Jason's Travel Blog: July 2008

Strap yourselves in; this could be a long one!

We left Sydney on the 9th of July in our first journey in the Camper van. Nice drive up to a place called Halliday's point. Did a little bit of shopping (foodstuff shopping) then played a bit of tennis at the campsite.

Left early the next morning for a day of mostly driving. Had lunch in Port Macquarie. Arrived in Coff's Harbor; Willy new someone from here so two of us slept in van and two in the house. Stayed there for three nights; got a game of golf on the Saturday morning in the local club competition. Lovely morning, lovely course, terrible golf.

Departed from Coff's on the 13th with our destination to be Surfers' Paradise. Stopped off in Byron Bay on the way up and walked out to the most Easterly point in Australia. Cooked a lovely sweet and sour upon arrival in Surfers'. Stayed a couple of nights; nice place but a bit "touristy". Willy and Connor had a surfing lesson; Al wasn't feeling too great so I stayed with him; we'd get our chance soon.

On the 15th we left Surfers' early and went to the Warner Bros. "Dream World" theme park. Had a great day running about like a kid going on all the "scary" rides. There were some excellent roller coasters and a thing that launched you straight up into the air; apparently we experienced more "G's" that in a Shuttle launch. Had a short trip up to Brisbane in the evening, made "interesting" by he torrential rain that fell.

Spent the 16th in Brisbane. Nice enough city, we just walked around most of the day. Went the the cinema in the evening and saw "The Dark Knight". Fantastic film. Heath Ledger unbelievably good as the Joker.

The 17th. My Birthday. Headed up the road to the Australia Zoo. Excellent morning's fun. Some really cool animals; we got to pet Kangaroos! The place, however, is quite strange. It seemed like the whole zoo was a shrine to Steve Irwin; pictures of him everywhere and little blurbs about his life. Quite surreal. Drove up to Noosa in the afternoon; lovely little place. Al and I booked a surfing lesson for the morning.

The 18th. Connor's Birthday. Had surfing lesson in the morning; great fun. By the end of the two hour lesson we were able to catch our own waves and get standing up on the board reasonably consistantly. Might have to try it again sometime! Drove in the afternoon to Hervey Bay. The intention here was to hire a 4x4 and take it out on Fraser Island. Unfortunately all the companies were booked out so we missed out on that.

On the 19th we drove up to Rockhampton - the beef capital of Australia. Didn't do a whole lot other than go out for a MASSIVE dinner. Very very tasty.

Drove up to Airlie Beach on the 20th, where we stayed three nights. Stopped in Mackay for lunch. Had a game of tennis in the evening. The plan was that we would take a boat trip around the Whitsundays on one of the days. Unfortunately the weather was terrible - another disapointment. We just spent the days exploring the area or sitting in the van (depending on the precipitation).

Very early start on the 23rd. I drove the van out of the campsite at 6.30am. The plan was to drive the 390 miles to Cairns by 2pm so Al could see the Australian men's hockey team play. Unfortunately we didn't make it to Cairns until 4pm. A prolonged pit stop in Townsville didn't really help. We booked a SCUBA and snorkling trip for Friday then drove up a steep, winding mountain road to a town called Atherton. Al's Uncle and Aunt lives here and will be our base until we fly to Melbourne on Tuesday.

I hopefully will get some good shots with the underwater camera on Friday - look forward to those!

J

P.S. Sorry about the spelling mistakes - the spell checker doesn't work on this thing; I'm a punctuation king but can't spell for peanuts.