Fraser Island

Fraser Island

This is the (rather delayed) last blog post on our East Coast Road trip, as sadly we had to drive home after this and go back to work (sob.)

Our last 2 days were spent on Fraser Island, which is a huge sand island that used to be a logging place, and is now a national park. We caught a 4x4 minibus from the mainland to the island (via a ferry, obviously).

It needs to be a 4x4 because the roads are made of sand, and are definately the bumpiest roads in existence.... before this trip, Layth was talking about needing to go to a chiropracter, but after one day he didn't anymore as the bus ride had effectively rearranged his spine.

A highlight was swimming in the clearest river ever... you walk up the river via a boardwalk, then jump in and swim back down it to the beach. It was stunning!

There is a shipwreck on Fraser that was wrecked in a cyclone, then used for Aussie bombing practice in the war - they weren't very good shots as its still there!

We went up in a tiny plane (not sure how I managed to get Layth into it given how terrible he is at flying - he kept gripping the man in front's shoulder and I had to prise his hand off) and flew over the island, taking off and landing on the beach.

There were seats enough for 6 and the pilot, it was tiny! We flew over butterfly lake as well.

So there it is. Very sad that our trip is over, but what a lot we've seen.....

xxxxx Sarah and Layth xxxxx

(PS. And we didn't feel too bad about getting back to "reality", as this was the sunset from our balcony on the night we got home! Bloody spoilt we are!)

Whitsundays to Hervey Bay

Whitsundays to Hervey Bay

Having loitered in the Whitsundays, we had a bit of travelling to make up, so have done about 800km in the last 3 days, but have stopped at lots of places on the way...

First stop after the Whitsundays was MacKay (pronounced Mack-eye). This day we drove out into the Eungella National Park, and drove the poor campervan up the steepest and twisty-est road ever! It was mainly done in first gear, and took forever... All the other vehicles were 4x4s, so potentially it was a little stupid for us to go up in a camper.
The view from the top was worth it though...

After this we went further into the National Park to river called Broken Creek where there are lots of wild turtles and platypi. Saw lots of turtles, including a baby one! We spent a while trying to spot a platypus, but we think they were having a midday nap.

The day after we had breakfast and coffee on the marina in Mackay, then drove down to Rockhampton ("Rocky").

The campsite in Rocky had a resident possum who came over and inspected out barbeque after we had gone to bed.

Monday was mainly spent driving 350km down to Hervey Bay..... we stopped a few times at some very remote places - I had to pee in a roadside shack, which was terrifying and doubtless spider filled. I made Layth wait right by the door in case a spider came to get me!

We also stopped at some lovely very remote beaches... the sea is beautiful green and the beaches are fringed with palms.

Today we are having a reading-books sort of day, then tomorrow we are going to Fraser Island - will post again after that...

xxxxx Sarah and Layth xxxxx

More Whitsundays!

So basically, we didn't want to leave the Whitsundays, because it's basically paradise, so we spent a few more days here.....

Days Ten to Twelve

After a nice couple of days chilling out by the pool at the campsite, we were ready to take on the Whitsundays!
I think the best way to do it if you have a lot of time is charter a sailing boat for a week or so and pootle about, but we didn't have quite that long, and also the outcome of me and Layth being co-in-charge of a boat for a week is more likely to be drowning than anything else. So.

Whilst we were here we did manage to get to quite a few islands -

Daydream island was the first - this one is quite small and is mostly a resort, but has 2 lovely beaches, including lovers cove, which was stunning. They also have a living reef around the resort, so we saw them feeding the manta rays and reef sharks! The beach isn't sand, it's made entirely of bits of coral that have broken off from the Great Barrier Reef and been washed up here.

Next was Hamilton Island where the main criteria for holidaying there seemed to be 1. Have a black AmEx, 2. own a large yacht 3. be very Rah, darling.
The harbour was beautiful, and there were lots of posh art galleries along the harbour side - the photography one particularly good.

Whitsunday Island is the biggest one, I think, and we went right around it, stopping at Whitehaven Bay, where the sand is so fine, and very white against the turquoise sea. Layth made a sandcastle.

Because it's "stinger season" (or Jellyfish season), theres a risk of "excruciating pain and or death" if you get stung by some kinds of jellyfish (why oh why does EVERYTHING in Australia seem to want to kill you all the time?!)..... so we had to wear "stinger suits" which are basically wet suits, with hoods, gloves and socks attatched, and it goes over your chin, so one looks like a ninja. There is photographic evidence, but clearly that is not going on here. Was utterly hilarious when Layth did a sideways "crab dance" in his though. Ludicrous.

