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Published: September 19th 2008
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Here's the old girl!
Madge and and excited trolly pushing Kelly After a 4 hour stop off at Darwin we landed in Cairns to beautiful sunshine and 28 degree heat. We had arrived into civilisation!
We were picked up from the airport by the hostel we were staying at (Dreamtime Traveller's Rest) which turned out to be a really nice place with a very helpful chap at the helm. It was all a bit surreal to begin with as it had been so long since we'd been in a Western country- we weren't used to normal flushing toilets, sensible driving and even shopping (of the food variety- we loved doing our first lot food shopping!)
Once it sunk in however we were loving it.
Wasting no time at all - (we shopped around for the best deal) within 3 days we had our very own campervan (Madge) and were on the open road. And Madge was pretty sweet- we had a table and chairs that magically turned into a double bed, sink, gas hob and if plugged into an electrical socket, a microwave as well. And it was so nice to have the freedom to go wherever we wanted and do whatever we pleased- something that Asia did not afford
Dreamtime
Our hostel for the first couple of nights in Carins us.
Very early on, Kelly also made an extremely important discovery- we purchased a book (our bible while on the road) called Camps which outlines all the free camping spots in the whole of Oz. Without it we would have been doomed to pay for campsites every night or face a hefty fine if caught 'napping' on the roadside. Australia is so geared up to travellers they even have free showers in a lot of these places as well as free BBQs in pretty much every single park/rest area/layby across the whole of the country.
First we headed up north up through the Daintree rainforest to a place called Cape Tribulation. The climate was sultry with the sun more intense than Asia (factor 50 all the way). We did some really nice treks and found so many secluded (as in we were often the only ones on them) but stunning beaches that i've lost count. The photos speak a thousand words so I won't go into too much detail (plus i've forgotten the names to so many places). Cape Trib is also where we did a croc crusie along one of the many mangrove encrsuted estuaries and saw
Life's a....
Beach. Especially when you have it all to yourself real life wild corodiles (Carl Lyons- I was thinking of you mate- you would have loved it).
We then travelled back down to Cairns for a weekend and spent the night on a secluded part of the roadside where we woke for the sunset to our very own beach. After some shopping for supplies we visted the Great Barrier Reef for a spot of snorkelling and Kelly toook advantage of the free dive that was included. Rather than an impressive assortment of marine life on offer, the reef was really amazing.
We then spent the next few days in the Atherton Tablelands awash with amazing crater lake after crater lake (we saw turtles in the wild which was awesome, the elusive platypus and also visited the spectacular Curtain fig tree- see pics).
We then basically made our way down the east coast crossing small town after small town (plus the odd large town) and just took in the amazing scenery (Australia is so rugged- so many mountains, gorges, fields and beaches). Townsville was the next large town where we took a day out to visit nearby Magnetic Island (seeing seals while on the ferry). We also met
Lunchtime
Kelly's sorts out the grub while I lark about in the sand a really nice retired couple from Tasmania who lent us thier BBQ- we wiled away the early hours over some cheap plonk.
On Misson beach (while sunning ourselves in the 30 degree scorching heat) we watched as thousands of metres above us people leapt out of a plane and hurtled toward us, only to open thier parachutes at the last minute- quite a sight from the ground.
Airly Beach was really nice with it's own 'fake beach'- again- all for free. We also visted the Whitsunday Islands from here where we snorkelled. Whitehaven beach topping our top 5 beaches of all time ever (well of the last 6 months anyway- see pics). The sand is made of silica meaning that it never gets hot. It's pure white and squeaks when you walk on it. Plus the water is such an amazing colour of blue - the pictures just won't do it justice. I also managed to see stinrays chilling out in the shallow water- a mere 3 metres away from me in every direction! This is also where we met a nice couple from Frankfurt- Annagret and Gerrit who we spent the evening with- drinking and teaching each
Bridging the gap
Travelling across the Daintree River with Madge crude phrases in German and English.
Next stop- Steve Irwin Zoo. Again, zoos aren't really our cup of chaa but with a strong conservation/environmental theme it was all good fun. Actually made us both quite sad that Mr Irwin is no longer around- especially while walking around the tribute area, he was obviously well loved at home as well as abroad.
Sure I've missed out loads but we've done so much over the last 4 weeks my head hurts. Plus the pics should explain things much better than me waffling on.
Stay tuned- next stop Brisbane!
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