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Road trip continued: Rainbow Beach to Cairns (the photo is of the beautiful Fraser Islamd)
Day 9
After another night in the van at the hostel in Rainbow Beach, we said our goodbyes to the rest of our Fraser Island group and set off on a long drive.
The only interesting part of the day was when we stopped for lunch and I went to a public toilet. I flushed the toilet and a massive green tree frog was flushed out! I couldn't quite believe my eyes, I'm not sure where he had been hiding! It scared me as only his foot dangled down at first so I thought it was the tail of a snake.
On the stretch of road that we took there would be signs saying that trivia quizzes could save your life to keep you awake. Some of the signs did a question and then further along would do an answer so there must have been lots of crashes there.
We pulled in for the night by the side of the road at quite a busy place.
Day 10
The signs continued to grab your attention the next day with ones that said 'Are we there yet?', 'How long to go Dad?' and 'Still a long way to go kids!'
We reached Airlie Beach soon enough, the departure point for the Whitsunday islands. We booked a tour and then headed to the free lagoon by the sea for a swim and sunbathe.
We couldn't find anywhere to camp for free and there were massive fines of $2,000 for attempting to free camp so we were forced to head to a campsite for the first time in 10 days which I think was pretty impressive!
There was quite a spectacular storm that night so we got to test the waterproof quality of the tarpaulin at the back of the van. It was ok if you closed up the windows.
Day 11
We were up and ready for our boat trip to the Whitsundays but it was still raining so we weren't sure how good the day would be.
Our boat was called the 'Big Fury' and was basically a massive yellow speedboat. It meant we had more time at the stops that we made but it wasn't sailing so you couldn't really enjoy that aspect of going past the islands (off the top of my head I think there are 74 in total). The rain really hurt as well when we went through patches that soaked us as we were going so fast.
We stopped in a bay for snorkelling and miraculously the sun had appeared. We had to hire stinger suits as it was jellyfish season and we didn't fancy our chances with a box jellyfish - we'd already been warned that if we were stung we'd have to pay for the helicopter and signed a disclaimer to agree to this!
The snorkelling visibility wasn't the best as the tide was in but there were still some impressive fish and some pretty big ones too. My mind was on the shark possibility quite a lot though!
Our next stop was Whitehaven beach on Whitsunday island, the biggest of the islands. It is apparently in the top ten beaches in the world according to National Geographic and it wasn't hard to see why. It is up to 99% silicone sand; beautiful white sand, with a gentle bay great for swimming with hardly any waves and really clear water. It was so hot as well.
We had a great buffet lunch and spent a couple of hours on the beach. It was was gorgeous.
We headed back to land via a few big waves, reminding me how scared I am of boats and tried to find somewhere further north to pull in for the night. It took us a while as where we aimed for wasn't an overnight camping spot and again threatened big fines so we had to drive quite late on. Ben did well and we took it slowly but luckily didn't see any roo's.
Day 12
After breakfast we headed for Billabong Wildlife Sanctuary for the day after witnessing Ben wash his hair under a tap the height of my knee. I wish I'd taken a photo.
We arrived at the end of the reptile talk and had photos holding baby crocs and Ben with a snake.
There were lots of free roaming whistling ducks (I call them tiger ducks as they have stripes on their wings) which make really happy noises and are a nice colour. We bought some bird seed to feed them but the roo's wandering around didn't give them much of a chance to have any. They followed us around all day and were a bit scary at times they were that demanding!
We fed some snappy little turtles bits of fish and then listened to a talk on dingo's. They brought one out on a lead that you could stroke and it was really nice until a roo hopped past and it went mental! They can be kept as pets but the guy said that you can't take their instincts away so they will always want to kill things!
We saw the crocodiles being fed, then fed a water buffalo (my favourite!) some carrots and wandered around to look at the other animals like cassowary's before our main aim of the day, which was to have a photo with a koala.
It was so cute but quite heavy and smelly! I also stroked a massive wombat! You could have a photo with him too but it was more expensive the more animals you had photos with.
We headed into Townsville just down the road to pick up some beers for our night with Hollie and Sam at their house. We had an unfortunate incident where Ben reversed into someone in the car park who he couldn't see but there was no damage to our car. They weren't so lucky so sorting that out was a bit of a pain.
Hollie and Sam are renting a kind of studio apartment underneath a families house. It was really nice, the family were nice and they even had a pool in the garden! We had a great night with a BBQ catching up and talking about our travels.
We slept in the van outside their house but because we were in a street there was just no breeze at all and it was the hottest night we'd had in the van. I didn't get much sleep.
Day 13
We woke up quite early and I could hear the little girl who Hollie lived with asking her mum about our 'car house'.
After swapping Hollie our tent and some camping bits for lots of sausages and rolls we said our goodbyes, a sad one really as I don't know when I'll see them again. They want to stay in Oz for a little while and they're ready to do some travelling when their 6 months of work runs out before they need new jobs.
