The Campervan Adventures...

Chapter 9..Farwell Dolly :(

So this is the final chapter of our campervan adventures will Dolly. Dropping the old girl off for our final farewell in Cairns was quite emotional but before we get to that there are our last few days of navigating the east coast to get to.

Townsville

Next stop after Airlie Beach was Townsville, where we spent two nights. There wasn't a great deal to do here really. Most people who come to Townsville are just using it as a port to get across to Magnetic Island but decided not to go. We did drive up to the Castle Hill look out though, which gives the best views across Townsville and over to Magnetic Island, which is just a few km off the coast.

On the Saturday, our second day there, we spent a lazy day by the campsite pool with our heads buried in our books. While I was sitting minding my own business reading the ground began to shake. I turned round to look at Lodge thinking it was her banging her big elephant feet but she was sitting perfectly still (equally immersed in her book).. Didn't really think much more of it until a couple of hours later when we found out that what we'd felt was actually a 5.2 earthquake which had hit about 60km south of where we were.

Mission Beach

From Townsville we headed further north to Mission Beach. We drove through towns on the way that had been destroyed by February's cyclone. Roofs were missing, trees bent over and everywhere generally looked as if it had taken a good bashing. Mission Beach was much the same and a bit of a ghost town with not a great deal to do so we sat by the pool again only be tempted to drag ourselves away from our books by the sighting of two cassowaries in the campsite, which we are told are very very rare animals to see up close in the wild. The owners of the campsite said in their 13 years there they'd never had a Cassowary come onto the site before but it is thought that the cyclone damage has forced them to come out of the trees to look for food.

It was quite amazing to learn about the extent of the damage the cyclone had caused. Apparently cars were being picked up and thrown 300meters inland in the winds. Or so said our new friend- a carpenter who, along with some others staying at our site, were in Mission Beach to help rebuild a holiday resort destroyed in the cyclone. He wooed Lodge with king prawns and avocado and ended up joining us for a drink in the evening. He was a really nice guy, despite using an explosive every other word, and told us all about his family who lived in Airlie Beach. Upon spotting our Zac Efron picture on Dolly's wall, he proceeded to tell us his friend who was staying with him and working here too, looked just like Zac.. Unfortunately he's gone out for the evening..damn it !!

Port Douglas

Last stop was Port Douglas, another cute little town, about 75km north of Cairns. We stayed at a campsite right on the beach, unfortunate the day we'd planned to head to the beach the weather was a bit overcast and so we spent our time wondering around Port Douglas' shops and marina plus there was a crazy night of karaoke. At probably the only bar open on a Tuesday night, we turned up to find about 20 people inside and karaoke going on. Feeling brave, we got up and sang.. Again.. And again.. And again. In fact I was enjoying myself so much I managed to be persuaded to go up and join the lady who worked there (you know the one who sings when no one else is to keep things going and adds a few minutes of actual singing to let people's ears recover!) We made friends with some equally drunk people and had a lovely time dancing around and singing our hearts out !!

Next morning- maybe it was payback for our god awful singing the night before- we woke to find a ridiculously huge Huntsman Spider on the curtain right next to where we'd just been sleeping ! Ewww.. I'm glad it wasn't until the last morning when we started finding the scary bugs !!

So that's it.. 5 weeks, 4565km, 1 very stressful day getting lost, 1 broken plug, 1 stolen windscreen wiper, 1 RAC rescue, 1 weekend ruined by Neil Diamond, 1 earthquake, hundreds of bugs, 3 huge dragons, 1 huge spider, countless stupid road signs, a lot of card games, even more goon and most importantly the 35 brilliant days of amazing places, fantastic trips, awesome sights and plenty of laughter and we made it...

Not bad for someone who regularly gets lost in car parks and someone who has been known to reverse into parked cars despite having parking sensors..

Just you try and stop us signing up as members of the Caravan Club when we get home !!