7 Days in the Van: Cairns -> Brisbane

To all of our friends, family, and followers (who I hope are out there :)) so sorry for the delays in posting! Turns out wifi is needed for a lot of uploading and there is none of that in a camper van. Nonetheless… WE ARE BACK! Buckle up because this will be a long post.

To pick up where we left off.. day 2 in the van… woke up after our first sleep in the van and started a pretty big driving day. The first stop was only 5 minutes from our campsite, Cardwell Spa Pools, which is a natural swimming hole that has bright blue water in the forest. There are no crocodiles here but that didn’t mean Will and I weren’t still scared to jump in. We both did a quick dip and then decided that was all we needed for the day. Enjoyed the quietness of it and then headed out to our next stop.

About 2hrs south was Wallaman Falls. It is known as the highest single-drop waterfall in Australia at 268 meters (almost 900ft.) After dodging cows all over the road and climbing up a very narrow, windy road we made it to the top of the falls. The clouds eventually parted and we were able to see just how insane the waterfall and cliffs around it were.

We headed down to Townsville, a bigger city along the east coast. We found a parking spot along the beach that looked out at Magnetic Island and made ourselves lunch sammies. Kept heading south and got the last spot at a beachfront caravan park and saw a great sunset while cooking dinner. We decided that we were far enough south to do an excursion to the famous Whitsunday Islands area. We booked a sailing trip and committed to an early departure from our campsite to Airlie Beach.

Woke up at 6am and drove an hour and a half to the Port of Airlie for our day long Whitsunday excursion. We booked spots on a big purple catamaran with about 50 other people and headed out to the islands. Apparently, it was a VERY windy day and we had pretty rough seas. I found it very fun to ride the massive ways… Will not so much! We arrived at the first stop of Whitehaven Beach and did a hike all around the beaches and the hill inlet which has a couple of lookouts to see the blue waters.

When we got back to the boat, the crew had cooked a barbecue for us to eat on our way to the next stop. Sadly, I didn’t hear anyone say “shrimp on the barbie” but we did enjoy some prawns. Our next stop was a snorkel spot within the islands. We had to put on stinger suits due to all the jellies around and as dorky as they were, we saw sooo many jellyfish so we were glad to have them. We snorkeled and I was most impressed by the coral- many different types. It was pretty chilly water so we only lasted ~30mins. Got out and started heading back to Airlie Beach. On the way back, our captain spotted whales and decided to go see how close we could get. IT. WAS. WILD! I guess the whales decided they wanted to play around with our boat because they got so close to us on multiple occasions, maybe as close as 10 feet. They were two southern humpback whales and I loved seeing them flop their tails around. After about 30 minutes, we think they dove down and moved on so we started back. We saw 2 more in the distance, but they didn't stay to play.

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/b52088_542d2a7cf12a4b8b9d05cea1f7f0a309/720p/mp4/file.mp4

Made it back and drove to our campsite, which was a rowdy hostel/villa/caravan park where everyone was right on top of each other. We went out for food and enjoyed live music and people-watching. Didn’t sleep that great but we were grateful for a convenient site after a long day.

Day 4, we had little plans. Got up and tried to remedy our lack of propane but came up short. We did experience the Aussie version of Home Depot, Bunnings. Made it to Cape Palmerston (A name I love because of its closeness to Palmer- my big sis and mom’s side of the family name.) Well, this place was easily one of our favorites. We pulled up and there were wild kangaroos everywhere. We were able to get relatively close to them and saw moms with joeys in their pouches. We really enjoyed sitting there and observing them eat, scratch, and sunbathe.

We walked around the private beach in the national park and decided to try our hand at lawn bowling- an Aussie sport that feels like a mix between bocce ball and feather bowling. We played while enjoying a beautiful sunset then went back and cooked dinner (sadly microwaveable bc of our lack of gas.)

In the morning, we went to cook our eggs and bacon on the camp kitchen griddle and met some nice Brisbane Natives that had traveled to the US many times and had some great recs for the rest of our trip. Before we left the site, we decided to ask the man who was working about our propane. He let us know that the gas was indeed empty and that he could fill it. That unlocked a world of possibilities for us- now we could camp anywhere without power. We said goodbye to the kangaroos and I tried my hand at driving for the first time. It felt fairly easy but I think that's because I had 4 days sitting in the passenger seat getting used to the opposite side. Our excursion for the day was to a place called Capricorn Caves. The caves were different than ones we have seen before because they were above ground. The tour included a visit to the “Cathedral”, which was a beautiful part of the caves that had great acoustics. Our tour guide led us in an Australian Patriotic song, Waltzing Matilda- Will and I were very lost, but the rest of the Aussies sang along.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yILM3L2sXM

After we were done with our cave tour, we kept driving and decided to stop at a free rest stop now that we had gas to cook with. It was a nice site by the river and highway and allowed us to wake up early and head on to towns slightly out of the way. We first went to the Town of 1770 and walked along a peninsula with lookouts. This reminded me more of the California landscape. We then hopped over to Agnes Water to do a nature walk- big fan of the trees.

In one of our many stops at gas stations, we decided to try a Bundaberg Ginger Beer that we kept seeing in all of the fridges. Turns out we were driving through the town of Bundaberg and they had both their ginger beer factory and a Rum Distillery. We did quick tours of both and tried two more types of the non-alcoholic ginger beers.

Found an awesome secluded site in a town called Kia Ora and did some stargazing. We saw very bright shooting stars and the Southern Cross constellation.

Woke up and headed to the town of Noosa. It was a very bustling town full of people and rightfully so because it reminded me of a cute 30A town. We wanted to see a couple of sites at the end of the town’s peninsula so we set out on a nice long walk. Got to walk along the coast and saw lots of surfers in the clear blue waters. We arrived at our first site which was the Noosa Head Fairy Pools. These are saltwater pools formed by the ocean flowing into rocks and admittedly very cool. One of them was deep enough for people to jump into it. On the walk to our next lookout, we saw a huge pod of dolphins that looked to be feeding. Made it to our final stop at Hell’s Gates.

Headed out of Noosa to Steve Irwin Way and the Australia Zoo, home of the famous Crocodile Hunter. We saw insanely big crocodiles and enjoyed hearing stories about Steve Irwin’s rescue of them. It was a full circle moment hearing about him and his family in their zoo. While there, I got to pet a Kangaroo (I was terrified) and both Will and I got to pet a Koala. I guess we are zoo people.

Spent our last night in the van in a less-than-ideal spot, but it did the job. Woke up early and headed out for our last adventure in the van to see the Glass House Mountains. They are intrusive plugs formed by volcanic activity ~26 million years ago.

Did a drive through Brisbane and then cleaned out our van and turned it over to the rental company.

Wow, that was a highlight reel of an incredible seven days and I am sure I forgot some things. On our journey, we realized how hard it was to see everything we wanted to see and had to come to terms with the fact that we skipped things that we really wished we didn't have to. This road trip, while fast, made us more appreciative of the Australian east coast and its landscape- safe to say I am a big fan of this country! Very happy we did it and also very happy to be in a hotel tonight :)