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Now the real road trip begins, we decide to just keep driving for as long as possible, we start out at around 11am and I make up some sandwiches which we eat literally as we are driving. We stop off at a driver reviver station by the side of the road, which we have seen since Brisbane advertising free coffee but we have never stopped yet. They really do give you free tea and coffee Michael, no tricks, they provide them as the roads are so long that they want to prevent road accidents. We just ask for hot water as they dont have any green tea so we make our own.
I have a quick play of the guitar then its back in the Tank and Shenton just kept on driving, at around 9 o'clock I decided to get in the back and had a sleep for the last hour. We pulled into a rest station near Bowen, just South of Townsville and had a good nights sleep, surprisingly. It was only in the morning that we realised we were right on the ocean.
We headed off at 7.30am and stopped at Townsville for breakfast, we found a
lovely spot right by the water and overlooking Magnetic Island, so called because when Captain Cook sailed round it his compass went funny.
Another day of driving but as Shenton did so much yesterday it is not so bad today and we think we will be in Cairns by late afternoon. We stop at another driver reviver station but this one seems to be a bit more in Hicksville, a bloke comes up and starts to ramble some odd stories to us and asks me if I will play some music for him. I was a bit freaked out and said no, CRAZY he could have been a captive audience for me and I am sure no matter how bad I was he would have loved it cause he was really drunk :-)
Shenton went off to a roadhouse pub he saw across the way and had a chat with an old man who had a full set of gold teeth and a self made beer cooler with little cow horns stuck on it. He told Shenton his dog was half corgie and he liked the queen and the POMS. As we left Shenton made a gift of
his dads hat to him and the old fellas last words were "tell your dad thanks for the hat" and "I dont wear f...ing hats" with a big gold tooth laugh, wearing the hat!
We made it to Cairns at around 4.30 and at first sight it didnt look good as you have to drive through an industrial type park where all the shops are just lined up on either side of the road. It seemed very american and soulless and not what we were expecting. We saw a campsite on this road but decided to go into town first and get some food. Then we saw how nice Cairns really is, they have spent a lot of money for the tourists here and there is a lagoon pool right on the waterfront which everyone can use for free, there are hot showers too. So after a pizza we have a swim in the setting sun and get cleaned up. We just end up staying in the van on the road as there are so many people doing this. They have free BBQ areas all along the front and after 5pm you can pretty much park anywhere for free.
We have a run and a swim each day we are here and just relax and enjoy Cairns while the car has its 5000km service. We go to the information centre to get info on the roads up to the tip as we are not sure if they are open. On the first day the woman says we will get as far as Coen (200km from the tip) on the second day some other ladies tell Shenton we won't even get to Coen. Then we go to the RACQ office (like the AA) and they tell us it is vertually all open just the tip is closed, she gives us some free maps and says pretty much just see how you go as it tells you which roads are open on the way, so that is what we will do. These roads are stirctly 4wd roads only with lots of creeks to cross which may or may not have crocs in them, so whatever happens adventures are sure to be had on the way......
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anonymous
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go trinity beach and taylors point up past the pub , its where i used to live on top of smaller hill , is old church land wilma street ,, dirt track my house was on top of hill burnt down now ,, but should be good place to camp with tank ,, look up wilma street on map , may be a fence or gate ,, have a look ,, xx