The worst week and a bit ever (well it's all relative) part 1

After having a great time with Scott + Lynsey being spoilt rotten in their fantastic flat that overlooks Tamarama beach it was with trepidation that we set off on the next leg of our trip. We had hired a very small car (a Hyundai Getz called Gary) to take us from the NSW/Queensland border up to Cairns (a distance of over 1800km) all good but sadly due to the Australian government only allowing pensioners (I.e. anyone over 30) 3 months to see an entire continent we needed to cover this distance in just over 3 weeks. It soon became apparent to us that we were going to struggle to see everything we wanted to as it would probably take 3 months (and a lot of more money) to see all the highlights in and around every section of the coast without even considering going very far inland. As with most of our trip forward planning isn't really something we've indulged in so we spent 2 days in Brisbane (they have a lovely library and 'cultural' riverside v similar to the South Bank in London) putting together a rough plan without really feeling we had progressed very far. Whilst there we picked up some 2nd hand camping gear from a US couple, a brave (or stupid) move in the Queensland wet season but with the pound at an all time low vs the Oz dollar we didn't have a lot of choice if we were to max our cash. So with Gary and our new old gear (all untested!) we made our way out of a seemingly very pleasant if a bit too clean city out into the country and we spent a couple of relatively inconsequential days making our way towards our 1st 'big' stop Australia Zoo via Stradbroke island (nice beach + coastal walk) and a couple of minor walks before our 1st mishap.

We had booked a campsite near Steve Irwins shrine (i.e. Oz zoo) and after getting lost a couple of times on our way to the camp we found the entrance track (to access it you had to cross a major motorway!) only to see that a diversion sign was in place due to apparent work on a bridge. Fair enough we thought so we followed the direction of the arrow down and back under the motorway and ended up back where we ended up opposite the entrance track facing the diversion sign as there were no other signs to follow, we were pretty confused. The only other road that we'd seen took us down into a creek which I thought couldn't possibly be the way...how wrong I was...this was the only way. So across the hairy motorway again and Gary slowly made his way down to the creek. We checked the depth of the creek (with one of our walking poles) and it seemed manageable even in Gary...so into 1st and foot down and hey presto we were at the other side of the creek. Having crossed the creek we expected the signs to kick in but oh no, wrong again, there were 2 roads we could have taken and it wasn't clear which one was the way forward. By this time drizzle had started falling and the forecast for the night was not good, plus it was getting late. Visions of a creek becoming torrential rapids overnight and not knowing what other obstacles might present themselves on our way to the elusive campsite we reluctantly decided that bailing out was the way forward. With no obvious places for our weary heads to rest we headed back the way we came, cursing the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service (whose camp site it was) and crossed our fingers for something else to materialise. The drizzle had now turned into fairly heavy rain and we stopped off at a motel where a guy who looked like he'd just woken up conveniently told us that he 'didn't know of any other camping options in the area' and 'yes, I do have a room' for the princely sum of $85. This was so far out of our budget it really hurt but not knowing of any other options and the car being not fit for sleeping purposes (without leaving our gear in the rain) we went to our fairly drab room with heavy heads. Really irritatingly on arrival at Australia Zoo the next day, a very helpful guy directing traffic at the car park told us of a free camp site that was even closer to Oz Zoo than where we were going to stay the night before, so we stayed there after a largely great day at the zoo. I say largely as that leads nicely into East coast mishap number 2...