Monday 14 Sept

Monday morning came and JJ's driver took us to Traveller's Auto Barn to pick up our campervan which would be our home for the next 23 days. It wasnt as impressive as we expected; it was very cramped (that much we did expect) and a little grotty, but we thought we'd just have to get used to that. Rob drove to begin with (even though we'd recently found out that his license had expired!). We'd decided to take turns and drive a day each and I let Rob go first as I'm always a little nervous driving in places I dont know. Motorways, fine, but in towns and cities I let Rob do the hard work while I try the navigating! Our first stop was at Coles supermarket to stock up on food for the next few days. We spent a small fortune on stuff we thought we may need, including a couple of cd's for the stereo and some speakers so we could play out our MP3 players.

A couple of hours down the Bruce Highway we stopped at our first town, Mission Beach. It was a really small town and we found a campsite right on the beach front for just $20 a night. Once we'd sussed the place out, we got back in the van and drove down the road to the 'drive-thru bottlo' to buy a couple of beers so we could have a drink while watching the sunset later on - only in Australia would you find a drive-thru off licence! Fab!

The first issue we had on returning to the campsite was with trying to fill the water tank for the sink. We tried for ages to get the water to go down the hose instead of all over the grass, I stood there trying to block the gaps with my hand to try and direct the water into the pipe, but it wasnt working! There was an elderly couple parked up in the bay next to us so we asked the man if he could help us or show us what we were doing wrong. It was then we realised that there was a piece missing from the hose pipe which we needed to properly attach it to the tap. Luckily he had just bought one for his van which he let us borrow for a while. But it still didn't seem to work and the tank didn't hold the water; there was nothing coming from the tap when we turned it on but water then started to pour out of the underside of the van. So DIY man Cliff decided he would have a look under the van to see if there was a blockage anywhere. He fiddled with something under the van, then seemed to have a confused look on his face as he passed Rob a rusty bracket which had been holding something on which he had unintentionally pulled off. Oops! He then unscrewed something that he could only just reach and pulled out a rubber tube from underneath which had a metal filter inside which he took out. He passed that to Rob too telling him it was the water filter which might be blocked and stopping the tank from filling up. Me and Rob looked at each other trying not to giggle! Then he fixed it all back together again, we turned the main water tap on again and then tried the sink tap. It seemed to work this time so we thanked Cliff for his help (hoping that the missing rusty bracket and water filter would go unnoticed when we came to returning the van!). With all this hassle, we'd missed the sunset and it was now getting dark.

We got into the van, shut all the doors and windows to keep the mozzies out and turned on the lights......which didn't work! We turned on the engine to see if that would make a difference which it did, so we had to keep the engine running while we made something to eat. This ended up being a bowl of cereal washed down with beer! The microwave wasn't working properly either so we decided to leave it plugged into the power all night and have a proper dinner the next day. We couldn't be bothered then to make the beds up so for the first night decided just to sleep on the sofas the way they were. Which was fine for me, but they were really narrow and not very long, so Rob was a bit uncomfortable.

Tuesday 15 Sept

The next morning we checked the microwave and the lights to see if they worked properly after being charged all night. They were still the same. Rob checked on the plug and realised that stupid me hadn't put the plug in properly so a whole night's charge was totally wasted! Doh!

The campsite showers were great, not what we expected at all, more like a very clean hostel. We were already getting irritated with each other because of the lack of space in the van, tripping over each other all the time and having to go under the seats to get clothes out of our bags and things. God only knows how we would have coped if it wasnt a hi-top van and we weren't even able to stand up in it! So we ended up with a bit of a falling out that morning! We had a wander up and down the beach, enjoying the sunshine, watching the kids playing and the skydivers landing on the sand. We checked out of the campsite and drove up the coast a bit to the information centre where they were having a free exotic fruit tasting session. That was really interesting. Gave us the opportunity to try some strange looking fruits that we would otherwise not have a clue about. Most of them looked really ugly but tasted really good! One of them, called a sapotte, looked like a mouldy wrinkled green pepper but tasted like chocolate.

Our plan that day was to head to Townsville and stay one night before getting on a boat across to Magnetic Island the next morning. We passed some funny named towns on the way, one called 'Murdering Point'! Hate to think how it got its name, but not somewhere we'd like to end up! It was my turn to drive and I was a bit nervous at first. Asking Rob stupid things like when there was a slow moving vehicle in front of us, "ooohh what do i do??!" (like I've not been driving for 13 years!) and getting left and right mixed up (that will always be a problem with me, just doesn't seem to stick!).

Once we got to Townsville we checked out the prices for ferry tickets over to Magnetic Island. It was really expensive to go over with the van, so we decided we would leave the van and go over on foot the next morning. We were trying to save money and we'd heard that some people in their campervans just pull up on the side of the road at night to sleep, then leave early in the morning before anyone pulls them up on it. We didn't want to be spending money at campsites every night, so we thought that we would try to find a space on the beach front to park for our second night and see how it worked out. We drove up and down the Strand for ages trying to find a suitable place to park which was near some public toilets and far enough away from the police station! We'd swapped drivers by then as I was starting to get frustrated not knowing where to go. We pulled in and out of a few spots, I felt way too conspicuous and not at all comfortable settling in for the night as there were so many people around and I felt we looked a bit dodgy. Although there did seem to be a few other campervans around with the curtains closed so we eventually settled on a spot near the toilets and under trees which looked a little darker than other places (after a bit more bickering!). We were still paranoid that people were watching us, ready to pull us up on it, but it turned out alright in the end. We pulled the bed out properly for a more comfortable sleep than the first night. I didn't sleep very well that night still expecting someone to come knocking on the van asking us to move.

Wednesday 16 Sept

After clock watching for a few hours in the morning, it finally got to 6.30am and I got up, waking Rob up at the same time, got dressed and was ready to move on before we got caught. We decided against going to Magnetic Island as we wanted to keep our costs down and we figured we would see so many beaches on our road trip that we wouldnt miss this one. So our next stop was Airlie Beach.

We topped up the petrol tank and set off again down the Bruce Highway towards Airlie. Australia has so many creeks, as we realised as we drove down the East Coast, every one of them named. We passed a few on the way with interesting names: there was Christmas Creek, Goodbye Creek, Little Goodbye Creek, Deadman Creek(!), Captain Creek, Bullholes Creek and Baffle Creek to name a few! We drove through a small town called Bowen where we think the film 'Australia' may have been filmed. They had a 'Bowenwood' sign and a welcome sign saying 'Baz, Nic and Hugh all loved Bowen - we hope you do too!'. It was only a small town but we got lost driving around it and trying to find our way out. We had another little falling out, each of us thinking we were right with our different directions. I have absolutely no sense of direction at all so usually I'm wrong, but this time I think I was right and we eventually found our way back to the highway!

We arrived at Airlie Beach and parked up near the bus station to go and find a tourist information centre and get some info on campsites. The one we found was ok, the bathrooms were a bit dirty, we didnt have a power site and there wasnt much light, but it would do for one night. We booked a trip to the Whitsunday Islands for the following day and spent the rest of the afternoon lounging around in the sun by the gorgeous lagoon then stuffed our faces with fish and chips knowing we wouldn't be able to cook in the van again. Back at the van the lights were still not working well and without any outside light it was difficult to get any concept of time without a watch. We showered and got the van ready for sleeping and realised.... it was only 7.25pm! We are such party animals! Haha.