Heading South

Mildura, Adelaide, Port Lincoln, Streaky Bay, Border Village, Esperence, Denmark, Pemberton, Busselton, Perth, Horrocks Beach, Denham, Coral Bay, Mount Tom Price, Eighty Mile Beach, Broome, Fitzroy Crossing, Katherine, Darwin, Cooinda (Kakadu), Mataranka Springs, Three Ways, Mount Isa, Charters Towers, Townsville, Mission Beach, Paronella Park, Cairns, Port Douglas, Cape Tribulation, Atherton, Airlie Beach, 1770, Rainbow Beach, Gold Coast and Port Macquarie. We've been everywhere man, we've been everywhere....except for Wollongong, Wollongong....sorry Auntie Jack.

Well we clearly have not been everywhere and we have not seen everything but we have certainly had a decent scratch around this fabulous land while sticking mostly to Highway 1. Do it again? In a heartbeat as there is so much more to see and experience even if the exact same route was done again. The truth is you can never see it all even if you had a lifetime and that is what makes this country so remarkable. Besides before doing another lap we would prefer to explore Tasmania, Victoria, The Centre, The Murray...the list is endless.

Travelling in QLD can be slow due to the amount of road works on the Bruce Highway and the drive between Airlie Beach and 1770/Agnes Water proved to be a loooong day. We got in late so to the delight of the children we had to stay overnight in a motel room, yeah TV!! 1770/Agnes Water is near where the Great Barrier Reef starts so if you are travelling north from here with surf boards it's you're last chance for a surf off the Australian east coast. Nice spot, nice long beach which leads north to the delightfully named Bustard Bay where interestingly enough you can see the sun rise and set over the same body of water. Lieutenant James Cook landed here in.......yep you guessed it 1770. We did very little here besides school work, reading and a bit of beer drinking because there is really not that much to do.

Next stop Rainbow Beach just south of Fraser Island. Here there is lots of stuff to do including horse riding, kayaking, sand surfing, surfing and getting to drive on beaches if you can afford it. The QLD government have recently put all sorts of charges for driving on beaches and even going on to Fraser Island. Given our restricted time and the cost of going to Fraser we decided that we were going to leave that adventure for another day, or several in the not too distant future. But there were other things for us to do and with Rainbow Beach Horse Rides we had a couple of excellent hours riding along the beach with our hosts Andrew and Nicole who provided us with some beautifully placid quarter horses to ride on. Even Finn had is own horse and was allowed to have control of the reins at the end of the ride back at the pen. Although we did not get above a walk the ride was not without excitement as my boy Cadbury fancied giving himself a sand bath with me on top, luckily I was able to roll away which is what you can do when you are shaped like a beach ball! Beer to the rescue again. After that the old boy was happy to wander off into the surf for a bit of a paddle. We all thought it was a great time and I am surprised Marley has not tried to ask for a horse yet.

Next morning we took off for some sea kayaking off Rainbow Beach in the hope of spotting some bottle nose dolphins which we did in a matter of minutes as they were giving some fish a chase. This was looking good especially when a mother and child popped up in front of us but then they shot off past us down the beach chasing their breakfast. I learnt that kayak does not go as fast as dolphin especially into the wind against that tide so for the 40 minutes we scanned the ocean, nothing and then all of a sudden another two popped up and did some circle work around Finn's and my kayak and the shot again. Finn had done enough by now and we decided to head for shore with Amanda and Cal leaving Marley and her partner out on the water with the instructor. As soon as Finn got to shore he wobbled down the beach toward the 4WD looking like a penguin wearing a hi viz vest. Don't worry mate, Dad will look after the kayaks....off you go. Funny thing was when we got all the gear packed up and we were travelling down the beach we found the dolphins again just a few metres from shore so we just sat there and watched them for ten minutes and had the best view of them all day.

Rainbow Beach is so named because it has 74 shades of sand. It also has a 15 hectare mass of sand atop a sand cliff called Carlo's Blow. No photo's does this place justice, but I'll post some anyway. The kids had and awesome time sand surfing some of the steep sides and we also witnessed one of the most beautiful sunsets I have ever witnessed. I went a bit snap happy but hopefully the attached gives a fair impression of what we saw.

Maroochydore was our next stop where we were looking forward to catch up with our friend Cameron who we spent a great couple of days with. The Eumundi markets were not a big hit with the boys until I bought them a couple of sling shots which come in useful for dealing with Myna birds when we get back home. The markets are pretty big and I think Amanda and Marley thought they were in heaven, I must admit they are the best markets I have ever been to but did find time to sneak away from them with Finn to The Imperial Hotel for a quick refreshment but sadly learned they had stopped brewing Eumundi Lager several years ago. 

