Townsville and Cairns December 18th - 22nd Headed to Townsville the next day with the weather noticeably getting sunnier and definitely hotter and more humid as we approached the Tropics. It was so hot when we got to Townsville that we had to sleep with the van doors open for the first time so the mossie net was deployed. Even with the doors open it was very, very hot. It rained heavily again in the night (thought we'd seen the last of it) and we heade...

Airlie Beach / Whitsundays December 14th - 17th After leaving 'Campsite Deliverance' we headed north to Airlie Beach, gateway to the Whitsunday islands and stayed at a top campsite for a few days as we couldn't book a sailing trip straight away. Saw our first wombats one evening as pointed out by the slightly mental older aussie couple camping next to us. They shimmied down one of the palm trees next to our van like furry little burglars (the wombats,...

Bulgara to Airlie Beach December 12th and 13th Our original plan was to drive straight to a small place called Bulgara which was just outside Bundaberg to do some turtle watching, but the weather had different ideas. The torrential rain of the last few days meant that the Bruce Highway was closed to the north due to flooding so we had to turn back and head for Hervey Bay for a bit of respite. It kept raining though in pretty biblical proportions and Hervey Bay...

Noosa and Fraser Island 9th - 11th December Noosa was a shortish drive up the coast from Brisbane and miraculously, the Sun came out as we arrived. The town centre was really cool and full of a lot of nice restaurants and bars and even more posers out for a promenade. It's surrounded by picturesque lakes, rivers and some very expensive looking houses so it's definitely a great place to live, although there are about a thousand roundabouts which aren't...

Brisbane December 6th - 8th Our original plan was to make a stop at another national park before we got to Brisbane, but the rain was so torrential on the way north that we decided it wasn't worth it as there's no way we'd have been able to get out of the van to do any walking anyway. Damn you weather. Got to Brisbane alright and stayed in the closest campsite to the CBD. A huge storm greeted us on our first night - always seemed to rain just as we were about ...