Blogs from Queensland, Australia, Oceania - page 6

We’ve covered just over 500km’s today, taking around 10 hours door to door! It was a very long day! Back on the Bruce Highway, they were right about it being very long! We set off from Gladstone this morning and drove all the way to the Bundaberg Rum Distillery without any stops, there isn’t really much to see or do on this road! Although we did spot a large crab on the top of a building at Miriam Vale and passed through a place called ‘Gin Gin’ – which sounded like our kind of town! It seemed like we were being chased by grey clouds today, and we even had a few spots of rain on the windscreen. At one point we even had to close the windows! But not for long. It was still pretty ... read more

The days seem to be going really fast now! With motel hopping you do tend to get quite a mixed bag, take our abode for the night last night in Townsville. While the location was excellent and we had a sea view from our room, the ‘kitchenette’ was basically a tiny fridge, microwave, a kettle and toaster, no sink so washing up would’ve had to be done in the bathroom sink. This would be a pain, but could still work, however the bathroom was so small, the extra narrow door had to be opened right back so you could walk down the narrow room to the shower end in order to close it again! This was £72 worth of room! Compare that to our motel room tonight at Comfort Resort Blue Pacific, just north of MacKay ... read more

Today was our last opportunity to use our 3 day ticket at Hartley’s Crocodile Adventures so we set off aiming to get there in time for the 9am activities. They predicated rain and thunder/lightening today, but it was sunny, clear blue sky and 29 degrees already! The drive back down from Port Douglas along the coast is probably one of the prettiest roads we’ve ever been on. At times, you are right next to the incredible blue water lapping onto a very narrow strip of beach. I don’t think you could ever get bored of driving down it. It’s not all perfect though, they’re doing roadworks at the moment removing fallen rocks and unstable rocky overhangs and the size of the boulders they’ve dislodged are massive! They block half the road! We got to our destination ... read more

We’d booked a trip on the Skyrail today, our outward gondola journey was booked for 9:30am so we were up and out by 9am to travel the 15mins from last nights accommodation to the Smithfield station. It’s a hot one today! Already 34 degrees by 9am! Unfortunately, there were no parking spaces in the shade at the terminal, so we had to leave the car and all our belongings in full sun. Just as we pulled up a coach arrived, so we rushed over and managed to get scanned in before the rush. There was no queue at all so we went straight through and jumped aboard our first gondola. The first stop is Red Peak station where you have to change as there are actually two different gondola cable runs. At this stop there was ... read more

Normally a visit to the Gold Coast translates to visiting the many theme parks, swimming at the world famous beaches or shopping at the vast array of malls. This Gold Coast stopover, however, was primarily about visiting Kim’s nephew Adam, who has recently been diagnosed with another brain tumour, having spent the last three years undergoing chemo and radiation in order to successfully eliminate his initial brain tumour. We wanted to encourage and support him as he commences treatment this week. After visiting and staying overnight with Adam’s sister, Melissa, and her family, we travelled to Yarrabilba and spent the morning with Adam and his wife Trish. Phone messaging is no substitute for face to face catch up. After visiting Adam, it was a short drive to Tamborine Mountain, which lies just west of and above ... read more