4/11/01

At last we have photos to show you all. Last stop was Byron Bay and from there we went up into the hills to climb Mt Warning, which turned out to be quite a trek through rainforest and then up a very steep rock face to reach the summit.


It was a good fun walk, but when we reached the top the view was covered by clouds, however, we were able to see a cool little creature called a bandicoot. From there we drove to Surfers Paradise which was scary as hell, because we had spent so much time in lovely quiet places and Surfers is just loads of high-rise buildings with a huge party scene. We didn't party, so as soon as dawn broke we legged it to Noosa. Well not straight to Noosa, because of course we had to stop in Wet N' Wild - Caroline is a water park fiend!
Noosa is the rich man's Byron Bay, with the most beautiful houses, plus it is a real surfing mecca with about six points that produce really clean waves, and of course there are always dolphins at play. We stayed in two campsites one out of town and another in the bush - in fact to get there we had to drive through a bush fire.


This bush campsite was called Gagaju. It claimed to have cheap campsites and really cool activities such as Cane Toad golf (One that I am sure Vinnie would love) it is not too humane, but hey, they are a real pest out here. It turned out the the place had just changed hands and the new owner was as tight as you can get and charged us $24 for a campsite which is madness.
This picture is from the mudbaths nearby, which were freezing and also located in the middle of a quarry. It was very strange.

So we left there smartish after one night and started to make our way up to Hervey Bay, the gateway to Fraser Island. En route we stopped in a few National Parks because they are very cheap to camp in and in one of them we were met by seven kookaburras. These are really cool birds for those who don't know. They were letting Caroline feed them by hand and me photograph them, and seeing as I do not have a zoom you can imagine how close we got to get these pictures.


Hervey Bay was super cool, we turned up filthy because we had not seen a shower in a couple of days and we were delighted to sleep in a room as opposed to the Van. We were put into a group of 9 for our Fraser Island trip and the next day we picked up our 4X4 and off we went to the sand island. We spent 3 days and 2 nights on Fraser and we loved it. The group we were with was great, 2 cool Canadians, 2 Dutch, 2 British lads and a Scotsman who was very cool. The roads are unbelievable, we got stuck a few times and one night we thought that the jeep was going to be in the sea. The only place that you can drive comfortably was on the beach, which had it hazards. Namely the washouts, that are formed by small streams, you are supposed to check the height and if it over the knee then it is a no go, but at 90km an hour on soft sand it is a little hard to stop in time. All in all it was great , we floated down streams, swam in champagne pools and crystal clear lakes, slept under the stars and played on wrecked ships. Unfortunately we did not see even one dingo, but we did see whales, one of which was just beneathe the cliff we were standing on, tiger sharks, seals and turtles.
In our "slightly" cramped quarters


From Hervey Bay we went to Airlie Beach stopping a few times on the way, the only place that is of interest is Dingo a farm, which we went seriously out of our way to get to. We were going there because Caroline wanted to do something special for her father's birthday, enough said for the mo'. It is really in the middle of nowhere so we thought that it would be unspoilt - not a chance. This place is on the Oz Experience bus route so the day we left 160 other tourists turned up, and it turned out that this place was seriously expensive. So we moved on from there seriously miffed.
Airlie Beach was a great place, it is the port for the boats that sail around the Whitsunday Islands. We were on a great boat call New Horizon with 30 other people who all seemed great especially two lads call Jessie and Paul, who have since been charged with disorderly conduct and obstructing the police here in Cairns, but that is another story. The islands were beautiful with great beaches and some of the best coral that we have seen. We did another dive here and this time we did not have guide so we were a little scared at first but soon got really into the freedom. The kit they gave us was pants though, my mask let water in and fogged up all the time, so we decided not to go for the night dive option.


Townsville was our next destination with the usual National Parks in between where once again we met some very friendly animals. One night we came across a wallaby with her joey who was following her around. She came right up to me as I was reading and put her paws, or whatever they have, on my legs and I put my hand on her chest and the joey just dived head first into her pouch as I was holding her it was amazing. After that her kangaroo friend tried to get onto the bed with me as Caroline was cooking (see photo below), all in all the National Parks are amazing.


At Townsville we had intended to dive a wreck but, alas it was over our budget so we had to move on, poor us. It was at this point that I started to worry about us being able to sell the van, and when we driving along CRACK and nice big stone hit the windscreen. So that really got the two of us going because the crack began to spread across the glass. It was at this point that we decided that we would need quite some time to sell the Van in Cairns. On the way to Cairns we were able to stop at some really cool waterfalls one of which is the largest single drop in Australia.


When we arrived in Cairns we were amazed at how small the place was and at the number of digeridoo shops that there are. I think for every local there is, there are four didge shops. Anyway we booked into a campsite and I started the arduous task of cleaning the Van and sorting out the inside. Caroline was unable to help because she was suffering from quite a nasty chest infection which has since cleared up nicely. It took a whole day to get the Van looking pristine, we had bought some serious polishing products that were meant to clean off tar and old bugs, and after 3 hours of polishing the Van looked new. Caroline designed a cool poster and the next day 15 of them were put up around Cairns, in all the internet cafes and hostels. We are still getting phone calls two weeks later and we sold the van on the second day of the posters getting put up. I knew when I got the phone call from Remo that he was the buyer, I think the fact that he said he was staying in the All Season Hotel ($140 a night) gave away the fact that he was minted. Him and Marco, his friend took it for a short drive and then bought it there and then and they didn't even haggle for it. Being the sucker that I am though I took 300 bucks off the price because we kept the surfboard and the boogie board. So all in all the Van did us proud it took us over 15,000km and left us with more money than we thought in the end. If we could have afforded it though we would have ship it over to Europe because it was a beaut. Below are the last photos of Beast the Van.


So we have been in Cairns for over 2 weeks now and what have we done. Not much to tell you the truth, directly after selling the Van we went mad and shopped. I bought a watch (sorry Mum and Dad, but I just had to) and Caroline bought some really cool snowboarding gear that was dirt cheap because obviously there is no snow up here and they had to get rid of it. Then after that shock we decided not to spend a penny until Arran, Caroline's sister arrived from Fiji. So for nearly 2 weeks we sat by the pool, reading and walking around cheesey shops trying to find typically Australian things to bring home. Arran has arrived now and we have started doing tours, the first of which was to Green Island which was amazing. We never thought that there would be a place that could beat Lizard Island on the snorkelling front, but his place did. The fish there were amazing, and when I say fish I mean the big ones. We saw parrot fish that were 2 foot long, a trevally, a cool 4 foot White Tipped Reef Shark and a school of around 20 Sweet Lips that let me dive down and swim amongst them.

And here are a few pictures from some of our rainforest walks
Me looking moody for some reason - I wasn't!


And one from our day out in a koala sanctuary with Carl and Fausta


And of course the obligatory crocodile farm

And the barbeque in Rosies




Perth   From Perth to Sydney   Sydney   Lizard Island   Sydney to Byron Bay