Today we went out to the Great Barrier Reef - it was honestly the best thing I have ever done in my life!
We went out on a catamaran to a pontoon on the edge of the reef, then spent about 4 hours there, and despite it being an organised tour, it was pretty relaxed and everyone did their own thing.
The first thing we did there was go in a semi-submersible submarine type affair, which I used mainly as a scoping out tool to see if I could see any scary animals before getting in the water!
They also had a sort of underwater viewing room underneath the pontoon, sort of like a reverse aquarium - there were shoals of fish everywhere!

But by FAR the best bit was snorkelling over the reef.
I was a bit nervous (for obvious australian ocean related reasons), but we got our wetsuits, flippers and masks on, and flapped down to the water.

The pontoon was a little way off the edge of the reef, so you had to swim over a deep water bit to get to the reef, and this bit was a little scary. Too deep to see the bottom, and quite large fish (about a metre long) around and about!

But it was totally worth it. The reef was absolutely stunning. The reef itself was about 1.5metres down, and there were multicolour tropical fish all around you, not just underneath, loads of them! And they weren't scared of people at all, just darted about right up close.
We snorkelled along the very edge of the reef for about 500m - the drop off was straight down into the blue, and went down further than you could see.

Layth did scare me a bit at one point - he sort of grabbed my hand and pointed up, so we both surfaced, and he goes "I've been bit!", at which point I went head down, flippers splashing, back towards the pontoon, save yourselves style...... only to be stopped again by Layth, who then pointed to what can only be described as a sardine - "that fish bit me!". To be fair, it left a mark and everything!

The boat trip back was sunny and stunning, see sunset evidence below.

Tomorrow we are on the road again, will update soon.

xxxxx Sarah and Layth xxxxx

Mission Beach to the Whitsundays

Well hello!

Sorry for radio silence - we didnt want to freak out Mum/Sue..... we had a little issue earlier in the week with a cyclone called Hadi...... we spent most of the end of last week trying to dodge it! Luckily, after some fairly bleak emergency weather warnings, the cyclone headed out east into the sea, so there was just a lot of rain instead of a cyclone.
Learnt a lot of things about cyclones though! One thing we learnt is that, rather disconcertingly, the scale of cyclone severity (ie. 1 to 5, 5 being akin to the apocalypse), seems to grade things on how shit it is for caravans. Inexplicable, and rather unnerving for those of us IN a caravan. Hadi was a grade 2.... "significant damage to caravans". Seriously. Google it if you don't believe us!

But anyway, we came down the coast rather swiftly, from Mission Beach to Airlie Beach in the Whitsundays. See below for details.

Day Four - Mission Beach to Cardwell

We didn't really want to leave Mission Beach, but the cyclone warnings were gettting dire. I was concerned. Layth was not as concerned as he should have been. I bought lots of bottled water and tinned goods. Layth bought a new sun hat. However, we both had a keen eye on the wine situation, and stores were replenished.

On leaving Mission Beach, we ran into our first wild wallabies!!! (not literally ran into. None were killed.) They were just hopping about down the street.

On the drive south, we were driving through the Cassowary coast.... we saw a wild Cassowary too!
Although, all week I had mistaken bush turkeys for Cassowaries. I even called out "here, little Cassowary" to a bloody bush turkey in front of loads of people, who all looked at me a bit odd. Below is a picture of a Cassoway, for those who might also confuse them with turkeys.

Cardwell is lovely, perched on the edge of the sea and looks out to Hinchinbrook Island. We went in a museum about the rainforest, which was very good. The beach was also a beach-combers dream..... although not much green glass, mum, I checked.

Layth wants me to write he had an excellent crab sandwich in Cardwell.


Day Five - Cardwell to Townsville

We hot-footed it down to Townsville the next day in an attempt to keep ahead of the rain. This failed. We were very much in the rain.
Unfortunately for Layth, this meant I managed to persuade him into the local aquarium! Much joy from me on this. I love aquariums. Saw many a sea creature, and this one was my favourite I think.

Day Six - Townsville to Whitsundays

In the morning we sort of moped about in the rain, then went to a museum/gallery. It was quite a good rainy-day activity, the highlight being a cyclone-experience room, that freaked us out even more, so we travelled further down the coast! But also, we put Layth in leg-irons at the museum. That was also fun.

Day Seven and Eight

We arrived in the Whitsundays on an evening when it was pelting it down, and we cowered in the campervan for the first night.

