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Published: October 26th 2013
Thursday 17th and Friday 18th
A long 5 hour drive from Albany to Perth city centre to drop off the car and then catch the bus to the airport for 5 pm.
We wait for our flight to Melbourne at 10.45 and it's a loong wait ! Not much to do in the departure lounge.
Arrive in Melbourne and then another 5 hour wait for our connecting flight to Cairns and finally arrive at 11.30. A grueling 24 hours of traveling and feel exhausted as we don't get much sleep.
After arriving at our hostel we have a quick wash before getting some lunch, our first hot meal in over 24 hours.
We feel much better and have a walk down to the camper van hire company and check out our van. It's small but seems perfectly well formed ! We decide to collect it tomorrow when we're more rested.
After a quick swim in the hostel's pool and a nap we walk into Cairns city centre. We see a huge number of fruit bats in the trees making a hell of a noise. We then have a walk around the sea front and some
of the shops. Christine can't keep away no matter how tired she is !
After eating at a food court, much cleaner than those in Malaysia we head back to the hostel for an early night. Eager to pick up our van in the morning !
Saturday 19th
We pick up our van and drive it back to the hostel and load up with all our belongings. Some how we get it all in !
Next we replace our underwater camera and Christine wades into the beach side swimming pool to test it. Lots of underwater legs !
Reluctantly I find a barber to get my hair cut and come out much relieved with a decent appearance.
We call in at the local supermarket to stock up with provisions and set off for the first time, not exactly in the fast lane but safely plodding along.
Our first stop for the night is at Mission Beach, a lovely beach over looking Dunk Island. It's 14 K of pure sand and with a back drop of palm trees.
We're camped up in a great site shaded with more palm trees. There's even a
pool and we take a dip before dinner.
Our van comes with a sat nav but all the commands are in German ! I can't alter the settings because they're in German too. Luckily we meet a nice young German couple over dinner and they fix our problem. We now have Kate giving directions.
Sunday 20th
When we collected our van we found out that the air con only works when we are driving. To over come the warm nights we have bought an electric fan. Our first night and it was like sleeping in a fan oven ! All I needed was basting and I would have been oven roasted to perfection by morning. It was HOT!
The sun rose around 6 am and so did most of the happy campers, I was not one on them ! I hadn't got to sleep till about 3. Christine says I need to adapt, I don't think she meant to only having 3 hours sleep a night !
We spend the morning looking round a street market and then on the beach. I was under a palm tree preserving my porcelain complexion and Christine laid in
the sun slowly turning a mahogany colour.
Later on we take another dip in the pool before having a walk along the beach to see if we can find some wild life, to no avail.
Dinner is a DIY BBQ in the camp kitchen.
Monday 21st
Second night sleeping in the slow cooker and I'm getting used to it, or it was cooler last night. Still everyone gets up at 7 and on the way to the shower block I'm bitten on the foot ! Fearing the worst I hobble to the showers and ask an Aussie if it's a spider bite. Luckily there's only one puncture hole and it's probably not. An ice pack, anti histamine cream and tablets seem to sort it out.
A fairly short drive today to Townsville, a largish town opposite Magnetic Island that we thought of visiting tomorrow but unfortunately the weather's not that good, showers and very strong winds. I'm not keen on the ferry crossing and we decide to leave it.
Later we catch the bus into Townsville and walk along The Strand, the sea front promenade back to our site about 4 miles.
Another
leisurely evening around the van.
Tuesday 22nd
We leave fairly early for our 200 K drive to Bowen where we plan to stop for a couple of nights. It's a pretty boring drive with flat farm land both sides of us for miles. The drive is quite scary due to strong winds and the camper bounces and sways quite a lot.
We finally arrive around 1.30 and book into a beach side site with pool and lots of amenities. There's not many on the site and we get to choose where we want to park.
We have a walk into town and it's a very spread out centre with lots of low rise buildings and pretty ugly. It was apparently used in the film Australia to represent Darwin in the War and there are posters showing how the buildings were film set dressed. Quite interesting !
We then have a drive out to Flagstaff Hill which over looks the coast and town. The view's amazing. We try and have a drink at the restaurant at the top but it's closed as it's 4 pm. We're starting to learn that things close very early in Australia
!
We return and have a swim.
Wednesday 23rd
A day for relaxation, at least it was supposed to be until we are woken just after 6 by next door's yappy dog. Don't these people ever sleep until 8! They go to bed around 8 pm, no wonder they're up so early.
We drive into Bowen town and stop at Mullers Lagoon. The town's centre piece. It's a very nice park and lagoon with lots of birds, although we don't know what most of them are.
Bowen has some of the best beaches in North Queensland and we first visit Queen's Beach. It's a lovely long stretch of beach only spoilt by the sign warning of snakes !
Next we drive down to Grays Bay which is really lovely. We stop for the day and swim and sunbath.
Thursday 24th
We woke to a lovely sunny day without a cloud to be seen. Only a short drive of 50 miles today to Airlie Beach.
We book into the site closest to the beach and take the board walk to the town and beach. It turns out to be nearly 3 miles
! when we reach the beach we find that hundreds and hundreds of young people have beaten us to it. Their laying around the man made pool and most have great tans and very little white spots to cover ! I feel about 105 !
We have lunch and I think about shaving off my new white beard. It may not make me look any younger but I may feel better !
We amble back to the site and spend the rest of the afternoon around the pool.
Early evening we have drinks with our neighbours and they tell us that they sold their house about two years ago and now just travel around in their motor home. Last night we heard of a couple who have spent the last 9 years in a tent traveling !
Friday 25th
We are collected at 8.30 and taken to Airlie Point to board our boat for the day trip out to the Whitsunday Islands.
Our first stop is Manta Ray Bay off Hook Island. After a safety briefing about snorkeling, we don our stinger suites to avoid the box jelly fish stings. If the suits were
green we'd all look like Kermit !
We are offered fins which I refuse only to find that we must swim over 200 m to the coral. I'm the last back and have to be towed in by the rescue boat. Next time I'll take the fins !The snorkeling was ok but not as good as in the Perhentian Islands off Malaysia.
Our next stop is to go ashore and climb to Hill Inlet lookout on Whitsunday Island for a look down onto the famous Whitehaven Beach. It is stunning. Words simply cannot describe it's appearance !We look down on scores of manta rays. After numerous photos we go back to the boat and motor round to the beach for swimming and a BBQ lunch.
Late afternoon we motor slowly through dozens of the islands which again are incredibly attractive before mooring up just before sun set.
It's been a great day and the Whitsunday's have been everything that everyone said they would be.
Saturday 26th
First thing I shave off my new beard and feel ten years younger even if I don't look it.
We then turn every thing out of the
van in search of my sun glasses and Christine's glasses. It's amazing that in such a small space we can never find anything. It's a fruitless search, we've left them in Cairns.
Next we have to do the domestic bit, laundry and then food shopping.
We then take a short drive out to Conway National Park for a 2 k walk to Coral Bay. It's just as the name says, full of dead coral and we are the only ones on the whole beach. We walk up to The Beak and get another great view of the Whitsunday Islands. A sign warns us of crocodiles !
Then it's back to the site for swimming and to top up our tans. Well Christine tops hers up and I try to start mine
We finally take a walk along the beach front just as the sunsets for the day.
Pasta for dinner tonight, we just can't take another BBQ this week !
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K & M
non-member comment
Photos are brilliant and really convey the beauty of the place - we are very envious particularly as we seem to be in for a bad storm and gales over the next 48 hours! On the bright side though we are in our lovely comfy house all nice and cosy with every amenity! Love from us both. x