Sleeping in a normal bed, no hangover and sleeping-in was an awesome start of our last day. The second day without rain in the Sunshine State and a nice 32 C. We strolled to the "beach", it's not a real beach but a swimming pool at the place where a beach should be. Cairns is on a bay but with low tide there is no sand, only a big puddle of useless mud so they made a swimming pool including life guards.
We went to the pub to watch the first half of the Australian Football Grand Final before we had to go to the airport for our 3 hour flight back to Adelaide (South Australia).
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Friday: Cairns
G-man went for another scuba diving trip to the Great Barrier reef and AJ took it easy. After a last drive through the hills around Cairns AJ dropped off the Wicked van, shed a tear and went to see the Cairns buskers festival (street artists).
The hostel was quite tame compared with the campsites but that was just what we needed.
The hostel was quite tame compared with the campsites but that was just what we needed.
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Thursday: We made it!
Mission Beach is only 140 km. from Cairns so we had a slow morning, went for a swim in the ocean and drove around in the area hoping to see a cassowary. There are lots of warning signs for these birds and even where they cross the street they put up a little warning sign that it's a "cassowary crossing". But, to bad, we didn't see them or hit them with the van. Because they are listed as very dangerous, we thought running over them with the Wicked van was the safest way to take a picture. Keep in mind we are IT blokes, not Steve Irwin.
OK, everyone knows the movie "The Blues Brothers". At the end where they reach the taxation office, they park the Blues Mobile and it falls apart. That was what we expected from our Wicked camper-van, NOT. After 10 days without a decent sleep, both snoring, both having a cold and both to old for back-pack stuff we are the ones that fall apart. We've checked in at a hostel in Cairns and hired a complete dorm room with 6 beds so we have 3 mattresses and 3 pillows each.
OK, everyone knows the movie "The Blues Brothers". At the end where they reach the taxation office, they park the Blues Mobile and it falls apart. That was what we expected from our Wicked camper-van, NOT. After 10 days without a decent sleep, both snoring, both having a cold and both to old for back-pack stuff we are the ones that fall apart. We've checked in at a hostel in Cairns and hired a complete dorm room with 6 beds so we have 3 mattresses and 3 pillows each.
Wednesday: Airlie Beach to Mission Beach
Wednesday it was raining again in the Sunshine state. We had the laundry outside to dry but at 6 am we had to get the laundry in. This was a perfect oppurtunity for an early start! So at 6.18 am sharp we tried to start the car but it didn't start. We tried to jump-start it but had no luck so we pushed the van to the camp-kitchen and called road assistance. The road assistance bloke suspected to much water caused the problem. To much water in the Sunshine state? No, impossible... (we didn't mention we took the camper-van through 30 cm. of water).
After a 2 hour delay and a nice breakfast in the camp-kitchen we finally started the 500 km. to Mission Beach with a stop-over for lunch in Townsville. Most of the way it was cloudy and raining. We stopped at a town to have a look at the postcards to see how it looks with a clear sky and blue ocean.
Mission Beach is a beautiful place where the the rainforest ends at a white sand beach with blue ocean but it was very quiet and lots of the local shops were closed. We bumped into a very small restaurant where the owner invited us to have our meal in between the bar and the kitchen. He made us a perfect roast with vegies, best meal we had so far in an awesome "restaurant". The "restaurant" used to be the garage, the rollerdoor was transformed into a bar and the front yard was his terrace. His philosophy is no menu (3 or 4 kinds of roast with fresh vegies every day), maximum 25 meals a day, no deep-fryer, 8 to 10 cans of beer while cooking and always close before 9 pm to go to the pub. Off course we went to his local pub with him, a beautiful place at the beach where he told us about Mission Beach and his restaurant.
After a 2 hour delay and a nice breakfast in the camp-kitchen we finally started the 500 km. to Mission Beach with a stop-over for lunch in Townsville. Most of the way it was cloudy and raining. We stopped at a town to have a look at the postcards to see how it looks with a clear sky and blue ocean.
