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Published: March 28th 2010
Our set up in wet weather
Probably our best buy given how wet it's been!Like a good Tarantino film, this blog is going to start with the end at the beginning, the beginning in the middle and the middle at the end, so here goes.
End of Australia Sad as it is, and I never thought it would be this way, but I am looking forward to leaving Australia and going to New Zealand. Right now it's Saturday March 27th, we are in a campsite in Cairns and it is raining. We leave on Tuesday for NZ. I am looking forward to leaving partly because everyone speaks so highly about NZ (especially the South Island) but the main reason I am looking forward to leaving, and this is probably partly my fault, is the weather. We have had (I think) the most awful weather over the two months we have been here and it has most definitely soured my view of Australia. I came here with such high hopes of having a great, hot Australian summer and potentially finding a place where I might want to come and live. As I said I guess this is partly my fault for not doing my research properly as we have come in Australian summertime and
Kookaburra
This bird has such a cool sound (known as the laughing kookaburra) that we here everywhere for the state of Queensland and the tropics that means 'wet season', but you know, when I think of summer I think sunshine and hot weather. Right enough the temperature has been pretty good, never had to wear a sweater once, but in direct contrast to our 4 months in Asia where it only rained I think three or four times in total, I honestly think there has only been about 15 days where is has not rained (that is less than 25% of our total time here). Some days it has rained all day long and very heavily at that, others it has just drizzled and been showers but it really has been pretty inconsistent weather where you can't plan for anything, almost like a British summer, just heavier rain I think. According to who you speak to here in Queensland some say it is normal others say it is a bit abnormal. Don't think I am putting my sour mood all on the state of Queensland's wet season, it rained big time for us in Hunter valley and Byron Bay too, both in New South Wales. We had a few wet days in Melbourne and on the Great
Lovely spider
Think it's the yellow globe spider, or something to that affect. Damn big things anyway that we saw quite a lot unfortunately! Ocean Road, which obviously are in Victoria, indeed the best weather we had was in Tasmania by far, where it rained only two days in six. The point being, is that it has meant that I don't feel I have enjoyed Australia nearly as much as I was hoping, and maybe I was hoping for too much, but if this is only a bit abnormal or even normal (as I have been told), then unfortunately, it's not for me.
The reason we are sat here in Cairns on the 27th (and we arrived in yesterday) some 6 days before our flight to NZ has been due to, yes you guessed it, the weather, and its here that we pick up from last time.
Bundaberg So after having a fantastic time at Fraser Island we shot up the coast from Noosa to Bundaberg (famous for the rum) on route running into the three young Scots (Scales, Ginger and Victoria) that were on the Fraser trip. As it was three in the afternoon and they had no real fixed plans themselves Tracy convinced them to join us for the evening just outside of Bundaberg at the Turtle Sands Tourist
Park and make a visit to the Loggerhead turtle rookery at Mon Repos beach that evening.
Well what a waste of time and money that was (Only $10 each to be fair). We were told to arrive for 7pm at the rookery to find out that we were in group 5 (as we had booked late, only that day) and each group had 20+ people in it. We also found out that because we were in group 5 we wouldn't likely be making our way to the beach for a couple of hours until the other groups had been down. Well try three and a half hours later sat outside the turtle rookery building with both Tracy and Victoria being eaten alive by mosquitoes and you can picture the happy sight. Thank heavens the camp site was right next to the rookery so I could go and get some beer, otherwise I am sure I would have been ready to strangle someone. Now the flyer for the rookery shows pictures on it of a massive turtle coming out of the water on to the beach (to lay its eggs I guess) and pictures of numerous turtles hatching from their
eggs and making a dash (so to speak) for the sea. What we got to see (at 10.30pm) was a lady lead 20+ people to a mound on the beach (marked with a red ribbon I might add) dig it up and find three little turtles in it, which she released to the sea. That was it.
I don't know if earlier groups got to see Turtles coming out of the water to lay eggs, probably not I guess as it probably isn't the right season or something, or if they got to see loads of turtles breaking free themselves (and not dug out) from the sand mounds but what we got to see was absolute pants. I am sure the turtles were planted in their anyway. All I know is that is was a good job I was in the fifth and last group because the main building was shut when we left, had it been opened, I would have been in giving someone a piece of my mind and at least getting some satisfaction for my $10. If your ever this way and considering doing the turtle rookery, my advice would be don't bother.
