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Published: September 4th 2010
Uber sexy Gail
Snorkling gearGoodbye to Perth; hello to Cairns!
If you've been reading, you'll know that our life in Perth was full of hostel fun, yet lacking in financial gain so we decided to hop onboard our ninth flight (eight to go!) and head towards sunny Cairns. The good news about a delayed flight is that they arrive so late it consequently saves you a night's accommodation - talk about a good start! We checked in at 6am and for the first time in months, popped on some shorts and sun cream! Definitely some high hopes for Cairns apart from the problem that Gail's veneer snapped off (again) and our first job was finding a dentist. Her bloody teeth!
We spent our first few days recovering from the annoyance that Gail had finally been offered a Perth job as soon as we left, and then focused our efforts on ensuring the next two weeks were going to be packed with fun as we endeavored to make it to our new house/doggie/parrot/turtle sitting job. Our first stop was obviously The Great Barrier Reef and Gail's key reason for wanting to come back to Australia. Yes, she is still terrified of fish. More good
news arrived when we discovered Katie and Gerard - our friends and hosts from Melbourne - were also on holiday there with Katie's parents. A little bit of planning ensured we all booked on the same reef trip and headed out together for a day of luxury lining and snorkelling.
The best thing about arriving at the harbor is the excitement and having no idea that within the hour you'll all be piss wet through and Gail will have vomited...and vomited. Needless to say, you'll see from the pictures that it really was incredible. At a chilly 23 degrees we popped on wetsuits and snorkelled over the reef. It really is so vast and spectacular that at some point you all have to come and see it for yourselves. Our second snorkel location proved to be better and we even managed to find Nemo amongst the thousands of other fish, alongside some turtles and a stingray. The sad reality is that the brochure shows glorious sunshine and bikinis, not vomit and erect nipples! The good news was that we managed to gorge ourselves silly on the free food, Nikki especially, and then watch as Gail reproduced it all over
the side of the boat. Topping off with an evening sampling Cairns’ nightlife, this was a definite highlight of the entire trip.
The next step of our plan involved hiring a campervan for 14 days and covering 1500miles down to Hervey Bay. We loved the van, and named her ‘Ruth’ after Gail’s book. We had a slightly embarrassing start after sitting in the petrol station for a solid ten minutes as we were unable to find the petrol cap button and had to drive back to base. This did mean we were then upgraded to a three-person with air-conditioning-woo! Not that we used it as the A/C ‘wastes fuel’ (apparently). As does travelling above 80km/h which means that all journeys take nearly twice as long; therefore, cars and more importantly the GIANT road trains get very pissed off with you on the single lane Bruce Highway. We use the term ‘campervan’ very loosely here as what Ruth actually was, was a white Ford van with an additional raised built in area to sleep on and to put our backpacks under. At the back was a ‘kitchen’ area with a sink and tap (pump action), a cool box (no things
to keep it cool though) and to top it off, a portable stove to cook all of our Woolworths ‘Homebrand’ food on. Meals in the van reached such culinary delights as spag bol; tuna, pasta and mayo; sausages; soup from a tin, long life milk and a bag of cheap cookies. Surprisingly, we continued with our self imposed alcohol ban and to our delight found that no beer plus ‘Homebrand’ diet brings about a significant weight loss! As we had no TV or Ipod charger in the van, music was on a ration for the long journeys; we often found ourselves curled up reading and then asleep by 8pm… crazy us, huh? Now, it is painfully obvious that Ruth didn’t provide us with any toilet facilities and thus created a problem. Luckily Australia is big on public toilets, showers and BBQ’s which helped us out immensely. There were a few times where the public toilets were locked and there were no facilities available to the scabby, not paying for a plot in a campsite traveller. These stories are however, reserved for close friends and family. Sorry.
So, Ruth took us on a very long journey starting at Cairns and
heading up to the coast for a detour to Cape Tribulation and the Daintree National Park and Forest. This was one of our favorite stops in the Wet Tropics. Daintree Forest is one of the oldest rainforests in the world and there are some great walking trails amongst the giant trees. Ruth then took us inland to the Atherton Tablelands (or Tabletops as Gail calls them) for a fantastic change in scenery. We drove through a number of small towns, including Atherton which has the World’s Most Amazing Fig Tree and what we highly suspect has quite a high suicide rate - these towns have nothing in them. Our road-side rest stop here provided us with one of our first ever real glimpse at the night sky minus the light pollution. This was definitely one of the highlights throughout the trip. It’s truly amazing to feel completely encased and surrounded by stars. The Tablelands provided us with one other naughty treat which was to hand feed some tiny rock wallabies! They’re like miniature kangaroos, a very strange animal indeed. A little further we completed the Milla Milla (so good they named it twice) waterfall circuit encompassing three beautiful, cascading waterfalls.