Mission Beach is a beautiful place where the the rainforest ends at a white sand beach with blue ocean but it was very quiet and lots of the local shops were closed. We bumped into a very small restaurant where the owner invited us to have our meal in between the bar and the kitchen. He made us a perfect roast with vegies, best meal we had so far in an awesome "restaurant". The "restaurant" used to be the garage, the rollerdoor was transformed into a bar and the front yard was his terrace. His philosophy is no menu (3 or 4 kinds of roast with fresh vegies every day), maximum 25 meals a day, no deep-fryer, 8 to 10 cans of beer while cooking and always close before 9 pm to go to the pub. Off course we went to his local pub with him, a beautiful place at the beach where he told us about Mission Beach and his restaurant.
Tuesday: Airlie Beach
The forecast was rain, thunder and storm, but we know the weather forecast is always wrong so we booked a tour to the Whitsundays, 74 islands in he the Great Barrier Reef. We left in the morning, visited one of the islands, went for a scuba dive and back again. It was an awesome trip and no rain at all!
We went out in Arlie Beach that night and like real back-packers we had a few of the happy hour beer jugs (1.4 ltr. each) and the 2 for one pizza special.
Off course we had a bad night of sleep again. At the moment one of us snores big time and the other is still having a cold and all of that in a shit bed with no pillows. But, it's all part of the fun.......
We went out in Arlie Beach that night and like real back-packers we had a few of the happy hour beer jugs (1.4 ltr. each) and the 2 for one pizza special.
Off course we had a bad night of sleep again. At the moment one of us snores big time and the other is still having a cold and all of that in a shit bed with no pillows. But, it's all part of the fun.......
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Sunday / Monday Hervey Bay - Airlie Beach
On Sunday after lunch we had almost 900 km to go to Airlie Beach and we had to do it over 2 days as the "highway" in Australia is only 1 lane and quite often interupted by little towns so we can only do an avergae of 70 km an hour.
Our stop over was Rockhampton and the only thing we can remember are the big main streets with motels everywhere. Because of the lights and the colors of the motels every main street looks like a street with strip clubs.
Monday morning we headed to Airlie Beach and it started to rain. At the petrol station staff informed us that the road to Airlie Beach was closed but we took the guess.... We had rain and more rain but sometimes it was possible to see a bit of the beautiful scenery and hills through the clouds and rain. The road to Airlie Beach was not closed, only flooded. We drove the Wicked through 30 cm. of water and were right on time because later that day they closed the entire highway.
Every state in Australia has a slogan on their licence plate, the slogan for Queensland is "The sunshine state" but we wanna put in a change request for "The rain state" or "The sugar cane state". For most of our journey we have seen huge cane sugar plantations and has been raining.
Our stop over was Rockhampton and the only thing we can remember are the big main streets with motels everywhere. Because of the lights and the colors of the motels every main street looks like a street with strip clubs.
Monday morning we headed to Airlie Beach and it started to rain. At the petrol station staff informed us that the road to Airlie Beach was closed but we took the guess.... We had rain and more rain but sometimes it was possible to see a bit of the beautiful scenery and hills through the clouds and rain. The road to Airlie Beach was not closed, only flooded. We drove the Wicked through 30 cm. of water and were right on time because later that day they closed the entire highway.
Every state in Australia has a slogan on their licence plate, the slogan for Queensland is "The sunshine state" but we wanna put in a change request for "The rain state" or "The sugar cane state". For most of our journey we have seen huge cane sugar plantations and has been raining.
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Fifth day: Whale watching and the start of a 12 hour drive
G-Man left this morning to go on a whale watch tour. Whales as in humpback whales, not fat tourists on the beach. They migrate north along the east and west coasts of Australia to breeding areas off Queensland (where we are). As long as there are no Japanese tourists on the tour he should see a lot of whales.
G-man should be back around 1 pm and then we have to start the drive to Airlie Beach. We expect the 900 km. will take at least 12 hours so we drive until it's dark, sleep on a parking and continue first thing in the morning. We will spend 2 days at Airlie Beach to explore the Great Barrier Reef, if we go for a scuba dive we will post pictures to get some sponsor money from Michelin.
[edit]
We arrived in Rockhampton and have a few pictures of this morning's whale tour.
G-man should be back around 1 pm and then we have to start the drive to Airlie Beach. We expect the 900 km. will take at least 12 hours so we drive until it's dark, sleep on a parking and continue first thing in the morning. We will spend 2 days at Airlie Beach to explore the Great Barrier Reef, if we go for a scuba dive we will post pictures to get some sponsor money from Michelin.
[edit]
We arrived in Rockhampton and have a few pictures of this morning's whale tour.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)