The last month and a bit has been a big one - we’ve summited the top of the country, getting as far as Cape Tribulation, and are finally ready to say goodbye to the lush rainforests and humidity and head west to the red centre.
It’s safe to say we were pretty stunned as we adjusted to the size of Queensland’s massive coastline, let alone the entire country’s landmass, driving over 4000kms from Currarong to Cape Tribulation was a huge feat, especially in our old 2006 Iveco van! As expected, we hit our first repair ‘bump in the road’ which is two deteriorated radiator hoses that were causing the van to overheat particularly as we climbed any hills or mountains. It was only after we had caught a barge and climbed to the top of the isolated Upper Daintree’s peak that we had to pull over and realised just how dire the state of the engine parts were….it was a little hair raising as we were literally the furthest we could be from a heavy vehicle mechanic and no reception, but luckily a quick bush repair thanks to the local croc tour guide kept us going until we returned to Cairns.
Since it’s been a mammoth month I’m going to break down our main highlights and all our favourite places we’ve explored in a list below, it’s been a bit of a delayed wet season so we had to sacrifice a few places due to waiting out wet weather, but overall we’re pretty stoked with all the incredible places we’ve been lucky enough to visit!
K’Gari Island aka Fraser Island
We hired a 4x4 from Rainbow Beach and packed our tent and camping cooking gear and caught the 6 am barge over to Australia’s largest sand island, K’gari to spend 3 days exploring the rainforests and lakes that make up this special place. Driving along the endless strip of beach and through the roughly carved out roads felt like being in an adult theme park, with aqua clear freshwater lakes, huge sand dunes, and wild dingos keeping tabs on your camp. the three days we spent were full-on with adventure.
Lake Mackenzie was glistening and although a bit packed with tourists, we managed to wade our bags and sun shelter to a more isolated island around the bend for our own private beach experience. We camped under the stars and watched silhouettes of curious dingos pop their heads against the tent against the light of the full moon. The next day we setup and enjoyed the full afternoon drifting up and down the natural springs of Eli Creek, which flows fresh water 200 meters down to the ocean and is deep enough to float down over and over again. On our last morning we woke up at sunrise and hiked for half an hour up to the sand blow of Lake Wabby, a giant isolated sand dune in the middle of the island with views of the ocean, that then drastically drop down to the deepest lake on the island which makes for the perfect spot for a cool dip after a sweaty hike through the rainforest.
After finishing up our trip we returned to Rainbow Beach for a day of R&R before heading north to our last chance for surf, Agnes Waters.
Agnes Waters | 1770
In my last update, I mentioned just how wet we had copped it from traveling through Northern NSW and early QLD, sadly missing many of the main surf towns due to floods and dangerous debris in the ocean. Well, we finally made it to Agnes Waters, technically the last town on the East Coast before it’s considered too dangerous to surf/swim openly in the ocean thanks to crocs, stingers, and sharks, and of course, there is no swell to be seen. Although we were staying just 5 minutes from the beach, we only got in the water once, due to more rain and lack of surf, and then farewelled the coast to head further north. In our heads, we expected to be celebrating the final surf fuelled days here in the much-loved surf town, but unfortunately, it ended up with us being at our campsite reading books and drawing in the van! The highlight for us was mastering our damper recipe over the fire! It became our after-dinner staple with some butter and honey - so good!
Yeppoon | Byfield National Park
3 hours north of Agnes Waters is the lovely town of Yeppoon, gateway to the southern Great Barrier Reef and home to our favourite public pool or ‘lagoon’. We didn’t spend long in the town apart from the hours submerged in the infinity-like public lagoon which overlooked the town’s beach. Instead of eating at the local restaurant next door to it, we cooked up a BBQ in the van and enjoyed eating and lying in the weirdly dry QLD heat with lots of cool-off swims in the lagoon. We actually stayed 20 minutes up the road in Byfield National Park at the Upper Stoney Creek campgrounds. These accompany a stunning crystal clear water hole which is apparently high enough away from crocs, although there were still warning signs and also signs to avoid touching the floor of the creek due to poisonous stonefish. Despite the risks, the swim is worth the reward, considered icy cold water to Queenslanders, but just right for us!
Carmilla
Just two hours north but also the longest two-hour drive of our lives is the coastal country town of Carmilla. We spent the weekend at their beachside campground after driving for 2 hours without hitting the break once through rural central Queensland. At this point of the trip, the heat was getting so hot and dry that we suddenly understood the value and how truly essential an ice-cold XXX Gold beer could be. Carmilla was an odd spot, it introduced us to the extreme tides of northern Queensland, with the shoreline going almost a kilometer out to sea on low tide, leaving behind heavily corrugated banks of silty sand and millions of shells.
Eungella | Finch Hatton
Since the van had been overheating, we knew we couldn’t climb the 600-meter mountain of Eungella, home to a huge colony of platypus, so after asking around several Facebook groups for van and motorhome travelers, we were recommended to take the back road via mining town of Nebo, up through its hills and slowly into Eungella. This is where we learned the importance of google satellite view - so when we travel down a different road to the main route, we can check if it’s sealed! In this instance - we did not. SO we ended up hurling the van down about 70kms of unsealed, dusty corrugated farm roads through private properties and huge mining sites to finally pull up to the mountain town of Eungella, and find our back window had been left open allowing 2 hours worth of dust to settle on absolutely everything. We spent another hour emptying everything and meticulously dusting wiping and cleaning bed linens to van walls. Just when we felt like we were at breaking point, we walked down to Broken River and spotted about 4 platypuses frolicking in the reeds, and suddenly it was all worth it.