We headed out of the Tablelands down the coast passing through Innisfail, Mission Beach, Tully and Palma Range National Park. We then missed our rest stop for the evening and ended up in the centre of a very wet Townsville, Queensland’s second largest city. This led to an agonising two hour drive around the city desperately needing the toilet whilst repeatedly getting lost looking for somewhere to wee and park. Eventually we settled for the evening and paid a visit to Reef HQ the following morning. This aquarium holds the world’s largest indoor coral reef and is a truly great place to visit. Coming here after our actual reef visit meant we got to learn more about what we’d actually seen. Plus, get better pictures! They also have the amazing Turtle Hospital where we got to meet some injured and sick turtles in their care. Did you know it costs about two-grand a turtle? Donations welcome.
After literally dragging ourselves away, Ruth took us down to Airlie Beach, a backpacker haven. It’s a small, tourist-driven resort which acts as the gateway onto The Whitsunday Islands, which boast one of the world’s top ten beaches. After much debate, we
booked ourselves onto Ocean Rafting and headed off for a day of exploring these stunning islands. This place was a photographer’s dream and visually breathtaking. Even after seeing hundreds of beaches this year, Whitehaven was perfection. Our boat was super fast and glided on the water meaning the captain could throw it round and get us drenched. Yes, out of all the seats we obviously managed to choose the worst. Our day involved sunbathing, snorkelling on coral and meeting some great people. At this point, we’d been in the van a while and were starting to get that ‘backpacker’ smell. Luckily for us we met a lovely couple on the boat, Emma and Julie, who took pity on us. They kindly sneaked us into their fancy caravan park where we had hot showers, a hairdryer and tea. Living the dream! So, clean and fresh-smelling, we all headed down to the charity festival and fireworks on the beach before they treated us to fish, chips and beer. It’s great when you meet people who are genuinely nice and hopefully we’ll stay in touch.
From here, our journey seemed to involve lots and lots of (Nikki) driving. Gail’s Road-Kill game
saw us count 50 dead animals within minutes. With only two stops left before we arrived, Nikki suddenly decided that she wanted to make a small detour and drive 200km to see a wild platypus at Broken River in Eungella National Park. This detour was great and somehow Ruth made it up the 1000m high mountain. Luckily we did spot Mr Platypus and his turtle friends. We also watched the sunrise then completed a couple of walking trails-all before 9am! We passed through Mackay onto Rockhampton and stopped here to visit Dreamtime which is an Aboriginal centre where you can learn more about their culture.
Our final stop to the Bundaberg Rum factory in…Bundaberg, turned out to be quite an eye-opener. We didn’t realise Auzzies were fanatic about rum and the people here couldn’t get enough of the stuff. It seems Nikki did rather well getting to use her own as well as Gail’s drink vouchers to practically sample the entire range of products.
Spending two weeks in a van was definitely worth quitting our jobs for in Perth. For the first time in a while, it felt like we were actually really discovering Australia and getting back
Waterfall Circuit
Gail's favouite. Taken for her dad. to travelling. It also provided us with some of the best days of travelling so far and, our trip would have really have been missing something if we didn’t discover the East Coast.
Arriving at Hervey Bay on the 18th August couldn’t have been more of a contrast. As we write this from our new house and dog-sitting job, we have had two weeks of bliss and relaxation - read: sleeping in, sunbathing and watching far too much American TV. The dogs are lovely, the parrot is slightly irritating and the turtles are fascinating. Itchy feet have set in and now we’re really excited about the following few weeks: Nikki’s parents are flying out to join us for three weeks which will see us spend time in Brisbane and Sydney. Can’t wait!
For the first time this year, we are completely up-to-date with our Blogs. Smug. Whilst at the house-sitting we’ve taken the opportunity to re-assess (several times) what we’ll do with the rest of our year. Our plans have changed again and we’re now off to Christchurch in New Zealand for just three days, Fiji for two weeks and then… Me-hi-co for two months! As lovely as
Mission Beach Accomodation
When avoiding the police, park next to the beach. Westernised countries are, we have really missed the craziness of Asia, realised our funds have depleted and that the final dregs of money will last longer in Mexico. Also we figured we would have a ball in Mexico and end the year on a high!
Hope your summer has been fun-filled?
Catch ya laters,
Gail, Nikki, Nelly, Squirt, Jack, Turtles and Ducks.
xxxx
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Richard 'Ho Chi' Gott
non-member comment
No wonder they took pity on you...
MORE BLOODY LESBIANS! You must just attract them like Public Toilets to George Michael. 'Please use our shower and also look at the 3/4 length shorts we have on. Aren't they great... hang on, you're wearing the same ones!...'