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Published: April 1st 2008
Picking up Jim
Our Muff Manager!Marta and I had booked ourselves on an early flight from Sydney to Cairns.... Kirsty was to follow on another flight an hour or so later. We were extremely excited with the thought of our "Wicked Van" and road-trip. Wicked is a company that rents campervans in Australia and other countries around the world. They are very popular with travellers/ backpackers and are considered to be a 'culture'. Each van is very individual, spraypainted and decorated with very unique designs. When you drive down the street, generally you get quite a lot of attention and you should beep your horn when you meet other "Wicked Vans".
When we arrived, we were met with blazing sunshine.... this is more like it we thought! Off we went to the Wicked office to pick up our van. Marta and I filled in some paperwork and sorted out our share of the payment.... Kirsty arrived an hour later and sorted out her side of things and we were then introduced to JIM. "Jim is ALL about Muff Management" we were told..... Our van had a rasta type man sprayed on the side with the words 'Jim's Muff Management' - Lazer hair removal, Electrolysis, Plucking, Cutting
and Styling, Permanent Hair Removal. Highly amusing and guaranteed to get us noticed. This was going to be GREAT! Inside Jim, there were 3 seats and he was decked out with mattresses, sheets, washing up sink, table, chairs, gas stove, plates/pots/cutlery....amazing! What an adventure we were about to set off on!
We checked out the map and with information provided from Aussies we'd met along the way, we decided to head to Port Douglas first. Kirsty was going to start the driving, a good 3 hours or so to our destination. I was in the middle seat next to Kirsty...after a while I felt the enourmous heat rising through my backside....Jim was a little old and overheated a lot, the engine was severely hot. So much so that I had to put a pillow underneath me to protect myself from 3rd degree burns! This brought a new meaning to the terms HOT SEAT.... we would again be taking it in turns to fry our bums in this seat.
Upon arrival, we checked out the beach and had a little sunbathe and then later found ourselves a campsite for the night which was lovely.... we stocked up on food and cooked
a lovely meal at the camping and then settled down for our 1st night in Jim. It was quite hot so we decided to keep the back door open but covered it up with Kirsty's mosquito net.... brilliant idea! We all had our designated jobs, Marta was mosquito net woman, Kirsty tidied up and sorted the pots/ pans putting them all away. I put the mattresses in place and made the bed. It was obviuos that it would be quite a squeeze but fun none the less.... we all decided that we would take it in turns to sleep in the middle (which I wasn't too keen on) so that night I reserved the outer edge near the door! :-)
We awoke early due to the sun shining brightly inside the van. Marta was up first, then Kirsty and I lay rotting in the pit ;-) (this was soon to become a habit....) Jo, the lazy bum not wanting to get out of bed. Hehe!
This time it was my turn to drive and Marta's turn to burn her bum....oh dear! The next stop was Cape Tribulation..... it looked absolutely amazing, the weather was HOT HOT HOT.... unfortunatley it was
Bowen Beach
Where we stopped for essential sunbaking! stinger season (highly poisonous and life-threatening Jelly-fish) erm, not my cup of tea that is for sure! For this reason, it was not advisable to go in the water without wearing protective clothing..... we were absolutely boiling and without being able to cool off, we were so hot and bothered that we made an executive decision to move on to Mossman Gorge and swim there in the cool gorge waters.....amazing and just what we needed after the heat we had endured. That evening was spent at another campsite, in Tully, just south of Cairns.
The following day, Marta drove (see the pattern: Kirsty, Jo, Marta over and over plus changing seats and sharing the HOT seat) and we set off for Townsville where we would get a boat over to Magnetic Island. We spent some time sunbathing on the beach and then checked into the Koala Sanctuary campsite. We were very prepared, our "Esky" (Aussie term for a cool-box) was always full with food, lunch and dinner were thought of in advance so we could stop at the drop of a hat if we needed lunch and were prepared to cook dinner once arrived at our sleeping place for the
PARADISE
Whitehaven evening. The next day we headed back to the mainland. We'd decided to drive for the entire day so we could get ourselves to Airlie Beach in order to explore the Whitsunday Islands. We arrived quite late although we managed to find a tour shop that was open so we could book ourselves a trip for the next day. We were to visit Whitehaven beach and spend the day on a boat, barbecue included....oh lovely! That evening as it was quite late, we decided to treat ourselves to dinner..... we had some fresh Moreton Bay Bugs (prawn type things) with risotto which was LOVELY, yum yum!
