Airlie Beach and Whitsunday sailing

Monday 14th October 

Stroke of luck last night. Instead of going back to the camp site we had previously stayed at we drove round a few petrol/service stations asking if we could park the van overnight in their truckers car parks. After being turned down at every one, a truck driver kindly told us about a gravel carpark 5 mins away where he'd seen people parking before. So we headed there and luckily found it straight away (in the pitch black) at a crossroads. Made tuna pasta with a gourmet ketchup sauce and got a decent nights sleep.

Breakfast in Bowen 

Early in the morning - $25 richer - we quickly left our free camp spot and headed back into Bowen and made pancakes by the strand. Then went off to a few more farms and tried to follow up the potential job lead I mentioned. But still nothing.  

Decided to hit the local beaches and think about what to do next. Went to Horseshoe Bay which was a nice little beach. Award winning in the local region. It had massive boulders strewn in and out of the water, either side of the sand so we went snorkelling and did some rock climbing. Had a good laugh! Once again though, whole time we were there... no more than 10 people on the beach at any one time. Where is everybody??? Spooky. 

We agreed on going back to the camp spot at the gravel car park to get another free nights parking before leaving Bowen and getting back on the highway. We had time, since our Whitsunday boat trip wasn't till Thursday.

So, back to the Strand, made a rogan josh curry and also made use of the plug sockets by the tourist information kiosk.

Part of Horseshoe Bay

Tuesday 15th

Nothing much today, same morning sequence as yesterday. Back to Horseshoe Bay for a while then back on the highway a little past Airlie Beach (which is where we get on our boat) to a slightly cheaper camp site 10 mins south of Proserpine by the O'connell river. Spent most of night chatting to an 30 yr old Aussie called Jessie. What a legend he was. Need to meet more like him for sure.

Weds 16th

Drove into Airlie Beach and spent morning walking around the area. The beach at Airlie is actually a small spit of sand that hardly any people go on. They all sun themselves by the man made lagoon (similar to cairns). The rest of the area is rocks and marinas.

We checked into true blue sailing to confirm our boat trip for tomorrow. Back to camp site for curry and an early night.

Thursday 17th

Up early to Airlie and parked van in staff car park of boat operator. Made some lunch and headed to marina with our bags and booze. Got on our Whitsunday's boat (the Atlantic clipper) and met the other 50 or so passengers. Had an induction briefing from big Steve (crew member) and then started drinking whilst on our way to first anchor point where we would stay for the night. When we dropped anchor we were allowed to jump off the top of the boat (7 metres high) and slides and mess around in the water for a bit. Was a good job I'd been drinking my fusion of vodka and cheap rum as I needed a bit of dutch courage for that first jump.

After tea (crew made us grilled fish and mash) we continued drinking and chatting to everyone. Was nice getting to know everybody and hearing their travel stories. The boat was actually mostly full of Irish and English travellers, which I guess was a welcome change from the countless Germans and frenchies we've met. Still no true Aussies apart from meeting Jessie.

The Atlantic clipper. Looks a lot smaller here!

Friday 18th

Woken by the ships engines and pretty hungover we had breakfast and shortly arrived at the anchor point for Whitsunday island, largest island in Whitsunday's, home to Whitehaven beach. Short dingy ride to the shore at Hill Inlet and a little hike up to the stunning look out point. Postcard perfect views of the white sand and turquoise waters. A little cloudy but still beautiful. We spent the morning walking around the sands and chilling in the water with the rest of the group. Saw a baby reef shark swimming in the shallows and a stingray. 

In the afternoon we were taken to Blue Pearl Bay snorkel site on the western shores of Hayman island. Famous for attracting celebs like Will Smith, Hugh Jackman and Sean Connery. The water is deep just off the fringing reef, gradually shelving to the shore while it meanders it's way around countless bommies and coral ledges. Saw almost as many fish species as our trip out to the reef in cairns, only this time the fish weren't so shy. They would literally swim in big groups right in front of your mask and you could touch them if you were quick enough! 

