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Today i am writing our second camper van week from the passenger seat while Tom drives us down from Rockhampton to Agnes Water where we are going to be diving on the Lady Musgrave reef. It is one of the most stunning reefs on the Barrier Reef and we cant wait. Last week then...
Monday we woke up in our free layby park and magically the many toilet bugs had disapeared leaving a trail of only a few victims that had obviously been squashed by people. We got on the road and headed to Babinda Boulders. These are huge boulders in a valley with a running river. We were hoping we could have a free shower like the lady in the picture but when we got there a lot of the boulders had been fenced off and you could only access view points. This was because a lot of people had lost their lives over the years when clambering on the rocks and the force of the water had sucked them under. We were happy to watch from the viewpoints and found a slow running part of the river that we could swim in so had a morning dip as this was the first day that Tom could swim after his tattoo. The water was crystal clear and there were no crocs. We drove back south intoInnisfail where we stocked our bare cupboards and fridge with new food and our empty tank with fuel for the next leg of our journey south. Our next stop was Mission Beach. We had heard a lot about the beach so were expecting some kind of buzz but there wasnt much. The highlight was seeing the skydivers jump the beach. As we walked down the beach we saw a couple of familar faces...Liss and Andy sunbathing. We stood in their sunlight and woke them up promising that we werent stalking them, big coincidence though as they had been heading north when we were going south last Friday. We had another swim in the sea here where there were stinger nets. The water was like a bath, it was sooo warm. It was lovely and the fact that I knew that no sharks could get in meant that we stayed in longer because I didnt wimp out! Once we had seen enough of Mission Beach we arranged to catch up with Liss and Andy that night further down the coast and got in our van to start the trip. Now our van is quite nippy but we are being fuel conscious and at times the wind blows the hi top like a sail, therefore 60 mph is our maximum speed. Tom calls it driving miss daisy, I find it relaxing as we get a chance to watch the world go by, it is pretty funny when a doube length lorry overtakes us though! Although we set off early, Liss and andy overtook us...we didnt see them again until we got ot our camp for the night. Before we got there though we had to have a beer mission as we had run out of our golden necter, so we drove 10km into town to collect a crate of Chang beer, it was worth the drive. Our camp tonight was free to. We parked next to a crazy man who had been staying there for a while and loved the place, more to come on him. We were right on Saunders beach and it was dark when we arrived. We made thai salad and satay prawns for dinner, a treat, you could tell it was shopping day, and went emptied half the crate of beer but again had a brilliant night with the others and another late one!
Tuesday we woke in a hot sweat with muggy heads. The mornings are so hot. It gets to about 25 degrees by 7am so you slowly cook as you wake up in the van. Our neighbour was also up...playing country music and singing loudly. When we got out of our van he was all 'mornign neighbours'. He told us to go to the beach and stay here for a few days because it was beautiful. He told us they have sand, sea and fishing! Basically a beach then! After our walk on the beach we returned to find that he now had a harmonica and was playing along to his music with it...badly. His harmonica was badly interspursed with a few cries of singing from him to. The harmonica sounded like he was having an asthma attack into it, you just heard a horrible wheezing noise as he blew it randomly to his tunes. It was hard to not to laugh. We decided to get on the road before he asked us to join in and sing along wiht our eyes closed, like a jouous rendition on kumbaya. Today we went into Townsville in the hope of a good shopping centre. When we were in Peru, we had a little acident where the camera was dropped. We think that the focus sensor has broken, so its pretty temperimental. We have contacted our insurance company and we can claim when we get back to the UK, so as this is a trip of a lifetime, we are going to buy a new one to make sure we dont miss out on any pics. Townsville however, was not the place to buy this. The place is huge, but the shopping centres arent so great. We visited their new centre which everyone seemed very proud of, but it was tiny and didnt have what we needed, other than 2 advent calendars and a christmas cd,so we decided to go to the Reef Aquarium instead! This is meant to be the worlds largest living coral reef in an aquarium. It was brilliant!! They had sharks and all of the sealife from the Australian coast which was good. They also had a marine stinger sign which reiterated crocodile dungees comment and stated that a sympton of a jellyfish sting was a 'feeling of impending dooooom', hmmm we need full body wesuits and hoods! The childrens section here was pretty fun, and empty, so we made the most of the interactive items. Oh, and we got to wear a fishbowl hat, its in the pictures. After the aquarium we carried on down towards The Whitsundays. Enroute there was nothing, for miles, and miles, and miles, other than we did see a couple of cows bonking, which is always rather amusing so that was a highlight. Bowen was our stop for the night and as it was dark we woke up the campsite lady and checked in. BBQ night, peri peri chicken and sweetcorn, very nice, pretty windy night though so we stayed in the van. Schoolies disturbed us in the night racing around the area...ah bless, gits.
