We arrived in Airlie Beach early Friday morning with the sun shining and the weekend upon us. Weekends are good for us as its the only two days of the week where “things” start happening in these sorts of places. After all, how often do you get markets or events on a Tuesday afternoon in the middle of Australia’s winter?
With some work to do we managed to find a park close to the middle of town where I could crack on and Gemma could lay by their outdoor lagoon that overlooked the bay. With the weather looking perfect for the weekend we were excited for Saturdays departure over to explore the Whitsundays on a two-night-three-day sailing boat tour. That afternoon we checked in to Sea Breeze Holiday park and spent the remainder of the afternoon/evening chilling out by the pool. Saturday morning we drove back into the centre of town to explore the morning markets, snapping up some local produce for our following week back on the road and also buying last minute alcohol and snacks for the boat trip.
We headed down to the harbour later that day to set sail and depart on our mini cruise around Australia’s most famous group of Islands, The Whitsundays. It was hard to know what to expect and we were hoping and praying that we were with a good group of people for the next couple of days and we were not let down. There were about 20 of us, roughly the same age (all millennials) and from all over the world. As we handed our three-man crew our alcohol, quite shamelessly we were part of the only few not to bring a goon (bag of wine) on board. We knew we were already in for a few great days.
Day one we set sail towards Bauer Bay where we got the chance to jump off the boats diving board and have a swim around in the sea before dinner. The boat was parked up for the night. Facing the sunset, we gorged down on some delicious fish and mashed potato (something that we hadn’t had since leaving Adelaide). Later that night we were visited by two reef sharks that swam up to the surface to check out the boat. Apparently, they are attracted to the sound of scrunching a plastic underwater, as demonstrated by one of our crew. We continued to hang-out and have a few casual drinks with the rest of our party and managed to get a relatively early night before the following day’s events – visiting one of the most spectacular beaches in the world.
Day two we were up early at 6am. Somehow me and Gemma ended up getting the short straw and managed to get the worst two top bunks on the boat – mine was right next to the anchor winch which woke me up spritely. I’m thankful though as I managed to be the first one out on deck to watch the boat sail towards the sunrise through Hook Passage. This was easily the most surreal, beautiful and unforgettable experience that I will ever take away from this trip. The water was so still, sailing past the small islands as the sun started to wake up from the calmest of seas, it was almost like we were on a giant lake. Incredible!
Arriving on the south side of the Whitsunday Island later that morning we began the short hike up to the lookout. Again, stunning. I’ll let the picture do the talking. We walked back down to the other side of the island and spent the remainder of the morning spotting stingrays in the shallows, sunbathing, exploring and kicking a football around – just perfection. We headed back to the boat for some lunch before sailing out to some snorkeling spots on Border Island and Mackerel Bay. Beautiful fish, unluckily though for us though, still no sea turtle sightings.
That evening we ended up parking next to another sailing boat with about 10 other people on and invited them on board for a drink or two before dinner. After dinner is when things started to get a little wild. Drinking games, limbo, chanting were just but a few of the antics that we all got up to. It was nice to have some social interaction with other people for a change, other than with ourselves of course.
After a few sore heads the following morning, we again woke up at 6 am to watch the sunrise and headed slowly back to port where we were lucky enough to get up close to some humpback whales, a manta ray, some dolphins and a very random sea snake! We dropped anchor in Mandalay Point for the last few hours of our excursion where we got to use the boats huge inflatable slide, stand up paddle boards and I attempted and failed heavily at perfecting my backflip from the diving board technique.
All in all, it was an incredible few days, spent with some amazing people that we’re probably never going to see again. Highly recommended and would do it all again if we had the chance.
We continued our journey south stopping off at Australia’s famous Bundaberg Rum Distillery. Being a drink that Gemma and I consume regularly, we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to see how the alcohol was made (and of course the free tastings at the end). The tour itself was very interesting, we learned about the rum making process, the history behind “Bundy” and the four tasters we got to sample were sublime. Definitely worth the stop.
Our next major stop was the holiday town of Hervey Bay, where we were going to get on another ferry over to Fraser Island. The worlds largest sand island. Given that the majority of the roads on the island are made of sand, we thought we’d leave Barker on the mainland and get a 4×4 bus tour over. Our tour guide Craig was very informative and showed us the sites. Our first site on the island was Lake Mackenzie, the sand was as pure as we had seen since Lucky Bay in WA and the water was unbelievably clear.
