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Published: March 20th 2013
This next leg of our adventure involves the central east coast of Australia, using Brisbane as a hub. As the country is so massive, our plan to try and tackle the enormous distances involved includes flying up the east coast, taking a coach trip up the middle - after some more flying to get there - and then driving up and down the west coast, using Perth as another hub. It feels like a bit of an epic journey, and in hindsight we're covering off 4 out of 5 states and ignoring Adelaide/South Australia, but it was the best route we could come up with at the time!
To kick off, we flew from Melbourne to Brisbane on Tiger Airways and made our way to a random industrial estate near the airport to pick up a campervan (well, in theory it was near but our taxi driver managed to drive himself in massive circles and then charge us a fortune for the pleasure, so not very near in reality). We had decided to try driving a camper down the Gold Coast for a few days, as a test run for the planned two week trip up the West coast from
Perth to Ningaloo Reef.
Our first day was mainly spent pouring over instruction manuals for all the appliances and wrestling with the unfamiliar hand-brake - for some reason, releasing the hand-brake involved pushing a button in on the end of a stick, then turning the handle of said stick 90 degrees anti-clockwise, before pushing the stick directly away from you. This all proves a bit tricky if you haven't entirely got the hang of it before you attempt driving around, as you end up too far away to push the stick all the way in! Cue many a mishap, most of which involved Hazel stalling the van within 200m of the hire shop.
However, the prize for the biggest near miss does have to go to Mark (although, obviously, the hand-brake remains entirely responsible) who attempted a reverse hill start out of a parking space, couldn't get the hand-brake to engage, couldn't find the foot-brake fast enough and so sped back down the hill and ended up with the front left wheel mounted on the kerb. We were all surprised, including the pedestrians on the pavement! Eeeek! Driving the campervan wasn't all bad though; yes - it has
the acceleration of an oil tanker and yes - the fact that it is freakishly tall means the wind catches it at any speed over 60kmph, but there is a camera mounted in the back of it which shows you live footage as you reverse, as an image in one half of the rear view mirror. This feature is pretty cool, and way cooler than just turning around in your seat and looking through the rear windscreen like everybody else, but only if you can get the hand-brake to work!
Anyway, enough about the campervan already!
On our first day in the van we drove down to Main Beach, which is just next to Surfers Paradise. Once we had worked everything out, we celebrated at our first campsite by frying sausages for dinner in true camping style! The next day we awoke an hour early, as Hazel's phone was stuggling with the time difference between Melbourne and Brisbane (this only got worse as we then drove south from Queensland to New South Wales and had to switch the time back again). The early start meant we had more time to stop at beaches while driving down the Gold
Coast. Unfortunately, due to the recent cyclone and ongoing bad weather, many of the beach entrances were closed and it appeared that a fair amount of sand had been washed away. There would be a huge bank of sand and then a steep drop down to the water and some vicious looking waves. The buildings surrounding the Gold Coast beaches were tall, flashy skyscrapers spread out along the sandy coast (cross Vegas with Miami maybe, and add a dash of Magaluf?!). As we travelled down the Pacific Highway we stopped at Burleigh Heads, Coolangatta and Tweed Heads to take a look and changed clothes based on the weather at the current time - we had variable weather all day, as we woke up with clouds, which soon cleared into brilliant sunshine in time for the beaches, then it absolutely poured it down at Cape Bryon. While we were there we drove up to the lighthouse at the most easterly point of Australia. We walked the last little track to the cliff top just before the rain hit and we had to dash into the back of the van to take cover.
The next day we started with a look
around Ballina before heading south to Coffs Harbour, which is about half way back to Sydney from Brisbane. We managed a walk along the beach before getting caught in another shower while at the marina. That evening was our worst cooking experience so far, as Hazel was frying burgers (another healthy camping meal!) on the gas stove in the pouring rain, while holding an umbrella AND giving Mark directions on how the onions should be sliced. How is that for multi-tasking!? The next morning was much better, as we had blue skys and brilliant sunshine. We ventured into the town for a coffee and then visited the 'Big Banana', which Christine said should be on our top 10 list of things to visit while in Coffs harbour!
As the sun was finally shining and we were experiencing apparently the first day without rain in the region for 30 days, we drove north to Byron Bay for an afternoon on the beach. Mark couldn't find the Byron Burger chain here, so we opted for an ice-cream instead. The sunshine didn't last long sadly - we had another gloriously hot day for our drive back up to Brisbane from Byron Bay,
but found ourselves looking at a pretty dire weather forecast for the rest of the week...if only we had lounged by our rooftop pool (that's right, in a hostel!), rather than going to the city library to look up the weather forecast on the internet!!
