Sunday 18 November 2007. Day 90 Travelodge Hotel, Perth

Use the internet for a couple of hours before we get fed up of the harsh Germanic sounding voice telling us “Attention, you are running out of time” at the end of our pre-paid limit. Wander down to the Swan Bells and go up to the observation platform on the 6th floor for views of the city.

We go for lunch at the volunteer run Indian buffet restaurant called Annalakshmi where you eat as much as you want and pay whatever you want (it's run by a charity and we tried to find one in Singapore, but it had closed). Lou wasn't overwhelmed by the experience, while Ieuan had a great meal. Most of the people in front of us seemed to be paying rather small amounts it seemed to us, which mat explain why the restaurant is struggling to survive without any other funding.

Have a mooch around town, Lou still has one or two bits to get apparently, then head back to the room to do some washing and start packing. In the evening we get a taxi driven be a real old beardy Aussie to Sorrentos Italian restaurant in Northbridge, where we have an ok meal, nothing like the great place suggested by the online reviews we had read.

Saturday 17 November 2007. Day 89 Travelodge Hotel, Perth

Update the blog, and peruse the internet, before heading to David Jones for some lunch, Ieuan eventually deciding on a Thai Green Chicken curry, after much deliberation. We do a spot more shopping, sort out some of our stuff back at the hotel. Ieuan checks Lou list of wanted books to see how many are available in the UK and therefore do not have to be bought here and sent home.

In the evening we went to a highly recommended wine bar called Must where we had a dinner table booked. On arrival we had a nice bottle of wine (recommended by the wine expert, as the first option which was recommended by another member of staff wasn't available), before being seated at our table at 7:30. Had a delicious rocket & parmesan salad/jamon iberico with watercress and muscat of grapes, followed by steak with poivrade sauce which was also fantastic. We were served by a French waiter from Marseille who provided excellent service. We shared the chocolate plate from the specials board for desert (a chocolate and raisin brownie, chocolate ice cream & chocolate mousse, the portions no bigger than a teaspoons each), also superb.

Caught a taxi home, with a driver on his 5th shift so we have to direct him back to the hotel.

Friday 16 November 2007. Day 88 Travelodge Hotel, Perth

Today we headed over to Freemantle or 'Freo' as it's known, a port town which is a 30 minute train ride south. On arrival we take a roundabout route to the tourist info, and then on to the Freemantle Arts Centre, which we find more by luck than anything else (or at least that's what Lou thinks). We spend a good while in the shop perusing the stock and purchasing gifts for ourselves and others. We take a quick look at the gallery, some of which is quite good, some cardboard structures and some of which is rather poor.

Head back to the town centre and have some lunch in a cafe, where the waitress is more concerned that she can't be on the beach today than listening to us when we ask about something, food is average to poor. Wander though the market and some bookshops looking for a book called The Art of Sally Morgan, a WA artist. Catch the train back and stop off in the city centre for more shopping.

In the evening we walk to 9 Marys Indian restaurant and have a nice meal, although Ieuan is not overly impressed with his choice of a lamb dish. Back at the hotel we finish the evenming with a glass of wine.

Thursday 15 November 2007. Day 87 Travelodge Hotel, Perth

Get Ieuan his morning fix from David Jones department store, then go over to the WA art gallery, where we see a nice exhibition of Indigenous art and purchase a few bits and bobs from the pretentious shop there. We head on to the Sony shop to look at laptops, before stopping for a spot of lunch at a nearby cafe. Unfortunately Lou's ceasar salad turns up with all the things she asked to be taken out left in, and all the things she wanted added left out. It also came with her favourite anchovy flavoured dressing, urgh. Ieuan's lunch by contrast is pretty good.

After lunch we wander back towards the city centre, stopping at an art gallery/shop where Lou buys a card and receives unrequested directions to a nearby chemist that'll sell her some really good cover up make up. Ieuan then hits the record shops, whilst Lou goes Christmas shopping. We meet back at the hotel, where we chill out in our room for a bit.

Later we head out to King's Park for some fantastic evening views of the city, and to a cafe Lou has found details of called The Bottanic Cafe. Ieuan is underwhelmed on arrival and is keen to return to an Indian we passed on the way here, but Lou is adamant we are eating here. Ieuan's food was absolutely superb though and was accompanied with a nice glass of wine. We admire the night views of the city before walking back to the hotel.

Wednesday 14 November 2007. Day 86 All Seasons Hotel, Northbridge, Perth

We leave our room with the pretend window & get a taxi to the Travelodge, which is very nice in comparison to last nights hotel. The room has a great balcony overlooking a nearby cathedral and a jacaranda tree in beautiful purple bloom. We dump our stuff and head out for a look around central Perth (a 10 minute walk from the hotel). We spend some of the day looking around the shops and then get some lunch at the great David Jones food hall. After lunch we use the internet for a bit, before heading back to the room, where we sit out on our balcony in the sun and write some postcards, which have started to mount up.

