Road Trip pt I: Guided By Voices

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And so the Road Trip begins. 2 cities. 1 Highway. Brisbane to Cairns along the Bruce Highway (yes the road is called Bruce. Seriously). 1700km door to door (thats 1000 miles, ish). In a camper van with nothing but ourselves, a gas stove and a sink. If we get through this and we are still together it will be a bloody miracle!

But all this is in front of us. We set off from Kieren and Kate's with a smile on the face and a singing heart. Within 10 minutes we were back at K&K's after Sam announced she had left her bag with purse, passport etc at the house. We set off again with a forced smile.

Guided by Voices (all Wicked Campers are decorated individually. Our's was decorated with an angel and a demon sat on a man's shoulders) behaved a bit like her name. Sometimes she was a joy, at others she behaved like a naughty puppy. She was thirsty (about 5km/l, thats about 18 miles per gallon. Ouch) requiring at least one full tank per day, and rewarded us by setting off a shrill buzzer if she was started while still hot. Lets hope the 300,000km on the clock mean she has the experience to get us all the way.

The first day was acclimatisation. It was my first driving since leaving home about 7 months ago and we stopped before dark. The campsite we earmarked turned out to be daytime parking only so we had to find another one pretty sharpish. Luckily there was one just up the road from Australia Zoo, so we decided to pop in.

Australia Zoo is the baby of the late Steve Irwin. It has been featured on many program's and you will be familiar with the croc's housed there. There is Agro, Acco, Murray, Bluey and many more. It is the first zoo I have been to dedicated to it's home country: 90% of the animals are Australian. The zoo is fantastic and the memorial to Steve at the Crocoseum is well done.

After a half day at the zoo we carry on up the coast and stop at Noosa, before heading up to Hervey Bay and Fraser Island. Fraser Island is named Frasier off of TV's Cheers and later TV's Frasier ands is the largest sand island in the world. There are no roads and only 4x4 vehicles are permitted on the island. Stuck vehicles are regular, just ask Kieren, and there is always someone to lend a hand. We were taken around the island by Ranger Bob, a 63 year old ranger who knew everything about everything. He was a joy to listen to and I can recommend him to anyone visiting the island in the future. Just ask anyone about Ranger Bob and they will point you in the right direction. The island is about 75 miles long and about 10 miles wide. The animal population includes all the venomous snakes, dingoes, roos, birds, but no koalas. We were lucky enough to see a wild dingo wandering along the beach. Plus we managed to get in a small plane and have a 20 minute flight over the island and ocean, even spotting a breaching Humpback Whale in the bay. Sweet as!

But we only had 2 days on the island. It was time to head back to the van and up to the Whitsundays...

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Photos

Murray the Croc
As seen on TV's "The Crocodile Hunter"

Fraser from the Air
incorporating a shed load of sand