After tea (spag bol) during the evening, the drinking began again and the night really got going. This was, after all, the largest party boat in the Whitsunday's and eventually, after a couple of Goon (Australia's most controversial alcoholic drink for those of you who don't know) showers and dressing in women's underwear, the crew put on a few games and challenges for us. Wont go in to too much detail here but there was some very raunchy and hilarious antics going on, until eventually one of the guys we met on there was crowned king of the clipper! He did well but boy did he have a hangover the next day. 

Was an eventful night for Tom (maybe not for all the good reasons though). Luckily, what happens on the clipper...stays on the clipper! Stayed up on deck until 3am (unaware of time) chatting and nursing headaches.

Hilarious emergency drill!

Saturday 19th

4 hous later, Awoke to a rather credible rendition of tom jones' sex bomb (big Steve's method of waking everybody up). we were so tired and hungover but somehow we found the energy to pack our stuff up and head up to the saloon for breakfast, only to find that we'd missed it. we were supposed to be going snorkelling again at a site i cant actually remember the name of. luckily the dive master said there was nothing there we wouldn't of seen yesterday and the coral wasn't as good either. apparently out of the 50something of us on board only 5 were sober/fit /awake enough to snorkel without being sick or drowning. The trip back to the mainland seemed so much longer than before. Tom fell asleep in the saloon while I went out on deck to take pictures. Nearly everyone was wrecked, nobody was talking, quite a few were asleep or passed out and one guy was in the corner in the foetal position. 

Once back in the marina we trudged our way back to the van in the searing heat, dumped our stuff and sat in the van sipping cocktails of painkillers while trying to contemplate what had happened and where we were going to go next. Over two nights, we had drunk 1/3 bottle of vodka (leftovers), a whole bottle of rum, 24 cans of rum and coke, any beer we got offered  and a gallon of Goon.

We went to Woolworth's to buy supplies and sober up then drove south to st Lawrence in search of a free camp ground we'd seen in our book with plenty of facilities like hot showers, laundry and bbqs - a rarity on the east coast. As we neared the location it was roughly 7pm and dark. we turned off the main road down a track (remember the van doesn't have beam headlights) so we slowed down, looking out for the turning to the campsite. It was during this point that in the space of 3 mins a bat flew into our windscreen (luckily no damage to it, although the same can't be said for the bat), then we nearly ran over a possum, and then we saw a large bright blue a flash followed by a burning streak across the black sky. Meteorite or UFO?? 

Shortly after, we found the camp ground and had a peaceful and well deserved sleep.

Did you know that the white sand on Whitehaven beach is 98% silica and is protected by law. If you bottle some for a souvenir and get caught with it in your bag at an airport you will be fined $3000. NASA was the only organisation permitted to take sand from the beach, which they used to build the lens for the Hubble telescope!

Whitehaven used to be the best beach in the world but now ranks somewhere around 12, depending on where you look! 

Whitehaven beach - I don't own this image. Didn't take my ipad on the trip so no beach pictures. Plenty on main camera though.

Also, the Whitsunday's should actually be called the Whitmonday's, if you want to be accurate. See, when good old captain James Cook from Yorkshire discovered the islands it was actually a Monday. Apparently he was so lax with his time and date keeping when logging his trip during that voyage that he thought it was still Sunday when he named them.

Townsville to Bowen

Tuesday

The convoy continues! Drove from Rollingstone to Townsville. Found out that Townsville is the capital city of North Queensland (not Cairns) and we could see why as it was quite a big and built up urban sprawl with a fair few high rise commercials. We found some free parking and split with the girls (they went food shopping and we looked for bank and barber shops (Tom not happy with his hair, although it is perfectly adequate). We phoned ultimate oz and booked up for a Whitsunday's sailing trip on a party boat and a Fraser Island tour package. The only availability for the party boat was a week on Thursday which is a while to wait since we are so near to where it sails from. But at least it's booked! Excited! Fraser Island is open dated so we can use it whenever we get there.

