So England made it to the World Cup semi-finals! It’s never happened in our lifetime before and of course, it happened when we were 10,000 miles away from home. We wanted to find a pub to watch it but nowhere was open that late so instead we set our alarms for 4 am and watched it in the van. Although it was a disappointing result, they certainly did England proud and I was happy to continue our trip without planning on where to get signal for the games!
We made it to Townsville and I was back in familiar territory. I first came to Queensland with my family in 2014 when we hired a couple of camper vans and drove up to Port Douglas and then down to Brisbane. I was so excited to be back here with Tom and he admitted it was the state he was most looking forward to. He instantly fell in love! The scenery itself was that he hadn’t seen before with the coast on one side and either lush rainforest or the mountains on the other. We were fascinated by the never-ending banana trees and sugar cane fields and the free rest stops seem to be on another level. Not one drop loo was in sight – hurray!
We started our coastal journey up from Townsville, through Cardwell, where we stopped for another ‘famous pie’ and onto Murray Falls. We camped amongst the largest trees with the sound of the waterfall just beside us. It was a pretty epic start. We headed on up to Mission beach, grabbed ourselves a bunch of $2 bananas and sat on the beach for the day, watching the skydivers land on the sand, bringing all the memories back from our skydives a few years back in Adelaide (And secretly wishing we could do it again!)
We then came across our favourite free camp yet, in a place called Babinda, and took the opportunity to stay the entire 72 hours which we were allowed. It was a chance for Tom to catch up on some work and give Barker a well-earned rest for a few days not being on the road. Must admit, ‘aggy Gem’ does seem to come out a bit when I stop for too long, I think boredom and homesickness creep in so, as beautiful as it was with mountains in view and the regular sugar cane train coming past, I was excited to continue our journey north.
Cairns was our next stop which is where we received a surprise video from the Barry’s! I actually knew about the whole thing as I was conspiring with Kate about Tom’s birthday, but he hadn’t a clue. They sent a video (which was so thoughtful, and extremely funny) saying they are going to pay for us both to go on a Great Barrier Reef tour.
It was booked with a company called Silverswift and it was an incredible day – swimming amongst an array of tropical fish and beautiful coral in 3 different locations on the reef. I saw a couple of stingrays too but unfortunately we didn’t get chance to swim with the green sea turtles we had heard so much about. After spotting one from the boat, by the time we got into the water they were nowhere to be seen. We have our fingers crossed we will see them at some point again during our time on the coast. But for now, we certainly were able to tick off the seventh wonder on our bucket list! Thank you so much to the Barry’s!
Of course, we finished the day off nicely with a look around the Cairns night markets and a yummy Chinese tea. We certainly earned it after all that swimming!
We headed up to Port Douglas next with a quick pitstop on the way at Palm Cove. I wanted to show Tom the beach which was always a favourite of mine from my previous trip. But with high winds that day and a big children’s fishing competition going on, we moved on fairly quick. Port Douglas was another special spot, where I last witnessed my big bro propose to his now beautiful wife Lana, it was surreal being back there. No more proposals this time mind, but we did spend two days on the beach enjoying the sunshine. The amount of palm trees here will always amaze me.
Our trip up the tropical north continued to one of our favourite places yet- the Daintree Rainforest. We had to get on a small car ferry across the Daintree river before entering the rainforest. The drive through it was incredible in itself although slightly nerve wracking with steep hills and windy roads with steel drops to the side of us. But Barker and my very good driver Mr Barry got us through very safely. Our campsite on the edge of the rainforest was just perfection – Noah’s Beach. Here we saw where the Great Barrier Reef meets the rainforest. We had the entire beach to ourselves so of course, I had to attempt a few cartwheels in celebration.
We took the opportunity to get the drone up too, capturing one of the most incredible coastlines we have every seen. Photos will never do this place justice, and when 2 large Komodo Dragons decided to surprise us on camp, we knew we were well and truly witnessing what the incredible rainforest had to offer.
After a visit to the Daintree Rainforest Discovery Centre, we headed up to Cape Tribulation which was the furthest north we had planned to go. It greeted us with another incredible beach alined with coconut filled palm trees and cute hermit crabs scuffling around the sand.
We would have loved to have stuck around for longer as no doubt the rainforest would have more surprises in store for us, but with the forecast showing a few wet and rainy days were coming, we decided to head back on the ferry and venture into the mountains. We were recommended by a lady we met in Port Douglas to change it up from the coast and take the route back through Mount Molloy instead. There were some lovely lakes and waterfalls around there and we were so glad we did!
