Day 2 - Mission Failed
The day began very early, 5am to be exact!
Breakfast needed to be acquired so we donned our trainers and walked into Cairns town, along the esplanade. The sun was blazing at a toasty 25'C, at only 8am; it was a shock to the system!
We found breakfast at a small coffee house called Coast Roast. We both settled on fruit smoothies and banana bread, which hit the spot and prepared us for the day ahead.
Our first port of call was to collect our Camper Van from the edge of town. We decided, in our wisdom, to walk there,which was at the very least 4km. This doesn't sound much but by 9am it was hitting 28'C and we were sweating! We arrived at the collection point only to find this branch doesn't open until 10am; we found some squalid little chairs and watched the beatles play under the parked vans.
The deposit for the vans nearly gave Clarkey a coronary, but 2 brand new credit cards put halt to that episode! £4000 later we were off causing havoc on the roads in our van, which we named Frank.....
Our aim for the day was to reach Mission Beach via Bruce Highway (must be an attempt of Aussie humour), and on the way we decided to take a slight detour via some World Heritage Site waterfalls. We forced poor old Frank to nearly 2000ft above sea level and averaged about 25mpg; it was looking like an expensive partnership!
Once at the summit we were gifted with breathtaking views of Queensland's peaks and stunning waterfalls. Sadly we saved the best til first, which made the last two waterfalls feel like minnows.
From there we headed South towards Mission Beach and Dunk Island Camp Site which we had pre booked. When we arrived we were greeted with a lock door and a closing time of 4pm. We called the number repeatedly but no answer came so we left quick sharp and found another campsite, which worked out cheaper and cleaner, SCORE! We parked up and hit the showers, as our hair looked greasy enough to stock the Chicken Lickin' fryers! Holly was greeted by a pair of beady eyes in the shower; unfortunately it wasn't the local hunk but a lizard! Staring her square in the eyes, we hope, it watched every move as she lathered and rinsed.....dirty little beastie!
Mission Beach is very unlike Cairns in that there are only 2 restaurants to choose from, both next to the campsite we just scarpered from. The only choice was to revert to type and get a cheeky burger....without a drop of booze in sight I hasten to add! We return to the van and scoffed our delights like a drunken reveller staggering home from town. Unlike those revellers we consumed our food at 7.30pm, shaming our generation, and hit the hay by 8.30pm with the first night in the camper van before us........