There is also a half decent zoo up on the Sunshine Coast called Australia Zoo, The Irwin's home base. I don't know why but I thought it might be a bit rubbish but in fact it turned out to be the best zoo I've ever been to. 

First impressions are that it is really well maintained and the animals have plenty of room. There are also plenty of "meet the animal" type of talks by the keepers and of course the show provided by The Irwin's themselves with the obligatory croc feed and a very impressive bird show. Although there were a few tigers, giraffes and elephants the vast majority of animals were Australian. Well worth a visit.

Wot, is it time for breakfast Mum?

Weird, never been fed by a tiger before.

Marvellous ou can see everything from up' ere

Someone say breakfast?

You have vey big paws.

And then onto the Gold Coast, or more precisely Sea World, Movie World and Wet n Wild. A lot of fun all of them. We did all the rides at Movie World and have to say they are all fairly scary but the best was Arkham Asylum followed by Superman...whoa fast n frantic.  Callam really enjoyed the Scooby Doo ride which was really scary, ha ha.  Finn had his own little persons section riding on the Speedy Gonzales taxi and the Road Runner roller coaster. At Sea World we teamed up with our friend Shani and had a great day in the sun enjoying the dolphin show, meeting Sponge Bob as well as getting on a few rides and seeing the fantastic underwater aquarium. Wet n Wild had to be done even though the weather was not the warmest but Marley and I made a commitment to hit every slide and ride, we all ate and slept well that night. The weather was closing in and we made a decision not to make any more stops before Port Macquarie. It was great to see Nan and Pop have a BBQ, a few beers and watch the Wallabies play The Lions.

Our hero!!

I got a better smile than you Spongey.

Well there might be one more blog in me because on the road we play a game called the best and worst, the forgettable and the unforgettable and sometimes it is quite funny so it may provide some laughs and some possible hints about what you may want to do if you ever choose to take a trip around this great country of hours.

If you want to see some more photo's get into my or Amanda's Facebook. 

Cheers and thanks for reading.

Rain to Sunshine to Rainbow Beach to Sunshine Coast.

It started as a wart on my bottom.

Here we are at Rainbow Beach and it's great to be back in the sunshine again although the days are getting a little cooler as we head south. It got down to 7 degrees last night and I succumbed throwing a pair of socks on for the first time since March. Looking ahead we will be on he Sunshine Coast in a couple of days where it looks like it will be raining again! Awesome, just as well we are buying a surfboard as we will have a proper reason to get wet. Just checked out some second handies in the local surf shop yesterday and found an ex rental the size of a barge for $170 with a leg rope. Should be able to get the whole family on that one, pics to follow on next blog.

Give us a kiss and cut out those fancy words, I'll give you bucollicks

Since the last write up we have spent three wet days up in the Atherton Tableland, nice up there, very green, lots of cows and a few pigs, rolling hills, agricultural, rustic, bucolic and all that stuff but the air smelt mainly of manure. Except at Jaques Coffee plantation where we had a great time drinking coffee, coffee liqueurs and munching down on fudge and raw coffee beans, they taste sweet did you know. If you like your coffee and want to know how it is all done this is the place to come to learn all about it and in a most entertaining way. Great story of a family that came out from East Africa in the late 70's and struggled against banks and Dept of Primary Industries to get a crop up and in, they did it on their third attempt and the rest is history. Very successful operation that is now being run by the second and third generation and a very inspirational story about not giving up. Good coffee too so come around to our place and try some, if you like it you can order it over the internet.

Pretty much after we left Jaques it rained for the next three days, not camping in that. Booked a cabin for three days that had Foxtel. Brumbies/Rebel and Reds/Lion...few beers all good. Also went for a drive around the stunning Lake Tinaroo on roads that went through fur forest down to tropical rainforest and round the corner to an enormous fig tree, called the Cathedral Fig. No organ, no choir, no bishop though, just a big fig. Big Fig would have been a better name, here is a picture fig elf and a big fig.

Praise the lord and where's the choir gone?

 

Atherton Tablelands has a lot of waterfalls, lots and lots and there is a drive that will take you to them all. We resisted but here is a picture of Milla Milla Falls, very pretty and very cold. On the walk down we passed two shivering English boys in their underpants coming up. I didn't ask but from a sign down the bottom I realised they had just joined the Polar Bear Club, idiots.

No polar bears in here, just English students in their underpants.