After filling the van with water (which was brown), we went to discover more of Bowen. The brochure sold it very well. It is the first town on the Whitsunday coast and some fab beaches. The beaches were stunning but we werent in the mood for sunbathing today so we headed down to Airlie Beach...to join the Schoolies!!!!! Now in Austalia you graduate from high school at 17 and they all migrate to certain towns where they hold Schoolies events. We did our research and found hat they pay $25 for a pass which gives them discounts in the town and also access to a nghtly Schoolies area where they have live music and picnic tables with food (like a scout camp). Its a greta idea but if you can imagine 1500 17 years old being allowed out on their own and overunning a town, that was Airlie beach...it was Knarly duuuuude!!! (We should stop saying that really, I shouted it out of the window down Airlie highstreet and got some odd looks!) It was manic but it was good fun. We got asked for ID to buy beer one night and even got an 'ID checked' stamp to wear proudly on our arm. We also got asked if we would buy a group of lads some alcohol but had to decline because there are a lot of police patrolling and the fine for it is $2500...nearly 2000 pound, i dont think so. We had agreed to stay a couple of days here to take in the atmosphere so we checked out the local PADI dive shop to see about getting Toms Scuba Diver qualification upgraded to Open Water. They told us that they could do it, but it was extortionate and would take up too much time so we crossed that of the list. While wondering around we saw a deal for a cheaper open water course...if you brought a 3 days sailing trip. It tempted us and so we trawled the shops for good deals on sailing trips around the Whitsundyas that included diving. Hmmm, what a palyground to explore. Our camp was out of town as the Schoolies had hogged most of the others, although our one was still overrun with them. We caught a bus back into town so that we could have a bit of a partay night and some beers in town. When we got on the bus, the driver asked us where we were from, 'England', he asked where 'Everywhere', he then asked us of we knew NEwbury, in fact a small place outside of Newbury, Thatcham. How weird. He lived there for years, just like Tom. Tongiht we had a few beers, got id'ed, Tom had fish and chips which he regretted because they were horrible and I broke my sunglasses, not the place to be without them. We caught the bus back once the Schoolies started to fall off curbs and had obviously had a few too many of their alchopops. We were wetting ourselves watching one poor lad sitting at the bus stop dancing ot himself, really energetically, then he got on the bus and passed out on the seat looking like he had a bad night ahead of him. When we got back to our campsite, there were 3 police cars and a gang of Schoolies, looked like they had had a bit of fun to!
Thursday was our swimming an sunbathing day. Our campsite looked a mess. The toilets had loo roll everywhere and some of our neighbours sites were great. Imagine a group of 17 year old boys who maybe havent been allowed away much before. There was a site with a camper on, a tarpaulin awning and underneath the awning a bombsite. Surviving on coke, pizza and crisps, it looked like the place had got so untidy that they had abandonded it. The site next to it was more, um, minamilist? There were 2 blow up beds...under a tarpaulin roof. Brilliant! We booked a day trip today. We agreed that a day trip on the Whitsundays would be enough and we would save for more trips further down, so we were booked for Saturday. Today, not much happened. The highlight was our dinner, after getting help from our German neighbour Micheal to find the plug socket in the dark. We had to have a powered site so we could charge our camera so we made use of the microwave and ended up with scrambled egg noodles and smash and gravy which soon resembled wallpaper paste and gravy. It did fill us up though, we dont have much of an appetite here because its so damm hot!
