Noosa, Fraser Island and Australia Zoo

Hey guys, I know it's been a while. Sorry for not posting sooner. Among a combination of island trips, poor signal, no battery and having to rewrite everything (blogger didn't save the posts) I've just about got round to catching up with things. Ive split these weeks into two posts. Scroll down to the next post to catch up from where I left off!

Sunday 20th October 

Lazy lie in and then just a day of driving really. I drove us through Rockhampton and on to Gladstone. Not much in either of those cities from what we saw. Stayed at a camp spot just south of Gladstone.

Monday 21st

Skyped with family. Great connection on Skype and happy to see their faces! 

We booked a Fraser Island tour trip (v excited for that) and now we have a deadline to be in Noosa (where the trip departs). We washed and cleaned van, sorted stuff out for most of the morning then drove as far as we could south towards Fraser Island and Noosa. Stayed at small camp area in the town of Tiaro.

Tuesday 22nd

Drove to Tin Can Bay and Rainbow Beach which is actually the place where you get the ferry to Fraser island. it just so happened that our trip departs from Noosa as it includes two nights accommodation at a hostel there either side of the trip.

We had lunch at Tin Can Bay, not much of a beach there but nonetheless a nice shoreline with lots of greenery and views out to other peninsulas. The scenery en route to these places was pretty nice. Road to coast was high altitude and overlooks mountains and national parks. Lush vegetation and trees as far as the eye could see.

Rainbow beach was nice! Long long beach stretching very far with massive dunes and rocks. Plenty of steps down from the town before you could get on the sand. There were a lot of 4x4s driving up and down which got us excited for our Fraser trip as that's how we would be getting around the island (they let you take it in turns to drive on the sand).

Rainbow beach, north

I told Tom it would be a good photo opportunity to get him doing a front flip off of one of the rocks on e beach which he completed with ease. He was feeling a little more acrobatic than usual and decided to go up a sand bank and try to backflip all the way down it. This sand bank had a pretty steep gradient to it (to the point where I wasn't comfortable even climbing up it, let alone back flipping down it. I got some good pictures of him while I stood at the bottom. He was up there for about 10 mins. I eventually decided to move from my cowardly position and climb a bit of the bank to get a picture of him at a different angle, looking out to sea. Within 1 minute of me getting up there and striding to a new vantage point I saw a snake shoot out of the sand next to my leg. It bit my ankle...

Snake bite!

...It came out of nowhere and I quickly started to realise I could be up shit creek without a paddle here, as the Aussies would say. Fortunately the snake, which was very thin and not long at all, had slithered a little further and stopped in the sand. Firstly, I did the right thing by taking pictures of it (so it could be identified) but then completely forgot about having to stay put and apply pressure. There wasn't really an obvious bite mark on my ankle but I had to get off the bank. I told Tom (who didn't believe me) and I walked down back on to the beach, had a closer look, then naively decided for myself that I wasn't in any trouble. It wasn't hurting, I didn't feel faint or sick and there was no marks or patches. 

It was a half hour walk back to the town of rainbow beach and I went to ask someone at the nearest place if they had any poisonous snakes around here and told her what had happened. She looked at me in shock and drew me a diagram showing the way to the local doctors practice. Bugger!

When we got there the receptionist was getting ready to close the surgery and to my disbelief didn't even seem to care when I told her I'd been bitten by a snake. When she finally agreed I should be examined the doctor was just as rude and miserable! He had a look, did some tests, checked blood pressure etc and determined that I wasn't in any danger at all despite not being able to identify the snake from my pictures. In fact he said if I was in any danger then I'd probably be unconscious or frothing at the mouth by now, in a playful but at the same time still deadly serious tone.

Basically I think the snake wasn't able to bite me properly, if that makes sense. It went for my ankle where the skin is harder and tougher to penetrate. Maybe  only a passing strike as well as it shot out so quick. Consequently the doc said that there were no signs of venomation so fortunately the snake hadn't been able to inject any poison. Some people up there are watching out for me I think :)

The examination, which lasted less than 10 mins, cost me $30! Which hopefully I can claim back. I made sure I got a slip with diagnosis and signature. So now I have paper  proof that I survived a snake attack! He told me take it easy and get some rest tonight, and no drinking. No problem. I know I was very lucky there and hopefully that will be my only run in with deadly animals. Fingers crossed.

