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Published: August 23rd 2007
We are currently in Brisbane, and we got here in the following way..........We hired ‘Bender’ who was a fab wicked van! Wicked vans are the cheapest vans that you can hire here they come complete with everything you need, sleeping blankets, pillows, camping stove, cooking utensils and various other things that are needed on the road. They also come complete with a spray paint job that could be anything from Scooby doo’s mystery machine to men’s bodies on the side, we had Bender from futurama so have had all the kids looking at us and laughing! We were quite lucky really it could have been allot worse! We started our 8 day journey from Cairns to Brisbane which is roughly 1500kms on the 1st of August and went for a drive up to Port Douglas which is a rich boy’s playground full of boats in a huge marina. We then have followed a map that we were given in a tourist magazine, which we acquired when we were trying to be sold a tour! Our tactics have been to follow the long straight road that it is, and then look to which town we should head to next along the way!
Ste and Bender
One of the gypsies with his new campervanAnd it worked would you believe who needs maps hey ha ha ha!
Along the way we have called in at Mission Beach, a place that we had been told was very nice and to be honest we were not that impressed so we only stayed the one day and night there, made spag bol on the camping stove then carried on our long journey. The next stop was Airlie Beach, the stepping stone to the Whitsunday Islands. Airlie Beach itself was not allot to look at but obviously the Whitsundays are stunning! We booked to go on a boat day trip to Whitehaven beach and do some snorkeling on the Barrier reef..........Hmmmmmm that did not happen. During our stay in our transit van I was eaten by something not sure what but guess what???? It got infected! We could not believe it, my arm was very swollen and sore so we took a trip to the Pharmacy who said it was a spider bite and we should go see a doctor, so that we did and he gave me some antibiotics to take to sort it out. It is so strange we have spent so long in Asia
Koala
eating more eucalyptus some where that is not clean by any means and has all kinds of weird and wonderful things there to bite you. Then here we are in some where that is clean and ‘normal’ and both of us have suffered from infections! We are putting it down to having to take malaria pills for nearly three months, the malaria pills we had are an antibiotic so have wiped out our immune system think! Anyway to cut a long story short I got a bit poorly had a temperature and felt really sick so we visited anther doctor the next day to check me out, he gave me more tablets to take! So with being poorly unfortunately we were unable to go to the Whitsunday islands.
Our drive further south took us through Mackay, Sarina, Rockhampton and Bowen, all very quiet towns with three places......a pub, a local store and petrol station! Along the way there are just field after field of sugar cane, a huge part of life for the people up there. We are at the time of year that they are harvesting it so was good to see the big machines working in the fields. 1770 was
Old girl
This was an old dear,but it gratefully took my kangaroo feed! our next stop, a small untouched town with a handful of shops then a beautiful harbour full of small boats and pelicans. We stood one night and watched the sun go down, it was like a film the colours in the sky were intense oranges and reds over the mountains then the light casting out onto the water with a dolphin playing around.......so so nice!!!!!
We took a day boat trip to Lady Musgrave Island and to the reef. It was very pricey at 150 quid for both of us but we thought hey we got to see the reef after coming all this way! The day started at 8am at the harbour, we were ferried across to the catamaran called ‘spirit of 1770’ then we were soon on the way. Now then we have now done a fair bit of sea travel in all kinds of vessels some more sea worthy than others! This was the worse boat ride we had both been n ever!!!!!!! The boat itself was perfect, we sat inside on comfortable seats, but once we hit the open water it was like being on a fair ground ride that went on for an hour
Van Life
Bex dishing up another delicious egg sandwich and a half........bouncing out of the water swaying from side to side back and forth!!! Almost every person on that boat was sick or felt it, it was awful. Once we arrived 50 miles out from 1770 we were rewarded by the bath like clear waters of the lagoon that surrounds the tiny island. If you put lady Musgrave into Google it should bring up the Ariel picture of it and it really is something! We started off the day the day with tea and biscuits, not something everybody could stomach after the trip over! Then we hopped onto a glass bottom boat that took us around the reef.......wow!!! The reef was massive and the fish looked liked they had been on drugs the size of them! It was so good to see that most of the coral was alive and the marine life was thriving down there. We have been told that parts of the Barrier reef have been ruined so this was great to see. The boat we were on is the only tourist boat that is allowed in there which is a wonderful thing as the reef and fish are still really happy down there without getting
The Road
this is what the road looks like for 1000km,boring disturbed by man! We saw the biggest cod fish ever, who they called George. He had a face that looked like he just chilled out at the bottom in the sand unless there was chance of some food then he would slowly make his way to the surface. Next we went for a walk on the island itself. The island is made from coral, over thousands of years it has built up and formed into the island. Thousand of birds come to this island to nest from all over the world. We were not in season for this but could still see all the nests that the birds come back to every year. The beach reminded us Gili Meno in Indonesia, there is nothing there just sand sea and a few trees! You can camp on the island as it is a national park; it only costs $4.50 per person. After a tasty lunch we then set about to go snorkeling. The water was so cold! Ste went as I just fed the large fish that were coming up to the platform at the side. The fish were amazing and so big. Everybody was not looking forward to the journey
Bex and Neddy
Neddy ate our carrots home after the one out to the island, believe it or not it was quite smooth and went allot faster. There was row after row of people flat out asleep as they had taken so many travel sickness tablets. It was a lovely day and well worth the money.