For the next couple of days we took a trip to Fraser Island, which is the largest sand island in the world. The weather wasn't the best - it was mostly cloudy - but it was at least warm enough for shorts and T-shirts. We were picked up from Brisbane in a 4x4 bus and drove north up the ironically named "Sunshine Coast". We went through Cooloola National Park, supposedly to go kangeroo spotting, but only managed to spot one hiding behind some trees in the distance. However, while heading up the track, the bus swerved to miss a carpet python which was crossing the road, so we did get a healthy dose of local wildlife! We got out of the bus to take a look and all kept our distance while taking photos - even though they aren't poisonous, they do strangle their prey to death!
Our next stop was Rainbow Beach,
where we drove out over the sand to catch the ferry across to Fraser Island. The ferry is more of a barge, with a very shallow bottom, so it can come close enough to the sand to allow vehicles to drive on without getting itself beached. Unfortunately, both the Fraser Island beaches and Rainbow Beach had suffered the same fate as the Gold Coast with the recent cyclone and much of the top sand had been washed away. This made travelling around Fraser Island difficult, as rocks were now exposed that would have previously been covered in sand. The island only has sand tracks, so only 4 wheel drive vehicles are allowed across. We had a couple of incidents where our bus became stuck and our guide had to deflate the tyres to get us moving again.
Our first stopping point when we arrived on the island was to take a photo of a dingo. These are wild, pure breed dogs - they were originally introduced on the island by the Aboriginals as pets and have no way to leave now that their owners have. They also have no natural source of food and so cause a bit of
a nuisance, scavenging around campsites and picnic-ers. As we walked around there were lots of signs warning against feeding them and what to do if approached. The first one we saw was howling and actually looked quite cute.
We rode along 75 Mile Beach, navigating some tricky, exposed rocks as we went. The guide asked for Mark's help in directing him around a sand ridge part way down (he checked Mark spoke good English and understood what he was trying to achieve first, as the majority of our group were chinese and we were never sure how much they understood!). At the very end of our first day we got a flat tyre, just as we were pulling into our accommodation but our guide did a great job of changing the wheel the following morning before we were due to leave, despite having to jack up a 15 tonne truck!
There was no swimming allowed in the sea, as there is a strong undercurrent and the waters are shark infested, but we were able to swim in Eli Creek (a gentle stream which meandered its way to the sea) and Birrabeen Lake (a lake which is suspended on
top of a sand dune). Both were good fun. Recent flooding meant that the path to the lake was covered in water, so we had to wade our way there and the strangest thing was the yellow water in the lake, coloured by tea trees. Aboriginals believed that the lake had healing powers and they were not far wrong, as tea tree is an antiseptic, but for us it was quickly too cold to be swimming as it had started to rain. Since Mark's bee sting, we are now shaking all clothing which we leave outside and it was lucky we did, as a giant (and I mean giant) red ant was nestled inside one of Hazel's T-shirts. We later took a walk through Pile Valley, which is a rainforest on the island, to look at the Satinay trees...Note to readers, rainforests are FULL of mosquitos! The current tally is a win to Hazel with 9 bites in total, two of which are on her forehead! The walk took about 45 minutes and on the way we spotted an eel in the creek. It was then that our guide told us that we were swimming with them when in Eli
Creek! Urrrgh - we have checked the photos again to see if we can see any in the water and think we were alone after all!
While travelling along the beach, which is a designated highway on the island, we stopped at the Fraser Island Pinnacles (sea and wind eroded columns), Indian Head (where sharks and whales can sometimes be spotted, but not while we were there unfortunately, as the sea was so rough) and the Maheno shipwreck (the carcus of a vessel which was being towed past the island in stormy weather and had to be abandoned, and which still remains submerged in the sand).
Our final day in the Brisbane region was spent in the city itself. There's a really nice outdoor swimming area right by the river, and a South Bank style complex of museums and galleries, but it all looked a bit grey and soggy unfortunately. We did go on a walking tour suggested by the guide book, and found some lovely old buildings in the heart of the city, but they're now surrounded by massive skyscrapers, so we can definitely see why it gets the nickname 'Bris-Vegas'! I'm sure it would have looked
100 times nicer if the sun had been shining, but not so sure we'll be joining the supposed 1,000 people who move here each week...
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Sue
non-member comment
Australian chic?
Hazel, it looks like you're wearing crocs?! xxx