Week 4 - Airlie Beach to Rockhampton

Day 21

Our last day sailing, we started the day snorkelling a massive soft coral field with a cute little green turtle.  From there, we slowly headed back to Airlie while admiring the incredible views of various Whitsunday Islands.  It really was an amazing trip, and such a joyful group of people to experience this with.

Back on dry land, we were utterly exhausted.  The late night conversations and early morning snorkelling really knocked the stuffing out of us! We had so many plans for the afternoon, but postponed them in favor of sleep.  Sailing is exhausting!

Day 22

All of our time in Airlie Beach so far has been spent either booking trips or sailing. Now that everything serious had been dealt with, it was time to actually relax and enjoy the town! Airlie beach is full of shops and bars, so there is plenty to do and see.   We spent the morning walking through town and window shopping all the creative and nifty stores. From there we made a delicious homemade coffee, and headed to the lagoon.

Having spent several months in Australia, I have begun to realize that having a lagoon is what really seperates a city from a town, and Aussies take their lagoons incredibly seriously.  Airlie Beach has neither raised or lowered the bar with their spacious and deep lagoon. Not as lovely as Cairns certainly, but definitely a place made for spending an afternoon reading and cooking delicious grub.  So, in an effort to fit in with the locals, we spent the afternoon doing just that!  One delicious meal of Coconut Cream and Veal pasta later (mmmhhhhh), we had just enough sunlight for one last chapter before heading back to our campsite for the night.  

Day 23

Today was a work day.  Not the most glamourous thing, but hey, I got bills to pay.  

We went to Happy Travels to spend the day working and charging up devices.  If there is one thing I have experience with after 8 months, it is taking advantage of the various points where you can get a free charge and some wifi.  Pro Tip: Happy Travels offer both unlimited plug-ins and fast wifi.  Take advantage of it!

We spent all day in that little electronic paradise, editing photos and finishing up work that needed to get done.  From there, we got ready for our big next day!  Outer Reef time!

Day 24

Cairns is considered the best spot to access the Great Barrier Reef, which at the time we had every intention of doing.  We did go to Green Island which is technically on the reef, and were surrounded by beautiful fish and turtles there.  Green Island got us incredibly excited for our trip to the outer reef… until we went to Fitzroy island a couple weeks later.

Another island on the reef, Fitzroy is known to have some of the absolute best island snorkelling on the reef.  Except.... It wasn’t.  It was dead.  Walking Fitzroy was one of the most disheartening things I have ever experienced, an snorkelling it was even worse.  Everything was just white.  

Maybe saying it was dead was a slight exaggeration.  After talking to several locals on the matter, apparently coral can go white without dying, and it does during intense hot/dry spells.  Cairns had been through an incredibly long and hot summer, and as such there was rumoured to be a lot of color loss in that region of the Reef.  We decided not to snorkel around there, but rather saved our Outer Reef trip for farther south.

Which brings us to today; Outer Reef trip day!  We were incredibly pumped to finally get to visit the magnificent corals, colours, and fish!

I wrote way too much about this, so I decided to make it it's own post.  Check out my in-depth review of the Outer Reef trip here!

Day 25

Back in Airlie beach, we abused Happy Travels one more time to get some work done, then headed to our campsite for a nice, well deserved rest.  Snorkelling really knocks the stuffing out of you!

I should let you know, the next week or so gets pretty boring, but it’s not my fault! You see, Australia is a weird country. They have these beautiful, lush coastlines that are rich with forests and people, while the middle of the country is barren desert.  So travellers tend to stick to the coastlines.  Moreover, they tend to stick to the East Coast for some unknown reason (ahem, extensive marketing). Because of this, most of the East Coast has been built up as a tourist destination, with tons of hostels and town esplenades.  But these tourist areas are like any business, and they typically form in one area due to market forces.   So you have patches of beautiful tourist area with long stretches of emptiness in between. I tell you this because for the next week we will be in an empty patch.  But don’t worry! I’ll find some stories...  

Day 26

We camped last night just north of a city named Mckay, so we spent today in the city exploring.  The Mckay itself was nothing too exciting or special, but I still had a lovely and friendly vibe to it. They have a massive arts a cultural centre that was unfortunately closed, but we spent some time at the library next door admiring the architecture, enjoying the air conditioning, and napping on cushy chair.  From there we went to the Mckay lagoon.  Of all the lagoons we have seen so far, I think this one was the most beautiful, with three levels, a slide, and a freaking waterfall.  All provided for free. Seriously.

We then headed to the information center to see what else there was to do in the area.  Turns out there wasn’t much. So we decided to drive straight through to Rockhampton, a drive that ended up being very long and difficult.  