The day after we drove right through to Martins, for those of you who don’t know who Martin is, he is my god parent’s son! Martin and his wife Romana have a gorgeous house about an hour and a half north of Brisbane it was lovely to see martin and meet Romana and Taj. We called in and had tea then drove down to Brisbane and got very lost along the way. Eventually we made it to Auntie Gills and Uncle Mikes very late on! It was great to see them both as I have not seen them for while and it was so nice that I could introduce them to Ste. We had a good chat then straight to bed. The next day we relaxed and were spoilt with real food and lots of cake! It is so kind of them to have us here in a proper bed
Road Signs!
One of many new interesting road signs! with proper food and a clean shower ha ha ha!
Since we have been here we have been to visit the Botanical gardens and went up to the look out point at cool-tha Mountain. Brisbane city centre is not that big but the surrounding sprawl of the city is spread over a large area. We also have been up to Byron bay which is around two hours from Brisbane, I put my bikini on so it rained......typical hey! We spent the day with Stuart, Lynn and Arielle (Auntie Gill and Uncle Mikes other son, wife and little 2 year old daughter). We spent our time there walking around the town then had a lovely lunch.
We have spent the past 5 days at martin and Romana’s house, which has been great! They live on the sunshine coast about half an hour from Noosa. On the first day we went to Noosa, Noosa has a gorgeous beach with kite surfers flying past you then a small cosmopolitan town! There is a huge national park there too and it has Koala bears in there, we went for a short walk and looked up at the trees to see if we
Sunset in 1770
A beautiful sunset in the town of 1770 could see any as they are very shy animals.......well they were obviously very shy that day as we did not see any at all ha ha ha. The next day we visited the gingerbread factory, we had a right laugh. We had no idea that Queensland had a huge export industry from ginger! We bought some gingerbread men and i purchased a gingerbread man cutter so i can make little ‘gingies’ from shrek!!!!!! We were lucky enough to get tickets into Australia zoo also known as the Steve Irwin zoo. This zoo is the best zoo we have been to, it is more of a conservation project educating everybody about the animals. They put on a great show with the famous crocs and some fab birds and snakes! We got to feed some elephants then hold a koala, then our high light of the day...........feeding the kangaroo’s. You buy a bag of ‘Roo food’ for 50 cents from the shop, it has dried corn and some sort of dried cereal. It rained most of the day but that did not seem to matter as it was such a great day!
Yesterday we did the true Australian thing and went
The Reef
part of the southern Great barrier reef surfing! I say we went surfing what I meant is that we tried our best to. Martin took us patiently to a few beaches where the waves were unsuitable for learner surfers like us! We ended up at a beach that the waves looked fine.............until we got into the water and they doubled in size! By this time we all ready me in a wetsuit whilst the poor boys braved the cold, with our boards strapped to us! Ste and Martin went off into the waves, i thought better of that as they were far too big for me, So i decided try my hand at body boarding, that is let the wave take me along to the shore! It was great fun, more fun than getting bashed by the water like the boys were. We both tried to stand up, Ste being better than me at it. We did not manage to stand but gave it a good go! We finished off the day with an Australian meat pie, apparently the way to finish the day surfing!
We are now back in Brisbane, Where it is chucking it down. They have not had proper rain for 2 years and
Lady Musgrave Island
made up entirely of coral are in serious drought, so it is a good thing for them to have at the moment as they need it! Planning on spending the next few days trying to sort the mess that we have been left with due to STA travel, that is a whole different story that i have not got the energy to explain!
Apologies for the lateness in the blogs, we just have been so busy we have not had chance! Hope everybody is OK and behaving themselves! Speak to you all soon xxxxxxxx
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