It’s been a couple of weeks since we blogged, so we’ll try to fill you in on our East Coast Aussie adventures. We had a nice couple of days in Cairns where we took a tour to snorkel the Great Barrier Reef. It was amazing and like nothing else we’ll ever see. You couldn’t have painted the colours of the reef they were so vibrant. We saw thousands of fish, small and big but luckily no sharks. They said we would be really lucky to see a shark as they have been overhunted and are dwindling in numbers. They have a “Save the Sharks” program that they are all very passionate about….if it was up to me, I wouldn’t be saving any. We had a beautiful day on the water and were really lucky because the skipper told us that for the previous two weeks it had been cloudy and rainy with huge waves that overtook the boat so nobody could sit outside.
We hit the road after three days in Cairns in our campervan “Chowder”, who you can all read about in her own blog. We have been staying in roadside rest areas for free and showering in places where six months ago wouldn’t have even attempted it. With frogs, toads, lizards and of course spiders hanging out, we quickly wash off in the cold water. We have even used the showers at some gas stations. If feels pretty weird to go fill up and then grab your towel, shampoo and soap and head in for a shower! We’ve stayed at some really nice places too with clean facilities and beautiful scenery.
Our first destination out of Cairns was to Mission Beach, but it was pouring down rain so we didn’t get to enjoy it in the sun. It looked like it would be beautiful on a sunny day with coconut trees lining the white sand beaches. One thing that bothered us about the north was that you can’t swim in the ocean because of the deadly box jellyfish. Some beaches have “stinger nets” where a section of the beach is roped off with nets protecting you from the jellies but for the most part you can’t swim at all. These jellyfish can kill you within a matter of minutes as they release a neurotoxin that attacks you in no time. It’s unfortunate that in the hottest places in Australia, you can’t enjoy the ocean but there isn’t much you can do and it’s certainly not worth risking it. Most towns and cities along the way have swimming pools right by the ocean so that is what most of the locals use to cool off.
We continued on to Airlie Beach, which is the gateway to the Whitsunday Islands. It was a small coastal town filled with backpackers eager to see the islands. We unfortunately, couldn’t do a Whitsundays tour because of a huge cyclone that hit a couple of days earlier. There were trees down, flooding and a lot of other damage that they have estimated will cost in the hundreds of millions to repair. Many of the tour boats were also destroyed in it, so the tour companies were struggling to get back up and running as soon as they could. We were really happy that we decided to see the reef in Cairns and not there.
We put in a couple of long driving days to get through the heavy rains. There wasn’t much to see for quite a few miles, except for banana plantations and sugar cane. We stopped at a couple of rest stops for the night along the way until we arrived in Rainbow Beach. We have tried to make it somewhat of our mission to avoid the tourist traps. It seems that everyone is on the same route and schedule but we are tired of tours and other money grabbing tricks so we have stayed in some really unique places with very few people around. We skipped Hervey Bay (the gateway to Fraser Island) and went to Rainbow Beach instead. Some people think we are crazy for coming to Australia and not going to the Whitsundays or Fraser Island, but we are completely content with what we’ve been doing and seeing. We met some amazing people there (one Flemish guy, one Greek girl, and an Italian guy). We spent the day and night with them camping on the beach and had a great time barbequing up a storm and drinking too much “goon” (4L $10 boxed wine). We hung out for most of the second day as well before continuing on to Noosa (where the surfing gets good). Alex and Alex (the couple from Greece and Italy) were also heading in that direction so we made plans to meet up with them and camped with them for a second night in Sunshine Beach, just outside of Noosa.
Since entering the areas where you can safely swim in the ocean we have been spending a lot of our time at the beach and in the water. The waves are huge and the rip currents strong, but it’s a lot of fun. The water is like bath water so you can stay in for hours and not get cold. After Noosa, we said goodbye to Alex and Alex as they had to be back to return their van in Sydney and we drove to a small town called Caloundra where we camped at a rest stop and visited the home of Steve Irwin- the Australia Zoo! It was a really cool day and we took in a crocodile show.
After the zoo it was off to Nimbin. For those of you who haven’t been or don’t know, Nimbin is a small village that is stuck in the sixties and full of hippies. It’s only one small street lined with Hemp stores, “Herbal High” stores and of course your fair share of pot dealers on the street. It really feels as though you’ve entered a time warp…everybody had dreads and nobody wears shoes. We spoke with one lady who said the cops have been cracking down lately, but as an outsider you would never know it as we were asked at least 6 times if we wanted to buy any weed. We spent the night at a small campground there and left the next morning for Byron Bay.
When you are travelling you seem to lose track of a dates and times…that we did. We completely forgot that it was Easter weekend and were unaware that Byron Bay hosts their annual Blues Fest on this weekend. It took us 20 minutes to get into the town and when we got there it was jammed. It’s a great thing to lose track of time like that, but on the other hand we got caught as there was no place to camp for free and the campgrounds were charging a minimum of $85 for an unpowered site. Yes, you read that correctly! We couldn’t believe it. To us, that is essentially $85 for two showers and you would have to be crazy to pay that. We stayed just outside of Byron and are contemplating now whether we will head back in today. Like I said, we are trying to avoid the touristy places to a certain degree and with 85,000 people expected to be in small little Byron Bay that’s probably not where we want to be!
We return our van on Tuesday in Brisbane so we have a couple of more days to spend on the coast and then two days in Brisbane before flying to Singapore on April 8. We haven’t planned any further than that, but we will only spend a night in Singapore before flying to….maybe Kuala Lumpur? We are going to put it a solid planning shift here tonight over some more goon so we’ll keep you posted on our destination!
No comments:
Post a Comment