My week started with an uncomfortable 11-hour bus ride along Australia's east coast. The air conditioning was broken, I had a screaming child behind me, and the driver was almost as grumpy as the Greyhound bus drivers in the US.

This one had a ridiculous number of rules and regulations that he laboriously repeated at each stop. These included no food, no drinks, no closing the ventilators (particularly pointless, since they weren't working) and no stretching. Ok, I made that last one up but it might as well have been a rule since the seats were so cramped you could scarcely move a toe.

After an eternity, I reached Byron Bay. This is a centre for all things alternative and everywhere you went there were wind chimes for sale and adverts for yoga lessons or discussion groups on Buddhism. The town also has some glorious beaches and there were usually plenty of surfers out riding the waves.

I was considering getting some surfing lessons, so thought I would have an exploratory dip first - to test the water as it were. The breakers were huge and it was a real struggle to fight my way beyond them to the calmer sea. I bobbed up and down on the swell for a while before having a go at bodysurfing. I saw a biggish wave coming up behind me, swam hard and managed to catch it. I had a brief glorious sensation of being swept along. Then everything turned upside down as the wave broke and I was pulled under. I could only have been down for a short while but by the time I escaped, I was left flapping about in the shallows gasping for breath.

Not one to give up that easily, I went out for another go. This time the force of the wave almost ripped my shorts off. I just managed to cling onto them but with my hands down by my side, I couldn't direct my approach through the white turmoil. I ended up headfirst in the sand. Enough was enough and I decided to avoid any further embarrassment by sticking to sunbathing.

Byron Bay is one of Australia's top holiday spots and in the evening there was a real buzz about the place, with plenty of bars and restaurants and the usual naff clubs you find in coastal resorts. It was also full of English teenagers. The UK must be a rather quiet place at the moment as everyone seems to be over here. I thought this was good at first as I always had plenty in common with the people I met, but it begins to get you down after a while. I realised it was time to move on after I got over-excited when the guy next to me at the bar turned out to be an authentic Australian.

I got back on the bus, zipped through a dreary-looking Brisbane, and on up to Hervey Bay, the launch pad for trips to Frazer Island.

Frazer Island is the world's largest sandbar (120km by 15km). It has huge drifting sand dunes; crystal clear lakes, and rainforest with an amazing variety of trees and plants. As such, it is on the world heritage list and the northern part is protected by National Park status. There are no paved roads so the only way to explore the island is by four-wheel drive. There are a variety of operators in Hervey Bay itching to help you do this and relieve you of your cash.

The two main options are self-drive (where you basically make up a group out of whoever's booked in for that day) or a guided trip where you get taken round in a huge bus with a commentary on the wildlife. I had booked with Frazer Escape who offer something in between. You get to share the driving but a guide comes along to show the way. At A$220, this all-inclusive three-day trip was pretty good value.

I was in a group of 20, split between two Toyota land cruisers. We were shown a sobering video of newsclips of some horrific accidents that have happened on the island when trucks have rolled over or crashed into each other. There was also a brief explanation of how to drive the vehicles. Then we packed our food and rucksacks onto the vehicles and set off for the ferry.

There were storm winds forecast for that night so the first thing we did on reaching the island was to grab a good campsite. This was where the benefits of having a guide. He knew the best places and we quickly found a sheltered spot off the beach. After setting up our tents, the afternoon was spent at nearby Lake Wabby. This deep little lake was surrounded by dunes on one side and eucalyptus forest on the other. We all sunbathed or splashed about and played frisbee.

After dinner we made a fire and sat around chatting and playing drinking games into the night. The key to these sort of trips being successful is the people who are on them. I was lucky enough to be with a really good bunch who all mucked in and had a laugh at the same time.

The following days were spent in much the same vein. We drove along the endless, windswept beach past rusting shipwrecks. We swam in more warm, clear lakes. We walked up steep sand dunes and then rolled back down them. We went for hikes in the rainforest and floated down streams back to the beach. We climbed up headlands and tried to spot the man-eating sharks, which make swimming in the sea a no go.

The land cruisers were great vehicles and could go anywhere. We would rev down narrow, bumpy tracks, rocking from side to side, everyone in the back hanging on and shouting helpful instructions to the driver. We got stuck in soft sand a couple of times and everybody had to jump out and push but it was all part of the fun.

Our guide certainly knew his way round the island but he could have done with learning a thing or two about customer relations. He didn't, for example, bother to try to learn our names. When something needed to be done he would just point and say "you!". The company also let themselves down a bit with the accommodation on our return to Hervey Bay. Little things like broken bunk beds and being charged a non-refundable A$1.50 for sheets that you don't need are rather annoying.

However, these were only minor complaints and all in all, it was a really good trip to an amazing place with an excellent group of people.

Thanks for your emails. I'm glad to see the mystery of my missing duck has been solved. I'd been wondering where he'd flown off to. It's good to know he's enjoying himself back in New York.

Next week I'm going on another camping trip, this time into the heart of the outback to see Uluru (Ayers Rock) and then a brief stopover in Perth before reaching Africa. Over the last few days, I've decided to change my route through Africa slightly, so I'll tell you more about that in my next report.