We arrived in Cairns safely although slightly tired after a 6am flight and losing an hour as Queensland don’t have daylight savings so it was 9.30am and we were wondering the streets of Cairns putting in time until we could check in!! Cairns is OK as a town with a nice laguna and waterfront as well as a big shopping centre so we managed to put the time in although in parts its a bit like a bigger tackier Portrush so for me not somewhere I wanted to spend long in. When we arrived at the hostel we were told of a free bbq that evening – good result!!
The next morning refreshed and pretty excited we went to pick up our campervan. To us it was massive compared to tiny Murgatroyd the spaceship but having spent a week in it its still pretty cosy. We have named it Vinnie the van...yes we do have too much time on our hands!!
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| The inside of the van during the day! |
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| A happy traveller! |
Our first day was spent driving north out of cairns along Captain Cooke Highway. We visited Port Douglas for a few hours and had our picnic here – this is where I will spent xmas with the Jess clan so we just went for a nosey – it really is gorgeous I am excited!! That evening we basically lived out my camper vanning dream parking in a site beside the beach, cooking our dinner on the free beachside electric bbqs and spending the evening chilling out to the sound of the waves – this is definitely the life!! The next morning we got up and went for a run along the beach front and finished it off with a nice swim – what could be better!! The pic below was a well deserved breakfast after all our exercise!
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| Port Douglas |
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| Post run breakfast...the sea between the trees! |
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| Living the dream :) |
We then started our long trip South and chose to avail of a free camp in an area outside the tablelands called Babinda. Here we took a walk round the Boulders which is a pretty cool river full of massive boulders formed by the water pressure. This area is called the Cassowary coast after an animal – most people haven’t managed to see one of these on their trip but in the continuing trend of us being quite lucky on the local wildlife hunt there was one eating on the site of the road when we drove through – they are basically just a giant turkey with a blue face, quite strange looking!!
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| A cassowary! |
The rest stop was perfectly adequate and we had an early morning run before leaving for our next stop which was Mission Beach. We had heard alot about mission beach but the reality of it was slightly different. It is a tiny town with a stunning beach and seafront. There were maybe 3 restaurants/cafes/bars and the most expensive corner shop ever – we were expecting something slightly more lively from its reputation. We decided to chill out and spend 2 nights here which was lovely. The day times were spent with me sun bathing and James chasing the shade around the beach. The sea here is not safe to swim in at this time because of the stinger jelly fish but certain areas have erected stinger nets which is brilliant so we were able to enjoy some regular swims to cool us off.
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| Gorgeous Mission Beach! |
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| swit swoo!! |
We had 2 bbqs in the evenings sitting near the beach in the communal area offered by the campsite, having picked up some meat deals in the reduced isle of the supermarket – it was tasty and we felt like true locals having a Barbie on the beach!
Sky diving is very popular here so we enjoyed watching them coming in to land on the beach every couple of hours. Our only problem here was the humidity in the evening – the van got very warm even with the windows open, apparently northern Queensland is renowned for its heat and sticky climate. We were hoping that as we got further down it would cool off a bit – just for the night times though, I was loving it during the day!!
We left Mission beach having had a lovely few days and feeling very chilled out and headed for a free camp area 26km North of Townsville called Saunders Beach. Woah – we were so pleased when we arrived at it. You can never be quite sure what to expect of these ‘free camps’ some are just basically rest stops on the side of a road where you are lucky to get running water but this was fantastic. Literally a stones throw from the beach, plenty of shady campsites, an electric bbq and even a special luxury...cold showers!!
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| Free cold showers! |
There was such a relaxed atmosphere here not even a bar or restaurant within 10km and mostly other backpackers in the site so we decided to stay for 2 nights. Sadly here we could not swim in the sea but the cold showers served as a useful alternative and I was able to continue to do some tanning!! In the evening the sunset into the sea was stunning so I did my best with my basic photography skills to capture this!
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| Sunset over the beach |
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| Saunders during the day! |
We left Saunders beach towards Ayr but stopped for the day in Townsville. Lonely Planet described it as Australias most underrated city, at first impressions the coast line and the waterfront are stunning. They have been through a big restoration in recent years and have a lovely esplanade the whole length of the coast and a purpose built swimming pool surrounded by grass to relax on, the place had a lovely atmosphere. The main CBD itself was definitely not worth the visit it is very run down with very few shops and not a great vibe, we were glad we visited the waterfront for a swim anyway!
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| Our welcome to Townsville!! |
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| The purpose built Laguna! |
This week from Wed morning to Fri lunch we are doing a sailing cruise on the Whitsunday Islands which will involve some snorkelling on the Great Barrier Reef. I can not wait for this and the boat we are on looks really lovely - so the next blog should be quite exciting! I will defo be on the search for Nemo and hopefully some turtles!
I have to say so far the adventure with Vinnie has lived up to all my expectations and the beaches along the East Coast of Australia, as everyone had told us, are simply stunning. Prior to this trip some people may have laughed at my ability to read a map or navigate anywhere but I now consider myself an expert and one of our daily night-time routines is having a wee look at the map and make sure we are happy with the next days driving and sussing out where our next place to camp is – check us out!!
Until next time....
xxx
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