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Published: April 18th 2008
18th March 2008 - 1st April 2008
Brisbane - Mooloolaba - Noosa - Rainbow Beach - Childers - Emu Park - Yeppoon - St.Lawrence - Eungella - Airlie Beach (Whitsunday Islands) - Bowen
The overnight bus from Vientiene (Laos) to Bangkok pulled into the Khao San Road just after 7am. It was an ok journey and we got some sleep. We had one day in Bangkok so we stocked up on medicines, toiletries, a hammock, t-shirt and a couple of books. After six months of being accustomed to Asian prices Australia was going to be a shock - anything we thought we might need and could carry we bought here. We therefore thought some fake id making us students again and 24 years of age might be useful in gaining concessionary admission prices in Australia. They only cost £3 each and even if they don't work we thought it was cool having them anyway! Our flight the following day was an afternoon departure from Bangkok arriving in Singapore two hours later. An hours wait here and we boarded the plane to
Brisbane which was due to arrive about 6am local time.
On the flight from Bangkok we were
Balls!
Brisbane Modern Art Gallerydiscussing famous Aussie sayings like; 'G'day', 'Bonza' or 'put another shrimp on the barbie and pass me a tinnie'. Claire's contribution was - 'there's a crocodile in my pool'!? I'm sure it does happen from time to time but it's not really one of the more common sayings - it made me laugh!
Our first day in Australia was actually a bit of an anti-climax. Firstly I had a splitting pain in the head when coming in to land, then our favoured rainbow umbrella never made the journey. My umbrella made it but not in one piece so it got binned, then we had our bags searched and were politely told off for bringing bamboo, timber and a soiled trainer into the country without declaring it! The timber and bamboo related to a journal and picture frame. Oh, and it rained a lot!
Things obviously got much better after our first day. After deliberating for ages about buying or renting a car or campervan we eventually concluded that renting a camper would be best for us. The first day and a half was pretty much spent sorting out a campervan - we went with Travellers Autobarn and got
Food for thought!
Brisbane Modern Art Gallery a 'Chubby' (a converted Mitsubishi van with a large Donkey on it!? ) for 111 days. The remainder of our time in Brisbane was spent wandering around the many excellent and free art galleries and museums and sunbathing on their man made beach by the river! We also got 'dressed up' one night and went to the casino. We didn't win anything but didn't lose anything either.
Our 4th morning in Brisbane we were up early to collect our van and gleeful to be leaving our backpackers hostel. We are too old to be in these places and felt like fish out of water as people discussed university and gap years! I'm not sure how many more days we could have survived battling to do our laundry and cook our dinner and share our room with several untidy strangers.
So, we picked up our van and with no real plan other than we were going north as far as Cairns, we drove on. We stopped at a 'Free Driver Reviver' (free tea or coffee for the busy Easter Weekend travellers) and were recommended a stop at nearby
Mooloolaba so that's where we headed. It was a very pleasant
seaside resort where we sunbathed for the afternoon before leaving to find our first nights camping spot. Before leaving Brisbane we bought 'Camps 3' which lists thousands of campsites including the free camping areas. Australia has an abundance of these free sites for weary travellers which usually provide water, toilets, sometimes a bbq and a shower if you are lucky.
Next stop was
Noosa, an equally appealing beach but a slightly more exclusive area. We stayed here until lunchtime when the heavens opened and moved just a few kms along the coast to Sunshine Beach which thankfully lived up to its name. We parked up, hung our wet clothes on the barriers, got the cooking stove out and made a brew and some tuna pasta. What a life eh?
Our next destination was
Rainbow Beach. Again another pleasing beach which we enjoyed but again the heavens opened about 4pm this time after some glorious weather. Our national park campsite at Inskip Point, about 10km north of Rainbow Beach, was beginning not to look such a bargain at $4.50 each as the rain had turned the ground into a swamp. No sooner had we entered the site and the
rear tyre became stuck. It being a national park site there is no onsite management, it is little more than a free rest area really and it being the end of the Easter break there were not many other campers. Luckily Claire found two big men while I was digging out the wheel with a dustpan. They provided some muscle and we reversed out and parked near the entrance for a safe departure in the morning. We made a brew with extra sugar before bed to calm the nerves that night! Before leaving Rainbow Beach we checked out a 'sandblow'. The sandblow is an enormous sand dune that is slowly making its way to the coastline devouring the trees and plant life in its way as it does so. It was quite an impressive sight and as we were the only ones there even more beautiful.
A lunchtime stop at a place called
Childers, which is unfortunately famous for the fire that burnt down the 'Palace Backpackers' in 2000 killing fifteen people. The site has been rebuilt (but no longer a hostel) and includes a memorial to those who perished. Childers is actually quite an interesting stop apart from
Graffiti Art on Electric Boxes
and also on telegraph poles, toilet blocks etc this with several quaint and historical buildings.
