Blog Day 143 Mon 26th September 2011

Finally we are on the road again. It seems as though the past couple of days we have been driving around the Cairns area but have not managed to get much distance between ourselves and the city. Today though we make a break for it and head down towards Mission Beach.

We have heard that Mission Beach is very much an adrenaline area with skydiving being number 1 on the list of things to do. Something that Dan has no interest in doing at all. Trish on the other hand is quite keen on the idea but wants to save it for New Zealand. We pull up at the tourist information building only to find all the same leaflets that we found in Cairns.

We have a drive around the area which is very quiet and relaxed, again in search of somewhere we can spend the night. The nearest free area is about 20minutes back on the highway, otherwise we would have to pay anything from $17 to $30 for a patch of grass. We decide that the free one is the way to go before exploring the beaches of Mission Beach a little more.

South Mission Beach is most certainly the place to be! The golden sands stretch for miles and people are few and far between. We drive all the way to the end of the beach to a quiet boat jetty. With Jaz parked at the water's edge we get out and take some great photos (ones that Spaceship's head office would be proud of!). Back up the beach we make use of the public showers before making our way back to our campsite for the night.

The rest area again has public toilets and is pretty well lit up. We pull up and get dinner on the go, which is a feast of an all in one pasta and sauce in a packet. It does the job though and at $1 a pack we cannot complain! One problem we do come across is just how uncomfortable the bed can be when we are not parked on level ground. We move the van over to a different part of the rest area, right next to a sign that says 'beware of crocodiles', a thought that is now at the fore front of our minds when it comes to waking up in the middle of the night and needing the toilet. Before we put a film on in the camper, Trish has a brush with nature in the toilets (no crocodiles thankfully), but disturbing a frog in the toilet bowl, three lizards in the sink, and a huge grasshopper playing ref to a couple of fighting cockroaches on the floor. AHH The Great Outdoors!

Blog Day 144 Tues 27th September 2011

This morning we are woken up by two things. The first thing is the sound of a coffee filter being banged empty, and the second is the heat. At exactly 8am mother-nature decides to turn on the oven that is our campervan! As we are getting ourselves ready another Spaceship pulls into the rest area. Two girls jump out of it and start preparing breakfast at the picnic tables. We decide to head back down the beach to cook up our brekkie. As we leave the rest area we pull up alongside the two girls it see if they want to swap a few DVDs. Surprise, surprise they are only a couple of Germans! They are headed north and we give them a few ideas on where to go and what to do. They tell us of a little free campsite just outside of Townsville at Saunders Beach. We swap some DVDs and say goodbye before heading down to South Mission Beach.

Again there are very few people on the beach as we pull into the small parking area. In a flash the midget table and chairs are out and Dan has the sausages in the pan! The sea is like a mill pond and as we devour our sausage and egg rolls we can't help but think that there are worse places out there to have breakfast.

A few people have started to dawn on the beach by this time, so we pack away our kitchen/dining room and drive about half a mile down the road where the beach is empty. After applying a generous amount of sun cream, we set up our living room so that the gently lapping waves just cover our feet, and for the next few hours we lose ourselves in our books.

Somewhere in our head a buzzer goes off telling us that we are both cooked for the day. So we head back to the van to decide on our next move. With so much time to kill before we need to be in Airlie Beach planning what to do isn't too easy. We decide to check out the free camp site that the 2 German girls we met this morning mentioned. After filling up the van and hitting shuffle on the IPod we are back on the open road.

The speed limit in Oz on the highway is 100km/hr (62mph), Jaz (our camper) will try to go this fast but feels and sounds a lot more comfortable at 80km/hr (50mph), picture a donkey trying to catch a racehorse if you will. Needless to say we get overtaken quite a bit.

The driving in Oz is quite amazing though. The landscape is so vast and can change in an instant. One minute you're in the hills and the next your about to fall into the ocean, and every other mile you're driving across another creek. They love a creek out here! And they love to name a creek too! Christmas creek, Easter creek, Sunday creek, Chinaman creek, Deep creek, Long creek, Douglas creek, Newman creek. The most random one we have seen so far must have been named by the local village idiot…………………Bladey Grass Creek. You don't get much simpler than that! We are now on the lookout for the best creek names.

Also the road signs make you think. You get the normal ones advertising McDonalds, Subway, KFC etc so food is covered. But there was one we drove past that said in big letters………….DRUNK? Which got us thinking…….. am I? or…… should I be?

So after 3 hours and many creeks and questions we finally drive straight past the sign for Saunders Beach where our campsite is. A quick U turn later and we pull up at our destination. The parking/camping area is right on the beach and is equipped with toilets, cold outdoor shower, a park, a picnic area and even a couple of hotplates to cook on. Not too shabby for a free campsite! Well done German girls!

We make use of the shower before setting the van up for the night and cooking dinner. There are quite a few motorhomes and caravans parked at the site. They all have vans with fully fitted kitchens and awnings set up over the top of patio furniture. The caravan next to ours could even play the radio over a set of fitted outdoor speakers, we found this out due to the fact that the guy who owned it didn't know how to switch it off! Our little Jaz puts them all to shame though. At first glance she looks like a bright orange Toyota people carrier, however once the boot is opened and the canopy is buttoned on (the air-conditioned conservatory), the side door is opened and the bed is propped up (revealing the pantry), and the hobbit table and chairs are erected supporting not 1 but 2 gas stoves (kitchen/diner), we feel we could hold our own against any of these seasoned professionals!

Tonight is the first night we have slept with the boot and canopy arrangement and it works a treat giving us that little bit more living space. So after a pasta dinner Dan makes use of the extra living space by trying to catch up on the blogs that we have desperately fallen behind with AGAIN!