We arrived back in Melbourne to find that the weather had certainly changed since we left…it was 7PM and the temperature was somewhere in the mid 30s. We had booked accommodation for the next 10 days in a St. Kilda flat, which was really central, just off the main street. It seems that the entire population of Melbourne descends on St. Kilda for hot Sunday afternoons so by the time we had fought through the traffic everyone was feeling hot and bothered…and the beer that came before dinner went down very nicely! Anyway, we met up with Caroline’s Uncle and Aunt [View Full Entry]

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We left the Blue Mountains for a long drive Southwards through some surprisingly green countryside. At Kiama we stopped to see the blow hole - but we caught it on a calm day when it wasn’t doing much blowing, but it was a jolly good hole! We jumped out of the car to grab lunch in the small town of Milton where we were surprised that the weather outside was very hot and windy - it felt like a fan assisted oven! I used this as an excuse to pop into the cooler TAB (betting shops normally attached to pubs) and [View Full Entry]

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We were up early on Wednesday morning to fetch Hilary and Rose (aka Caroline’s mum and auntie or ‘the ladies’) from the airport. The rest of the day was spent wandering around Sydney’s sights: the botanical gardens, Mrs. Macquarie’s Chair (great harbour views), the Opera House, The Rocks (restored older streets) and the Observatory Park. Having met up again for dinner the jet lagged ladies eventually allowed themselves go to bed…we headed to the bar next to our hostel instead. On Thursday we caught a ferry over to Manly where we enjoyed a walk on North [View Full Entry]

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We checked into our hostel-come-B&B in Brisbane and spent the next couple of days exploring the first proper city of our trip. We enjoyed wandering along the Southbank with its artificial beach and flower covered arches over the path and also took in some culture: museums, galleries, coffees and cakes! On Friday morning it was time to continue our journey, this time heading towards Byron Bay via Lamington National Park (which had come highly recommended by Caroline’s Auntie Janet). The road up into the park was steep and afforded brilliant views down to the coast over Surfers Paradise [View Full Entry]

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We left Airlie Beach with the hazy plan of spending a couple of days making our way to Hervey Bay. We took a detour to visit Eungella National Park which was stunning - our flying visit didn’t do it justice at all. There were loads of waterfalls, walks and creeks/waterholes to swim in amongst the impressive wooded hills. We, however, had time for just one proper stop - lunch and a walk in the woods before a dip in a couple of the very picturesque (and cold!) pools. While we were eating we were closely watched by a huge goanna (a [View Full Entry]

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From Townsville it was a fairly short drive down to Airlie Beach so we arrived with plenty of time to pitch the tent and explore. We chose a central campsite - a strange place which felt like it was a popular site with tourists back in the early seventies but had since been a bit neglected. Airlie itself was a lively strip of cafes and bars mixed in with travel agents and tourist shops and finished off with a large man-made lagoon for visitors to lounge around. We spent some time pottering, lounging and swimming before taking a walk down the [View Full Entry]

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‘Hot and stuffy Townsville’ as it was noted in our guidebook lived up to its name, probably not helped by local bush fires. We wasted no time stuffing our rucksacks full and jumping on a ferry to Magnetic Island. We spent the first two nights in The Base hostel with a rowdy bar and a large village of huts and teepees. We spent time on the beach and in the bar as well as investigating the ice cream shops of Nelly bay! We then caught the bus to Horseshoe bay - notably the bus drivers have to wear a uniform on [View Full Entry]

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We arrived in Mission Beach and booked into The Sanctuary Retreat. A man in a 4 wheel drive came to pick us up fromt he carpack for the drive up through the rainforest to the hotel. Our room was amazing - a green hut suspended in the rainforest which you could almost touch from bed. Having settled in we headed down to our own bit of beach - along a footpath through the trees (very beautiful although the return walk was hard work in the heat). A beautiful sunset made it all worthwhile plus a brilliant dinner on the restaurant balcony [View Full Entry]

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We left Cairns and headed north towards Port Douglas for a lunch stop and then on to the Daintree River, as we travelled the trees became more lush and dense and though we had clear skies it was clear we were entering a rainforest. We went for a boat trip before boarding the ferry and had the whole boat to ourselves which was ace. Terry showed us four crocs as well as a blossom bat, snake, wonky crabs and some spoon billed birds. We then headed over the river on the ferry and made our way to the beach campsite at [View Full Entry]

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Sunday 20.09.09 We left Benalla with a plan to drive a couple of hundred kilometers, before pitching the tent (sorry everything will be in kms, the car only counts in kms). We’ve got an ace book which lists free and cheap places to camp so we chose one just off the route and found it without too much trouble. It was just a recreation field in a town called Yarong and the sign at the gate said we should go to the bowls club next door for a beer and to pay for the pitch. There were no other tents and [View Full Entry]

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