From here
the next day we said good bye to the three Scots and made our way further up the coast, we had initially gone for the Bundaberg rum factory arriving at 10.04am to be told we were late for the 10am start (which we were to be fair I suppose, all four minutes late) and would have to wait 'till 11am and then told it was $25 each to go in for the pleasure. The flyer we had and my October 2009 Lonely planet book said it was $10, that is some inflation level in six months and in Japan the Asahi brewery tour was free. Anyway we sacked the Bundaberg rum factory idea with me thinking after the turtle and now rum affair that I wouldn't be making a dash back to Bundaberg again in a hurry.
The road to nowhere (at least not for a while) On route up the coast, some hour or so into it, it started to rain, initially we had thought of stopping at Rockhampton or just slightly north of it, but as all it was doing was tipping down, we decided to (as Alex's dad, Steve, had suggested a week or so
earlier in Brisbane, when I asked if he were me and driving up the coast to the Whitsunday's from Fraser Island/Noosa (some 800km apart by the way) what he would do, his answer was “drive quickly”) do what Steve had suggested and kept going. Some near 500km from Bundaberg we stopped at a little place called Clairview. Tracy got bitten alive again, so has fond memories and I thought there was very little to it as well, did see a possum that night though.
It is amazing that between Rockhampton and Mackay on the coastal highway (some 400+km apart) their is nothing and I mean nothing. We saw one town (if you could call it that) Malborough (I think) and I drove around it and through it in about 3 minutes, literally. That was it, all the way except for a few petrol stations and rest area's. Incredible, 400+km on the coast and nothing, Australia is a big place.
Whitsundays Next day I drove (in the rain) the remaining few hundred kilometers through Mackay stopping for a bit of food to Airlie beach and the extremely famous Whitsunday Islands. There are 74 islands in total (I think)
and we had (or at least Tracy had) intended to do a two or three night sailing boat tour through the Whitsundays. However many of the boats were canceled due to the bad weather of the past few days and those that remained were all booked up. We ended up on our third day there going out on the 'Ocean Rafting' boat (it was already fully booked for the second day). It's basically a boat that can't be sank (apparently) and goes like a bullet on the water, its what coast guards and police generally use. We were told when we arrived that a number of other cruises (due to go out that day) were canceled and that their was a big waiting list to get on the Ocean Rafting boat (of which there were three going out all carrying about 20 or so people). We were also told that we were likely to see three metre waves on our way out to Whitehaven beach past Hook Island. Think about that, three meter waves. I guess I didn't think about it too much because I was adamant that we were going and more than this, that Tracy and I had
the front two seats on the boat. Now I remember going on the 'Wild Cat' in Bermuda with Chris Fearn and his family some years ago, Glen and Gary as well I think, I remember that we sat at the back (Chris right at the back) and that I looked round at Chris at one point and he was drenched by the waves (we all were eventually), the moral being at the back against the waves you get the water. At the front we didn't get wet really however the waves were awesome, Tracy and I took some amazing poundings at the front, my neck and back ached quite a bit after that, some guy on the other boat put his back out and was in some distress when we arrived at Whitehaven beach.
The beach was lovely, or at least I think it would have been had it not been for the on/off showers and rain we were getting and for the stingers (box jelly fish) meaning that we all had to wear full body tight lycra leotards if we wanted to get in the water. Later we went to a snorkeling site, but visibility wasn't good. Overall
Aquarium in Townsville
It had one of the best reef exhibits I'd seen I enjoyed the day and the boat and would recommend Ocean Rafting to anyone, just be aware that if the waves are big take the backseat and get wet (as Tracy did on the way home) as this is far superior to the juddering of the front seat, just ask the guy who put his back out. Still a pretty good St Paddy's day and I had a few drinks in town that night to ease the pains.
Now did I mention that a cyclone (also known as a hurricane or typhoon) was on the way? Yes indeed, all the bad weather we had experienced so far was (I was informed) coming from the South, and was normal seasonal weather. However there was in fact Cyclone Ului on route (all be it slowly) from the east heading west. It had devastated Fiji a few days before (the worst cyclone ever to hit Fiji) and it was coming for Australia, somewhere between Cardwell and Yeppoon (that's 800km at least apart) on Sunday March 21st and at this point we were smack bang in the middle of it at the Whitsunday's. So on Thursday morning (March 18th) we hightailed our way
North a few hundred km towards Townsville.