 After lunch we joined back with the girls and went to the strand and sat by the beach for a bit. Later decided to head off to the next free campsite but it must have closed down as it had disappeared from the location we read off the map. With no other free sites around the girls suggested going back and spending the night at the free car park where we eventually had tea, but subsequently got moved on by Townsville council security. They told us of a nice camp spot with a toilet block 10 mins north of the city right next to the beach where we could stay without being bothered so we spent the night there instead.

Following the German girls into the sunset 

Wednesday

Another sweltering morning waking up in the van - We forgot to park the van in a shady area when we arrived and so suffered the consequences. Even worse, we only had porridge for breakfast but we did have full cream milk this time instead of just water. Eating hot porridge in the blazing sun at 9am is not the best breakfast I've had but it did the job and we were full.

Spent the day having a look round town and using the community wifi to sort out some online chores as I'm starting to call them. Also very frustrated that Facebook will only let me upload a fraction of the pics I want to share online. I've given up.

Still haven't had time or enough data to Skype but we are off to a Telstra or Optus shop soon to see how much fixing up m my iPad to a payment plan is. Then hopefully we will have Internet access every day.

Lunch at subway (first of the trip). I remembered that subway was pretty cheap compared to most other places when I was last in Aus. And it still is.

We decided to try and charm the German girls by learning bits of German (mostly outrageous chat up lines) off google translate and also by offering to cook them dinner. It went down a treat and they really liked it. Rogan josh curry with rice. Came out very well, will def be cooking that again. Making progress!

Stayed at the camp spot by the beach again but security came and told us this would be the last night we could spend here - the Locals don't like it happening all the time, which is fair enough.

Our camp spot

Thursday

Toms birthday! Up early as sun was unbearable in the van again at 7am.

After finishing a work out we were greeted by the German girls who were giggling and looking very shy. this was because they had lovingly prepared a small cupcake complete with candle and presented it to Tom singing happy birthday and gave him hugs. You could have probably seen the jealousy written all over my face. It was a Lovely gesture and very sweet of them.

We decided to go off into the city and then to a shopping centre to finally try and sort out some mobile broadband. It took a while but we had success at last! I now have a new smartphone (random Chinese manufacturer called Huawei) which is actually not a bad little phone! It's hooked up to a prepaid plan $30 a month for unlimited ...

We wanted to try and hook the virgin wifi dongle that came with the van up to a virgin plan but then found out there are no virgin stores until Brisbane. Instead we paid $40 for about 3.5GB worth of data to use for one month only which should last us fine until we get to Brisbane. So now at last i'm able to use Internet, email and social media without scouting for free community wifi. Ooh I feel like I'm living in 2013 again. Also downloaded whatsApp onto my new phone so if you have it, add me! My English number is inactive until i'm back in the country so don't text or call. Use my Aussie number which is +61 (0) 416 529 517. 

Went back to our camp spot again wondering where we would spend the night seeing as security would get the police on us if we slept there again. The girls had been drinking wine and we joined them  and before we knew it security were here again telling us to move. However when they realised we'd been drinking they told us we could stay one last night. And then told us off as its against the law to drink in the area we were drinking. So alas we had somewhere to stay thankfully. They told us that if we were looking for work then we should head on south to Bowen where there are heaps of tomato, mango and capsicum plantations. Since we were heading south anyway and had a while to wait until our Whitsunday's sailing trip we thought it was worth going there and asking around for a few days work.

Friday

Spent the morning up on castle hill scenic lookout, climbling, break dancing and messing around. Castle hill is a massive mound on its own that overlooks all of Townsville, the great dividing range and the coral sea. Spent the afternoon on the strand by the community lagoon and beach cooking our fave meal for lunch. Marinated kebabs and rice! Soon I'll be getting Tom to eat greasy kebabs from takeaways haha something he never said he'd consume!