The scene of the incident. Somewhere up on that dune 

We stayed the night at Standown caravan park just south of Tin Can bay. It was a great park with nice owners (who initially created the park for war veterans).  Plenty of nice facilities and a massive kitchen and cooking area, complete with dart board and hoop throwing hooks. We chilled out and rested. At one point I thought I was going dizzy and lightheaded but it was probably because I was hungry and had a headache. Funny how your mind plays tricks when it senses fear or danger.

Wednesday 23rd

Drove from campsite to Noosaville and checked out the town. Noosaville (Noosa for short) is apparently a very popular choice for when Aussies go on their holidays and it didn't disappoint. Very stylish but quaint beachside resort town with plenty to see and do. Loads of posh riverside houses and yachts. Plenty of money here! We really liked it but you wouldn't really want to live here - as well as being quite cut off still,  it's way too touristy and full of backpackers and holidaymakers.

Thursday 24th

Up at 7 to get shuttle bus from Noosa back up to Rainbow Beach. Fraser island here we come!

We were in a group of 15 people and picked up 2 4x4s (toyota land cruisers) from Rainbow Beach (by the way, rainbow beach is not named because there was a rainbow over the beach at the time but because the cliffs have so many layers of rock, they appear colourful and therefore linked to the rainbow in that sense). Our tour guide drove one car with 7 passengers and we took on turns to drive our car which also seated 8. 

We boarded the ferry and crossed the sea at Inskip point onto Fraser Island (only 10 minute journey).

After some dusty track driving inland we burst out of the dunes and drove up 75 Mile Beach - the main beach which runs along Fraser Island (yes that is the actual name of the beach and yes it is actually 75miles long). Fraser is the largest sand island in the world! The beach is the motorway here.

An hours drive later and we stopped and had lunch at the main 'town' on the island. We then drove inland on an extremely bumpy sand road to lake Mckenzie for swimming and sunbathing. Never experienced 4x4 driving like this before. Head banging the roof literally every few seconds! Our front bumper actually came off and had to be strapped up with rope. Good fun though. Tom drove us back to the beach and then further north to our camp point where we chilled out, bought booze and had spag bol for tea, which our Aussie tour guide kindly cooked up for us. Spent the night drinking and chatting with the rest if the group. Great day!

Lake Mckenzie 

Can just about see rainbow effect in rock, similar to that of Rainbow beach

Friday 25th

Up at 6 and after getting ready I drove the group down the beach to the famous Maheno Shipwreck which was pretty impressive. Best wreck I've seen. I then drove further to Eli creek which is a natural freshwater spring and river system, only a few metres wide with a slow current. So it would best be described as a natural lazy river, which eventually spills out onto the beach. The aborigines believed that if you drink the water from Eli creek you will be blessed with good fortune. So I had three handfuls and prayed I wouldn't get bitten by another snake. A graduate job would be nice too! 

In the afternoon we all went on a walk inland from our camp spot up to some huge, never ending sand dunes. What a landscape! Vast dunes and trees with the sea for the backdrop. Like a tropical desert by the sea!

BBQ for tea and drinking into the night with our group. Nice to change to have a small group as opposed to the boat trip. Much easier to get to know everybody properly. There was only one other English girl and the rest were French, German and Swedish.

Tropical desert

Saturday 26th

Up early again and spent morning chilling and checking out Indian Head look out and the Champagne Pools. Weather quite poor today and water temp at Champagne 

Pools was not at all inviting which was a real shame. Spent afternoon having fun in Lake Wabi (much more inviting) after a long hike inland through thick bushland and more sand dunes! Then a long drive back down the beach, caught the ferry back to mainland, watched our tour guide blow a tyre then helped him fit a new one. 1 hour shuttle ride back to Noosa. Checked into Nomads hostel again, got showered and went to the pub with our Fraser group then went out into Noosa later on. Didn't stay out too long but had a good time!

All over so quickly! Best part of the trip so far though!

