...and further up the coast...

Airlie Beach has a nice beach, but apart from that it's basically a strip of bars playing awful dance music, packed full of beautiful young party people in very few clothes. Maybe I'm just too old to appreciate it, but I thought it was one of the most frightful places we've been in Australia! Fortunately we didn't have to spend a long time there, and got ourselves booked onto a day trip to the Whitsunday islands which made up for our miserable night spent trying to find a decent pub in Airlie beach (which didn't exist).

The Whitsundays were beautiful, and the whole boat trip was really nice and scenic and relaxing. We went out to a reef very close to the Great Barrier Reef (unfortunately we didn't make it to the real thing) and did some pretty good snorkeling there.



Then we went onto Whitsunday, the main island, and spent some time on Whitehaven beach which is supposed to be one of the most beautiful beaches in the world. It was beautiful, but one of the annoying things about Australia is that there are a lot of dangerous jellyfish and stingrays and things in the water so it's not possible to swim in many places. Then we went onto a smaller island and had a round of mini golf before heading back to the boat.




From Airlie beach we continued up the coast. I really can't remember all the places now, but the weather has been so nice and hot (FINALLY!) that we've spent a lot of time lounging on beaches and by the campsite pools. One of the highlights was the Atherton Tablelands which is a rainforest area just outside of Cairns, full of narrow winding roads, nice waterfalls and walks.



We treated ourselves to a proper bed that night, since the mattresses our van are not the greatest, and stayed in a kind of eco-hostel in a town called Yungaburra. The hostel staff run free platypus-spotting tours by the river in the village so we went along on that- didn't spot anything, but it was a nice walk all the same.

When we got up to Cairns we met up with Emma and Phil once again, who have now been tempted into camping after hearing our camping tales. They now have a brand new sparkly Jucy campervan with TV, fridge, etc. It put Ivan to shame, but we had the last laugh when Phil went to start the car and the battery was completely dead! We spent a couple of days not doing very much in the city and then went a little further up the coast to Cape Tribulation which is a really pretty area with beaches, gorges and rainforest walks.






That's as far north as we got though, as we had to return Ivan in Cairns today. Now we have just two more days left in Australia before we head off to Singapore. From there we'll make our way in Malaysia and have a few weeks of beach fun and relaxation before we head... HOME!!! Yes, it has come to that time; we have booked ourselves a flight from Kuala Lumpur to London Stansted on May 20th. In some ways we're really looking forward to going home, but now it's so close we're not so sure anymore. It's going to be fantastic to see everyone again, to sleep in a decent bad and not be living out of a backpack all the time. But I'm a bit worried that once we're settled with a house and steady jobs then the monotony is going to set in and we'll wish we were travelling again! We're already thinking about our next trip... And the one after that!

Up the coast

The first two weeks after we left Sydney were pretty wet. In fact, it didn't really stop raining at all. We visited some really nice national parks and quaint coastal towns, but when the visibility is zero it is quite hard to enjoy the scenery. So instead we stayed cooped up in Ivan and played cards. There are worse things.



At Easter we were due to meet up with Andy and Laura, who we had been travelling with in Laos and Thailand. Our destination was Byron Bay, one of the busiest resort towns on the east coast. It was Easter, there was a huge blues festival in town, and we had no booking. We were actually stupid enough to be surprised we found nowhere to stay when we arrived. Being seasoned travellers we didn't panic but instead decided to drive to the nearby hippie town of Nimbin for some reflection. The town turned out to be full of stoned old hippies and psychedelic museums, and more importantly it did not provide us with a revelation to solve our accommodation problems so we decided to drive on. In the end we managed to find a camp site set up at the local rugby club in the town of Mullumbimby, just a short drive out of Byron Bay. It was also the same town where our friends stayed so naturally we headed to the local pub to reward ourselves after a hard days work. The next couple days are a bit hazy.

From Byron Bay we continued up the coast in the rain, skipping a fair few places, until we reached Hervey Bay, where the rain finally stopped. In town there was very little to do but we met Emma and Phil there, who we had previously met in Cambodia, so we decided to stay a couple of days and enjoy the sunshine.



Sun continued to shine and we headed further north. After Hervey Bay we stoppped at Claireview for a night. Not much there but the camp site bar was full of local characters who kept us entertained. From there we drove up to Airlie Beach, and tomorrow we are taking a boat to the Whitsunday Islands.

On from Sydney

On the last night (or what was supposed to be our last night) in Sydney we went to climb up the Harbour Bridge. It's probably not something we would've ever considered doing normally (mainly because I'm a bit funny about climbing things when you can see the ground beneath you) but my dear sister had decided that this would be a good belated christmas present from the family (she did it herself when she was in Sydney last year). So, feeling rather queasy but not wanting to waste a present we went for it. Of course it paid off. It was a bit scary in places (for all those tonnes of iron, it bounces quite a lot!) but the views of Sydney harbour as the sun was setting more than made up for it, and the more we walked, the more I relaxed (I think going at night was a good idea though: when you look down, you see less!!).




The next day we were supposed to pick up our van. However, after being kept waiting for a couple of hours we were forced to leave without the van as our credit card was declined. A bit confused, we went to the cash point only to find that it wouldn't give us even the smallest amount of cash! It was the middle of the night in Finland, so we had to wait several hours until we could call the bank, only to discover that the card had been stopped as we'd exceeded our credit limit by quite a lot! Luckily it was the end of the month and so it cleared the following day, and we were able to go and pick up the van without too much of a problem... the staff at the rental place still looked at us like criminals though!

We've now been travelling for a few days. We were a bit disappointed with the van in the beginning; it's slow, it's cold, the accelerator pedal is sticky so it lurches forward a lot, and it shakes madly whenever it reaches 90 km/h. We named him Ivan after someone really annoying that we met in China! However, after a few days we're starting to get used to his quirks and I'm not sure anymore if it's fair to call him Ivan but we haven't come up with a better name.




The first few days were pretty uneventful; it rained a lot, so we just hung around waiting for it to stop as we didn't want to miss anything. By the third day we'd reached the Hunter Valley (another reknowned wine region) and the weather picked up, so I treated Mikko to a drive around the vineyards while he got to taste all the wines. Then we moved inland a bit to a weird town called Tamworth which is famous for country and western music. There was no music festival going on when we got there, but there was a rodeo show in support of the victims of the bush fires in Victoria, so we went to check that out. We didn't really fit in (not having cowboy hats and checked shirts like everyone else!), but we had a good time anyway. At one point, one of the crazy bulls decided he was going to try and make it over the barrier to join the spectators. Fortunatly he didn't make it but he gave everyone quite a fright and I'm happy we weren't sitting any further forward!

The next day there was a pumpkin festival (I told you it was a weird place!) so of course we had to go and check that out. Needless to say, a lot of pumpkins of weird and wonderful sizes, plus a guy shearing sheep while wearing a blindfold :-)



After that we had a nice drive through the countryside, did some walking and camped in New England national park where it rained a hell of a lot once again ("I bet that's why they called it 'New England'", said Mikko). Today, a bit more driving and a bit more walking, and a bit more rain- but at least that made for some nice waterfalls!




Until the next time!