It is roughly 347 kilometers between Rockhampton and Mckay, with no gas stations enroute.  Our van has a 40 litre tank with the capacity to go roughly 320 kms on one tank.  Basically we couldn’t make it straight to Rockhampton using the theoretical limits of our tank. We had no clue that there wasn’t gas enroute between Rockie and Mckay, as there was no warning or anything.  So it was only by chance that we decided to top up the tank in Mckay, and then we headed out on what should have been an absolutely horrible and dangerous trip.

As we drove along, we started to leave the lush rainforest area of Northern Quensland, and entered the dry-er and redder southern portion. The transistion was realy apparent the farther we drove, and it was cool to be able to see how abruptly it changed. It was a very pleasant drive.  And then the sun set.  And we realized we had a problem.  

The fuel guage was showing a quarter of a tank, but the signs were showing Rockhampton to be 200 kms out, it was pitch black, and we were beginning to freak out.  Instantly I started doing the math that I should have done earlier, and I came to the conclusion that we just weren’t making it.  Hands clutching the steering wheel, knuckles turning white, I watched as the fuel guage went from a quarter tank, to a 16th, to empty.  The light went on, but we were still 20 kms out; essentially doomed.  Yet we continued plugged along, attempting to preserve gas as best as possible.  Finally, despite all odds, we saw the lights of Rockhampton at the bottom of the hill, just as I could feel the engine puttering out of gas.  Clutch in, we rolled down that hill before perfectly sliding into a stop at a Caltex Gas Station.  Despite all odds (and basic math), we made it.  The van has a 40 litre tank, and at that gas station we put 39.8 litres in.  Running dry, but we made it.

Day 27

We woke up in a campground just north of Rockhampton, and started the day off with a walk near Edna caves.  Unfortunately you weren’t allowed to actually go into the caves, so instead we walked outside before driving to the capricorn caves.  Here you were allowed to go into the caves, just for a significant fee.  Being the broke backpackers we are, we decided to skip this particular attraction and head into the city itself to see what there was to see.  

Rockie(hampton) is the Cow capital of Australia, kind of the Alberta to Australia’s Canada.  So most of the attractions in town were cow related, and honestly I felt like I could get all of that back home. So we chose to skip all cow attractions, and tried to find some other things to do for the day.  We finally settled on the Rockhampton zoo, which turned out to be an amazing decision.  

First off, the Rockhampton Zoo is 100% free. Which is amazing for a zoo. Secondly it has an amzaing layout, set right beside the beautiful Botanic Gardens, and showcasing the animals in a way that felt spacious, freindly, and natural.  The zoo features stunning birds (including a brightly coloured Cassowary), adorable locals (Roos, Koalas, Wombats, Emus, Crocs, the lot.), and monkeys that unfortunately were packed away for the day.  And oh yeah, we saw our first dingos which was so cool!  So I highly reccomend that zoo to absolutely everyone, as it was so amazing!

From the zoo we explored more of Rockhampton, but there was ultimately nothing of note in the city so I won’t describe them here.  Late that afternoon we pressed on to our campsite in the town of Calliope, just south of Rockhampton.  We stopped at a beautiful site overhanging a river, and had a pleasant evening eavesdropping on the beautiful music made by some nearby hippies.  I miss playing music!

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Week 3: Magnetic Island - Airlie Beach

**My apologies, but I don't currently have sufficient wifi to upload pictures! Will put them up ASAP.  Check back soon!

Day 15

I wish I could start this week off with some incredible story of grandiose adventure, but in reality we had finally succumbed to the beast that is Magnetic Island. On the 7th (technically 15th) day, we rested. And we rested hard. We’re talking naps in the hammock, naps by the pool, naps in the pool, and naps at the bar by the pool. We rested freaking hard.

Day 16

The night before we had been playing cards with a couple backpackers, when we had the brilliant idea to wake up at 5 am to watch the sunrise in a secluded bay. It’s incredible how good ideas can seem the night before, but the reality of a 5 am wakeup after a night of laughter and cards is much different from the jovial walk pictured the night before. Still, with plenty of yawns and grouchy mutterings, we walked off to find our secluded sunrise bay. The walk itself was an incredibly lengthy climb over steep terrain with zero natural lighting, resulting in plenty of stubbed toes and scraped shins. As we walked along, we were actually fortunate enough to see a beautiful Echidna half burrowed into a hole in a rock. The aussie in our group began to tell us about ways to pick up an Echidna, however we decided to leave it in piece and simply take photos and memories.

Eventually we arrived at our sunrise destination, and witnessed the arrival of the glorious Sun King on His blazing throne. It was a sobering reminder of what exactly travelling is about: the journey itself. Because as beautiful as that sunrise was, no rational person could ever equate it with the effort it took to walk the several miles in the dark. The highlight of that experience was definitely not the sunrise, but rather the walk, the discoveries, the getting lost, and the finding our way again.