The German girls had gone to do their laundry and look for work. We didnt know when we were meeting up again but when we texted them they said they'd found a free parking area north of the city but we didn't know where abouts exactly. Language barrier taking effect. In the end we decided to stay in the city and parked the van in a shopping plaza car park where I had my first (Tom's second) McDonalds since ben in Aus! I think I lasted quite well!

We were planning on going out into town for a few drinks but we literally fell asleep while having pre-drinks in the van. The bottle actually slipped out of my hand as I drifted off, which is quite a common occurrence with me. Shouldn't be any excuses I know but we think the past few days of tearing around everywhere, the heat and the early mornings had finally caught up with us.

A sign from above that Tom should eat more kebabs

Our view as we ate lunch

Saturday 

Survived the night in the car park with being ticketed. Drove to Bowen. Had lunch by the harbour, saw a guy hook a seagull with a fishing rod (unintentionally) then decided to try our luck asking around a few farms. Not much luck but a potential lead with a random phone call. Tourist information were crap. No advice to give us apart from there are absolutely no free places to park the van in Bowen and police will fine you $200 per person if caught. Nice! 

We reluctantly paid to stay in a camp site that night for $25. But least we got to use the kitchen, laundry and hot showers! 

By Bowen Harbour

Cool palms

Sunday

Spent the whole morning reenacting scenes from django unchained going around all the farms asking if they had any work. Found nothing. First time I've felt so demotivated in a while. Flashbacks of being rejected from architectural firms after graduation! Everyone saying the tomato season has pretty much ended and the mangos don't start until November. Bad timing or what. 

Spent the afternoon lazing by the harbour and charging gadgets. We are very confused and slightly concerned by the lack of activity in the towns we have driven through. Especially on weekends. Bowen is probably triple the size of Wetherby but with a population of 1000 (bit less than Wetherby). Very spread out but with less residential areas. Still, you'd think it'd be busy down by the waterfront on the weekend but no, hardly anyone at all. A few fisherman and the odd backpacker van, couple of joggers, couple of people eating fish n chips and a random guy with a metal detector. Where are all the kids and families? Where do they go? Haven't seen anywhere that's slightly busy. There'd be more people down at the river wharf feeding the ducks than there is people here by the harbourside. This town must surely rely on tourism and passing travellers otherwise it would be written off the map. Interestingly enough though, it was the chosen location to shoot the film Australia by Baz Luhrmann with Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman. They transformed town into what would have been Darwin in the 1940s. Apparently only 90 people from the whole town volunteered to be extras. That explains a lot!

Its 6pm and we are sat by the harbour contemplating what to do and where to stay tonight. Think we will book an extra night at the site we stayed last night and see if we get lucky in the morning with this potential job lead. If not then we are making a quick exit and driving on to Airlie Beach and Proserpine where we will have until Thursday to kill. Not very good when your running low on funds and trying to save the $

October - Week commencing 30/09/13

Having trouble catching up with the blog postings. Here's the first week of October carrying on from last post.

Wednesday 2nd October:

We had a day to kill since the reef trip we wanted to go on was fully booked out today. Drove 20 mins north to check out the beaches closest to cairns looking for somewhere to snorkel but no success. Sea too choppy as there were no outlying reefs on this stretch to break the waves. Checked out Trinity Beach then sunbathed and went in the sea at Yorkey's Knob (great name and sea 26 celsius!)

Here's a pic of the route we did up to cape tribulation and back. It has the beaches we checked out just north of Cairns as well (Cairns far right of map), if you can see it clearly enough. Maybe it's too small, I don't know.

