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Published: October 18th 2012
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Cairns
Free fresh water swimming pool After completing our SE Asia adventure, we found ourselves back in Singapore. We had a lovely traditional south Indian meal in little India, which was only 7 quid for both of us which is unheard of for Singapore. The next day we headed to the airport so we could start the next leg of our travelling (holiday) journey. After landing in Cairns it seemed strange to be in a place where we weren't instantly soaked with sweat, we didn't have to barter for everything and there weren't millions of people waiting outside the airport to take our money. It all seemed so quiet. It's funny though people really do live up to their stereotypes, when, as we were walking though the toughest customs/quarantine in the world, a lady behind said "where have you been mate, I was running around like a flaming gallah". The customs officer had a mullet hair do and there were loads of people wearing vests, even the kids. If someone had said "rack off" I would have thought we'd just landed in Ramsey Street. Getting through quarantine was harder than expected as it turned out we had brought half of SE Asia's creepy crawlies along for the
ride. It's a good job Jane told me not to mention about my clothes being covered in elephant poo otherwise we might not have been allowed through.
So we are now a few weeks into our Oz road trip and I have exactly one hour or 50mg sat in McDonald’s car park to try and update on the fun! It seems strange that getting on the Internet here is so much harder than in Asia.
We spent our first night camping in some backpacker hostel on the edge of Cairns. It was full of young un's and gap year students and made us both feel very old. Outside they had these big round tables where you could sit and plug in your laptop or
phone. I sat down at the last free space on the table and said "hello" and not one of the zombies even replied, most didn't even look up at me! Morons. It's funny because in SE Asia when you see another western traveller you automatically seem to stick together and at least say hello and have a bit of a chat, what is the world coming too? I don't like to grumble
Mission Beach
Where the rainforest meets the ocean but sometimes things just need to be aired. Jane says I remind her of Karl from the TV programme an idiot abroad, I actually take this as a compliment though because I think
he speaks a lot of sense. Anyway, the next morning we escaped moron towers and went to pick up our campervan. We headed to the supermarket to stock up on supplies. Grocery shopping in Oz is expensive, buying a lettuce or four tomatoes will set you back and 5 quid. Beer is even worse, just to buy four cans you need a bank loan! Wine is pretty cheap though and petrol is cheap too, at around 95 pence a litre. We liked Cairns as a town, there is no beach, but they have built a lovely big outdoor swimming pool for everyone to enjoy for free. They also have these BBQ hot plate things so you can cook up some grub for free too. Yes it's true, Aussies love a good BBQ.
We decided to set off on our road trip and picked a place on the map called Bingil Bay. It didn't look too far on the map but still took four hours to
Taking a free shower
The life on the road get there, Australia is huge. We arrived at dusk and got the last spot right on the beach. The next morning we got up early to watch the sunrise over the pacific! Amazing. The next day we moved on to Townsville passing through Mission Beach where we saw the first Roos of our trip. We stopped for lunch at a lovely beach with no name and stayed the night at a free campsite at Saunders Beach. I went for a paddle in the sea and then saw the signs saying 'beware of the crocodiles'!
The next day we got up early and drove to a town called Bowen. We had lunch here overlooking the sea and as I hadn't showered in a few days I decided to take advantage of the kids free water park for a wash. We quickly established there was nowhere to camp so we decided to move down the coast to Airlee Beach. Airlee Beach is the gateway to the Whitsundays and is a lovely picturesque town. We quickly booked our catamaran trip and then set off to find some campsites. Airlee Beach is well in the backpacker route and because of this reason everywhere
was either full or expensive. We ended up staying in a moron hostel which had camping out the back. Even though we were with the morons it was very cheap and right in the centre of town. The next day we sat and sunbathed at the free swimming pool which overlooks the sea. Airlee Beach has a similar 'lagoon' to Cairns because most of the year you can't go in the sea because of the deadly jellyfish. We had a lovely evening away from the morons at the other end of the beach watching a free concert. The next day we were up early for our Whitsunday Islands trip. We were both disappointed as it was cloudy but hoped things may improve throughout the day. As we arrived at the pier and were boarding the lovely Catamaran, one Aussie family turned up in the same full high visibility clothing outfits. One of the crew even took the mick saying they could do lookout on the beach! Aussies love a bit of banter. The boat was excellent and we enjoyed morning tea and biscuits whilst cruising through the beautiful islands. Our first port of call was Whitehaven Beach a lovely stretch
of white sand and crystal clear blue water. Thankfully the sun had now come out in full, but still the 'high vis' family continued with their protective get up. Very funny. After enjoying the lovely beach it was back on the boat for a fantastic BBQ lunch of beef steaks, sausages, chicken and fish! After eating noodles and rice for six months this was just food heaven for me. Even all the salad stuff for Jane was top notch, although lacking in tomatoes! The best thing was all alcohol was included in the price so we cracked on with the sav blanc. After lunch the captain set sail around the Whitsunday islands and as it was quite windy we got to do some proper sailing. There was a stop so people could go snorkelling but we were snorkelled out so we decided to stay at the free bar and watch! On the return journey back to Airlee Beach we enjoyed cheese & crackers and then chocolate cake. We definitely filled our boots that day! A lovely sunset concluded what had been a great day out cruising the Whitsunday islands.
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Anne Ash
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Oz blog at last!
Brilliant Paul,loved reading it