Upon arrival back to the hostel, I felt quite ill and decided to rest in bed for a couple hours while Caroline went off for a second walk. She did the Forts walk, and managed to spot herself a wild Koala! Lucky duck! After she returned, we both began to feel the spell of the island start to work it’s magic again, and decided it was time to move on from that place. We hopped the next ferry, and travelled back to Townsville. (Fun Fact: we have used wifi all across both this country, and New Zealand, and the fastest wifi BY FAR as on the darn ferry. Funny, huh?)

After arriving in Townsville, we were driving back to our campsite when we heard a ruckus by the side of the road. We stopped to check out what it was, and came across a massive drum circle. So, at 10:00 PM we did the only logical thing, grabbed one of the drums, and started pounding away. We stayed for a couple hours partying with the Townsville drum circle group, and had such an amazing time in support of Ecuador Earthquake Relief.

Day 17

The magical spell of the Island now lifted, we realised how much time we had lost and immediately began preparations for the next leg of our journey: Airlie Beach. This involved over-priced laundromats and coffee shops, as we refuelled, cleaned, and reconnected to the world through the magical internet for the first time in a long while. I have never been a huge fan of social media, but I have to say travelling without it would be incredibly lonely and difficult.

After leaving Townsville, we headed south to Airlie Beach, passing through the town of Home Hill. We knew there was a campsite here, but had no intention of stopping; that is until we saw the free campsite offered by the town. Most free campsites in Australia are dingy and dirty, with toilets covered in spiders and undrinkable tap water. Home Hill offered a pristine, beautiful campsite with clean bbqs, plenty of space, and free (yes, free) hot showers. Basically paradise on earth. We stopped here for the night, watched some tv, cooked hotdogs, and had a peaceful/relaxing night.

Day 18

We woke up and immediately went into driving. I have to warn you, we are working with some pretty serious time restraints here, and as such can’t stop everywhere. Also, unlike NZ where all of the exciting stuff is minutes apart, there is a lot of driving in Oz. Basically, this boils down to the simply fact that the next few weeks might contain a lot of sitting around and a lot of driving. Because Townsville to Hervey Bay isn’t jam-packed with things to do. But I’ll get to that a little later.

Anyways, we drove for several hours before arriving in Airlie Beach in the mid-afternoon. The only exciting thing that happened on this particular drive was that we passed a giant mango. It’s gonna get a little bit boring, okay?

Arriving in Airlie Beach, I was immediately struck by how backpacker-y everything was. Kind of like Queenstown, NZ, this place struck me as a town set up purely to make money off of backpackers and tourists. I think there is a huge difference between a tourist town (like Banff and Cairns, where tourism is a very large part of their profit, but the town exists for other things as well) and a backpacker town, where everything is designed to give the impression of perfection, but is really all just fake to entice poor backpackers into over-drinking at bars and spending thousands on tours. I noticed all this rather quickly, and yet we still managed to fall into the trap!

Airlie beach is the gateway to the Whitsundays; beautiful, tropical islands with flowing sands and gorgeous coral. And we couldn’t not go, right? After several hours pestering a tour guide for better deals, we finally bought a couple tours and caved into the backpacker trap. Satisfied with our purchases, we headed to a far off truckstop/campsite.

Day 19

In the blink of an eye, we were on a boat.

It’s funny how over-used that expression is, and yet when you wake up at 5 am to catch an early morning boat, it really does feel like the blink of a half-asleep, bleary eye. Why were we so suddenly thrust upon a boat, you ask? Let me explain.

Throughout our trip I feel like we have been slaves to the poor weather; always getting the timing wrong, or having to wait for sunnier skies. When we rolled into Airlie, we did a quick weather check only to realise that weather was once again not in our favour. The next few days were a mixture of heavy rain, and even heavier rain. Except we noticed that tomorrow (today) was sunny, and despite not making a decision until 7 the night before, we booked for first thing in the morning.

So that is why we were driving to the Marina at a ridiculous hour in the morning, and boarding before we even knew what was happening. The stinking weather.

The boat was called the Mandrake, and I have decided to dedicate an entire post to this trip, so I won’t go into every gory detail here (nor show many pictures). However, I will give you a general overview of what we did. On this day, we simply sailed to our first anchorage in Hook Island. The sailing itself was epic. Amazing. Exhilarating. It reminded me that I freaking love sailing. There was a storm brewing to one side, and the winds were so strong the boat almost keeled over. It was epic. We slept that night in a calm anchorage point under the stars, protected on all sides by the steep mountain slopes of Hook Island.

Day 20

We woke up incredibly early, and immediately set sail (I drove the boat. No big deal. (TOTALLY A BIG DEAL IT WAS AWESOME)). We sailed to the beautiful, world famous Whitehaven Beach. It was incredible, and exactly like all of the photos (which is rare). We saw massive stingrays and a couple sneaky sharks.

