We made a last minute decision to do the Blue Mountains first instead of heading straight to Sydney and it turned out to be amazing! We didn't realize we would have to take a cable ferry to get accross a river along the way and as we pulled up we were worried because we didn't have much cash on us. I was particularly pleased when we discovered it was free. We stopped for a picnic lunch just after the ferry and saw some maple trees. They really stood out because there aren't really many trees that change colour around here. We didn't get into Katoomba, in the Blue Mountains, until about 4:30 thanks to slow roads initially and then nasty traffic as we got close enough to Sydney to battle with commuters. We found the caravan ... read more

Yamba was a pretty cool little fishing town. In the morning we walked up the hill to check out the beaches and despite the foul weather there were a few people out for a surf. We left Yamba with no plans other than south. The Pacific Highway still resembled a lake so we headed inland towards Maclean. Maclean has a strong scottish heritage and still looks like a scottish country town. We wished we could have spent some time there but we were dead set on getting around the flood. We got on a road that was still technically closed (signs were still up) but we saw local traffic was travelling on it. We passed lots of flooded houses with piles of wrecked carpets and furniture out front. It was quite sad to see. We eventually ... read more

We headed south after Hervey Bay and stopped in Eumundi to check out the huge market. Alex loves markets and we had heard from all sorts while we were working in Mooloolaba that the Eumundi Market was great. So we stopped there to not spend any money and ended up with no cash. The stuff we bought was great. First, we grabbed a giant Bavarian style bratwurst that brought back Oktoberfest to my upper esophagus. We walked past loads of artwork that was really interesting but the fifty in our pocket wasn't sufficient. Then we saw a coffee stand and seriously considered buying a bag of over-priced local coffee. After shaking our heads and buying more incense than we could ever burn in a lifetime, we purchased Eumundi coffee at a more reasonable stall and headed ... read more

The next few days after the Tablelands can really be summed up as driving punctuated by interesting little towns. After Kurrimine Beach we continued south stopping in Mission Beach to take photos, in Ingham to buy Piña Colada ingredients and Taylor's Beach to drink our Piña Coladas. Taylor's Beach was really just a caravan park, so we grabbed our lawn chairs and supplies gathered in Ingham and headed for the beach. We also took our coconuts we picked up in Daintree as authentic Piña Colada cannisters. We sat and enjoyed the view and the drinks until the wall of mossies chased us back to Janis. We spent the rest of the night in Taylor's hiding from the mossies and cooking in Janis. The next day we really just drove. We looked for cool beach spots to ... read more

The drive up to Daintree National park wasn't a long one... but it certainly was interesting. Once we cleared the gazillion roundabouts leaving Cairns the road stuck to the ocean like white on rice. The sun decided to come out a bit and the views were spectacular even when driving. But the sun only lasted for three quarters of an hour, so that as soon as we crossed the cable ferry to the National Park we had to turn our headlights on and drive about 30 km/h in the torrential rain. The road became very skinny and very wet, very quickly. We even crossed our first floodway. We weren't sure Janis (our van) was up to it. But when we saw a little Holden car cross we new she could do it. We got to our ... read more