Thursday 3rd:

On Thursday we had our reef trip! At last! We sailed with Reef Experience on a decent sized boat headed for two sites on the outer reef. Meals and tea and coffee included as well so we were more than satisfied! However, after signing the health and safety medical form I was informed by a dive instructor that I wouldn't be diving today. When I asked why he told me that Queensland law doesn't allow anyone with an asthma condition (no matter how mild) to dive. You could imagine how annoyed I was with myself for being honest and ticking the asthma box despite me not having any asthma problems for ages. So a day of snorkelling it was. Tom was able to go diving with a group of certified divers but said they spent too long faffing around above the water instead of getting down there to make it a decent dive. But he did see some big fish that we couldn't see when snorkelling. Nevertheless the snorkelling was great! Hundreds of fish swimming very close to us. Two different reef sites with plenty to see and great coral. Sea temp 26 degrees again so didn't need a wetsuit. I booked to go on a guided tour with a young and pretty marine biologist called Emma. She had a great personality and took us round all the good areas and we ended up spotting 4 turtles, lots of ginormous clams and got to hold 2 sea cucumbers. Saw loads of Parrot fish, Angel fish and Nemo fish as well as hundreds of other colourful species! A great day out at sea for shore (pun intended haha)

Docked back in marina at 4:30pm. Got a few bits from supermarket then drove south for the first time since we started our road trip! We drove until it got dark and stayed on a roadside site by Innisfail.

Friday 4th:

Woke up amd drove to the nearest beach. And what a beach it was. Etty bay is a small gem of a beach tucked in between two little outcrops of land with a cafe and boating club. Not many people there at all, maybe not that well known about. We cooked breakfast (our fave instant pancake mix), sunbathed and played spongeball in the sea then had lunch on the bbqs. It was almost like we were eating on our own private beach. Would have paid a small fortune for this spot

Making heavenly pancakes at Etty Bay

Etty bay. Chest still white!

Late afternoon we set off to find a place I'd been really looking forward to seeing. If you do a bit of research on Paranella Park you'll see why. It's so my kind of place and it didn't disappoint. It's basically the architectural vision of a Spanish traveller who emigrated to Aus back into the 1930s. He built a dream castle by a waterfall (cleverly using hydro electricity) and filled it with quaint buildings and follies and held parties for the locals. Think Great Gatsby style. Most of the park has survived and there are ruins too. The waterfall still uses a hydro electric system to power the park and adjoining camp site where we stayed for the night. 

Our admission included a two free tours, one daytime and one nighttime so after arriving and having a bit of tea we went on a night tour of the park and waterfalls which were illuminated by mood lighting. It was like alice in wonderland down under! We both loved it. And we saw a tree full of fireflies on the tour which was a pretty cool thing to see.

Paranella Park ropebridge over waterfall

Saturday 5th:

We had our Paronella Park day tour which was great and we fully explored the park during daytime. Got some great pictures. Drove to Mission Beach in afternoon, but slightly disappointed by its small size (considering everyone raves about it). Went to tourist info to find out where nearest supermarket was (South Mission Beach). They told us that it would would be closed for two days straight after today (sunday and labor day = Aussie bank hol). So we stocked up on food and a quick drive around found us a nice camp site area (albeit a paid one as there are no free places to camp at Mission), which actually was part of the Mission Beach skydiving centre! This worked out well as I had been planning to book skydiving with the Ultimate Oz guys who we had our first week with as they could give me it for 300 but since we had found ourselves at Mission  Beach earlier than anticipated and we were in a Vodafone black zone I just decided to pay a bit more and book it direct at the centre so we didn't have to book more accommodation and wait to try and book it in with UltimateOz. Booked it for the next day as they had one spot left on a lunchtime dive. No going back now. Eeeesh!

We had one of the best nights that night. Cooked tea in the camp kitchen and met some local Aussies on their holidays. What a bunch of legends they were hah.

Also bumped in to an old man who told us we should move our van from under a tree as it was near an ants nest and loads of ants get blown off the tree as well. He suggested it would be better to move it next to a van which he said had 3 German girls in it. The old man was right!

Sunday 6th:

Pancakes for breakfast and plenty of time to shit myself for my skydive (12pm).