From Whitehaven we sailed up to the northernmost island: Hayman Island. Here we went snorkelling twice, and it was the best snorkelling yet! We saw so many giant fish, and I even saw a cuttlefish/squid/IDontKnowWhatItWas. We anchored where we snorkelled, and spent another evening on the boat.

Day 21

Our last day sailing, we started the day snorkelling a massive soft coral field with a cute little green turtle. From there, we started heading back to Airlie slowly while admiring the incredible views and islands. It really was an amazing trip, and such a joyful group of people to experience this with.

Back on dry land, we were utterly exhausted. The late night conversations and early morning snorkelling really knocked the stuffing out of us! We had so many plans for the afternoon, but postponed them in favour of sleep. Sailing is exhausting!

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Top 7 free things to do in Cairns

Way up in the far reaches of North Queensland, there lies a tiny slice of paradise named Cairns, surrounded by lush, tropical forest and stunning reef.  We spent almost two months living in Cairns, and after we left I immediately wanted to go back.  Yeah, it's that good!

Cairns is home to roughly 60,000 people, and is equipped with amazing free activities for any interest!  Honestly, everyone in the city is incredibly friendly, and the vibe is that of total relaxation and chill. The following is a list of things, in no particular order, that I absolutely loved to do during our time in Cairns.


1. Night Markets

Located right in the heart of the esplanade shopping area, the night markets are just as they sound: touristy shops bustling with sales and cheap t-shirts.  Typically I am not a fan of more touristy areas, however you can forgive the tourist nature when it comes to the Markets, because the selection and range of merch you can buy is amazing.  There is your typical Australian souvienirs (boomerangs, T-shirts, jewellery, etc.) but also some really cool things like hand-spun turkish towels and gorgeous glass artwork blown right in front of your eyes.  The Night Markets are definitely a Cairns must-see, if only to get a quick massage ;).

2. The Lagoon

Another touristy area, the lagoon is a beautiful man-made beach complete with lifeguards and giant fish sculptures.  It's incredibly easy to avoid the crowds here, simply wake up a little early or come when it's a little cloudy (it's tropical Cairns people! It's literally never cold, a couple clouds never hurt nobody). When I lived in Cairns, the Lagoon ended up being a daily activity. It's simply a short walk to and from just about anywhere, and so refreshing!

3. Sunset (or sunrise) 'Barbie' (BBQ) on the Esplanade

This seems like one of the most basic and obvious things on this list, which is why for the first month I avoided doing it.  I didn't want to seem like "that kind of backpacker".  Except, when I actually did it I realized how crazy fun it was.  Having a sunset barbie is a great way to meet people and have an incredibly relaxing and fun  evening as you watch the sun go down over the water.  The barbies are free and easy to use and clean.  (Pro Tip: if you go first thing in the morning for a spot of brekkie, the bbqs will be perfectly clean and ready for use with no drama. The fairies clean them every night!)

4. Free Fitness Activities on the Esplanade

A diet of ramen noodles can start to take its toll after 2 months. Luckily, the Cairns Esplanade offers free fitness classes throughout the week! We discovered this by accidentally stumbling across (and joining in) an Aqua Zumba class taking place in the Lagoon. These activities are fine for beginners, a great way to meet people, and actually tons of fun! Also did I mention free.

5. Float down a Creek

The family we stayed with in Cairns recommended this one, and it was honestly so much fun.  Head out to a rainforest creek (Goomburra was our choice) with either just your bodies or a tube, and enjoy floating down the lazy length of the river. This gives you a totally unique perspective of the rainforest, and makes for an amazingly fun afternoon. Swimming in the rainforest offers an entirely different feeling than simply doing a forest walk, and to get a complete picture of the region you have to do both!

6.  Crystal Cascades

This is one of those secret-but-not-actually-secret places that supposedly only the locals know of (despite the clearly marked signs pointing you in the right direction.  The walk is short and beautiful, and the river offers a couple calm swimming holes and minor falls that you can shower under.  The falls themselves are definitely worth the short trek, and if you are lucky you can spot tons of turtles and fish moseying along.

Directions Here

7.  Rusty's Markets

If you are like me and almost died when you saw the price of an avocado here (highest I have seen is $5.50 EACH), rest assured that Rusty's Markets has you covered.  With avocados going for $0.50 a pop, and various other local produce going for just as cheap, Rusty's offers a slightly more authentic market experience than the Night Markets, and you can buy everything from food to flowers, even pots and pans. You can even catch a bit of a show watching stalky men hacking at coconuts with foot-long machetes, occasionally lobbing off a finger or two in the process. Stock up here, and you'll definitely thank yourself later!

