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Published: June 27th 2009
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Our entry into Oz went relativly smoothly, we successfully passed the swine flu thermal imaging cameras and the sniffer dogs, although 1 seemed to take an unhealthy liking to me, which made me slightly nervous. What made it worse was I was effectivly smuggling tea, which we had purchased from the BOH tea factory in Malaysia.
From Cairnes (our entry point to Oz) we took a trip out to the great barrier reef where we did snorkelling and a scuba dive which for me was a first. This was really cool, I think we went down to about 10 meters. The journey to the reef was a bit choppy and Hannah was suitably Green, thankfully the sick bag she was clutching most of the way there was never called into action!!
A few days chilling out in Cairnes and it was time to get on the road, this time we would be behind the wheel. Our vehicle of choice was a Jucy campervan, small but perfectly formed and painted a not-so-subtle green with purple bodykit - at least the locals could see us coming! The best thing about our camper was the fridge, meaning not only cold beer, but
portable cold beer. We also had a DVD player and made some good progress on the James Bond collection we had picked up in Cambodia.
After mastering the auto gearbox the road trip began making our way up the East coast of Australia to Cape Tribulation. We stopped at several beaches on the way, at the majority of which were signs warning that there could be sharks, saltwater crocodiles and stingers (jellyfish) in the water - so only 3 of the most dangerous creatures in the world then. We didn't do much swimming here!
We drove inland to the area of Atherton and the Tablelands, perfect for driving - quit windy roads surrounded by picturesque Australian countryside. At one campsite, Granite Gorge, we fed rock wallabies and swam in the river (we were told there would be no crocs!) At this campsite we were allowed to make a fire. It them became one of those cavemanesque scenarios and Iwas determined that 'Man would make fire'. I returned from the woods with half a forests worth of firewood. Hannah went for a shower and I was determined that this firewood would be turned into a raging inferno by the
time she got back. This was not as easy as Ray Mears makes out on the TV, and several failed attempts later I had to make a sacrifice - Hannahs notebook. This burned perfectly and to my delight we soon had fire, my mascullinity intact. I must mention here for legal reasons that it was only blank pages out of Hannahs notebook that were burned!
Another place we stayed was pretty much a village green. We had been told we could camp there for free, although we where the only ones there. It was a bit odd when we sat outside the van in the morning eating our crunchy nut cornflakes with people walking there dogs past us - the looks they shot us suggested that maybe we weren't meant to camp there.
We saw rainforests, lakes and waterfalls on this part of our travels, breaking several terms of the hire car agreement on the way, in particular the one that said we weren't allowed to drive off-road. The Jucy managed alright and didn't fall apart which was good. One of the areas we managed to get to by driving a bit 'off pist' was Wallaman falls, the
tallest in Australia with a single drop of 268m - spectacular. Other places we liked were Milla Milla falls (so good they named it twice) and Lake Eacham which was perfect for swimming.
After about a weeks travelling we were back on the coast at Mission beach which was nice. We had done about 600 or so kms in the Jucy, only 100 of which were in the right direction (South). This was not good, at this rate it would have taken us 16 weeks to cover the 1600 kms to Brisbane, we had only 2. This meant getting my foot down and a couple of days we just drove, only stopping for a plastic cheese and tomato sandwich (we are on a budget!) or to avoid wandering cattle. The driving wasn't too bad, the boredom broken up by the local radio playing the odd descent tune (this happened only twice!) and the constant thret of skippy bounding out of the roadside and writting the Jucy off (thankfully, this didn't happen).
At Airlie beach we took a day trip via speedboat around the Whitsunday Islands, including several snorkelling spots and a visit to the famous Whithaven beach, which
was spectacular. On the beach I saw a reef shark swimming about a meter from the edge. Also, our crazy guide, who was far too enthusiastic for his own good, fed the local eagles by throwing them chicken drumsticks which they would catch mid air - impressive and brought a whole new meaning to 'feeding the birds'. The boat driver was also crazy, pulling several doughnuts and speeding through some pretty big swells (which all the other tour boats seemed to be avoiding), including one area aptly called the 'washing machine'.
Other places we visit on our travels South included Bundaberg, Noosa where we saw a wild Koala and Austrailia zoo. The zoo was cool and we managed to fulfil several Ozzy cliches including feeding the Kangeroos and patting Koalas. Hannah fed an Elephant, but I dont think she was to impressed with the slime it left on her hands! There were plently more 'crikey' moments and memories of the legend, Steve Irwin.
After a total of 2700 km's we dropped the camper off at the Jucy depot in Brisbane. I would be lying if I said this wasn't an emotional moment as we had become quite attached
to this garish green and purple fun wagon with portable beer supply. It was hard to hold back the tears as I removed the keys from the ignition for the last time.
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