Friday morning was domesticated morning. We washed our clothes before they walked out to wash themselves and sorted the van out. We drove quickly to Shute Harbour to have a look, it was nice, it was a harbour. Friday was the day to kill before our trip and before we could move on so we drove out to Dingo beach and Cape Glocester. Part way there we realised we didnt have enough petrol to get there and back and it was in the sticks, so we had to go back and get some. I was asked if i was German by the cashier, something Tom found funny. Part of the drive was on an unsealed road, a gravel track, which we shouldnt have been going on, so we went very, very slowly down it. The hill called 'Oh my God Hill' said it all. The views though, as ever, were worth it. After a sit on the beach, we went back to Airlie, stopping for a quick look in the shopping centre for books. It was here that we found that in Australia, they sell puppies in pet shops. We stood for ages playing with the pups through their pens. Ahhhh, we want one! Dragging ourselves away we got back to Airlie and started some online Christmas research. Now Sydney being one of the most popular holiday destinations in Australia for Christmas and New Year, you would assume that we had it all sorted and booked...you would be wrong...everyone else has and there is not much left! Panic stricken we e mailed campsites in Sydney and crossed fingers for some space. After that concern we dampend our worries with a beachfront beer. Just in time, we left the bar we were in and collected some dinner on the way back to our van. Just as i popped into the toilet, fireworks on the beach started. I dashed out and we watched them for ages. They were brilliant. Tongith was some kind of event at the sailing club which we joined. There was live music, beer tents and fireworks. We sat on the beach and listened to the music whilst watching all the new Schoolies sweethearts say their final farewells to eachother. We alsow atched this kid who was Crazy! He had found a group of 3 girls and was trying to impress them. I think he may have scared them though, he was probably about 8 and was a wicked dancer. He was doing the moonwalk in front of them and every now and then would dive on the floor in time ot the music before rolling on his back and doing the bike pedalling. He was hilarious, he looked like he had had too many blue smarties and was high on E numbers. He also looked like he was dancing in fast forward, it was entertaining! We were planning on another free camp tonight and were going to shut our curtains and pretend we werent in our van, however we saw a load of campers move on so Tom went to ask whether they were staying there or not. They told us that the police were hot in that car park and so they were heading to the marina where there was a 'sign issue'. We jumped in our van and drove there before the spaces went and they were right there was a sign issue. One no parking sign points right, 200m further on a no parking sign points left, therefore the middle 200m has no signs, the perfect loophole. We were fine camping there, no police came to move us one, the only wake up we got were more schoolies, whispering at the windows 'we know your in there sleeping', cheeky buggars.
Early wake up Saturday for our trip around the Whitsundays. We had time for brekky and a brew before meeting our boat. We were still in 2 minds as to whether to dive or not but had heard that you can see as much snorkelling and diving here as its so shallow but we could decide on the boat so planned to play it by ear. Today was brilliant. We sat on the front of the boat and dangled our legs over as it raced through the water. The scenery was fantastic and being on a boat reeminded us of all of the boats we had to travel on in Thailand. Our first stop was Hill Inlet Outlook and Whitehaven beach. We got to shore by dingy and made our way up through to the bush. When the trees opened up the view was out of this world. Wow. The sky was bright blue and the sea was that azure colour. In the shallows you could see the mantarays swimming and the sand was the whitest sand ever. This was a real moment and view to remember and something we always will (have a look at the pictures). The water looked good and we had to get in so we walked down the hill to the beach. Although the stingers are meant to be about, the water is so clear, it is probably clearer than bath water. We jumped in and spent ages in the sea just taking in the sight around us. Big fish swam round our legs and 5m away the rays got closer. At one point we could see 5 rays all about 5 - 10m away from us. It was amazing and something that word and even pictures could never do justice. 