8.  Drive to the Daintree

This one isn't quite free unless you have a car to get there (hey, hitch-hiking is a valid option, just don't watch Wolf Creek first), but I highly recommend you attempt to make your way up to the Daintree region.  Trust me, you'll regret not going. If you can't afford it, don't even do the paid activities like croc cruises or the Cassowary world, just do the free walks.  You will never experience rainforest quite like the one in Daintree, and the walks alone are equal parts incredibly beautiful and terrifying.  We saw a Cassowary on one of our walks (the free walk that is right beside the pricey Daintree Discovery Center, if you're tight for cash, don't waste your money on the center itself), as well as several mudcrabs and gigantic spiders. Absolutely amazing!

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Week 2 - Mission Beach to Magnetic Island

Day 8

Scratch what I said about a lovely spot: I woke up early this morning to the blaring of truck horns. Note to self: don’t camp by highways.

We drove towards mission beach, stopping along the way to see the sights.  We were told that Cape Tribulation was this amazing place where “Rainforest meets the Reef!”, but honestly I got more of that feeling around Mission beach area. We stopped to go for a beautiful rainforest walk, and then headed to a lovely information center right on the beach.  There is one important detail I should add: the weather was horrible.  If you feel like I have said that a lot lately, that’s probably because the past couple weeks have been awful.  I mean great for Australia and the drought and all that, but comeon! We wanted sunny beaches!

We spent a good chunk of the day simply hanging with backpackers from Denmark in the Information center (drinking free coffee!) and waiting for the rain to clear up.  Finally, we simply accepted the bad weather, drove to a couple more beaches, and then climbed a mountain.  I should mention: we didn’t know we were going to be climbing a mountain.  I was actually wearing thongs (flip-flops) and had a mug of tea in my hand for what we thought was short, 500 meter trek up a small hill.  It ended up being 4 kilometers of pain.  I am so out of shape…

That evening we drove up to Tully Gorge to camp out in the wilderness.  While we drove, countless frogs sat on the road watching as we ran over  them with Old Bessie. Some even inte tionally jumped into our path.  Moral of the story: Australian frogs are tragically suicidal.  It was actually kinda depressing.  Also morbidly satisfying; Squish.

Day 9

Waking up to the pounding of rain on the roof of the car, I decided to head down to the river for a quick look about.  Tully gorge is famous for it’s amazing rafting and kayaking, and it truly does look like it would be stunning.  Unfortunately, however, neither of those two sports were in our budget, so we had to simply look at the beautiful river.  

Adjacent to the campsite there was a short walk dubbed “the butterfly walk”.  We decided to walk the walk, and ended up reading about all the butterflies in this region.  As cool as it was to read about them, however, we didn’t actually end up seeing very many of them, so that was kind of depressing.  I guess it was just too rainy for the tiny things to fly around.  

From there we drive into the town of tully hoping to find a spot to charge our dying phones and cameras.  It may have just been a bad day, but Tully seemed horribly… horrible.  The people were unfriendly, the roads cramped and nonsensical.  We decided to give up on our search for wifi and continued down the road, stopping in Cardwell.

Cardwell was an incredibly quaint town, filled with cute bakeries and rumors of dugongs in the channel.  Not being able to afford the bakery, we thought that dugong spotting might have been a pleasant afternoon’s activity.  However, after 10 minutes of waiting for a sea cow to appear, we were soaked to the bones from the torrential rain, and headed back to the car in despair.  I wish we had more time to spend, but unfortunately we had no margin to spend chasing those lovely fat mermaids, so we kept heading down.

We arrived that evening in Ingham, home of the famous Tyto Wetlands.  The wetlands were a giant bird sanctuary with free entry.  It was getting dark at that stage, so we decided to leave the wetlands for tomorrow, and instead spend the evening with some local wallabies and mozzies.

Day 10

This morning I woke up next to a frog.  Now I should make this clear: I did not invite the frog into my bed.  This was not consensual. However, after the initial shock wore off, I began to appreciate the amount of effort the frog must have gone through to get inside of the van and hop his way over to my bed. Kudos, Mr Frogger.

We woke up incredibly early in the morning to visit the Tyto Wetlands, assuming that if we got up early enough we would see more birds, which ended up being a brilliant decision. Within the first ten minutes of the walk I was fortunate to see a Masked Owl, which is definitely super special.  While none of the other birds were quite as epic, the rest of the walk was beautiful and Tyto was definitely very worth it!

From Tyto we decided to visit Wallamans Falls, Australias tallest waterfall coming in at nearly 300 metres (or for the americans reading: 300 metres.  Learn the metric system.).  Unfortunately, to get to this waterfall we had to drive up one of the steepest roads I have ever seen.  In Old Bessie: our $300 beauty.  I have to admit, I was fairly nervous.  I wasn’t sure the old cow could make it all the way up there, however with only a little struggle (and the smell of burning, we should get this thing checked out…) we managed to climb that mountain and emerged victorious at the summit.  And what a view it was: 268 meters of plunging water framed by the stark cliff-face of the deep gorge.  This waterfall is so tall that the water barely touches the bottom so much of it simply evaporates on the way down.  This waterfall is huge.  