We headed to Crystal Creek for breakfast but it was a little too cold to get in the water so carried on to Gerringun National Park to see Wallaman Falls, the highest waterfall in Oz with a drop of 268m. As it's rainy season it was pretty impressive, probably the best we've seen on our travels. Unfortunately the big walk down to the bottom was still closed due to cyclone damage at the start of the year (lots of trees are really bent over up here, it's amazing to think how long term the damage is, even the Billabong sanctuary had lots of reminders of it).
Instead we took a short walk to a creek where platypuses live. It was the middle of the day so none were around. I was sure there was a croc in the water though and jumped a mile. It turned out to be a rock but really looked like the eye and nose of one sticking out. It took me ages to believe that it wasn't one!
We decided to camp in the national park as it was pleasant and only about £3 each, plus we needed a rest. The park did re introduce us to the horrible marsh flies though that we first encountered on Fraser. They tried to give us a hard time (and they really do hurt, drawing blood on us both) but lying on our picnic blanket in the sun, reading with a few beers was lovely. To prove how much I needed a rest I was fast asleep by 7.30. Not because of the beers either!
Day 14
After my 12 hour sleep I felt much better and when we had had a freezing shower we fought off the last of the marsh flies who all got in the car to journey with us and attacked us every now and then.
We headed to Mission Beach which had a pretty view of Dunk Island just offshore, blue water and a palm fringed beach but the sand wasn't great and it was really windy so it wasn't nice to lie down. After a quick swim in the sea thanks to a stinger net, we read a little in the park nearby and cooked lunch.
Hollie had recommended Etty Bay to us so we went to check it out and saw our first wild cassowary. They are a large, endangered bird a little like an emu but less timid, they'll two foot tackle you with their giant claws if you're not careful! There was quite a big one on the beach, unfortunately being harassed by crazy tourists trying to get pictures with it as if it was a kitten.
We had a shower at the beach, picked up some meat and parked up for the night early enough to enjoy some reading and beers in the sun on our blanket. We were donated a giant mango and a bottle of wine by a guy from Somerset that Ben had been talking to. He'd obviously been laying on his famous charm!
We were woken up in the middle of the night by a drunk Aboriginal guy (Aboriginals aren't allowed to drink) banging on our van and then wandering around shouting that he wanted food. He didn't hang around long after the people still up didn't give him anything.
Day 15
Time to get rid of the van! Although I did wonder if we'd make it when there was a flashing sign by the side of the road telling us to report all bee swarms! What?! We made it back to the depot safely though.
Our third and final road trip was definitely one to remember. Fraser is probably my highlight of Australia but I really loved the van, particularly the tarpaulin, DVD player and most importantly, the fridge. It seems like a long time ago that we set off with the van but it's probably because we did so much. It was nice to have the freedom to not do much driving on some days and decide where we wanted to go at the last minute.
We arrived in Cairns, found a hostel and spent most of the day planning. We have booked a hostel for Brisbane, a hostel for our first night in Fiji, a hostel for the few days before Christmas in Auckland, an apartment to spend Christmas in, a hostel after Christmas and are just waiting to hear back if there is room for us at a Christmas lunch in a hotel.
On Sunday we went looking for a trip to the reef, then spent the afternoon at the free lagoon. Just before we were leaving a guy came up to us and said that he was doing a free BBQ for backpackers. Obviously we're the hungry, poor looking type but we didn't care! It was a church group but it was mostly youngsters and we stayed for a few hours talking to them and being fed sausages and coke. It was really pleasant.
Yesterday it was an early start for our trip to the reef. We were on a big catamaran and there were about 90 people, yet it never felt too cramped. It took 2 hours to get to the outer reef, which is supposed to be more colourful than the inner reef where most people go. We sunbathed and read on the way. The weather has been humid, cloudy and stormy in Cairns but yesterday was an absolute scorcher (until we got back and were welcomed with a storm).
Our first snorkelling stop was Michaelmas Cay, a random tiny beach island surrounded by coral and full of migrating birds over 50km off land from Cairns. We were dropped off on the beach and could wade out to snorkel, making our way back to the boat. We had about 2 hours and it was definitely the most colourful and impressive coral we have seen on our travels. We saw a green turtle, a sting ray and fish nearly as big as me. It was great. After lunch we headed to Paradise Coral which was in much deeper water but equally impressive. One of the crew brought a sea cucumber to the surface for us to touch, it was pretty horrible. Unfortunately we didn't see any reef sharks, only the divers did who were much deeper but we still managed to see new and impressive fish and the coral itself was spectacular.
We sailed some of the way back so it took longer but it was very pleasant in the sun with some beers. They even came round with some cheese and crackers!
Today we are heading to Brisbane for our flight to Fiji which is on Thursday. I really, really, really want to do some fishing but our time left isn't looking great:(
- comments
Diane It all sounds wonderful! I think people eat sea cucumbers - maybe in Korea. Do you want us to send you cash for Christmas presents or do you want it when you get home? You choose. Love Dianexx