Australia So Far Cairns - Brisbane

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Australia - Cairns 31st August

Australia, looking forward to abit of normality, after spending so long in SE.Asia, with its challenges, and frequent meals of rice and noodles! Spent first day finding bearings, really small town so didn’t take long! Met a group of people instantly and spent the week visiting various beaches. One day we hired a car and drove all the way to Cape Tribulation, which is where the rainforest meets the sea, right at the north point on the East coast! We stopped at various places on route for a picnic and taking in the surroundings!

Then 4 days later, Malina arrived!yeyy! she was here for a 2 week holiday and we had decided to rent a campervan, and drive from Cairns to Brisbane! We named the Van ‘Mab-mobil’, or ‘Ban’ for short, spending so much time with the Chileans, their inability to say ‘V’ had sort of rubbed off on me…..!

Definitely one of the best ideas yet! We had so much freedom, saw so much of the Aussie countryside, little towns and parks inbetween! Stopping to cook and make food, then camping on a camp site at night! Definitely a worthwhile experience!

Night 1 wasn’t so successful, we had arrived late in Townsville, and didn’t know where to park up, deciding on a closing car park which belonged to a marine park, we bunked down for the night and were just getting to sleep when we were rudely awoken by the security bod! Haha, we should have known but there werent any signs!!! But after that it was all fine, we mainly slept in actual camp sites, even though these were far more expensive than we realised, but we didn’t want to risk being driven off by some crazed aboriginal dude or anything. The last time we parked on a side street in 1770, we didn’t get moved along and slept all night quite soundly except for the fact we were on a hill, so kept waking up having slipped down the bed at the wrong end! Hehe

We also made full use of the beach side BBQ’s they have all over the place! We tried crocodile and kangaroo, which is actually really tasty!

Booked a trip from Airlie beach to go to Whitsundays for 3 days! Cruising around the Whitsundays island, sunbathing on deck, snorkelling and eating yummy food! Ahh such a hard life! On day 2, we saw dolphins!! They were swimming alongside and infront of our boat racing along with it, jumping out of the water it was so unreal! Really wanted to see a whale but no such luck this time!

On our little campervanning trip, we stopped at Townsville, Airlie Beach, Mackay, 1770, Caloundra and last stop - Brisbane! Really cool city! Still quite quiet in comparison to most citys but it had beach complete with lagoon, an esplanade which is packed full of people jogging, cycling, blading etc - everyone is so health and fitness conscious its quite motivating! Did the walking tour, mooched in some shops then had a bbq lunch at the lagoon! Day 2, Malina was going home! Boooo, dropped her off at the airport then got incredibly lost driving back to campsite! Oops! Finally made it, had last night here then it was time to return the ‘Ban’ and make my way to my first WWOOF home.

Mount Tamborine

I had decided to do WWOOFING in Aus, to spend some time with the ‘locals’ and to do something different than stick to the coast and spend all my time going out drinking, which would have been inevitable! WWOOFing is ‘willing workers on organic farms’ where we work for 4 hours a day, and in return get food and accomodation.

Been here for 6 days so far. Mainly been helping with the weeding, planting and maintenance of the fruit and veg they grow, we work 7-11, then the day is our own! We get all our meals made for us so its all good! I am with an Italian girl, Angelica, a Danish girl, Rikki and an Irish lad called Brian AKA Brain hehe which he is aware of! We just spend our afternoons going for ridiculously long walks! There is little else to do but its nice to do some exercise and see the area its so green and mountainous and things!

Been to coffee plantations, cheese factory (Stephen, your fave!), ice-cream, beer, and wine factories! On our 2nd day we were at the winery tasting 8 different types of wines - came out a little bit ‘whoozy’ after that, and we had even bought a bottle for the evening meal - even though ‘Bev’ didn’t like it! Haha We live with Bev & Geoff, quite an old couple who just say what they mean! You know the type! One night, Italian girl had gone to loads of effort to make a nice meal, after clearing their plates, they both looked up, completely straight faced, not an inkling of amusement between them and just said, so whats for dessert. Having said she hadnt made any, the disappointment was written all over their faces!! Haha ee these oldies hey!

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