We then moved onto 75-mile beach where we took a spontaneous plane ride over the whole island – when the pilots came on our coach, we both looked at each other and I thought, sod it, let’s do it. Again another unforgettable moment of the entire trip. A 15-minute tour of the whole island from an aerial view. Unfortunately, we didn’t spot any whales or marine life from above but the views were insane and taking off/landing on a beach is pretty special. When landing and meeting up with the rest of our party we moved on to visit the famous shipwreck of the SS Maheno. Just one of the twenty-three shipwrecks that Fraser Island has claimed. To finish the day off we stopped for a walk through Eli Creek and a short trek through a mini rainforest to look at the logging industry that used to take part on Fraser Island. Again another incredible island and tour which we would highly recommend!
Continuing south we headed to Noosa on the Sunshine Coast – still lucky with the warm weather we spent half the day at the beach, exploring the national park where we saw more whales from the shore and two turtles playing around in some hefty waves that were crashing into the rocks beneath us. We were coming across so many locations that we would have loved to have spent more time at but unfortunately, the free camps we were staying at were just too far out and caravan parks on the whole of the East Coast charge a premium.
Gemma and I were always looking forward to getting closer to Brisbane as we knew it would be tourist central, meaning that there would be lots for us to do. Spending the day at Australia Zoo was awesome and easily one of the best zoos that I have been too. The enclosures for all of their animals are huge and we even rocked up to see a cheetah being taken on a walk behind the scenes at the zoo. The legacy that Steve Irwin has created for his family is admirable and his passion for the protection and education for not just Australian wildlife but for animals on a global scale is extraordinary.
The Glasshouse mountains were just down the road which we decided to check out on the following day. A collection of thirteen hills that are just set back from the coastline. We decided to climb the most accessible, Mt Ngungun (pronounced noo-noo). The climb wasn’t as strenuous as Bluff Knoll but it was still worth the view from the top. It would have been an epic spot to watch the sunset, but the breeze coming over the top was chilly so we decided to head back down and head towards our next free camp spot to watch the sun go down.
Our next destination was Brisbane City. We headed towards Southbank as we knew that there were a few markets on. If you hadn’t already noticed. Gemma loves a market, and as long as there is food there, I don’t mind them either. We entered an underground carpark where we had to pay $16 for the first half an hour! We decided to make the most our money and stay for the three at a total of $20. The most we’ve paid all trip for parking! We could have found a cheap campsite for almost that! Nonetheless, the markets were cool and we managed to get over to the city to check the CBD out.
We decided to stay the night on the outskirts so that we could have another day in Brisbane. The following day we ended up finding 4 hours free parking just down the road from where we had remortgaged the van to pay for yesterdays parking. Result! We did, however, end up doing over 10km of walking around the city and botanical gardens in our flip-flops – fail! That night we decided to have dinner in the city and found an epic all you can eat Indian vegan restaurant. It was cool seeing the city at night and it made it almost come alive. The lights everywhere certainly gave it a futuristic feel.
Departing Brisbane we ended up spending the next four nights at free campsites which were just a 30-minute drive away from Surfers Paradise. Which was perfect for us as we bought a 3-day pass to Movie World (theme park), Wet n Wild (water park) and Sea World. The three days were pretty full on but we felt like big kids again, going on all the rides, slides and watching all the sea life shows. It was awesome though. We ended our last day on the Gold Coast with another all you can eat Indian vegan meal (Govinda’s – turns out they have a few restaurants on the east coast).
Almost on the NSW-QLD border, we spent our last day in Queensland at Springbrook national park. I’m surprised Barker made it up the hill as I had to drop him into 2nd at one point going up a 60kmph road. Nervous but proud he made it without any harm. We spent the night at their national park campground and did the Purlingbrook waterfall trail. At the bottom of which I thought a guy was asking us to get out the way so he could take a photo of the waterfall. He was actually pointing out that there was a huge carpet python right at our feet that we had almost trodden on! Non-poisonous but could’ve taken a nibble at one of our legs, nonetheless, I jumped out of my skin when I saw it on the ground in front of us.
Queensland has easily been my favourite state so far. It’s scenery, islands, natural beauty and overall vibe has definitely exceeded all expectations. New South Wales next, who knows what the road has install for us next! Maybe a haircut for me? Or a
Peace out!
Tom