2 hours on the beach passed and we made our way back to the boat where we had lunch. After lunch we travelled further round the islands and to the top of Hook island where we stopped in Mantaray bay. We were so lucky as there are only 2 mooring sites here and when we arrived, both boats went so we had the place to ourselves. We donned our sexy wetsuits and fins and jumped in for an hours snorkelling. Below us were fish the length and width of my upper body. Giant bright blue wrasse with big lips. The coral was beautiful, although you could see the effects of coral bleaching and some was very white, when it shouldnt have been. We saw zebra fish, rainbow fish, blue clams, yellow snapper and loads of jellyfish! One even went into Tom face and i was trying to scream at him through my snorkel, but didnt get him. I think i got stung by one on my ankle but it was just like a lnettle sting and nothign to worry about. We got run into by a chinese lady with a swimming noodle, daft apeth and i got pretty cold because my wetsuit was too big so went back on the boat for a cuppa and some cake, perfect. We met a couple on the boat today who we have been asked by to go to Fraser island so we are hoping we can catch up with them further down the coast. Whilst talking to them, a lady that they had been talking to in the mroning joined us, she was funny. She had travelled loads. She did have a funny way though, every question she asked you, she started talking about something else before you had a chance to answer. After 20 mins, it got a bit frustrating so we went back inside for more cake! We sat at the back of the boat with some shade for the rest of the trip as 3 Israli girls had lay down and spread out on the front so there was no space for anyone, never mind, shade was needed.We were nearly back to the harbour when we stopped to collect a couple whose engine had quite literally fallen off the back of their fishing boat. Tom craked a few wise jokes, which they probably wouldn't have found funny even if they had heard them. Back at the harbour we checked our van for clamps and as were relieved that there were none. We wanted to get on the road tongiht so headed back towards Bruce Highway (the one road from the top to the bottom, easy!) On the way, we went inland to Ceder Falls which looked great in the book. In reality, there was no water, so no falls, just rocks. We met a lady who was going to camp there that night and quite clearly wanted us to stay for company. The place had an odd feeling and was in the middle of a forest in the middle of no where so we declinded and carried on to where we had planned to stay. The campsite was cheap and the wildlife there was great. At one point, above my toilet cubicle there were 5 geckos and i kept asking them not to jump on me. Outside of our van the grass was covered in toads to, we had a little menageree for the night.
Sunday was another early morning to get ourselves sorted for a trip to Mackay. It was only about 100km from where we were and we had planned to visit the suger factory (as its a big sugar cane area) on the way...but it was closed...as was everythign in Macay. Sunday is still as it was in England 10 years ago. Everyone goes to the beach it seems. Nothing to do, we decided to head to Rockhampton. We like to try to call home on Sunday and wanted to get our blog sorted so we thought that Rockhampton being a city / big town would be a bit buiser so we started the 345km drive. We stopped for lunch, more puppy shopping and a quick buy of a crossword book to keep us occupied. The journey wasnt bad, just long, and samey. We camped on the edge of the Fitzroy river where there were signs to stay away from the edge because of the crocs. We asked our campsite if there was an internet cafe nearby, he told us there was 1 in the town, but only open during business hours. Typical.We thought we would try Mcdonalds out on the Ipod so we could check our e mails for Chrismas camping and of course, as we were there had to have a Mcdonalds for dinner. We are pleased to say that this is the first one we have had since being here, other than a bacon roll in Cuzco before the jungle, well done us. After the long drive, the night was short.
Monday, there was life back in the town. After having enough of the internet issues, we made the decision to get a notebook so today was the day where we brought our laptop and replaced our camera. This took a few hours so once we were all brought we stocked our cupboards at Coles and drove towards the Capricorn Coast where we paid over the odds for a campsite with power and wifi so that we could play with our new toy. BBQ night with kangaroo kebabs. They were interesting. Really dark meat, almost like liver if rare. Tom loves them, im not convinced but i think thats because i see their faces when i eat them, ah! We read the camera manual this time and found new things we can do with it, should have done that before, oops. Tom called his family and chased a bush turkey with the webcam to show them, all in all an exciting day...other than the stone chip we got in our windscreen, which cost us about the same as the saving we made on our toy deal. Sods law.
So now, its Tuesday 1st December. This morning we opened day one of our advent calendar and tonight i get to put our decorations up. I know its early but we need some Christmas cheer here as the 36 degree heat makes it feel very un like Christmas time! We had our windscreen repaired, and are now a bit closer to Agnes Water. We are hot, sticky and tired from a wicked week
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