Soooo, I last left you in Airlie Beach I think? Which was a nice place, cute little lagoon, small touristy town. We were doing a helpx (which I wasn’t a huge fan of) there and then we finally headed for the open road - and seem to have had many adventures since!
First we went up to the Atherton Tablelands, which was a lovely area - not completely dissimilar to Shropshire, in fact! Here we spent a few days camping out, swimming in waterfalls and driving round admiring the view. We even got to see platypuses (platipi??) and tree kangaroos, which was very exciting! (All wild, of course.) We did have to sacrifice showering for a few days, but hey, the lakes worked just as well! We also stayed ina wonderful little town that time had long forgotten, and met the local blacksmith, Giles! We found a few characters up in those parts, especially camp site rangers!
After that we drove back east to Cairns, where I finally, after many years of wanting and waiting, scuba dived the great barrier reef. It was stunning - the coral was so much more amazing than that of Thailand - and I saw a little white tipped reef shark, so that was pretty cool!
From Cairns we continued up north to Cape tribulation, and spent a night sleeping in the Daintree rainforest - which was pretty spectacular to wake up in and just lie in the van with the back open watching the sunlight thru the trees. Cape trib is known for being ‘where the rainforest meets the reef’ and the beaches were pretty awesome, with their lush green backdrops.
After a couple of days looking around we got the ferry back across and started our descent south. We stopped again at Cairns (mainly cos we needed to pick up the van registration from the post office!) and then from Cairns carried on to Townsville. Here I did another dive, this time at ‘Australia’s best dive site’, the SS Yongala, an old wreck. The first dive was ok, visability was pretty rubbish tho which was a shame - did see some very big fish tho. I had bought a camera and was going to put new film in between dives, but decided not to bother, so went down on the second dive with only 3 photos left, and…of course, straight away saw a turtle the size of me!!! And then anther smaller a turtle…and then a 2m tawny nurse shark!!!!!!! So annoying. (However, turns out none of the photos came out anyway - you win some, you lose some.) But I was so mesmerised by the huge turtle - he was amazing, and even the smaller one watching him munching away at the coral - I had to be dragged away!
The van, tho wonderful, isn’t without her problems bless her. First we had to buy a new battery, which then ran right down, luckily Dave Hadfield (no relation!!) was there to rescue us, and charged it up for us, then on the way to the battery place the alternator gave in…in the middle of a 6 lane road!!! While I refused to push a van across 4 lanes of solid traffic, luckily a cavalry of locals appeared and helped push and manage traffic. (We proceded to spend our ‘6 months travelling’ anniversary sat on the floor of a garage!) But, thanks to Battery World, we were back on the road before dark.
That night we stayed at one of our many free ‘rest stops’ (we’ve only actually paid to stay ONCE this whole trip - and that was only $3!) which was lovely - right on the beach. We parked near a hedge, as the spots onto the beach were full, but ended up spending the night watching a wonderful display of fireflies, and I even caught (with my torch) a wallaby, a possum, and a wombats arse!!
From Townsville we got the ferry over to Magnetic Island, where a girl I met 3 years ago in India lived. I hadn’t heard from Dominique since India, but I just thought I‘d see if we could find her….and we did! And she was so excited to see us, it was great! She invited us to stay with her and her boyfriend Cam for a few days, and we had so much fun. Dom had to work most the time, but very kindly leant us her car to explore the island, which is gorgeous. Mike and I spent our anniversary looking for koalas (found one, soooooo cute with their little fluffy ears - they just fall asleep in trees and don’t even hold on!!) and feeding rock wallabies on the jetty, then went down to the pub where Dom & Cam worked and had an ‘Aussie Vs Pohms’ pool tournament (I’m afraid to say we let the country down) and dinner.
On her day off, Dom took us on a trek/rock climb which was great fun, got an awesome view of the beach and clambered down between a giant rock split (see photos). She also took us to several very cool sunset spots, and we picnicked in style.
From there we continued south and are now back at Hervey Bay, staying with Catherine (who you will remember from the way up) and her gorgeous boys.
Phew, think that’s everything, sure I’ll think of more later! Hope you are all well, keep the messages coming its great to hear from you all. Lots of love, Hellie & Mike xxxxxxxxxx