Tuesday 27th August
After a minimal amount of faffage (due to aquiring a creepy old neighbour who was weird and wouldnt leave us alone) we headed back down to Atherton and then out east to explore the Tablelands. First stop was the Curtain Fig Tree, an immense strangler fig that over the period of 1000 had eaten three trees and now has the footprint of a large house. Next stop was Lake Eacham and Lake Barrine, which we walked about 5.5km around. They both were surroundedby jungle, and I nearly soiled myself after a near miss with a snake on the path. We also saw a Drake Eel while we had afternoon tea - it was the size of a small child. After the Lakes we drove by The Cathedral Fig, another enourmous tree that looked like something out of lord of the rings. This one we could even go inside it a bit and hang off the roots. We drove on through some mountains on the twistiest and hilliest road I have ever driven to get to the coast again, and stopped for the night at a free campspot 20mins down the road from Cairns, which we will probably stay at all week instead of paying through the nose forthe privilege of parking outside a hostel in the City centre. It looks like quite a few other people are doing the same.
Wednesday 28th August
Drove into Cairns for the first time, checked out the Esplanade and Lagoon (free showers! Yay!) Theres no beach here so the city council provide this huge out door swimming area and park thats free to use. Currently the Cairns Festival is on as well so theres loads of entertainment going on here as well. Theres also night markets (where babs FINALLY found the pirate earrings she has been looking for for months) and I found a bush hat that I cant afford and barbara thinks makes me look ridiculous.
On the lookout for jobs we found a possibility for work at the next big eventhere so we called up the agency and got a job interview for tomorrow.
Thursday 29th
Faffed all morning, got into town with just enought time to get a shower, our CVs printed at the library, and get to the interveiw. We got taken on for Hospitality work at hotels so we need to practise our hospital corners.
Also booked a trip to go snorkelling on the outer reef for the next day! Very exciting!
Friday 30th
We left the campsite far far too late. Needed to be on the boat by 8, and ONLY JUST made it... I made the schoolboy error of forgetting that most people have to work for a living and there would be a considerable amount of traffic. Who knew?
We went out to two reef locations, Saxon reefand Hastings Reef. The trip out was super choppy and quite a few people were sick, the first of which was a german girl in the middle of the 'what to do if you feel seasick' briefing. Perri also vomited a lot. No one was fine, but baba and I managed not to chunder.
The actual snorkeling was brilliant. Also went on a glass bottomed boat and saw some 1000yo giant clams. They were big. And pretty. Google it.
I managed not to drown, which was nice, and Babs went into the water without complaining about the cold which was even nicer. Admittedly, we both hit the reef a couple of times, but im pretty sure that was just in dead bits.
All in all it was a great day. Except the sunburn. When we got back to Cairns we saw some fire spinning, a really good band, some silent films accompanied by live music and some Aboriginal-y singing group that was really really good.
Saturday 31st Aug
We are all pretty tired. Loads of markets are on in Cairns and we walkedaround a bit but now sitting at the lagoon in the shade, watching a number of pale English backpackers get more and more sunburnt. Ahhhh.
Friday, 30 August 2013
Atherton Tablelands
Sunday 25th
Our last few hours at the Sanctuary were spent having an enourmous breakfast and trying not to leave anyofour stuff there. We drove north out of Mission Beach to Innisfail, where we turned west and headed along the Palmerston Hwy towards Millaa Millaa to see some waterfalls. The drive was beautifull, as we got higher up into the tablelands there was a lot of rolling green hills and it started to look very similar to the Peak District or somewhere like that. We went all the way to Ravenshoe and stayed at an old Steam Railway station for the night - the caretaker of the campsite lived in an actual railway carriage. She gave us a half price discount because we asked nicely so $5 par van was pretty good. Shower was super hot which was really good as it got quite cold here by the morning.