Naturally, after a slow and laborious drive up to the waterfall, we decided to walk all the way down to the bottom despite our current state of fitness (or lack thereof). Let me explain something:

For those of you that are hiking novices, there are really only two types of hikes: mountain (uphill) hikes and gorge hikes.  Well technically there is a third type, the pancake (flat ) hike.  Except if it is flat, it’s a walk not a hike.  Anyways, two types of hikes.  

Numero Uno: the mountain hike.  This any form of hike that has you walking uphill to your destination.  Your goal is at the top, so all of your focus and adrenalin is directed at scaling that peak.   This means that you can climb with determination to reach the top with relative ease.  Once you are at the top, your goal has been reached and your adrenalin fades away.  You take in the beautiful sights, and then begin your descent.  At this stage, without the adrenalin and determination you previously had, you have lost a significant level of “freshness”. That’s okay, because the rest is downhill and you can simply skip down the mountain singing pleasant tunes.  Beautiful.

Numero Douce: the gorge hike a.k.a. Hell.  This is the hike you don’t want, the one where you walk downhill to your final goal.  This isn’t good, because your drive is wasted on the relative ase of descent.  You get to the bottom, your adrenalin goes away, then you have to climb. With no energy or enthusiasm, this climb is brutal. Moral of the story, always choose mountain hikes.

Anyways, we walked down the hill, saw the waterfall, and laboured slowly back up.  It ws brutal. Pretty though.

Back at the top, we headed back down the hill (please don’t die Bessie!!) and drove back into town.  After much deliberation, we decided to drive straight to our campsite by Townsville. Saunders beach provided an incredibly beautiful free campsite right on the beach, so we braved the mozzies and ended up staying for four nights in a row.  But more on that later.

Day 11

We had a lazy morning on the beach before heading into Townsville.  Townsville has a local market on Sundays, so we headed to that before stopping at a cafe to charge devices and complete some work.  

A couple notes on Australian customer service: it’s terrible.  I have seen a lot of people complaining about the tipping culture of Canada and the States, and I agree that mandatory tipping is ridiculous.  However, staff at a lot of establishments down under (not all, but a lot) just do not care about the service aspect of dining and drinking.  At this particular cafe, we watched in horror as employees didn’t offer water, sat at the tables for their breaks, and took extensive conversation breaks in the middle of the cafe.  Say what you will about the tipping culture, but the mindset of customer service is something I definitely miss about back home.

Anyways, after a solid day browsing markets and working in a cafe, we headed back to Saunders for another beach evening under the stars.

Day 12

Today was the day we dedicated to exploring Townsville.  So we piled into the van and headed into town.  First stop as the Strand, a lovely road running adjacent to the coastline.  Similar to the Cairns Esplenade, the Strand was full of walks, free barbies (bbqs) , and  unlike Cairns: beaches.  This was one of our first times swimming in the ocean since our time spent up north with all of the stingers. Finally, a lovely stinger net to keep us safe as we floated in the warm sea water.

From the Strand, we walked down the main shopping street, visited several boutique shops, and then drove up Castle Hill.  After Old Bessie survived her encounter with Wallaman Falls, we weren’t too worried about driving up Castle Hill.  However, what we weren’t expecting was the shame that came with driving.  Our excuse was our lack of time, however as we drove past the legions of walkers and running taking advantage of a beautiful day to get a spot of exercise, it became harder to justify our drive.  Finally we arrived at the top, and we embraced by the beautiful views of Townsville and Magnetic Island.  Amazing.

We ended the evening with a movie (The Jungle Book, phenomonal.) and headed back to Saunders beach for a 3rd night in a row.

Day 13

After a couple weeks of hard travelling (lolz) we decided it was time to chillax, so we headed to magnetic island for a couple nights.  After talking our way into discounted ferry rides (thank goodness im beautiful), and repacking our van, we were on the open ocean headed to the island. Magnetic Island is a populate island just off the coast from Townsville, with a couple hostels and camping sites for us to stay at cheaply.  After the ferry over, we caught a bus to our hostel and chilled at the hostel for a bit.  We then decided to walk to a nearby bay.

Balding bay was the destination of choice, and it was supposedly a short walk from the hostel.  What wasn’t mentioned was that this short walk was entirely up a mountain.  We are terrible at estimating hikes apparently, because we really struggled on this one.  Finally, after a sweaty, painful while we ended up on the beach!.. alongside a bunch of naked old men.  Without realizing it we had walked into a nude beach.  Oops.

Walking back to the hostel, we went for a swim on the beach and then ended up playing pictionary at our hostel.  It’s nice to be around other people for a change!

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Announcement: We Bought A Car!!

Hey everybody! Thanks for reading this, I really do appreciate that!  We have a couple huge announcements to make, first of which is: We bought a van!!!