Townsville We stopped in Townsville only for a few hours, I got a hair cut and walked around generally whilst Tracy went to the aquarium. I walked down Flinders street and the Mall area. Well what a dump, to be fair their were lots of old buildings that had been left to dilapidate that I am sure would look beautiful if they were given a bit of time and money. I found out from the barber who cut my hair (who was Scottish and from Glasgow incidentally) that Flinders Mall is a very contentious issue amongst the locals. They are developing the road and mall and the contractor went bust (no doubt the recession) and its sitting half done looking like an unfinished building site. Awful it was. The barber told me to head to the Strand (and I don't think he meant London). So I picked up Tracy and off we went for a look. Well what a contrast, a beautiful beach front, lined with Cafe's and bars, looking over at Magnetic Island, very pretty and regal indeed, at least this part of Townsville was as impressive as the barber
said it would be.
As we were escaping the impending cyclone we decided not to stay the night in Townsville and kept on going, stopping some 30+km up the highway at Saunders Park. This was a free campsite and lovely it was too (given that it was free). The beach was pretty and we were as near as damn on it, it had good free bbq's and a cold shower too.
Mission Beach Next day (Friday now) we continued North passing the dreaded Cardwell all the time listening to the radio telling us that it was still going to hit Sunday morning between Cardwell and Yeppoon and that it had picked up speed and force intensity and was now a Cat 3 again (Cat 4 when it hit Fiji I think but it was slow moving and hung around). We continued on in total another couple of hundred km past Cardwell to the also popular and pretty well known town and resort of Mission Beach.
Mission Beach was a lot smaller than I expected, the beach was long (and in-fact there are four of them including South Mission beach, Bingil bay and Wongaling beach) but the
town was pretty small. Only a dozen or so shops, bars and restaurants I reckon, but it was a pretty town and beach area I thought or at least once again I think it would have been had it not been for the rain and the bad weather we were experiencing especially the high winds (no doubt this was due to the cyclone). We did look around a bit, but as their was little to it, we decided one night would be enough and the following day once again we were on the road, this time a little inland some 60km or so south west of Cairns towards the Atherton Tablelands.
Atherton Tablelands During the day we stopped at three different waterfalls, (Josephine, Millaa Millaa and Mungali) all were very pretty and impressive and indeed Tracy nearly managed to drown in one, or so she claims, but it's the actual drive itself I think that was the main highlight. Beautiful rolling hills and scenery and little old towns (including Atherton), the whole thing was extremely special I thought. What wasn't so special was where we stayed that night, the war memorial sight just outside Atherton. The site says
that campers are welcome and please make a donation in the war memorial box outside the toilets. When we arrived there was an old man in the park with an enormous dog who came over to speak to us. Told us that he was the Park keeper and that we could only park in one place, a good hundred meters or so from the bbq's and toilets, and that if the field where we had to stay got wet, it had a tendency to turn into a bog. If this happened, he went on to tell us, then we would likely get stuck in it and if we did, don't call him because he won't help. Tremendous, what a helpful old boy, kind of reminded me of my first audit I ever went on in Leeds in 1999. I was the junior, the senior was Stellios (his first audit with a junior) the Partner took us up there from Oxford, promptly told us that if we had any problems don't call him as he was on holiday, fantastic. Didn't mean much to me at the time, but poor Stellios nearly had a breakdown on that job. I am sure the
Partner and this Park keeper were related.
Thankfully this was one of the few nights it didn't rain and it didn't turn into a bog and so we didn't have to call Mr Helpful, instead we packed ourselves up in the morning and made our way towards Port Douglas.
All the way to Port Douglas we were listening to the radio waiting to get word of the cyclone, but nothing, its amazing how local radio stations can be. Ok so we were now a couple of hundred km north of Cardwell, but still it was still Queensland and I would have expected to hear something, but nothing. We found out a day or two later that it pretty much hit the Whitsunday's and Airlie beach dead on and wrecked a lot of boats and a number of houses, no one dead though I believe. Most travel (boats and roads) were canceled for a few days, but just like any good capitalist beach resort where there is money to be made it is hasn't taken them long to get themselves up and running again and I believe boat tours are once again on the go, probably making the most
of it by charging high prices due to demand and a lack of boat supply no doubt. I know I am a cynic.
