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Published: October 23rd 2006
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Yet again, we have been slated for ludicrously long travel blogs (that we can't do anything about - there's too much to tell!), for sounding like a travel guide and for being rather descriptive. We've been given some words (not mentioning any names.... Aron!) to use that make our descriptions appear more "dramatic", so apologies if we've used any of the words in the wrong context as we have no idea what they mean!
Anyway....
After a lovely smooth flight from Alice Springs into sunny Cairns we hopped onto the bus into town. Cairns was absolutely teeming with backpackers and tourists, which made a huge change from the quiet laid back west, but it was great to be back in the hub-bub. After a couple of days of seeing the sights, eating, drinking, walking the bussling esplanade and exploring the night markets we picked up yet another camper van (which we hasten to add, only had 4000km on the clock and still had the "new car smell"!) to make the great Aussie pilmgrimage down the eastern seaboard.
First stop was Port Douglas, just north of Cairns. A really cool little town full of character and frightfully touristly, but
we loved it! We took a day out to Cape Tribulation, where the rainforest meets the ocean. The scenery was "splendiferous" (one of the words to incorporate!), with long sandy beaches and a backdrop of rugged forest covered mountains.
Port Douglas was our base to discover the Great Barrier Reef. We spent a couple of days on a huge catamaran diving the outer reef (according to our Dive Master the outer reef is the best preserved). The visibility was fantastic, the coral was beautiful, the fish were abundant and the drop off the reef into the deep blue was 1000ft (scary)! Unfortunately no one in our group had an underwater camera, so we can't provide any pictures this time.
After a "resplendent" couple of days on the reef it was time to head back south through Cairns to Townsville. The weather had taken a turn for the worst so we decided to give a boat trip to the neibouring Magnetic Island a miss. Townsville was a nice enough town with lots going on and enough to keep you occupied in bad weather!
Next stop Airlie Beach where we didn't hesitate in booking a 3 day 2 night
cruise around the Whitsunday Islands. The dazzling palm fringed islands fall within the Great Barrier Reef and many of them have their own coral reefs so we managed to squeeze in a couple more relaxing dives off the boat. The cruise was superb and we camped on the beach both nights. The sand on some of the islands is blindingly white and the purest you can find (apparently containing 97% silica) you can clean your jewelery with it, exfoliate with it and it even cringingly squeeks when you walk on it. We had a great cruise and made lots of new friends! The evening we got returned to dock all the guests and crew hooked up for a few schooners of Queenslands famous XXXX beer.
Next morning feeling rather jaded we started to make tracks to Hervey Bay, the jumping off point for Fraser Island. But, we massively underestimated how long it would take! The roads are single lane, full of bends and the traffic consists of caravans, lorries hauling sugar cane and not forgetting the locals, all are never in a hurry to get anywhere. Driving 500 miles at 50 mph is bloody annoying! Alas all we could
do was sit back, relax, wind down the window, stick your arm out, turn up the music and enjoy the scenery. We ended up that night in a lovely town called Town of 1770. The next morning we headed to Hervey Bay via a town called Bundeberg, where we did a quick tour of the Bundeberg Rum distillery. I made full use of the four free shots of Bundeberg we were given at the end, poor Martin was the designated driver!
When we finally arrived at Hervey Bay (a day behind schedule!) we tried to book our trip to Fraser Island, but it was fully booked - another day to wait and behind schedule! So we made use of our day and hired a couple of bikes and explored. Unfortunately there isn't a huge amount going on in Hervey Bay so needless to say we ended up in a drinking establishment! Let us try to explain something, when you go into a bar in the UK you get the normal bar, maybe a restaurant or food on offer and that's generally it, yes? Over here in Oz it's a whole different ball game - pubs consist of the usual
bar and food offerings, but incorporated is a betting office, rows of poker machines and a drive through off licence. So you can sit in a pub drinking your schooners, put some bets on the horses, have a whiz on the poker machines and not have to leave your seat all day, until you drive home stopping off at the bottle shop on the way. A completely lethal and dangerous combination if you ask us!
Anyway, Fraser Island was beautiful and well worth the wait. It's the largest Sand Island in the world and all the sand off the east coast of Australia ends up there at some point. We did a 4WD tour and there's no roads, just sand tracks. After our 4WD experiences in the centre we decided not to do a self drive tour, instead let someone else do the driving for us! Even though it's a sand island it's completely vegetated, with it's own rainforests, streams and lakes. The vast and stunning Lake MacKenzie is the one of the main attractions on the island. It's a crystal clear fresh water lake with pristine white beaches, we spent a good hour cooling down and washing off
the sand after a day of seeing the sights and looking out for Dingoes (wild dogs, which we unfortunately didn't get to see).
We're now in Brisbane enjoying buzzing city life. It's a great city, what we've seen of it so far...........
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