And we are backpackers again. The camper van route from Sydney to Cairns is very well driven. Many of our friends and family have done it in the past and there are still hordes of Europeans doing it today. Whilst we invested in a copy of Camps 5 (campsite guide for all of Australia) and had intended to camp in beautiful spots (hopefully for free) all the ones we found were only one stop better than lay-bys. We ended up joining the growing herd of ‘grey nomads’ (mature people who live in camper vans for all or part of the year) and stayed in proper campsites every night.
We stopped off near Port Stephen, Coffs Harbour, had a couple of nights in Byrons Bay and then in to Brisbane – stopping off at as many giant things as possible. If a town in Australia is vaguely famous for anything then erect a giant whatever at the entry to town – we saw a banana, a mango, a pelican, an orange, a lobster etc.
Brisbane – almost kept us for more than one night, but we again realized we were not really in Australia for the cities – so pushed on again and headed to Noosa. I came to Noosa five years ago whilst on gardening leave before starting my next job and loved the place and so I really wanted Nicola to see it. Noosa is a couple of hours north of Brisbane and set on the beach and inlet of Noosa river. It has a large lagoon, surrounded by water-front houses, a main street with a plethora of eating options (some of them very nice indeed) and a large gently sloping beach. We stayed for 4 days, soaking up the sun (27 degrees every day), played lawn bowls at the local club (they have barefoot bowls nights – where you can turn up with no equipment and they provide everything), hired a surf board at 8 in the morning and practiced the surf skills we had learnt in Rio, walked the beaches and tried to let the surf drown us (some of the big waves are really quite nasty).
Believe it or not – after Noosa we were all beached out and felt like experiencing something different – maybe some outback? With our Wicked camper we were not allowed on unsealed roads, so we wondered how much outback we could see. We pointed our van inland and drove. We managed to get about 300km before we found something to distract us and yet were still no where near real outback. The distraction was a town called Sapphire! We were here to find our fortune. We rolled up to Bobby Dazzler’s sapphire mine – had a brief tour underground an then bought ourselves AUD15 of dirt – or the technical mining term ‘wash’. We then fossicked – went through the dirt, sieved out the sand, rinsed the stones and then searched for black rocks….sorry sapphires. After about 30 minutes we had a little pile of black stones and took them to the mine owner for appreciation. Yes – they were sapphires – probably about 8 in all and worth – well……… nothing – not even big enough to get cut and therefore worthless. Looks like we are going to have to return to the grind of travelling the world!!!
From Sapphire we headed back towards the coast, crossing back in to the tropics for the first time since Brazil – banana plantations increasing and humidity rising. Up to Airlee Beach – another backpacker hot-spot to see the Whitsunday Islands. Airlee Beach is not much of a town, but it is the departure point for day trips and cruises to the beautiful Whitsunday Islands – tropical paradise like islands – with perfect white sand and aqua marine water. We took a high powered rib out to a couple of spots for snorkeling and then spent a couple of hours on Whitehaven beach – voted a top 10 global beach – the pictures are pretty amazing.
And then the coincidence of the trip so far. One evening in Airlee Beach we were bemoaning not making any friends on the boat (we tried, but little reciprocity) when Nicola spotted one of the couples we had met when we sailed from Panama to Colombia – Sooz (hope that’s the right spelling) and Steve. They are pretty much doing the same trip as us – so we compared notes and caught up on shared experiences and then got pretty drunk and ended up in a foam party. Good night had by all – pictures less impressive!
After the hang over faded – we drove up to Townsville – not really a planned stop, but an old friend of Nicola’s lived there, so we thought we would try to hook up. Unfortunately her friend was on business in Brisbane for the week so we missed her. We occupied ourselves by watching the locals commiserate Anzac Day (25th April, when the first Oz and NZ battalion got slaughtered at Galipoli (along with thousands of British and Turkish troops) and then we went to watch a rugby league game – the Queensland Cowboys versus the Manly Sea Eagle. Not really my code – but an entertaining night out and more insight in to the Aussie psyche. Nicola very much liked the music, cheerleaders, fire works and the Harvey Norman sale adverts.
And then the final leg, up to Port Douglas for a couple of days – including our Great Barrier Reef trip – I will let the pictures tell the story – but there is no picture for the highlight. Nicola spotted a shark – she says she was just pretending to panic, but I thought there was an element of real fear. The shark was only about 4 foot long – so no Jaws.
We are now in Cairns – we have handed back the van (quite a sad moment) and so are no longer happy campers (4320km achieved) – we are happy ho(s)tellers again. Last night was the first in a bed for a while and we are very much appreciating a toilet attached to our sleeping area – rather than across 3 lawns, two roads and an ornamental flower bed!
In two days we board a flight for leg 4 of the trip – Singapore and South East Asia.