On route to Port Douglas we stopped as Mossman gorge (funnily enough in Mossman), and undertook a short rainforest walk and a dip in the gorge. Well the water was freezing, but the gorge was beautiful and quite busy with a tour bus having stopped there, plus of course it was Sunday and the weekend. At some point during the afternoon we traveled a further 60km or so that we needed and arrived into Port Douglas.
Port Douglas What a beauty of a town or I should say port, unlike Byron bay and even the Whitsundays which had a very backpacker almost cheap feel to it, Port Douglas has a very classy feel to it. I think its the tree lined streets and the wine bars and restaurants that give it that feel along with the big boats in the harbor, regardless of what it is, take my word for it, it was a beauty. Unfortunately as always its beauty diminished a couple of hours after we arrived as the sun went away and
the heavens opened with some very heavy rain, fortunately for us during the couple of hours of sunshine we managed to get ourselves booked on a tour boat for the following day to go out and explore the great barrier reef.
Up bright and early but $180 dollars down each (less 10% for YHA membership) we were off on the 'Poseidon' boat and making our way out on the great barrier reef to Agincourt reef. It took some 90 minutes on the water to get there and it pretty much tipped it down the whole way out but the boat was lovely and not too overcrowded at 60 people (I believe it can hold 80) and eventually we got out on the first our three sites. All three sites we visited that day were much the same but the visibility was much improved on the Whitsundays a week or so earlier and the highlight was that we got to see at least one shark and possible two but I guess it could have been the same shark, either way we saw a shark (pretty big I might add) resting on the ocean floor. The reef I thought was amazing
and some of the fish you get to see are just incredible, I really enjoyed the whole experience. It was however a pretty full day lasting some 5 hours on the reef and some 3 hours going and getting back again so by the end of it Tracy and I were knackered and decided to treat ourselves to dinner out (Thai) and a few beers in town before calling it an early night in Port Douglas.
The following day (Tuesday 23rd) we decided to get on the move again and head into what is known as the Daintree or the 'Wet Tropics'. Before we headed there though we made a quick stop at the Port Douglas lookout, it was OK nothing special, I guess it was good that we had time on our hands. So off to the Daintree and ultimately Cape Tribulation.
Daintree Now the Daintree is almost a freak of nature, it is, I am lead to believe, the oldest rainforest on the planet, indeed it's so old that it survived the last ice age and was around before the dinosaurs or at least during them. I have been told it is over 100 million
years old (the amazon I believe is 8 million years old to put it in perspective) and that some of the trees that live there today are direct descendants of the trees from one hundred million years ago that don't exist anywhere else on the planet. To be fair it doesn't get me all that excited but I can appreciate what a treasure it is in ecological and environmental terms.
The trip up to Cape Tribulation was a lovely journey, the forest was incredible, quite dark, dense and humid at times (guess that's why they call it the wet tropics). On route we stopped to do a one hour Crocodile tour on the Daintree river, where apparently there are some 70 or so living crocs some big male ones at over 5 meters long, or so I was told. Well all we saw was tiny little baby crocs only a foot long at most and I did feel very unsatisfied at the whole experience. Anyway onto Cape Tribulation. As I said the drive was beautiful and we undertook a short one hour rainforest walk as well, again quite magnificent, almost eerie from the denseness of the mangrove trees. On
The frogmouth something or other
Can't remember the name but we saw this on our croc boat ride, very cool bird route we also saw a wild Cassowary, this pleased Tracy no end, I saw one at Mission beach whilst driving, but by the time I turned the van around it was gone and Tracy never got to see it. The Cassowary is a big bird, very similar to an Emu, with a black body and Red and blue head, apparently they can be dangerous but then again isn't everything in Australia. There are not many left in the wild so getting to see one was quite a treat.
Cape Tribulation, named by Captain Cook as he hit reef there (hence his tribulation) and ran aground eventually at Cooktown is the farthest point North that you can travel on the East coast of Australia without a 4x4. So this was the end of the road for our travels, it would have to be south now towards Cairns. Before this however we booked ourselves, for the next day, on the half day 'Ocean Safari' trip. It is the sister company of the 'Ocean Rafting' company in the Whitsundays, they have the same boats but the emphasis being more on the snorkeling than on the driving of the boat at high speeds
round the reef. With that done we took a look around the town of Cape Tribulation, which took all of two minutes as is is extremely small and retired for the night to our campsite, where wild Turkeys (yes turkeys) and cane toads were in abundance.