The day after was similarly damp, but we wandered around Airlie Beach like proper Brits with one umbrella and two grimaces. Got this lovely pic when there was a break in the showers though. Even when it's overcast, the sea is beautifully green and clear.

Since then the weather has got better and better, and we spent today shameless relaxing by the pool and reading books - it was fiercely hot today.
We went to a beach cafe and loafed about drinking coffee and eating cheese.

Layth wants me to write that he had a very palatable banana smoothie near Cannonvale Beach.

The sea really was this blue today, its gorgeous!

Tonight we are going to an open air film screening - after we throw another shrimp on the barbie. 

Will blog again soon!

xxxxx Sarah and Layth xxxxx

Innisfail to Mission Beach

Day Three - Innisfail to Mission Beach

So Innisfail was a bit odd - tiny town, odd shops, and hardly any people! We stayed last night on a campsite just outside Innisfail.... when I went for a wee in the night, I counted 9 lizards!

First stop today was Josephine Falls, a waterfall in the Atherton Tablelands. Now, to be fair, I wish we had a photo of it to show you, but as it happened we never actually got to it!

We set off on a "10 minute" walk through the jungle to the falls, clad in our bathing knickers and flip flops.... but 8 minutes in a large green and brown snake slithered across the path just after Layth walked past it - I was behind him on the trail. Then there was a stand-off in the middle of this deserted jungle whilst we worked out whether to go forwards or backwards. Not sure what type of snake it was, but it was green and brown about a metre and a half long (too long). It was at about this point that we remembered we actually aren't adventurous people, and turned back!
We had a cup of tea and did a crossword in the campervan to calm down. Joking. We just hid in the campervan.
We also went to a place called "Golden Hole", but this turned out to be code for "Crocodile Infested Hole", so this was also a bit of a non starter.

After these abortive attempts to enjoy ourselves, we went to the beautiful Peronella Park, which was stunning. Its a ruin of a small castle by a waterfall that some mad Spaniard built in 1920, which has been steadily reclaimed by the jungle.

Also we fed some wild turtles here!

Layth wants me to write that he also had a lovely banana ice cream at Peronella Park.

We moved south after the Park, and are now staying the night in Mission Beach. (We decided to skip Murdering Point, for fairly obvious reasons, especially given that Australians seem to be rather literal in their naming of things, eg. "Reasonable Look Out", and "Best of all Lookout").
Mission Beach is beautiful, and we might stay here a couple of days.... will keep you updated!

And these last two photos are in case you've forgotten what we look like!

xxxxx Sarah and Layth xxxxx

East Coast Road Trip - Daintree to Kuranda

Hello!

 So we are off on a road trip - and remembered that we have this blog, and thought we would write about our trip on here so people at home can see what we've been up to! We flew to Cairns from the Gold Coast on Monday, and picked up a campervan from a tiny place on the outskirts of Cairns - its a high top and although small is pretty comfy!



DAY ONE - Mossman Gorge, Daintree National Park and hunting for crocs!

On our first full day we drove north from Cairns into the Daintree National Park. This area is super tropical - we were in the rainforest most of the day.... Cairns is in a valley, and all around it are massive fields of sugar cane, then the mountains just rise up from the plains into the clouds. The cloud is low lying and dense - we drove through some of it. The mountains are densely covered with rainforest - its like an enormous Eden Project! Its very hot and humid, and the weather changes very quickly from tipping it down to bright sunshine. We went to Mossman Gorge, and walked through the rainforest to a river, which had the clearest water I've ever seen, then drove further into the national park to Daintree - we went over a tiny car ferry into the rainforest again.





The other thing we did was a boat trip up the Daintree river to look for crocodiles - we found three! One was an adult, 3 metres long, on the bank, about 4 metres from the boat.... first crocodile in the wild! We also saw 2 baby crocodiles about 1 year old sitting on logs. You start getting a bit paranoid and assume every log is a crocodile (or croco-log) (or logo-dile).



DAY TWO - Kuranda and Barron Falls

Today we went to Kuranda which is an Aboriginal village in the rainforest just east of Cairns. It started out as a place where Aboriginal people sold traditional items to tourists, and it was quite touristy. Lots of digeridoo's, boomerangs and "authentic Aboriginal art/baseball caps". But the old market was beautiful, little winding streets with rainforest all around. Layth wants me to write that he also had a good club sandwich in Kuranda.

 After this, we drove to Barron Falls, which is at the top of a huge gorge, and it was very pretty.... it was raining lots here!

And thats it so far! But we'll keep you updated, a long way from home.....

xxxxx Sarah and Layth xxxxx