75 mile beach south

75 mile beach north

Drink stop

Lake Wabi

Swimming in Wabi

Group photo

Changing the blown tyre

Inskip point

On the ferry... Some vehicles were slightly more equipped than our modest land cruisers

Sunday 27th

Spent most of the afternoon walking round Noosa national park until it went dark (we got caught out again by the the pitch black at 7pm. Beautiful national park though. The coastal walk is spectacular. Really enjoyed ourselves, apart from me crapping myself every time I walked on a leafy path thinking that every twig or branch is a snake. They look so snakelike it's unnerving!

Went back to Nomads that night and cheekily parked and slept in our van in the same place it had been stored while we were on Fraser. Changed the date on our parking permit. Nobody noticed. The whole place is run by backpackers anyways!

Monday 28th

We liked the Noosa National Park that much we decided to go back and walk all the trails and hikes. Also walked the whole coastal path which wraps around the park, climbing on the rocks and exploring the hidden coves and beaches. The waves were powerful and large. When they hit the rocks the sound was incredible and the spray was huge! 

The areas around the coast weren't named, devils kitchen, hells gates and witch's cauldron for nothing! 

We reckon we clocked up about 30km walking around the park - finally some decent exercise!

Late afternoon we left Noosa and drove a little further south along the coastline to Coolum beach where we luckily spotted a park area with bbqs and toilets. Just off the beach too. Weren't any restrictions so slept there for the night.

Noosa National Park coastal path - I don't own this image I just love it!

Tuesday 29th

Spent morning cooking breakfast on the bbqs and had a tough workout on the exercise machines in the park. With the sun beating down on your back while doing it was like a form of torture. as you'd imagine we were very sweaty when we'd finished and had to use the cold shower in the park until we found an enclosed one to have a proper wash in! Never has a cold shower felt so refreshing.

After lunch we decided to check out the beach (path through a bank of thick trees). It was a nice beach with white-ish sand but we noticed there was not a single person sunbathing. We soon learned why after we laid our aged tartan beach mat on the sand. It was because you physically could not lie on it thanks to the strong and relentless cross shore winds sandblasting fine sand into every crease on our skin - just after we'd put on more sun cream as well. It was awful! And such a pain to get off! In fact I didn't come off, it was impossible to remove it all without spending 10 mins in the shower. Which we didn't want to use again so soon so we retreated to the park and sunbathed on the grass before moving on to what would be our next stop for the night.

That stop was a little rest area just off Steve Irwin Way (very basic facilities but we managed as usual). Upon arrival we were offered some free pineapple from two French-Canadian girls who said they had been given loads of it by an australian they had met earlier. Lovely! We cooked tea together with them and then they offered as almost half of their pasta as they had made too much. Not to be rude of course, we ate every last bit of spaghetti and thanked them. That night we had a huge thunderstorm (it started while we were cooking actually, and we were surrounded by trees in a stone enclosure with a tin roof!). First storm in Australia and one of the few times we've encountered rain during the day, or early evening in this case. I've never seen lightning like that before, it was a great storm with long forks of lighting - vertical, horizontal and diagonal - sometimes lasting for a second or two lighting up the whole sky! Tried to get a video but it was too dark to pick anything decent up on my iPad camera.

Wednesday 30th

Crikey! Australia Zoo! 

While we didn't plan on going or actually realised how close we were to Australia Zoo we decided to pay the $60 admission fee and hope that it would be worth it. Fortunately it was and we had a really great day there! We liked the set up and how it was 90% animal species only found in Australia and couldn't help laugh thinking about what the zoos would contain back home if they adopted the same principle. 

We saw all the iconic animals you'd expect, plus a few surprises like the baby tiger cubs which had just arrived at the zoo. We saw the bird and croc show at the 'Crocoseum' (love it) and got to hang out close and personal with the koalas and roo's. Plus we had a lil' ripper of a burger at the food court. It was a chicken burger loaded with lettuce, onion, tomato cucumber, red pepper, cheese, mushroom, pineapple, beetroot and garlic aioli. Not quite a  gourmet burger from wetherspoons but it was delicious!

After the zoo we met up with the Canadians again at a truck stop in the town of Burpengary where we bridged a canopy between our two vans (raining) and cooked dinner.

Kanga poser

No respect for privacy

The cutest thing!

*Not a real panda*

This is how Tom lies when he's sleeping

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!