Mount Hypipamee crater is also worth a visit. Created by basalt rocks being blasted through the earths crust millions of years ago (an earth fart as I explained to the kids and they went oh yeah like it finally made sense) creating a big hole, 80m wide, 60m from top to water surface and a further 65m under water. It has a green film of algae covering it. You need to go there with some small logs, rocks and anything else you can throw at the algae because it will make a massive echo sound and the algae will ripple outwards. We hurtled a pile of stuff off and these old echo warriors who originally gave us disparaging looks leaned over the rail and went "Wow, look at that." Finn replied "Yeah baby watch this monster." Photo does not do it justice.

Ewwwee, look what the earth coughed up. Kill it with a rock...yeah baby.

Elsewhere on the Atherton there is heaps of suff to do including the bizzare Crystal Caves on the main street. Looks tacky and rubbish from the outside but is amazing on the inside. Stuffed full of crystals and geodes from around the world by a Dutch guy who moved to Atherton because he liked the weather. Could have stayed in Holland if he liked the rain so much. He has built something quite awesome though and we loved it.

The Empress of Uruguay. 

We left Atherton in misty fog and rain, just as we arrived in it. Next stop Airlie Beach which took a while to get to, we arrived in the dark and in the rain. We had to camp this time, low on funds and there was no worthwhile footy on Fox anyway. I was last here after a 36 hour bus trip from Canberra 27 years ago. They have been busy since 1986, the place was unrecognisable but interestingly it looked better than it did although there seemed to be a lot of lilly white English kids in their underpants lying around the lagoon at the foreshore getting extremely red. We thought we would take the opportunity to take a ride out on a boat to the Whitsundays and go to the iconic Whitehaven Beach for lunch and have a snorkel on the way back. A great day, weather out the islands was awesome whilst it rained back on the mainland. We went with The Whitehaven Express with a completely nutty crew which added to the experience, the three of them including the skipper could have walked onto the set of Pirates of The Caribbean and fitted in perfectly. My initial feeling was that they did this day job as an illegal cover for some illegal night time seafaring activity but they were just mad looking. 

Looking out over Whitsunday lookout to the inlet.

Little pirates on Whitehaven Beach.

Next stop 1770. Old Cookie stopped here that year before he got ship wrecked. Nice spot but not much to do really and is really noteworthy for the fact that it s the most northerly part of eastern mainland Australia where you can surf. Too cold for us though, bugger didn't I say I was about to buy a surfboard?

Yes you did you silly sod.

Up North

The Sunshine State does not always deliver sunshine. Number plates should read The Drizzle State, State of Wetness, Cloudy State or Windy State with Occasional Cyclones. Well it has not been that bad really because when we have chosen to do something outdoors the weather has fined up and we really have been very fortunate. Most of the rain in all honesty has happened at night but we have been driven into a cabin for only the second time since Port Lincoln because the Atherton Tablelands has the sort of drizzle/rain that would put a Welsh summer to shame. Not all bad though because we got to see the Brumbies play on the TV last night against the Rebels and tonight we will hopefully watch a Reds and Lions go around.

What has happened since the last post. We have been to Cairns, Kuranda, Port Douglas, Cape Tribulation and are now sitting in a cabin in Atherton. From Cairns to Atherton we travelled with Uncle Gareth and Auntie Karyn which was great fun as the last ten days were fairly action packed, full of laughs and only one minor injury which I will get to.

All aboard and up the mountain.

I was last in Cairns some 27 years ago and my memories of it were tainted by the cockroach invested backpackers (since demolished), FNQ lager (fizzy formaldehyde) and a bay that stunk when the tide went out. It's bigger and fancier than I remember and because I had sinus complications I could not smell the bay and had the sense to drink XXXX Bitter which was blessed by Billy Moore. The Esplanade has had a makeover and we enjoyed a walk along it and the kids made the most of the water parks and the playgrounds. We also had a wander through the botanic gardens which was a lot of fun, a bit like Juraissic Park without the dinosaurs.

Nice place this, where can we get breakfast?

When in Cairns a trip on the tourist train through tropical rainforest Kuranda is a must do and even though it was a cloudy day the views were fantastic. The running recorded commentary with video slides on the train gave a very descriptive history of the building of the railway which was essentially and important link for the Atherton Tableland and beyond to the sea. So many facts to remember but I do know the line from Cairns to Kuranda is 37km of track where there are 15 tunnels, 37 bridges and at one stage had 38 licensed premises and one brewery. Thirsty work alright.