The following day we got ourselves up early but still managed to get to the reception late, where our pick-up was waiting....(this again was to be yet another theme...the girls who are always late!) :-)
The day was gorgeous and what better way to spend it....on a boat, clear blue skies, turquoise waters and beers at the ready! Whitehaven beach was SPECTACULAR.... paradise..... the sand was white and contained some ingredient in it that makes your skin softer and cleans jewellery.
Unfortunately, one of the engines had broken down....the skipper gave us 2 options....
go back on another boat in an hour or stay on this one and take 3 hours......It wasn't a hard choice for us. We were in absolutely no hurry to get back and a couple of extra hours soaking up the sun on a boat is most definitely up my street! After a couple of hours on teh beach and eating our lovely food, we got back on the boat. Kirsty and I were a bit naghty and jumped off the boat a couple of times..... great to cool off but once you're in the water you think of all the things that could come and gobble you up so out we shot like a flash... hehe! Well, not quite that fast.... as it still didn't deter us from doing so about 3 times! Haha! We
had drunk quite a lot of beer so we took it quite easy that night and stayed at the camping as again we had another early start.... a day trip to the Great Barrier Reef where we would scuba dive and take a helicopter ride over the heart reef.
We were late again for our pick-up (woops) but made it to the huge boat
Kirsty and I
Jumping off the boat.... eek! on time.....we got on and promptly found a prime spot on the top deck so we could sunbathe and take in the atmosphere. We were so relaxed and happy chilling in the sun on the boat. We soon arrived at the pontune (a huge stationary section) where the boat attached onto and was fully equipped with a slide, sun lounge area, heli pad etc etc - we were certainly living the high life. It was soon time for us to gear up and get scuba-ing! We were a little nervous but it was so much fun. We had an instructor with us the whole time who was sweet. ... I had hold of Marta's hand and we kept giving the OK sign under water....how sweet! We saw so many amazing fish, coral, shells and sea-life. What an experience. We managed to squeeze in some lunch before heading out on the helicopter.....The aerial view was spectacular and great visibility. We actually saw a huge shark from above swimming along on the surface.... pretty scary! I am glad it wasn 't near us when we were in the water! Phew! When we got to the heart reef we circled it a couple
of times so we could all get a good view and some nice shots...... it was absolutely beautiful. When we got back to the pontune, we had time for some sunbathing on the deck and a go on the slide.... the 3 of us went down together which was very funny! After a while it was time to get back on the boat and set sail for our 2-3 hour journey back....so again we settled on the top deck and had a little snooze...by the time we arrived we were quite wind-swept but eager to go out and have some drinks....we ended up staying out and went late night swimming in the lagoon! Hehe, such children but got to be done! What fun indeed!
The next day, we decided to drive all the way to Rainbow Beach which was a close connection to Fraser Island. Fraser is a large sand island which can only be accessed driving a 4X4. Either as part of a group or rented individually. We decided to go it alone and organised a rental for the following day with all camping gear etc included. We would be there for 2 days, so one night would be
spent sleeping in a tent on the beach..... OH MY GOD! Hehe!
We were informed that we were able to drive on the beach at Fraser only at certain times either side of the tide...... the rest had to be spent on the road tracks off the beach. The next morning we arrived early after having stocked up for the next couple of days on the island. We packed up all our things and transferred what we needed from Jim into our new trusty 4X4....camping gear, cool-box, clothes etc etc and off we went to get the boat over to Fraser. We arrived in time to drive on the beach but in no time at all it was time to head onto the roads and this is where the fun began. You can't really call these tracks roads as they are just sand trails and quite bumpy indeed! Marta did us extremely proud with the driving, bloody hard work for her holding on so tight to the steering wheel and Kirsty and I holding on for dear life :-)
That day we visited lakes Mackensie and Birrabean.... both were really nice to see and cool off in (defo needed in
Heart reef
Amazing aerial view the sweltering heat). Driving on the tracks was a lot harder and time consuming than we'd anticipated and it was a race against time to get back on the beach and put up the tent in daylight.... it didn't help that we had to help a family that got stuck in the sand...... We finally got to the beach and put up our tent. We had bought food so we could cook pasta for dinner.....but we had not brought enough water with us..... we had drunk so much during the day and got carried away trying to pitch the tent that we had forgotten to get more water. We decided to keep the little water we had left to drink.... and I came up with the ingenious plan of using the sea water to cook the pasta......a whole ocean, we might aswell use it. No salt needed though we thought... :-)
Kirsty and I ventured out to the dark shore, bottle in hand trying to fill it wiuth water.... HILARIOUS! We set up our table and chairs, gas stove at the ready and we cooked away on the pitch black beach of Fraser Island....the pasta turned out well, quite salty
indeed with a few grains of salt but we definitely had a giggle about it. We chatted a bit, told some stories then decided to call it a night. Our tent faced outwards, towards the water.... a little bit of a squeeze might I add. We all awoke at the crack of dawn, boiling hot and bright sun shining in on us! We got up and all had breakfast sitting on the beach...staring out to sea.