Monday 26th
After an heroic amount of faffing we got on the road for approx 40sec before stopping off for brunch at a local Cafe, where we met a nice dutch lady who chatted with us for ages in dutch so I have no idea what it was about. We then drove from Ravenshoe to Little Mill Stream falls and Big Mill Stream Falls.They were pretty, but the weather was all rainy and crap so we didnt spend much time there which was probably more of a blessing as we managed to get our arses into gear and see a lot of things. After a quick look at the pretty water falls we then drove up the road a bit to The Crater at Mt Hypipamee Nt Park. It was basically a HUGE hole in the ground but it looked pretty cool. We threw some rocks in it. Standard.
Carried on up to Atherton where we stayed the night in a large free campsite up the road a bit.
Our last few hours at the Sanctuary were spent having an enourmous breakfast and trying not to leave anyofour stuff there. We drove north out of Mission Beach to Innisfail, where we turned west and headed along the Palmerston Hwy towards Millaa Millaa to see some waterfalls. The drive was beautifull, as we got higher up into the tablelands there was a lot of rolling green hills and it started to look very similar to the Peak District or somewhere like that. We went all the way to Ravenshoe and stayed at an old Steam Railway station for the night - the caretaker of the campsite lived in an actual railway carriage. She gave us a half price discount because we asked nicely so $5 par van was pretty good. Shower was super hot which was really good as it got quite cold here by the morning.
Monday 26th
After an heroic amount of faffing we got on the road for approx 40sec before stopping off for brunch at a local Cafe, where we met a nice dutch lady who chatted with us for ages in dutch so I have no idea what it was about. We then drove from Ravenshoe to Little Mill Stream falls and Big Mill Stream Falls.They were pretty, but the weather was all rainy and crap so we didnt spend much time there which was probably more of a blessing as we managed to get our arses into gear and see a lot of things. After a quick look at the pretty water falls we then drove up the road a bit to The Crater at Mt Hypipamee Nt Park. It was basically a HUGE hole in the ground but it looked pretty cool. We threw some rocks in it. Standard.
Carried on up to Atherton where we stayed the night in a large free campsite up the road a bit.
Saturday, 24 August 2013
Last night at Mission Beach
We've now spent a week and a half at The Sanctuary, working 5hrs a day for food and accommodation. We're basically at the top of a hill, surrounded by rainforest and next to the sea. The buildings are only accessable by 4WD or a 600m stomp up a steep track through mozzie, spider and lizard infested wilderness, so it feels fairly isolated, despite still being close to town.
We've been working in the kitchen (barefoot, a real delight; health and safety is of top priority here), as well as sweeping leaves from all the paths, mopping and general scut work. Its fairly easy, and there are plenty of opportunities for nap time, disguised as 'cleaning the staff toilets'. Speaking of which, the staff accommodation is right underneath the yoga room, so we are woken up nearly every morning between 6 and 8 by thumping banging and scraping right above our heads. We have no idea what they're doing up there but it sounds quite strenuous.
Last night we decided to watch Paranormal Activity 3 before bed. A horror film. While we are miles away from civilisation, in full knowledge that our doors dont lock and we could be attacked by serial killers at any moment. Outstanding plan...
There are more spiders here than I am comfortable with. Huge ones, usually in our new friend Liams room. Huntsmans, Wolf Spiders and Golden Orbs apparently. All I know is that they are the size of my hand, their legs are too thick, and if their eyes are big enough for me to know what direction they are looking in then I don't want them anywhere within 25 metres of me. Our method of dealing with these issues consists of 5 of us chasing the large spider with a bucket, while trying not to scream like little girls. Once the spider is in the bucket, it gets released on the other side of the hill, or we feed it to the monster spider down the road.
We also got our first bit of paid work since entering Oz; toilet cleaning at a nearby caravan park on weekends, $45 each for 3 hours work, not too bad!
Tomorrowwe move out- heading north again on a ponderously slow journey towards Cairns, stopping at every National Park and waterfall on the way. Its 2hours from here to Cairns, but it will probably take us 4 days.