Lake Tinderoo was nice but it wasn’t until we got to Lake Eacham where we got the ‘wow’ feeling. It was stunning, even in the drizzling rain, but we couldn’t help getting distracted by a lady who was getting on her scuba gear before taking to the water. We were told by locals it was a popular spot for swimming in the summer but with signs around saying there was a freshwater crocodile inhabited in there, she was certainly a brave lady! But hey- ‘’it’s just a freshy’’ so apparently pretty harmless to humans…
Another lake we found was Lake Barrine which had a cute teahouse on the water’s edge. With grey moody skies above us, we couldn’t help feel at home and sat with a hot choc, coffee and some homemade scones with jam and cream. How British of us! It was a beautiful spot and where we had a little turtle pop up from the lake to say hi.
It was then that night where we had an ‘ok, I’ve seen it all!’ moment. It was one of the most random free camps we had come across so far. A large patch of grass which was advertised as a ‘free rest area’ was located right in front of a row of houses, with a pub, cafe and petrol station on the other side. Normally, free camps are generally out in the sticks, or atleast well away from residents who I can’t imagine would be too happy about loads of caravans, vans and tents pitched up near their front gardens. And with one public toilet for almost 50 or so campers, it was certainly going to be interesting. Well, that night Tom came to the loo with me as we imagined there would probably be a queue. Instead, we found a group of backpackers washing up their dishes in the hand basin! After seeing us they kindly let me use the toilet but leaving their dirty food dishes in the sink right next to the toilet. The whole thing felt totally gross knowing they were washing their plates and cups up a toilet cubical which was used by every dick and harry, but we couldn’t help but laugh as we left. Oh, the joys of backpacker life hey!
On a less disturbing note, just around the corner the following morning we found a local fruit and veg stall selling four avocados for just $2! And they were without a doubt THE BEST avocados we have ever tasted. We had smashed avo on toast for the next few days and was generally sad when we ran out. We are keeping our eyes peeled for more as buying them from Coles or Woolworths just isn’t the same anymore.
So with the rain drizzling it was time to go chasing waterfalls. It was a great way to spend a rainy day and we found 3 waterfalls along the Milla Milla waterfall circuit. One of which we found ourselves at the top of which made us want to climb down to the bottom. We took a very muddy and wet route down and unfortunately it totally wasn’t worth ruining my white trainers for. But the other 2 were incredible!
Soon enough we were back on the coast in Townsville with no more rain in sight! We took a very hot and sweaty hike up Castle Hill which had a 360-degree view of the city. We knew it was the exact spot Tom’s best friend Matt had proposed to his lovely Sophie just August last year so we couldn’t help reenact their photo to send to them. I’m sorry readers but still no other proposal occurred this time either.
We stayed in a camp nearby, joined by a little possum outside our van that night before we set sail to Magnetic Island, aka. Maggie Island for Tom’s birthday weekend. He was finally joining the 27 club and I don’t think it will be one he forgets any time soon. We decided to take Barker with us on the car ferry and stay at the Koala Bungalow Village. We made the most of the first day simply relaxing on the beach at Horseshoe Bay. It was the largest beach on the island and I spotted the kayaks straight away. We took a double kayak out for an hour and made our way over to White Lady Bay which is apparently only accessible for sea. I think it’s safe to say Tom was in his very relaxed birthday mode already…
We made sure we were back in the koala village by 4 pm that day as we were told the Laurekeets feeding time wasn’t to be missed. We joined a group at the feeding area and were in for a shock. Tom and I were the first to get some food for the birds which I can only describe as feeling like soggy biscuits in our hands. We made our way to the little bridge where the birds were waiting noisily above us. Within seconds we were swooped with birds landing on every inch of our arms, shoulders and heads. I felt like the pigeon lady from Home Alone 2. Their claws were so sharp, scratching up my wrists I quickly decided to leave my food on the side and capture some photos of Tom instead. With birds even landing on my phone it wasn’t easy but it was so funny to watch Tom become birdman.
I woke Tom up on his birthday with a coffee and cooked breakfast in bed before making our way around the island to explore. We got to Arthur Bay were we had a snorkel and saw a stingray, Nelly Bay where we saw rock wallabies who were enjoying our kiwis, and Arcadia Bay where we relaxed in the sunshine until our ferry was due at 3.30pm.
So that pretty much brings us up to now. We’ve had a nice relaxed week in Home Hill, an hour South from Townsville and 2 hours north from Airlie Beach. It’s a town surrounded by sugar cane factory’s and we keep finding burnt black sugar cane pieces in the van which seem to be flying around the place. But really it’s been a fairly uneventful week with Tom working, and me taking my walks around Ayr Park, catching up on Love Island and enjoying the sunshine.
Tomorrow we make our way to Airlie Beach, where we await our Whitsundays Island tour which we have booked for the weekend. As you can imagine, I’m feeling incredibly lucky right now.
Gemma.