Meet Ol’ Bessie, our beautiful girl that is hopefully going to pull us over 15,000 kms as we swing down and around the coast.  We completely redid the back, as illustrated in pictures below, and Ol’ Bessie is now a comfortable living space for us to spend the next 3-4 months in (if she lasts that long…).  As some of you know, we did NZ in a van, and really appreciated the amazing things we were able to do and see with the freedom that comes from vehicle ownership.  We are excited to do the same in Oz!

My second announcement is about this blog: It will now be a weekly and regular instalment!

For those of you who are like “Hey, he said he’d write a blog last time! Why should I believe him this time?!” I would like to say fair enough! Completely valid point! However, this time I really do intend to, and will focus on these writings.  I’m doing this because I not only want to capture the stories, but also share my knowledge with other backpackers.  We travel in a way that is unique, and allows us to save tons of money and find some pretty stellar places.  I want everyone to be able to learn from our mistakes and triumphs.

For those of you who are reading simply for your personal entertainment, well that is what TV is for.  I promise that this won’t be remotely entertaining or funny in any way!

I intend to post a weekly update on Mondays, Canadian time (Late Monday night Aussie time), as well as posting some helpful guides for fellow travellers sporadically (I’m aiming for every second Thursday but don’t hold me to it!)  As well, there may or may not be plans for a new website in the works to showcase both this blog and my photography! (Shh don’t tell anybody!!)

Well that’s that! Check out our first week of travels here, and keep checking back every Monday for more posts!

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Week 1 - Cairns - Kurrimine

Day 1

We had a spot of trouble leaving Cairns. And by a spot of trouble, I mean that we are terrible at packing and keeping to a schedule. So it was roughly 3 o'clock by the time we pulled out of Cairns City Motel and began our great road trip here in Oz.  However, the first part of the trip lasted about 3 minutes, after which we arrived at our first stop of the day: the Lagoon.  If you ever have the opportunity to travel to Cairns (or read my upcoming post about why I loved it so much), you’ll understand why I love the Lagoon so much.  Needless to say: it needed a proper goodbye.  We had one last swim, took several photos, and and then walked the city to pick up a late lunch and some last minute souvenirs.  Finally, (after delicious burgers and seafood at a small local cafe) we headed out of the city.

Our goal for the first leg of the trip was to explore the Atherton Tablelands, so we looped Kuranda and made our way along the road to Mareeba.  At this stage the sun began setting and we focused our sights on a free campsite between Kuranda and Mareeba.  The campsite was a gravel pit just off the side of the highway, and finding it proved… difficult.  Our first problem is that Ol’ Bessie is too damn fat to stop suddenly, and the second being that all side-roads look the same.  Finally, after roughly an hour of passing several potential sites we pulled into what we thought looked like the aforementioned gravel pit.  Spoiler Alert: it wasn’t.  However, as we attempted to discern the location of the campsite, another car pulled in.  There we met Martin, a friendly German backpacker looking for the same site. We drove separate ways planning to divide and conquer, and through incredible levels of teamwork and cooperation (we wove flashlights to signal him in and felt pretty badass.) we finally found our site. It was a perfect spot for our first night on the road, and it felt good to be sleeping under the stars again.

And then the rain began.

Day 2

In pouring rain we cooked a hardy camp-stove breakfast.  Speaking of camp-stoves: I forgot to mention an adventure from the night before.  While setting up the stove (in the dark) for our first supper, I inserted the gas cartridge incorrectly resulting in gas streaming out of the canister for several minutes unnoticed. I then attempted to light it, resulting in a very large explosion.  But hey, I didn’t need those nose-hairs!

Anyways, this morning’s camp-stove fun resulted in a pleasantly cooked breakfast shared with the lovely Martin, who made delicious fried beans to compliment our eggs.  We were on our way shortly thereafter, parting ways with our new friend.  Driving through Mareeba, we visited a lovely museum outlining the history of the region’s settlement, and then landed at CoffeeWorks.

We had heard about CoffeeWorks on our trip to the Daintree, and were excited to visit the farm/store/restaraunt/heaven.  Mareeba grows 90% of Australia’s coffee, so as a wanna-be coffee-nut (coffee connoisseur?), I couldn't resist the temptation.  Oh, and did I mention they also make chocolate?  So for a solid 3-4 hours we sat in the tasting room, consumed various flavours of coffee (almost more than I could handle), and induldged in the unlimited chocolate.  Oh, and there was coffe liquer.  Did I mention heaven? (There was also a museum.  But like, the highlight was clearly the aforementioned delectables.)

From CoffeeWorks we headed towards Lake Tinaroo, spent the remaining minutes of daylight walking the shoreline of this beautiful holiday destination, and then headed to our next campground for a quick game of soccer.  After living in the tropical rainforest of Cairns for nearly two months, it was strikingly different to be in an area with more normal trees and scenery.  It both looked and smelled like Alberta. Caroline was thrilled.  I missed Cairns.