The next morning, armed with zoom lens and binoculars we watched for hours as turtles, platypus, colourful butterflies, and even a snake enjoyed the River’s habitat, it was truly enchanting and left us feeling so calm and happy. We made the steep descent down the mountain and headed to the Finch Hatton Gorge, where you can hike 5kms to the Wheel Of Fire, which is the top waterfall, and where you can cool off in its many pools. It’s an incredible place, and if you’re brave enough to jump in and play amongst the different waterfalls and natural plunge pools then you can spend the whole day enjoying the QLD sun!
We went to spend the night at a place I read about on Facebook called Neem Hall, accommodation for vans, campers, and motorhomes with showers, laundry, and private river access also home to more platypus. Upon getting there we instantly fell in love with the grounds and the warm caretaker, Julie, and her fur family of three dogs, a three-legged cat called buddha, two giant American turkeys, and many chickens! What was meant to be one night turned into one week as we spent some well-earned rest time, taking time to enjoy not moving around and having a delightful home base with lots of furry company! It was so hard to leave and we’re grateful to have found such a great place to relax with such a friendly community.
Ayr
Instead of mentioning our brief time through Airlie Beach, I’d rather expand on the incredible place we discovered in the unassuming town of Ayr, en route between Airlie Beach and Townsville. This is where we were traveling through on Good Friday of the Easter long weekend and passed by the sign for Ayr’s Nature Display. Amazed it was the one thing in town that was open, we stopped and paid our $5 entry fee to find out what there was on display. Upon entering we were blown away by literally 100s of 1000s of insects, minerals, reptiles, and fish, which made up local legends Allen and Jess Ey’s collection. Who’s aim was to collect, record, and display nature and wildlife. They hand-built every cabinet and opened their display in 1966 which is run still today by their children. Its not just the incredible diversity in Ey’s collection, but how they designed and chose to display their specimens, creating patterns, sculptures, and complex arrangements - this place was just so amazing to immerse yourself in! We stayed for hours chatting to Lorrain and her husband about their family business, hanging on to every single wild story they told us about their encounters with Australia’s wildlife from huge 20cm cockroach armies crossing country roads, to saltwater crocs stealing neighbors from boats.
Atherton Tablelands
We finally moved inland from just north of Townsville, into the Atherton Tablelands, famous for its waterfall lined scenic drives and sighings of cassowaries. We visited several beautiful cascading falls and trekked through the dense rainforests and spotted a young cassowary, but were met with more bad weather - 5 days of nonstop rain forecasted meant we needed to find a spot to bunker down. So we settled in at Downfall Campground, Lake Tinaroo which was eerily quiet yet beautiful. For 5 days we were nestled inside the van watching rain cloud after rain cloud pass over the lake, occasionally breaking for air and to use the public bathrooms. We also really tested the extent of our power setup, putting 400 watts of solar on a 2000 watt lithium battery to the test - on the 5th day of not moving and no sun we officially ran out of power. Thankfully the morning after was a bright sunny day and so we set about driving to charge up the batteries again which thankfully didn’t take long!
By the time the weather died down we were desperate to get moving so made our way to Kuranda, a semi-hippy tropical town with a thriving arts scene, which was soo steamy after all the rain we literally were dripping with sweat from the moment we got up to the moment the sunset. Finally, we kissed the mountains goodbye and began our journey heading down the mountains and north to the Daintree and Cape Tribulation.
Cape Tribulation | The Daintree Rainforest
After driving from Port Douglas, where stopped to top up water, do some laundry and admire the fancy resorts peppered along the beach, we made our way into the dense dark tropical rainforest of the Daintree. We caught the barge to the upper Daintree and encountered our severely swollen radiator hoses on top of the 300-meter mountain - not going to. lie this was stressful, and dampened the mood over what we had hoped would be a really rewarding day - reaching the furthest point north on our trip! Although the problem made us a little weary, we did our best to immerse ourselves in the many boardwalks that wound through the deep lush rainforest and booked a river cruise to spot some Daintree crocs, which was really great. We spotted several large salties along with a few hidden juveniles in the mangroves. Apparently, the week before they had seen a croc carry a cassowary across the river in its mouth! Our campsite was on the edge of the World Heritage Rainforest where it met Noah’s Beach next to the World Heritage Great Barrier Reef, which was surprisingly quiet and isolated, making us feel very small and vulnerable to the huge, wild environment we were surrounded by.
After four days we bid the forest farewell with plans to finally get back in the water on the Great Barrier Reef!
Cairns | The Great Barrier Reef
We had picked up a copy of Marcia Langton’s Welcome To Country which is full of interesting travel recommendations for Indigenous Australia and found the tour group of Dreamtime Dive & Snorkel for the Cairns outer Great Barrier Reef which came fully catered with first nation seafarers and a marine biologist on board who also led us on a snorkel safari. It was such a great day trip and worth the wait, especially since we got to meet up with our mate Sidney. We were all blown away by the size and complexity of the reef, and just how many fish there were. We snorkeled in two different locations, and I tried my best to try and capture the beauty and colour with my phone in a protective case.
Back on land, we enjoyed Cairn’s massive weekend Fruit & Veg Market, Rusty’s where we stocked up on lots of tropical fruit, and also finally got our radiator hoses booked in for repair. We’re currently waiting for four days to get the repairs done, just south of Cairns in Mission Beach. With hopes of spotting some cassowaries, we’ve run into more rain so are back spending most days in the van with the occasional beach walk between bursts of tropical rain. Fingers crossed if all goes well we will be back on the road by the end of the week heading west to Alice Springs!
