anecdotes from a campervan

Hello party people! I am currently somewhere between nowhere and everywhere on the East coast of Australia, in the back of a campervan, with Laura laid out over the seat next to me sleeping. Daniel (German) is listening to Linkin Park across from me, and trying to improve his English by tackling World Without End by Ken Follet, so every few minutes I am helping him understand a few words. Antoine (French) and Sebastian(German) are stretched out over two seats in front of the cab, passed out asleep. And at the helm is Olivier, Lauren and Charlotte (all French) who have bravely stepped up to the challenge of navigating this motley crew up the coast this afternoon. All in all, everything is as it should be this lazy, sunny, Australian afternoon.

This past Tuesday Laura, Antoine, Sebastian, Daniel and myself decided to rent a 4x4 and spend 3 days and 2 nights on fraiser island, a VERY tiny sand island off the coast of australias rainbow beach. We met 4 very nice boys from London and 2 great Canadian girls who joined us on our tour. It was awesome!!! The tour is self guided, so it was kinda like Road Rules (grandparents, ask your grandchildren about it) on an adrenaline rush. The 11 of us climed into this major vehicle, and were sent off on our own with a few tents off over the dunes and beaches of the island. We saw wild dingos, lizards, giant sandflies, but thankfully managed to avoid the very poisonous snakes that inhabit the island. We swam in some crystal clear lake water, and avoided the shark infested waters. We hiked up to Indian head, where we could view the sharks (tiger, great white and hammerhead) from a safe distance. We all flew out of our seats more than once when we went over the sand a bit to fast. Unfortunately, the car was manual, so neither Laura nor I felt our skills were good enough to actually drive, but the boys thrilled in sending us flying out of our seats on a few occassions! Fraiser island may be my favorite Australia activity so far, and we were sad to say goodbye to our new friends, but happy to be back in our now beloved campervan.

I am surprised how pleasant the campervan actually is. It makes camping totally doable for me. There are three huge beds that allow plenty of room for everyone, and we have fun cooking gourmet meals. It gets a little hot sometimes, but this is minor ... Phew, Daniel just asked me what a mason is. That took a second to explain. What else fills our time? I taught everyone my friend Meghans favorite game - bowl of nouns - and my brother marcuss favorite game - contact- so car rides and nightimes can get a little rowdy. We all really enjoy eachother, and we are so lucky to have made so many great friends because it means more people to visit in western Europe!

Ok, I think it is my naptime now. Pictures will be uploaded in a few weeks from Cairns where we are staying with a friend. By that time we will have sailed to the great barrier reef, so the picturs will be amazing to make up for the drought!

Love and baci to everyone at home! We miss you so much.
Xoxo jca

For Marcus, world 14, us 130!!!!!!!