Kuranda is a very touristy place but still retains plenty of charm. It also has a very cool butterfly sanctuary where we learnt butterflies don't live very long but spend a lot of time mating, might be some sort of causal link there. These days you can return to Cairns via Skyrail which is great way to see the rain forest from atop whilst been blown around by the wind in a gondola. Great views and some good look outs on the way way down.

These butterflies seemed to like Finn..

...and Marley.

We passed 19 gondolas of Indians and Marley said hello to all of them

Just up the road from Cairns is Port Douglas where we camped for a couple of days and had perfect weather for a trip out to the reef. Having had some pretty average experiences on the reef previously I was not really expecting much but the good ship Poseidon took us to three excellent reefs which had plenty of coral and fish and not one crown of thorns so there are still some parts of the reef that are visibly very healthy. So if you are up here go Poseidon and give Quicksilver the flick and you will get to three good sights instead of one average sight and do it with 80 versus 400 people. The diving was also good and cheap, $60 for three dives. Good healthy fun, I should let Michael Douglas know that this sort of diving is less likely to give you cancer than the sort he has been up to.

Cape Tribulation was  probably our favourite campsite on tour so far. World heritage forest meets world heritage marine park. Unspoilt natural beauty would be one way to describe it. Might let some pictures do the commentary on this place but if you like tropical rainforest this is a place you must visit as there is no greater range of tropical rainforest plants anywhere else in the world. If you are up for it go jungle surfing through the canopy which is a ton of fun and after that go back to the campsite and enjoy a beer at the Sand Bar whilst munching on a wood fired pizza. Alternative activities could include building coconut castles on the beach, swinging on a rope from a tree, tug of war, sand sculptures but if you are over 60 don't have a skipping race with a nine year old or you might just tear your calf muscle, eh U. Gareth. Ice and cold beer did help reduce the inflamation though. Fun times, great memories.

Cape Tribulation....serenity

Cape Tribulation...stupidity

Mossman Gorge.....broken tranquility

Preparing to swing through the trees of the Daintree

The Sandbar at Cape Trib...great place

Fig tree..and fig tree elf.

Kakadu to Cairns

What you staring at then, want some do ya, do ya?

It has been a while since the last blog and unfortunately some of the best moments since then were not caught on camera. For instance the charging water buffalo on the Kakadu highway that threatened to plough into the car but changed its mind at the last moment, probably just did it for a laugh just to see the reaction on my face which would have been one of horror. Further down the road just a few kms north of Katherine there was a bald and bare footed man carrying two plastic shopping bags walking down the road. Not that unusual but he was only attired in a pair of black speedos which had been hitched at the back up his bottom. Same horror face twice in one day.

Daly Waters Pub, how did I get behind the bar.

Welcome to Queensland, Finn is impressed.

Panning for for gold in Charlies Trousers AKA Charters Towers.

Another tricky foot shot, shoes on because it dipped below 25.

Pie fail on the road

We decided not to stop in Katherine again and travelled down to Mataranka where we had a great time swimming in the springs observing turtles. Bitter Springs just over Mataranka but if you ever do stop in Katherine go to the springs there a well. Also make sure you have beer to take into Mataranka as a six pack of VB will cost $28 at the local. Mataranka was a quick over nighter before we shot down to Daly Waters pub where we had lunch and stuck one of Finn's thongs on the thong tree out in the beer garden seeing as Amanda would not give up her bra for the bar. Then on to Threeways, we heard Tennant Creek was a bit rough so I can only imagine because camping at Threeways was spartan. The bar was good though and I learnt the fishing was particularly bad up in the gulf so Karumba was struck off the list in favour of Townsville.

Crossing over to QLD the next day the roads predictably got worse but the burgers got better. Camooweal Pub is a fine dining experience and massive burgers for $8. The sun was shining and QLD was looking pretty good. We headed down to Isa for an over nighter and stopped at a caravan park over the road from housing commission. Barking dogs and colourful language made it a memorable night for all the wrong reasons. Onward to Charlies Trousers (Charters Towers) the next day for three days. Great place which was built on a mine, gold mine. Once the richest place in world and was subsequently nicknamed The World. It may not been as rich as it once had been but it is still doing very well for itself and we really enjoyed doing its mining museums and learning about its rich past. We also came across cane toads for the first time. I cannot say too much for fear of incriminating myself too much but I can say they travel through the air quite well although a little ungracefully. After several flights my friend just looked at me and bounced away. Respect. I think this might be the reason QLD seem to win State of Origin, even their mascot is a hard bastard.