We've been working in the kitchen (barefoot, a real delight; health and safety is of top priority here), as well as sweeping leaves from all the paths, mopping and general scut work. Its fairly easy, and there are plenty of opportunities for nap time, disguised as 'cleaning the staff toilets'. Speaking of which, the staff accommodation is right underneath the yoga room, so we are woken up nearly every morning between 6 and 8 by thumping banging and scraping right above our heads. We have no idea what they're doing up there but it sounds quite strenuous.
Last night we decided to watch Paranormal Activity 3 before bed. A horror film. While we are miles away from civilisation, in full knowledge that our doors dont lock and we could be attacked by serial killers at any moment. Outstanding plan...
There are more spiders here than I am comfortable with. Huge ones, usually in our new friend Liams room. Huntsmans, Wolf Spiders and Golden Orbs apparently. All I know is that they are the size of my hand, their legs are too thick, and if their eyes are big enough for me to know what direction they are looking in then I don't want them anywhere within 25 metres of me. Our method of dealing with these issues consists of 5 of us chasing the large spider with a bucket, while trying not to scream like little girls. Once the spider is in the bucket, it gets released on the other side of the hill, or we feed it to the monster spider down the road.
We also got our first bit of paid work since entering Oz; toilet cleaning at a nearby caravan park on weekends, $45 each for 3 hours work, not too bad!
Tomorrowwe move out- heading north again on a ponderously slow journey towards Cairns, stopping at every National Park and waterfall on the way. Its 2hours from here to Cairns, but it will probably take us 4 days.
Sunday, 11 August 2013
Mission Beach
So we are currently in Paradise.
Mission Beach is where the rainfrest meets the Reef - 14km of sand and palm trees, and it's pretty spectacular. Our new friends Perri and Richard are WWOOFing (working for free in exchange for accommodation and food) at The Sanctuary which is a super nice yoga retreat up a hill surrounded by beautiful veiws and confused looking Cassowaries (google it, they look like ostriches crossed with giant turkeys). We managed to blag a place there to start work on Wednesday for two weeks so that will be a nice chance to save some money and chill out for a while. After that, we found a hostel where they send you to work on a banana farm during the week but they charge you $200 for the privelege. Take home pay is $400 after that though so we are considering it for after 2 weeks WOOFing.
We're in croc territory currently, as well as stinger and shark infested waters, so we're being slightly more careful about where we camp.
We've also been trying to be a bit more social and meeting new people. This morning I saw a french girl trimming her boyfriends armpit hair whilst making monkey noises at him. The french really are the most romantic people I've ever met. Also - Barbara cut my hair and it looks pretty good - I cut Barbaras hair and she got really upset until the next day when she decided it was ok.
Mission Beach is where the rainfrest meets the Reef - 14km of sand and palm trees, and it's pretty spectacular. Our new friends Perri and Richard are WWOOFing (working for free in exchange for accommodation and food) at The Sanctuary which is a super nice yoga retreat up a hill surrounded by beautiful veiws and confused looking Cassowaries (google it, they look like ostriches crossed with giant turkeys). We managed to blag a place there to start work on Wednesday for two weeks so that will be a nice chance to save some money and chill out for a while. After that, we found a hostel where they send you to work on a banana farm during the week but they charge you $200 for the privelege. Take home pay is $400 after that though so we are considering it for after 2 weeks WOOFing.
We're in croc territory currently, as well as stinger and shark infested waters, so we're being slightly more careful about where we camp.
We've also been trying to be a bit more social and meeting new people. This morning I saw a french girl trimming her boyfriends armpit hair whilst making monkey noises at him. The french really are the most romantic people I've ever met. Also - Barbara cut my hair and it looks pretty good - I cut Barbaras hair and she got really upset until the next day when she decided it was ok.