Once we were ready, the mission was to go and find water.... we managed this, also stopping on the side of the road to make ourselves a coffee! We drove up the beach and visited a shipwreck and then went to the northernmost point to check out the view. The tide was coming out so it was time to duck back onto the sandy tracks so we made our way to Lake Wabby. It was absolutely boiling here... so much so, we could hardly walk on the sand or stay in the sun for too long... luckily we could dip in and out of the lake to cool off! Again, we were late getting ourselves sorted so it was another mad lastminute dash to
get the last ferry) which we nearly missed..... We got back in the nick of time, picked up Jim and settled into the camping for one of our last nights together....boohoo!
The next day, we decided to drive non stop to Brisbane as Marta had to catch a flight the following day. We stopped on the way to make coffee and have lunch which was lovely.... Upon arrival in Brisbane, we had a little drive around so we could get our bearings. Martas flight to Sydney left really early in the morning so we thought it best to stay somewhere near the airport.... we found a truck stop and decided that would be our place of rest for the night.... what a way to end our 'road trip'. Unfortunately, I was starting to come down with a cold, sleeping with the doors open I think.... but it was our last night so we went into central Brisbane and had an amazing meal along the embankment. We all got a really good feel from this city..... a little similar to London, a lovely vibe..... people out and about and it looked like there was a lot going on. After a while,
Sand tracks
Crazy roads on the worlds largest sand island we decided to head back to the truck stop and get settled in for a few hours sleep before taking Marta to the airport... sniff sniff. It was a little noisy in the night... truckers everywhere but we managed to get some sleep. We awoke at around 4-5ish.... by that point, I was full of a cold.....so I stayed in bed and the girls drove to the airport with me in the back. We got to the airport and I walked Marta in wearing my pyjamas..... it was hard to say goodbye to my great pal Marta.... but what an amazing time we'd had.... I left Marta at Brisbane and Kirsty, Jim and I carried on.
Kirsty and I had decided to keep Jim for a while and carry on driving down the coast.... we wanted to check out Byron Bay so that was the next place on the agenda. Firstly though, we made an executive decision to stop somewhere quiet for the night as I needed to recuperate. Kirsty really looked after me as I was still a little ill.... bless her. We were both still in our pyjamas whilst driving to find a place for the night.... we
stopped for breakie at a service station and again for coffee somewhere else in our comfortable attire. We were most definitely well into this laid back camping life-style.
We happened to stumble across a little village just before Byron which we thought would be a good option to 'recharge' the batteries... a cheaper option before arriving in a more 'resorty' type place. It was definitely like something out of the back of beyond.... and with a name like Murwillumbah.... you can only imagine how backward it was. Imagine 2 girls with a Muff Management van rocking up in their pyjamas... we certainly got some stares.
We found a cheap place and settled in for the night.... we were lent a dvd player and loads of dvds so we were very happy campers. We slept a good few houus and then ventured out.... we bought some dinner and then settled in for a couple of films...... Most definitely what I needed after 2 weeks roughing it and a bad cold!
All in all, this had been an absolutely AMAZING adventure.... 3 girls on the road, getting up to all sorts. I have definitely realised I am an ourdoorsy gal at heart
and love it on the road! Travelling is the BEST!
Next installment to follow soon! xx
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lara
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otros estamos en el culo del mundo sin salir de casa y sin parar de estudiar, con gran imposibilidad de ver tu blog porque me entran ganas de llorar. Ayer weijer me llamó por telefono y parece ser que te quedas en sudamérica, y no me sorprende, estas viviendo la experiencia de tu vida y te ha enseñado muchas cosas supongo. Solo que sepas que te quiero y que no me olvido de ti, solo que otros estamos pasando por malos momentos. Espero que nos podamos ver dentro de poco, este verano, para que me cuentes tus aventuras y me hagas soñar, y quien sabe, igual me animo y me tiro a recorrer caminos. Cuidate y disfruta por ti y por los que no podemos disfrutar te quiero lara