Extremely nervous but knew it was going to be amazing. 

It was more than amazing, it was incredible! Probably 10x worse than a rollercoaster, but a very very good rollercoaster! Free falling over mission beach, the reef, the lush islands and clear blue sea was an unbelievable experience. Was so glad I did it!

Tom was very jealous and I felt quite bad for him as he didn't have enough money. It was very expensive when you add everything up. But these kinds of experiences are what I've been saving up for for years. I have no doubt that after we have jobs and he has saved up he will be back up here to do one and probably try and get his skydiving license too!

Mission Beach

Day after the skydive

Afternoon we had a late lunch in camp kitchen and met the 3 nice German girls we had discreetly parked our van next to. We had actually been planning to move on further south later on the afternoon but once we remembered it was Labor Day the next day (nothing open) and more importantly we could spend the night chatting to these lovely Germans, we decided to stay an extra night. Had a nice night chatting on the beach around a campfire (this was after they had caught us in the middle of practicing a cheesy azonto routine with music) and we also managed to get away with not paying the extra 20 dollars for the extra night we stayed the next morning! Yeaaa!

Monday 7th - Mission Beach with German girls! Anna, Olga and Ina

The girls were heading south too, looking for work, and asked if they could follow us (get in!). And so we drove in our first convoy from mission beach en route to Townsville stopping off at a free campsite (basic facilities) at Rollingstone. On the way (in the dark) The girls hit a kangaroo, much to our amusement since they didn't have insurance for night time driving (because of animal risk) and we had persuaded them to drive in the dark. Whoops. At Rollingstone, we had some porridge mixed with water (no milk, bleurgh) for tea and drank and chatted with our new and attractive foreign travel buddies. Chuffed!

Van pictures

We are yet to name her but as promised here are some pics of our van! She's a beauty!

We are still in the process of 'making her our own' and we love her!

Up where the rainforest meets the reef

Friday eve. Picked up and had first night in van at cairns holiday park. Going to take some getting used to living and sleeping in such a small place but at the same time very satisfying to know that that space is ours only and all our stuff can stay there in its own place as we travel around!

Saturday. Unpacked our things and strategically arranged them inside the van. Filled up with petrol and hit Captain Cook Highway late afternoon heading north to Cape Tribulation. Picturesque drive with majority of highway hugging the coast so plenty of sea views to the right and tree covered mountain views on the left. 

The van is very easy to drive and coped well on its maiden journey under new ownership. 

About 3/4s of the way into the journey it started to go dark. We have noticed it goes dark very early and very quickly so as the sun dipped behind the mountains at about 6pm, within about an hour it was almost complete darkness and there are no street lights or cats eyes on the roads up here. After realising we had to go over the river Daintree on a 10 minute ferry crossing ($23 return) we began to enter the dense jungle landscape that is the Daintree national park. This was a perfect time for us to discover the van has no beam lights, forcing us to carefully drive at 30km/hr with normal headlights while navigating a twisty upy downy battered road through the rainforest. While it made everything more interesting, and slightly creepy (animal sounds and shadows in the pitch black), it added an extra hour's driving, as we were also trying to look out for decent camping spots to pull over and stay (we still hadn't eaten tea).

Eventually we found a small car park off the main track which had basic toilet facilities and close to a beach. The area, especially walking to the toilets in the dark with just a torch, was what could only be described as jurrasic park esque. We thought we were 10 minutes south of Cape Tribulation but later found out in the morning from a tour guide that Cape Tribulation is just the 'area' that we were already in and the beach we were next to was actually Cape Tribulation beach! Any further north and the road deteriorates so much so that our mode of transport wouldn't stand a chance. So basically it was just as well we stopped where we'd stopped. We made up some tea on the stove under torchlight and brushed our teeth in the creepy toilet cabins. It was boiling hot in the van and even more so than usual as the engine hadn't had much time to cool so we were like two sardines being cooked while we slept. Not very nice at all.

