Blogs from Queensland, Australia, Oceania

Originally booked for 2020, the trigger for this trip is my parents’ 70th birthdays and 50thwedding anniversary. Unfortunately due to restrictions & border uncertainty, the trip was postponed till 2023. A 2020 credit resulted in a 3 week extension for me on our original 6 week trip. The trip is 3 parts. Part 1 is a 3 week overland camping trip visiting Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique before entering South Africa to finish in Jo'burg. Part 2 is meeting Darryl in Jo'burg to transit to Cape Town for a week before a 3 week overland lodges trip visiting Namibia, Botswana, finishing in Victoria Falls. Part 3 is transiting to Jo'burg for the Dillon family holiday visiting Kruger NP, Victoria Falls & Hwange NP. I haven't overland camped for 18 years so there's a bit of trepidation. Pulling my ... read more

As we cruise towards Brisbane I see a small pod of spinner dolphins from the balcony. (They spin around as they break water.) Just then Ian enters the cabin and we watch them for several minutes together. It would have been sad to have gone the entire cruise without seeing dolphins, other have been spotted many times but we always seemed to miss them. In the morning on opening our curtains after mooring during the early hours at the brand new Brisbane International Cruise Terminal we have a pleasing vista of lush green woodland, reeds and a muddy beach. The effect is spoilt slightly when we go out onto the balcony look towards the city and see a series of car parks, an industrial area and the city airport. Ah well. Some facts about Brisbane; Brisbane ... read more

We woke up very early today, partly due to the fact it was so light (the shutters don’t really block the light out!) and also due to the bed dipping in the middle so we were both perched on the very edge most of the night trying (and failing!) to get comfortable! Just goes to show you don’t always get what you pay for….. although the view is great, some parts of this apartment are quite tired. Our bedroom light has given up now too! The good thing about being up early is you can make the most of the day. As we had our Aquaduck tour booked for today we needed to find the check in office so decided to venture out for an early walk. It was a bit chilly out (well it was ... read more

We missed our morning beach walk as we were running a bit late and needed to get on the road. What a lovely motel, as we drove out the lady who checked us in, made sure to meet us outside the office to say goodbye and also recommend a couple of places on our route today. It makes such a difference when you find one of these gems to stay at, just a shame we only had one night there. Our aim today was to get to Bundaberg, but it was a long way so realistically, we were going to try to get as far as Rockhampton. It was another scorcher today, 32 degrees with the humidity making it feel more like 36! One of the recommendations we had was to stop at Sabrina Sugar Shack ... read more

We set off for Cape Tribulation this morning, another lovely sunny (very hot!) day although they were predicting cloud and potential thunder and lightening today. Our accomodation has an underground car park which we thought would be great for keeping the car cool. Apparently, this is an impossible feat in this area and even in the subterranean car park it was 32 degrees! The drive out was once again on the lovely, picturesque road that you essentially have to go back up again once you get out of Port Douglas in order to get up to Cape Tribulation. We passed a few places that we thought would be good to stop off at on our return journey time permitting. We were enjoying the drive and about an hour in, as we were approaching the Daintree Ferry ... read more