Note: Daniel has been writing in a journal book each day, and gave me (Dad) permission to type it out and put in a blog post. I’ve reproduced it accurately, but keep in mind this is just from his personal handwritten journal.

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On the 30th of June we left to go on a big trip around Australia for six months. So of we went. We traveled for 2 and a half days until we reached the information centre at Rockhampton. From there we headed east to the coast. Me and Jonathan really wanted to go and see the Great Barrier Reef. So we drove to the shop and booked a full day cruise to Great Keppel island.

On the 3rd day of July we went on the cruise and traveled to middle island were we hopped of, went for a walk and jumped onto the glass bottomed boat. The man in charge told us lots of interesting things about the reef. He also showed us brain coral and mother and law fish, the mother and law fish has a joke which is it’s so gross that you can only feed it to your mother and laws. After the glass bottomed boat we had a nice BBQ lunch.

The next activity was snorkeling. I was new to snorkeling and I took a while to get the hang of it but in the end I got it. But there was still on more activity left boom netting!! Fun Fun Fun!!! 🙂  So I jumped on the net and held onto the net. Surprisingly I didn’t fall of and held on the whole ride. When I got of the boom netting I got changed and had some arvo tea! YUM! Then we went for a walk, walked back on the boat and headed of to the mainland. Got of the boat, got into the motorhome and drove to a place to sleep the night.

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On the 4th day of July we went shopping. Then we went west to Duaringa and slept the night there.

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On the 5th day of July we drove to Blackdown Tableland National Park. We went on the three walks which were called, Goon Goon Dina, Mook Mook and Gudda Gumoo. The Goon Goon Dina walk showed aboriginal art. The Mook Mook walk had a really cool waterfall and the Gudda Gomoo walk had and even better waterfall than Mook Mook. Then we drove somewhere to sleep the night.

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On the 6 of July we traveled to blackwater and kept on going to emerald. Then we went to the information centre, played some soccer, had lunch and play some more soccer. After soccer we went to sapphire and slept the night there.

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On the 7 of July we went mining in a creek. When we had filled up the bucket than we sieved it and wet it so we could sort it out and find sapphire. In the arvo we went on a mine tour and someone told us about the mines. Then we slept the night at the same place we slept at the other night.

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On the 8th of July we went to miners cottage and bought a bucket of wash. Then we got taught how to do it a different way than yesterday. We did it like this you pour the dirt into the big sieve and put the small sieve underneath. Then you give it a big shake and put them both in the willoughby. Once the big rocks are clean you take them out of the willoughby and start looking for sapphire. You do the same with the little rocks. Once we had finished the lady in charge check them. Then we hopped in the motor home and drove to a place to sleep the night.

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On the 9th of July we went on a Coal mine tour but it was very boring and really hot. Then we slept the night somewhere at emerald.

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On the 10th of July we headed for Longreach on the the way we stopped at a machinery place were there where heaps of old machines. Then we went to Longreach and stopped to sleep the night in the middle of nowhere!