Farewell Malden, Hello Honeymoon!

In the wee hours of Monday morning we crossed the creek for the last time and headed out of Malden Station, leaving behind us lots of fond memories and experience a'plenty from our time as jackaroo and governess for the Sparrow family.

When we decided we were going to embark on this crazy adventure we were lucky enough to get in touch with Kristy and Alex through the wonderful blogosphere - I'm so glad we did, as we couldn't have wished for a better working environment or family to work for. We learnt so much during our time at Malden, me in the schoolroom and Matt in the yards or mustering. My teaching skills were honed (I hope...) with the twins as my not-so-willing students, and Matt fulfilled his dreams of chopper rides and chasing mickeys through the scrub.

We first talked about our aspirations of governessing/jackarooing on outback properties probably way back in 2008 - it seemed like such a distant dream and it was such a journey to get to the point, we moved a few times and got married in between! Now we can tick it off our bucket list with pride and we will always look back at our time spent at Malden with a lot of fondness. For me it really broadened my horizons, especially in regards to distance education and the dedicated families behind the school which sacrifice and work extremely hard to give their kids every opportunity available to them. Impressive. The amazing families and teachers of central west Queensland will always have a special spot in my heart.

We headed east to Rockhampton again then south for a few more hours before finally arriving at Rainbow Beach after 12 hours driving. At the local pub we met up with our best friends Tyler and Kate - best man and bridesmaid at our wedding, and who we stayed with earlier in the year at the start of our travels. The Nelson's made the trek north to chase some sun in the school holidays and we were only too happy to oblige as holiday companions. On Monday night we stayed in a cabin at Rainbow Beach (luxurious) and headed down to Inskip Point to board the barge onto Fraser Island in the morning.

These photos are of our first day and night on the island - beautiful weather, so good to spend time and make memories with our great friends Tyler and Kate. I will do a more succinct post of our time on Fraser Island, but for now I'm off to enjoy a glass of cider and a slice of camembert with Kate...