Advertisement
Published: March 25th 2008
Edit Blog Post
Our flower power van
we were not given any choice in our exterior design, this was not top of Tims list!!! We arrived into Cairns to unbelievable heavy rain. We had called our hostel we were booked into that nnight and they came and picked us up for free which was great. We only had one night in the hostel before we picked up our campervan the following day. The hostel was really nice it was recommended by Andy and Amber, called Dreamtime and was very clean and tidy. It was nice to have a big comfy bed after a few nights in the bush!!!
We took a walk into cairns city as the rain had stopped, it was much smaller than either of us expected and has a nice collection of bars and restaurants. We had eaten on the plane so we just picked up a few drinks and headed back to the hostel for an early night. The guy that had checked us in kindly introduced us to another couple who were dropping their hire car off the next day and offered us a lift as it was the same place we needed to pick the van up from. This made life much easier than having to get the local bus. So we arranged to meet them the next
day. We could then bring them back to the hostel once we had our camper. It was a good deal all round.
The following morning we were up bright and early packed up and sorted. The Irish couple true to their word took us to the rental place. After having a tour of the van which on the face of it was clean and tidy if al ittle whacky in decoration. They supplied us with bedding, towels, cutlery, pots and pans and a small burner for cooking. As we had complained about the price hike they threw in the table and chairs for free which should have cost $50. They were extra costs with tax though so that cancelled that out, typical!!! After about an hour of paperwork etc and our tour the van was ready to go. The drive back to the hostel was okay and Tim got his head round an automatic after the first few lunges for the clutch and none existant gears. There was a large supermarket opposite the hostel so we decided it would be sensible to stock up before we left with the basic groceries etc... We spent ages checking prices and making
sure we got the best value for our money (I never do this at home) and $140 later we were well stocked for our journey. One of the strangest things about Oz is that the supermarkets only sell food. They have seperate bottle shops for alcohol, it is weird when we are so used to home and the larger supermarket ranges. We stopped at the bakery and Tim picked up a lovely fresh loaf (we have really missed fresh bread). With all that done we were ready to hit the road. The weather in Cairns was terrible, they have had the worst rain fall in 10 years here this year and the Northern tropics of Queenland have been hit hard with flooding but it is much needed water for an area that has been on constant drought restrictions. It was not however fitting weather for our campervan (no exterior cover) or travelling to the first places we wanted to see. We spoke with the hostel and they said that the weather further south was much better and that the Carins area was not showing any signs of improved weather predictions. We decided that heading north was a bad idea and
therefore we did not get to Port Douglas or Cape Tribulation which had looked lovely in the guide. You cant have it all was our attitude at the time and we set off map in hand with no fixed plan but an idea of what we wanted to see.
In the tour book we had I had seen a place called Babinda which had some famous rock formations. Before we knew it we had found our way here and decided to go and take a look. The weather had not improved much and it had threw it down most of the way. We parked up and headed off anyway, the sun came out for the time we were there which was a stroke of luck. The boulders are huge and with the weeks of rain the water was towering through and over them. They were a very pretty sight. This was our first taste of rainforest and there are so many noises in them. We passed lizards and large crickets on the path but fortunately did not meet any spiders along the way!!!! We did not stay too long as we planned to keep driving south. We set off
again and drove for another couple of hours. The roads in Oz are so quiet in comparison to home and it is not hard driving at all. When you consider that they have a population of 20 milllion in a land mass bigger than europe it is little wonder that we did not encounter many other cars!!! That night we stayed at a place called Bramston beach. We found a little camp site right by the beach and although it was overcast the beach was really big and the sea rolling in very rough. We learnt a very valuable lesson that night in the fact that it was around 5.30pm we got there we had no exterior lights only the ones in the van. It got dark by around 6.30pm and we were cooking in the dark. It was okay though until I started to get bitten by flies which was not the best. We could not have the lights on in the van as they attracted them in. Tim set up the table in the back of the van and finally our steak, potatoes and veg were ready. We climbed into the back of the van which was very
hot as we did not have aircon but eating outside was not an option as we were both getting very bitten now. We shut all the doors and turned on the lights. The lights lasted around 5 minutes at full light and slowly started to dim. Tim worked out that we had probably had our fridge on too high and that it had taken most of the battery power. We sat in the end with one of our torches finishing our food. I had put a load of washing on when we got to the camp as we had our clothes from the tour which were covered in the red desert sand. So after dinner we went and washed all the pots up underneath a covered area which was home to alot of very large spiders. Im sure they were harmless but neither of us had any idea!! Their bodies were the size of Tims thumb and believe me I have never washed pots so quick in my life!!!!! After that we hung our washing out as it has stopped raining. Shattered we headed back to the van to make up our bed and get an good nights sleep. It took a short while to get set up but we had the problem that the van was very hot. We decided to sleep with the door slightly open but the curtain down over the door. It worked well until it started to rain again in the middle of the night the rain was seeping in and the bed was getting wet. At the same time I remembered our washing so clambered half asleep out of the van to go and collect it in. Not the easiest thing in the dark with your eyes half shut!!!! After a rather hot night we woke to a dull and drizzly morning. It had been a hard first night in our camper which was a little sad as we had both had really high hopes for it. We decided the best thing we could do was try heading a bit further south to see if the weather improved any. We left Bramston beach on the 11th of March and headed off in search of the sun!!!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.07s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 8; qc: 24; dbt: 0.0495s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1mb
mariah
non-member comment
that is one hotttt van!