehow, to be the one person who lost a section of my front tooth along with the mint.

After internet access in Airlie Beach it is time to take the ferry from Shute Harbour to Long Island.

Here in the Long Island Resort we are surrounded by very tame wildlife such as wallabies and bush turkeys.

Before dinner I join the others in the pool where I have a paddle with my good leg as the team play volleyball. It is such a beautiful and idyllic sight as I watch the match unfold infront of me in the pool as the sun sets over the neighbouring islands. It is almost impossible to describe this scene, it is like a painting...the pool, the flaming candles lining the beach and the tide out with small boats dotting the shore...this is paradise!

Bites Update...Ankle very swollen.

Tonight there is a live singer in the resort and Bo and Phil take the opportunity to tell him it is my 50th birthday. I am so lucky as I am travelling with an excellent group. Our guide is really professional, and my fellow travellers are really great people.

I have been adopted as the "old git" of the trip, although I am actually not the oldest at all. Anyway, with my goatee beard I have aged and the strange thing was not the fact that the singer announced to the whole resort that it was my birthday but that when he asked to see me he actually believed that I was 50. I even had people congratulating me on how well I looked for my age!

I was even wished happy birthday by a lady who is here on holiday celebrating her 50th!!!