Tuesday, 6 August 2013
Jourama Falls nr Ingham
Rock Pools!
The last few days we've been travelling with some new friends, who are awesome - Richard from Holland and Perry from Brisbane. We met at Saunders Beach free campground and since we were travelling in the same direction we decided to hang out. We went to Paluma National Park to see Little Crystal Creek and Big Crystal Creek; beautiful spots for swimming and sunbathing; then the next day found another creek at Jourama Falls. Richard has a quadcopter and Go-Pro camera that he attaches to it and he got some great videos flying it through the valley of all the little water falls.
The last few days we've been travelling with some new friends, who are awesome - Richard from Holland and Perry from Brisbane. We met at Saunders Beach free campground and since we were travelling in the same direction we decided to hang out. We went to Paluma National Park to see Little Crystal Creek and Big Crystal Creek; beautiful spots for swimming and sunbathing; then the next day found another creek at Jourama Falls. Richard has a quadcopter and Go-Pro camera that he attaches to it and he got some great videos flying it through the valley of all the little water falls.
Barbara failed to completely submerge herself. Chicken.
There was a bushfire nearby but we're pretty sure it was a controlled burn.
Today (Wednesday 7th) we're at Ingham, definitely staying at a caravan park tonight as we all smell and need to do laundry. Richard and Perry use their quadcopter to get aerial shots of the campsites they want to stay at and trade them for free accommodation. Nice plan, eventually they'll save enough to pay off the equipment I guess!
Thursday, 1 August 2013
Carnavorn Gorge!
Monday 29th
Meant to get up early, but only managed to get on the road about 10ish dueto epic faffage by both barbara and myself. (Despite turning to back to collect food we left at the campsite fridge, we still managed to leave the showergel behind). Drove 157km to Carnavorn Gorge, the last 30 of which was pretty epic gravelly unsealed road which was fun in a 2wd van which is very heavy in the front...
The gorge was amazing though, totally worth it. We walked about 14km altogether, back and forth across the creek on stepping stones and looking at the sights. Moss Garden was beautiful, the huge cliffs made of sandstone soak up loads of water and it leaks through the rock until it hits a layer of shale, where it then just squshes out the side and falls out of the wall. It ends up with an area full of really green moss and a little water fall.
The Amphitheatre was just a massive space that echoed a lot, it was so huge. Wards Canyon contained these massive king ferns that were apparently around when dinosuars roamed the earth. The Art Gallery was where loads of Aboriginal paintings were - there were loads of stencilled handprints and outlines of tools and boomerangs, carvings of emu and kangaroo tracks, paintings of grids (that meant a burial site was nearby) and a whole load of carvings of human vulvas. Like a huge amount. Maybe the local tribes were mega feminists or something. There were vaginas *everywhere*.
We walked for about 5 hours in total, it was proper rainforesty, and you could hear loads of birds making a right racket. Fortunately we got back to the car just before the sunset, but the drive out of the park was a little hairy - some cows decided to have a middle-of-the-road party in complete darkness. The vans brakes turned out to be pretty effective so no disasters.
Tuesday 30th
Drove up to a nice little town called Emerald, and used the Library's free wifi to look for harvest jobs nearby, but we are are still not all that successful. Spent the night in a very badly chosen free campsite spot, the freight train morning wake up was not appreciated at 5.30am.
Wednesday 31st
After a vaguely successful attempt to make pancakes on a camping stove, we headed an hour east to see the gem fields at Rubyvale and Sapphire. Literally every hous has their own mine in the backyard. They did have a very nice pub though. We spend the night at another free roadside campspot, and someone gave us some leftover chips from the local chippy which was really welcomed as we were cooking instant noodles to have with our leftover slightly dodgy stirfry. Thats the second time we've been fed by our elderly fellow travellers - probably the best aspect of sharing the road with so many 'Grey Nomads'.