 Day 3

Today we traveled to the small, quaint village of Yungaburra: a beautiful tourist destination surrounded by volcanic crater-lakes.  Essentially old craters that filled with rain, these volcanic lakes are almost perfectly round, with a pristine blue-green water that you can see right through. We decided to visit Lake Eacham, the smallest and most crater-esque of the lakes.  The day was spent frollicing on this beautiful lake among the fish and turtles.

That afternoon we headed back to the town of Yungaburra to explore a couple of the boutique shops, and then went to the Avenue of Heroes, a memorial to celebrate the deaths of Australian soldiers in Afghanistan.  It was an incredibly beautiful memorial, placed right beside a calm lake framed with the setting sun.  I have visited a large number of memorials for both the world wars, but it was sobering to visit a memorial commemerating loss that happened in my lifetime.  I appreciate the person who set it up, as it provided a perfect moment for reflection and gratitude.  

That evening as the sun set we visited Peterson creek, a slow moving body of water that is home to several platypi.  As we walked along in a slight drizzle, we spotted a splash and the tip of a brown tail.  After waiting at that spot anxiously searching for the creature for quite some time, we gave up and continued walking along the river. Suddenly, another splash! Before long we got our first good look at a platypus: a solitary brown log-like fellow drifting casually down the river before disappearing with a flick of his tail.  A platypus, to me at least, has always been some mythical beast, like old Nessy, that I assumed I would never get to see.  As well, I have met hundreds of travellers who didn't get the opportunity we did to witness the odd creature. But guess what? WE SAW A PLATYPI!

Day 4

This morning we hung around camp for several hours before heading off to the waterfall circuit.  The waterfall circuit is composed of a couple dozen waterfalls in the southern Tablelands region, and is supposedly incredibly beautiful.  The only problem was the weather; it was raining.  Pouring. Cats, dogs, the whole shebang! Now waterfalls perform quite well under heavy rainfall, however our attitudes and desire to see more definitely takes a hit the longer the rain comes down.  Still, we managed to see several before I slipped on a rock and impaled myself.  With an 8 inch long cut in my chest, we decided to call it a day, give up on the waterfalls, and head to our camp for the evening in Innisfail.

Days 5-7

For those who don’t know, I am supporting my travels in Australia through web design, and I have a couple projects on the go right now.  So, unfortunately the next few days became quite a bore, filled with coffeeshops, work, and more work. In classic adventure books they tend to skip over several of the less exciting details, like most of the walking bits in the Hobbit, or like 90% of the semester in Harry Potter.  Books get to jump to the exciting bits.  I, however, do not.  The days spent in Innisfail weren’t entirely boring though, and even if I don’t have enough material to fill several paragraphs with, I thought I might tell a few stories:

1. Remember a couple days ago when we met a lovely fellow named Martin, and cooked a delicious breakfast with him?  When we parted ways we discussed the potential of seeing each other again and came to the conclusion that the chances were nil.  We headed in completely different directions, and knew we would never see each there again, which made it that much more surprising when he walked up to say “Hi!” our first morning in Innisfail.  Plans had changed on both ends, and despite saying our heartfelt goodbyes several days prior, we were able to spend a couple more evenings together.  Funny how life works!

2. In the Great North A.K.A Canada, you have a summer season and a winter season, the latter of which drops down to below freezing.  While this has it’s downsides, it has one large upside: it kills all the bugs.  Meanwhile, here in Australia, there is no such thing as freezing cold winter, and the bugs have a much longer life-span.  Forget the poisonous spiders, after a while even just a simple ant running up your leg for the millionth time, or fly landing on your face while you’re trying to write gets incredibly irritating. I am so sick of bugs.

3. On the topic of pests, we had a mouse.  In the van.  Eating and pooping on everything. Lovely, huh? The Mouse (hearby referred to as Stuart) was a troublesome little fella who was very good at not being caught. We waited for hours with buckets ready to catch the little beast, only for him to appear right after we gave up and sat for a rest.  It took several nights, but Stuart was finally caught when he climbed into the cooler for a snack only to have it shut on his head.  After a night in his cooler cell, Stuart was finally released to the wild.  Also, he literally ate all our bread. 
4. The Northern Queensland region is famous for it’s sugar cane, and we finally got to try some in the form of fresh cane juice.  Get this: they take a stick, put it into a squisher (yes, that’s the technical term for it), and out comes this amazing, sweet, delicious sugary drink! Mind blown!

Finally, on day 7 I completed my allotted work and we left that afternoon heading farther south down the coast.  We stopped in Kurrimine Beach for a lovely swim, saw a couple red-tailed cockatoos, and then camped in a lovely spot by the road.  

Random Pictures:

 

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