Up early the next morning (we are actually up early every morning now we are campers as we go to bed soon after sundown) and the days destination was a beach called
Emu Park. It's a very small and sleepy town with a nice beach you can't swim at due to the 'killer jellyfish' and has a 'singing sails' monument to honour Captain Cook who landed not far from here. We later moved on to Rosslyn Bay where we parked up for sunset camping in a car park overlooking the beach.
We moved up the coast a few more kms in the morning to
Yeppoon and got a little too much sun on its' vast and empty beach. We had our first 'outside' shower and carried on driving north making it as far as the free rest area at St.Lawrence. The rest area here was great as it had all the usual facilities plus hot showers! You have to pay a dollar for the privilege and get three minutes worth (you have to be quick undressing as the machine is outside the shower cubicle). The local shopkeeper gave us some dollar
coins for our 'golden shower' as she called it - we think she was referring to the gold colour of the dollar coin and nothing more vile! Before sundown Claire saw her first Kangaroo not far from our rest area. I was busy chatting to a guy from Western Australia who was on his way to house sit in Cairns - that's 8000km to house sit!
Onwards we drove along the Bruce Highway taking a slight detour to visit
Eungella National Park. Eungella is where you are almost guaranteed to see duck billed platypus in their natural habitat. We treated ourselves to a campsite which had excellent views of the valley below and the surrounding mountains. Just before dusk (dusk and dawn are the best times) we set off in search of platypus. After a patient wait of about 20-30 minutes we spotted some. They were quite small and elusive and impossible to photograph but we were thrilled just catching a few glimpses.
We stopped just outside
Airlie Beach the next day to share a huge portion of fish and chips and then carried on into town and found a cheap campsite. It was obvious why it was
cheap as it wasn't maintained at all and the several ageing vans inside made it look like a 'wreckers yard'. We found a much better site the next day for just an extra $4. Airlie Beach has another man made 'lagoon' like Brisbane where we spent most of our first day. The next morning we visited the local airport as we had planned to do a scenic flight over the
'Whitsunday Islands' (a beautiful collection of 74 islands with stunning white sandy beaches and vivid blue coloured seas) landing on the most beatiful of all beaches - Whitehaven Beach - for a champagne picnic lunch. However, we hadn't booked ahead as we were waiting on the weather (it had been very overcast but was perfect today) and we discovered they were already full. We booked for the next day ('April Fools Day', the member of staff reminded us) as the weather was due to be as good. Back to the lagoon for the day then. In the afternoon we were in time for the daily bird feeding at our campsite where literally a hundred or more brightly green coloured lorrikeets swooped down making a real racket and a complete mess
of themselves - Claire had a couple feeding out of her hand as I stood back!
April Fools Day! Weather almost perfect, Clear blue sky, sun shining but a little windy. Our six seater seaplane was full so the pilot asked who would like to sit up front in the cock pit with him. A rare moment of decisiveness followed from Claire as she shot her hand in the air and enthusiastically shouted 'I would'! A little turbulence after take off and then we were spoiled with amazing views of the islands. An extremely soft landing on Whitehaven Beach (incidentally voted in the top three beaches in the world) and we disembarked into the water and onto the soft white squeaky sand. We had a stroll along the beach with our (plastic) glasses of champagne and paddled our feet in the water. It would have been an ideal setting for a marriage proposal!? Just under two hours later after eating our fair share of cheese, biscuits, cakes and fruit and a rather tipsey Claire and a more sober self (I was designated driver) re-boarded the plane this time allowing another passenger to ride up front. A wonderful experience, a
little indulgent, but worth every cent as the aerial views surpass any you would get from a boat ('boats are for losers' was the comment we left in the guestbook).
It was still early so we drove on to
Bowen. We stopped at the information centre here purely because it had a huge mango outside and was too good a photo opportunity to miss. We stayed the night at Horsehoe Bay and took a sunset stroll to round off a great day and gazed a while at the sky awash with stars.
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Queenie
non-member comment
Where's the Crocodile!
Hi Guys - Well there was me all excited waiting in anticipation for the photo of you both in the pool with the crocs - see what you can do before you leave Oz. You may be impressed (or not) to hear that I am writing this in the middle of the North Sea, well not actually in the water, that would be silly, but on a ferry heading home after a week in Holland. Absolutely great week, loads of fun and I am now looking forward to a whole weekend sleeping in my own bed (not that it's really likley - loadsa washing). Still loving your blog, it's a great way to keep a record and remind all us jealous folk of how much we are missing. Everyone say Hi, don't ask me who, 'Loadsa people too numerous to mention' as they say at the Oscars, and with the dementia creeping in I'm struggling to remember. Take care you guys and don't forget to 'Pull your head in' Hopefully we can speak sooooooon!! Qxx