Townsville was the next stop. Reef headquarters was excellent, watching the Cowboys getting beat by the Roosters at a rain soaked Dairy Farmers stadium was not so great. The Strand was a great place for a stroll and the kids enjoyed the playgrounds that the council had built along it. We had plenty to do in Townsville for a few days but we were looking forward to moving up the coast to Mission Beach. and taking a visit to Dunk Island where Amanda and I spent out honeymoon in 2000.

Mission Beach is a beautiful spot. We stayed down at South Mission but all the way up to Bingal Bay is world heritage tropical forest lined with white sandy beaches dotted with black volcanic boulders. Trouble is jelly fish, mosquitos and cyclones. Walking in the tropical forest was impossible, we abandoned one walk because we were almost picked by vampire mosquitos and taken to a nearby island to have all the blood sucked out of us. They were like a black mist. We could not swim at the beach because of box jelly fish, although there was a netted area. And cyclone Yasi had bashed the resort at Dunk Island into oblivion so we could not go there for a visit. We did however go on a little cruise around the islands and had a snorkel at Badarra island and ate coconuts on the beach. And if you come up to this part of the world expect to see Cassowarys. These are prehistoric punk birds which eat everything. Amusing and scary at the same time and not an animal to be messed with. I was starting to think all animals in QLD were tough, weird and a crazy looking.

"What you staring at?" Your bum you ridiculous looking animal. Ed

Kakadu

"I'm from Darwin I should not be in this part of the blog."
Shuddup your a frog, stop talking. Ed.

Leaving the big smoke of Darwin we headed south and east out on the Arnheim Highway towards Kakadu. There was a stop we had to make on the way and that was for the jumping croc's out on the Alligator River. It's called the Alligator River because some bloke called King had seen alligators in South America and mistook our friendly crocs for alligators. He should have counted their exposed teeth or talked to a nine year old called Callam who would have put him straight on the differences. Anyway before we got to the crocs we were able to visit the Windows to the Wetlands centre just up the road. Great place and lots of interactive displays which gave us a great idea of what the Kakadu wetlands are all about.

Down the road we hopped on small boat and headed out with our all female crew for a bit of croc feeding. I think the girl that did the feeding was the same chick in The Girl With A Dragon Tattoo, very wierd, but she was very well behaved and did not kill anybody. The skipper looked a little like Fifi Box but when she talked she was very intelligent, again a bit wierd. Crocs don't actually jump, reallyyyy, no they don't but they get a long way out of the water by using their tails as propellers and their jaws make an awesome snapping sound.

Say arrrrgggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

They are a very impressive animal and although dangerous they have a very likeable smile on their chops.

Mmmm..you look tasty, jump in the water with me.

The creepy thing about these crocs is that they come up to the boat very silently and quickly, sometimes two at a time. This situation needs to be avoided because they are not always friendly to one another, even when making out. A couple of days before we got here there was a large 4.5m albino male that attacked and ate a 2.5m female who made the mistake of possibly thinking he was up for some love action but was obviously not in the mood. The other thing we were told was that for every croc you see there are another eight in the near vicinity. Fall in the water here and you become croc poo very quickly because they can pick up the faintest vibration in the water up to 1km away, that includes a heart beat.

After feeding four "jumping crocs" skipper Fifi turned the boat back and Lisbeth Salander fed these Whistling Kites that swooped out of the air and took pieces of meat only centimetres from her hand. She looked like she might just grab one by the neck for the hell of but she never did.

After a right turn at Jabiru we headed down the Kakadu Highway to Cooinda and Yellow Water. The bugs at this place were thick and imune to any sort of insect repellant. They would fly up your nose, in your ears, eyes, mouth, hair and then bite you. The trouble with Kakadu this time of year is that there is only limited access to some of the spots in the park. Best time of year to visit is June/July where everything is opened but there is also an influx of thousands of tourists. We were lucky enough to be there the day Gunlom Falls were opened. A bit of a steep walk up but worth it for the view from the natural horizon pool at the top. 

View from the top

View from the bottom.

And when in this part of the world a trip on Yellow Water is essential. Although the wet was a bit week this year there still seemed to be plenty of water about and plenty of bird life, there were also resident crocs and for some odd reason very large stingrays which you tend to associate with salt water but these were 100km plus up stream.

Alright who left chewing gum on this branch.

Wetland, very wet it is.

Allo, allo. What's your name then.

Got anything to eat, I'm starving.

Next stop before the Isa after Kakadu du du was what's the Mataranka. Quick swim there with the preferred vote going to Bitter Springs over the Mataranka Springs. Both worthy of a visit, turtles a Bitter Springs but better rocks for doing bombs at Mataranka.

Mataranka Springs

Bitter Springs