Gold Coast to Cape Tribulation. 9-26 July.

With John & Bernie heading up the long road to Cairns ahead of us, we didn't cover too many miles initially and pottered up the road to the start of the Gold Coast - “Australia's Playground” - where we stopped for a couple of nights to relax by the beach and feed the amazing variety of bird life from our van: Kookaburras, parrots, cockatoos, wild turkeys and storks. The days were warm (though not quite sunbathing weather yet), but the nights were still cold. The Gold Coast, like much of the East coast, is made up by golden sand beach after golden sand beach – we're getting quite spoilt for stunning coastline scenery.

We crossed into Queensland and drove up through the high-rises of Surfers Paradise before stopping in Brisbane for the afternoon to take a look around. As Brissie is a few kilometres inland on a river there are no natural beaches, so they've built a lagoon and man-made beach on the south bank of the river which is a nice place to wander around. We negotiated the rush-hour traffic on the way out of town and pulled off the highway at the small town of Beerwah and Australia Zoo, home of the late Steve Irwin, aka the Crocodile Hunter.

The next morning we were up early for a good look around the zoo. It's probably the most interactive zoo we've been to, with a full schedule of feeding and interaction opportunities including feeding the Elephants or meeting and patting some of the various animals that the keepers walk around with such as baby alligators and wombats. The highlight of course is the salt-water croc feeding which takes place in the stadium-like 'Crocoseum' and the chance to cuddle a Koala (something Sue's been looking forward to for a couple of weeks now!). A great day out, although the entrance fee hit the pocket hard! They still really push the Steve Irwin merchandise – you can have a green-screen photo with Steve (even though he has been dead and buried for almost 5 years - creepy), or buy a Steve/Terri/Bindi doll etc.

Back on the coast road again, we were now on the aptly named Sunshine Coast, where we passed through the exclusive Noosa area (and did some daydreaming outside the estate agents) before reaching Hervey Bay, the main hop-off point for trips to Fraser Island, the world's largest sand island accessible by 4WD vehicles only. As we already had our accommodation (ie the van), we opted for a day-trip only rather than hiring a car and camping. The company we'd chosen were fully booked for a couple of days which left us with some time to kill in Hervey Bay – a pleasant town, but very spread out along a massive and virtually deserted sandy beach.

Having booked our trip to Fraser Island while the area was basking in glorious sunshine, it was naturally bucketing it down with rain when we got up at 6am to be picked up in the white Hummer that was to be our transport for the day. We picked up another couple en route to the barge that would take us across to the island and got acquainted with them and our very talkative guide/driver. It continued to rain into the late afternoon, but we all pulled out our waterproofs, put a brave face on and made the most of it. Fortunately we all got on really well, so managed to have a good day despite the weather.

Fraser Island is essentially a big island (some 80 miles long or so), made almost entirely of sand, but which supports a surprisingly dense rainforest which has adapted to growing out of sand instead of soil. The island is crossed by tracks, but the main 'road' is the eastern '75-mile Beach' upon which various road laws apply. It's quite an odd sight to see trucks and big off-road buses trundling along the beach. We walked through various parts of the rainforest (where Sue continued her intimate encounters with Australian wildlife by having to peel off a couple of leeches) and visited a couple of the many freshwater creeks on the island. We stopped at the wreck of the Maheno (built in Dumbarton where Sue was born), which is slowly decomposing on the beach and we had Lake Mackenzie to ourselves which is apparently very rare. The lake is a beautiful place and is usually filled with people sunbathing on the sandy shores and swimming in the crystal clear waters. Today though, the driving sideways rain seemed to have put people off for some reason!

The sun eventually managed to sneak through a few cracks in the clouds as we drove back down the beach towards the barge and we pulled over for a spot of afternoon tea (sparkling wine, strawberries and chocolates – very civilised!). That evening we visited John and Lynn at their hotel for more drinks and a take-away to round off an enjoyable day.

Having spent four nights in Hervey Bay, we decided it was time to make tracks up the coast to warmer climes so we both put in a stint behind the wheel and covered 750kms, crossing the Tropic of Capricorn and arriving at Cape Hillsborough after dark. The cape is home to some great coastal scenery, a stunning beach (at low tide) and a kangaroo population that is noted for enjoying the beach and the occasional splash in the surf. While we didn't see any on the beach, we were rewarded with a large 'roo bouncing past within feet of us while we were eating breakfast and were able to get close to another that was having a bit of a sunbathe as we packed up for another day on the road.

It was lunchtime on the third day since leaving Hervey Bay that we rolled into Cairns, where we raided the tourist information office for details about diving the Great Barrier Reef. We camped up and planned out our last few days with the van. We had a productive time the next day booking our dive trip and hiring an underwater camera, before leaving Cairns and heading north to Cape Tribulation (named by Cook when the Endeavour was holed on the reef), part of the Daintree National Park and one of the oldest rainforests in the world.

We spent two relaxing nights at the cape and a day wandering the beaches and rainforest boardwalks without encountering any of the resident Cassowaries (or Crocs fortunately!). The scenery was picture-postcard-perfect and the weather was great. We were even able to wear a few less layers to bed at night!

Cape Tribulation was the furthest north we reached and we headed back a short distance to the picturesque town of Port Douglas, stopping for some croc-spotting on the Daintree River on the way. We were out on the river for an hour on a small, quiet, solar-powered boat. As it's winter, the crocs aren't very active, but the cooler temperatures force them out of the water and onto the riverbanks to warm up, treating us to six close encounters ranging from a tiny hatchling, a one and a two year old, an adolescent, to the dominant male croc and one of his girlfriends who were basking on the banks in close proximity. It was a treat to get so close to these animals in their natural environment.

We arrived in Port Douglas at lunchtime and found a nice pub for a beer and a burger that turned into a couple more beers in the sunshine. It was a public holiday in Cairns so there were loads of people around and we were joined at our table by an Aussie couple and got chatting over another drink. It turned out that he was something of an Australian celebrity: a former rugby league coach and now a sports journalist and TV pundit. Roy Masters. We didn't know who he was obviously, but as afternoon wore into evening we did a straw poll of various people in the bar and concluded that slightly less than half of the people asked knew who he was. We had a really enjoyable evening chatting with the friendly locals including one guy who eventually had to be dragged away by his wife at the end of the evening. We eventually ran out of cash and stumbled back to the van to be greeted by a stonking headache the next day.

Once the hangovers cleared, we drove back towards Cairns, looking for a campsite on the beach to spend our last two nights in the van before handing it back. Unfortunately, it being a holiday weekend, the sites were full, so we drove up into the hills outside of Cairns and stayed on the edge of the village of Kuranda, famous for its craft markets, where we spent our last day mooching around the stalls and buying a couple of souvenirs.

It was with mixed feelings that we handed back the van that had been our home for 24 nights. It's been great having the independence and freedom of your own transport, but we were also ready for a proper bed in a warm room and were looking forward to returning to the world of the ensuite bathroom!

We unloaded our belongings at a hotel and washed the van down before returning it. We've one night in Cairns before departing on a 3-day trip out to the reef – very exciting!

Hope you are all keeping well,
Dan & Sue