In the morning (sunday) we checked out the beach, which was beautiful! Got some great pictures. Then seeing as there was nowhere further north to go we started heading back the way we came, only this time during daylight. We stopped off at various places we'd seen signs for off the main track, namely Dubuji boardwalk (cool rainforest walk), Myall beach (sea as warm as a bath!), Noah beach (lovely long beach with offshore island) and Alexandria lookout (breathtaking views) before getting the ferry back across the Daintree river. We were heading for port Douglas but realised we were going to get caught out by the dark again so we turned off at a place called Cooya beach and ended up finding a camp spot on a strip of parkland sandwiched by a row of quaint Australian houses and... the beach! Score! By the time we'd sorted ourselves out ready for cooking it had pretty much gone dark again but we cooked up some rice and with tinned chicken pretty quick. We were going to eat on the beach under starligt but there were hundreds of tiny bugs and flies. Imagine bush tucker trial style. 

Tom nearly stood on a snake after he'd gone to retrieve the camp chairs when we headed back to eat by the van instead. First encounter of the trip. Bright yellow with small head. I never saw it but it didn't stop me double-taking  at every snake shaped brach or root on the floor around the van.

Here some pics of Dubuji boardwalk and Myall beach

Monday. We were up early and drove 15 mins to Mossman Gorge for 7am then made and ate breakfast in the deserted carpark. Making pur way into the gorge we took a rainforest hike and went swimming in the boulder-engulfed river (cold but refreshing). Dissapointed by substantial lack of wildlife in the rainforest bar the ofcasional bush turkey! A really nice walk under the unbelievably old and tall rainforest trees though. Some great pictures again.

After grabbing some cheap lunch from Woolworth's we headed to port Douglas but only stayed for a quick walk through the town. It was a very nice place but full of gift/touristy shops and expensive bars and restaurants and since we don't have the cash to splash there wasn't much else we could do apart form check out the main beach, which was actually quite disappointing only when compared with the others mentioned above. Anyways we carried on down back to Cairns only stopping off at Palm Cove, which was lovely, but the weather wasn't great as we arrived. Very dull and windy. We stocked up on food and stayed at Cairns holiday park again. Great facilities. Cooked hotdogs and charged our gadgets in the the camp kitchen. Also 3 hours free wifi.

Our van in the carpark at port Douglas ... And the view from the carpark 

Tuesday. Awful nights sleep. Extremely hot in the van, kept waking up every hour, sweat running off the face and everything. Nasty. Needless to say we when we got up we changed the sheets, which were covered in sand as well. Even at 10am the sun and the heat is unforgiving. We would end up sweating from doing something as simple as taking something from out of the van and putting it back in again. We were so happy to have some long showers and shaves (had gone without for 3 days). The holiday park showers are like luxury hotel showers compared to what we've been in.

We made pancakes for breakfast the went to reception to ask what reef trips they could recommend and booked the best one we could afford. We sail out on Thursday as it was fully booked on Wednesday. Sea conditions supposed to be good as well. After that we walked in to town on the hunt for some snorkel gear to use for next time at the beach. After cooking up some more hotdogs on the communal bbqs then walked around nearly all of Cairns and not one bloody shop in the main shopping area sold them! Made us question if we were actually in the gateway to the barrier reef or not!? In the end we found a reasonably priced snorkel and mask at one of the souvenir shops by the marina. We were hoping to get them cheaper which is why we didn't go there first but we were just happy to see them after trekking for an hour or two round town. This made the 15 minute walk back the the holiday park feel triple what it was.

So that brings me up to date on what we've been up to until now. I'm writing this at the holiday park whilst we wait to use the hobs in the camp kitchen. Making Thai green chicken curry tonight! And we are sleeping with the van doors open tonight. It has curtains and we found some mozzie nets we can velcro to the openings. Its been a lot cooler this afternoon as well so fingers crossed for a decent nights sleep!