Thursday 1st
Im currently writing this in a little cafe in the town of Capella, which contains not a whole lot by the looks of it. We're heading up to Charters Towers today - we will definitely without question be staying at a campsite tonight, as we have now gone for an uncomfortably long period of time since our last shower. (We have been washing in cold water btw, we're not completely abandoning our personal hygene.)
The caravan parks here are generally really good - unpowered sites are between $10 and $25 per night, the kitchens have everything you need and they also usually have free wi fi. The showers have all been really nice too. Despite all that though, I do really like just pulling up somewhere with a toilet and camping for free. While we've been here on the edge of the outback theres no light pollution nearby so at night you can see so many stars, including the milky way, which is super pretty.
Update; Its now 4.25 and we made it to Charters Towers, after driving 573.2km on one tank of fuel. The last 30kms the petrol light was on and in my panic to get to a petrol station I took a corner fast enough for everything in the back to fall over. We made it to a caravan park though - cant wait to get a shower...
Meant to get up early, but only managed to get on the road about 10ish dueto epic faffage by both barbara and myself. (Despite turning to back to collect food we left at the campsite fridge, we still managed to leave the showergel behind). Drove 157km to Carnavorn Gorge, the last 30 of which was pretty epic gravelly unsealed road which was fun in a 2wd van which is very heavy in the front...
The gorge was amazing though, totally worth it. We walked about 14km altogether, back and forth across the creek on stepping stones and looking at the sights. Moss Garden was beautiful, the huge cliffs made of sandstone soak up loads of water and it leaks through the rock until it hits a layer of shale, where it then just squshes out the side and falls out of the wall. It ends up with an area full of really green moss and a little water fall.
The Amphitheatre was just a massive space that echoed a lot, it was so huge. Wards Canyon contained these massive king ferns that were apparently around when dinosuars roamed the earth. The Art Gallery was where loads of Aboriginal paintings were - there were loads of stencilled handprints and outlines of tools and boomerangs, carvings of emu and kangaroo tracks, paintings of grids (that meant a burial site was nearby) and a whole load of carvings of human vulvas. Like a huge amount. Maybe the local tribes were mega feminists or something. There were vaginas *everywhere*.
Aaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrgh!!!
Tuesday 30th
Drove up to a nice little town called Emerald, and used the Library's free wifi to look for harvest jobs nearby, but we are are still not all that successful. Spent the night in a very badly chosen free campsite spot, the freight train morning wake up was not appreciated at 5.30am.
Wednesday 31st
After a vaguely successful attempt to make pancakes on a camping stove, we headed an hour east to see the gem fields at Rubyvale and Sapphire. Literally every hous has their own mine in the backyard. They did have a very nice pub though. We spend the night at another free roadside campspot, and someone gave us some leftover chips from the local chippy which was really welcomed as we were cooking instant noodles to have with our leftover slightly dodgy stirfry. Thats the second time we've been fed by our elderly fellow travellers - probably the best aspect of sharing the road with so many 'Grey Nomads'.
Thursday 1st
Im currently writing this in a little cafe in the town of Capella, which contains not a whole lot by the looks of it. We're heading up to Charters Towers today - we will definitely without question be staying at a campsite tonight, as we have now gone for an uncomfortably long period of time since our last shower. (We have been washing in cold water btw, we're not completely abandoning our personal hygene.)
The caravan parks here are generally really good - unpowered sites are between $10 and $25 per night, the kitchens have everything you need and they also usually have free wi fi. The showers have all been really nice too. Despite all that though, I do really like just pulling up somewhere with a toilet and camping for free. While we've been here on the edge of the outback theres no light pollution nearby so at night you can see so many stars, including the milky way, which is super pretty.
Update; Its now 4.25 and we made it to Charters Towers, after driving 573.2km on one tank of fuel. The last 30kms the petrol light was on and in my panic to get to a petrol station I took a corner fast enough for everything in the back to fall over. We made it to a caravan park though - cant wait to get a shower...
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