So the following day we were up bright and early again, to be fair I was awake a fair bit through the night anyway with the heavy rain, and off to the Mackay reef in the Great Barrier Reef. There were only five of us on the boat this day and the weather was pretty reasonable (sunshine wise) however the 25 minute journey on the water was fun with the 1.5 - 2 meter waves that we saw, even our two guides thought it was a bit rougher than they expected, still we made it out there. We dove a couple of site's seeing a magnificent array of coral fish and reef. Tracy and I even saw a smallish stingray moving through the ocean floor, unfortunately my camera died at this point and I didn't get any photos. Before this however we saw without doubt the highlight of the dive, a 'Hawksbill Sea
Turtle'. He looked very cool swimming around leisurely and didn't seem too concerned about us what so ever, this capped off what I think has been a great experience of diving in the great barrier reef and for the $80 or so each that we paid to go out for the morning I thought it was well worth it. If I ever come back to OZ I will certainly go out on the reef again and most likely with the Ocean Safari outfit (if I am in Cape Tribulation) as I thought they were great.
Unfortunately their is very little else in the Cape Tribulation region to keep you there, so with our dive done we began our trip south towards Cairns.
Palm Cove and Cairns Now I have been reading the Bill Bryson book 'Down Under' whilst traveling through Australia (enjoyed it to, love his dry wit, his stories and little anecdotes) and one of the places he stayed and really liked was Palm Cove, it's all but 30km north of Cairns and about 80km or so south from where we were in Cape Tribulation. As we had time to kill we decided that we would
stop the night there.
Well I agree with Bryson, Palm cove I think is lovely, it's a small place but does seem to have a fair number of restaurants and bars in it for its size, all mostly on the sea front, arriving there I thought this could be quite relaxing place, unfortunately no sooner had we arrived at 5pm than once again the heavens opened and more or less didn't stop again all night, this kept us firmly rooted to the Hippie camper and a movie on the computer for the night.
So it's now Thursday March 25th and with the rain having abated (all be it for only a short while) we felt we should try and make something of the day. Having also been very underwhelmed with the croc tour on the Daintree River, Tracy had seen and acquired a flyer for 'Hartley Adventure Park' and it was only 15km north of where we were. Basically its a small zoo with the emphasis being heavily on the crocs. After the whole Daintree River experience I was a little skeptical but off we went anyway. Well it was fantastic, there we loads of fresh and salt
water crocs everywhere, some really big ones too. They farm crocodiles there for the meat and leather, they also do a feeding there and a croc 'death roll' show, it was very good, I would recommend the whole experience to anyone. If you're not into crocs they also did a Cassowary and Koala feeding session too.
That evening we returned to the campsite at Palm cove and no sooner had we done so than it absolutely tipped down, it rained and rained and rained. So once again it was a night in for Tracy and I.
The following day, March 26th, yesterday, with nothing really left to do and anywhere to go we made our way to Cairns and the campsite we are now at (Cairns holiday Park). Its a pretty nice site to be fair, with a big pool and stuff and I guess we could relax here for a few days, but since we arrived in yesterday afternoon it has been raining pretty much non stop. Indeed in some places the water is turning the site into a bit of a bog. According to the lady in the campsite office, Sunday's weather (tomorrow) will be showers
on and off all day but not as heavy as yesterday and today, guess I'll be watching the Melbourne grandprix then in some pub, whilst Monday will be nice with some sun apparently, so maybe we will get to check out the pool after all then.
As for Cairns, well it is set up for reef tours, but as we have already done it, we feel it's a non starter for us and little else is floating the boat, I mean really would you do a sky dive or bungee jump or the sky train in Kurunda in raining weather (indeed the scenic railway to Kurunda derailed 2 days ago as there was a landslide!), neither would I, so its just hanging around killing time at the campsite for us right now. One good thing is that it means I have got the blog right up to date again and it has given me time to contemplate all the traveling done thus far, which has been nice, but it has meant that I think I am done with OZ, at least for now. Anyway enough of my moans and groans, that's us, it's another chapter closed in our travels
Feeding time!
Quite scary how high they can jump and with a new one to begin on Tuesday in NZ for us to look forward too, should we do anything extravagant in Cairns in the next day or two before we leave then I am sure Tracy will bring it to you next time.
Cheers
Patrick
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Paul Rothesay
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fOSTERS
Did you get a huge jug of fosters or not?