Later on we headed around the corner to a recommended Thai called Som's Kitchen, which served cheap food (after our recent experiences with Thai restaurants Ieuan won't take responsibility for the decision to eat here as he suffered somewhat after our Brisbane experience, so Lou decides that we should eat here). The food was pretty good considering the price. After eating we walk down to the esplanade and see the Swan bell tower, which alleges that it is the biggest musical instrument in the world, complete with bells from St Martin's in the Field. Wander back to the hotel and get a couple of glasses of a nice WA red.

Tuesday 13 November 2007. Day 85 Holiday Inn, Darwin

Get up early to return the hire car & pay the $130 charge for excess kilometres. Get a coffee & use the internet to type up the blog for the rest of the morning. Lou's black eye has developed nicely overnight so lots of people are now looking at Ieuan suspiciously! At about 1pm we catch a minibus taxi to the airport, with Ieuan sitting up front with the mad woman driver, who is supping from a bottle in a brown paper bag as we go. Lou's stuck in the back with no aircon & backward facing seats, we're not sure who has the worse experience.

Check in our bags and go to see what the airport shops have to offer, buying lunch at 2 of them. Board our flight which is half empty and set off for Perth (there's an odd sound coming from the engine next to us, which makes it sound like it's not working properly).

Arrived at about 5:30, have trouble with luggage trolley (the only airport we've been where you are charged $4 for the use of a trolley), a local spots us having difficulty and steers us to where one has been left and which is therefore free. Wait in long queue for taxi which eventually sees us arrive at the front and off we head to our hotel the “All Seasons” in Northbridge. It looks quite nice until we get to our room, the door opens with a most bizarre key that looks like a stubby pencil that you point at the lock. The window looks out onto a wall about 30 centimetres behind it, with a picture on the wall and a little bit of light coming through a grill at ceiling height. The aircon is pretty noisy, and the bed sinks 20cms when you get on it.

We head out to an Indian restaurant Maya Masala noted in Lonely Planet, as we walk down the street we become observers of scene being shot for an Australian film called “2 Fists, 1 Heart”. The scene involves a car coming down the road and doing a hand brake turn (the end of the scene we are told). Meal is ok, after some confusion with the foreign waitress about whether the restaurant is BYO, we get a bottle of WA wine from the off licence made at a vineyard called Wise - not so good.

Monday 12 November 2007. Day 84 Holiday Inn, Darwin

Picked up hire car at 8:30 and headed to a coffee outlet to get Ieuan his morning brew. Lou has an unexpected and unwelcome collision with the pavement whilst crossing the road, resulting in a black eye, cut chin and various other scrapes & bruises.

Drive the 330kms to Nitmiluk NP and the Katherine Gorge in our white Nissan X trail passing various roadkill including a large sturdy hog like creature and many kangaroos. Speed limit out here is 130kph, so arrived at Edith Falls by 12:30 and walked up to the tranquil falls and pool, spoiled only by the masses of persistent flies. As we drove away we passed several coaches on their way and were grateful for our lucky timing.

Reached the visitor centre at Nitmiluk at 1:45, had some lunch & then joined a coach load of Germans for our boat trip up the gorge, which was beautiful. Saw some ancient Jawyn (the indigenous people that come from this area) rock art, and had were shown various items used by them to hunt etc, plus a bambu (known to the rest of us as a didgeridoo, a non native term introduced in the 1920s when the instruments were only found in Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory), which our guide played with impressive circular breathing.

We moved back down the gorge to a rocky beach area, where people could go swimming, the Germans immediately exposed themselves as they changed into their swimming costumes (well there was at least one) and we hung around for a bit and chatted to the Jawyn guide. We got back to shore at 5pm and passed a large group of kangaroos/wallabies (we're not able to tell the difference) who we managed to get some great photos of as they fed, many of them had a Joey in their pouch.

Left and started our 330km journey back to Darwin, monitoring the sides of the road to ensure we didn't become victims of some crazy kangaroo as it crossed the road.

Sunday 11 November 2007. Day 83 Holiday Inn, Darwin

Picked up by coach at 7:10am and set off for Lichfield National Park. Stopped on route to feed some huge Barramundi fish at a local nature reserve, where we also saw some Wallabies (our first in the wild). From there we headed to the small town of Bachelor, where we stopped at some sort of new age/hippy café, run by a long haired weirdo called Chris, who gave up working on oil rigs to build himself a butterfly farm, budget accommodation/café place because an old man told him to. Unfortunately the butterflies had apparently recently been killed in the rains, but this didn't seem to want to stop Chris charging $5 for a butterfly tour, we slunk away from the group at that point to ensure we weren't accidentally included in the tour.

Onward from there to view Florence Falls & the termite mounds, we saw some huge Cathedral Termite Mounds and a field full of Magnetic Termite Mounds. Next we stopped for lunch, a buffet affair with a decent array of salads, and something according to Bruce our guide “known as mango cheesecake” which in fact was mango cheesecake. The afternoon was spent visiting 2 further waterfalls and Buley Rockhole. Lou went swimming at the first waterfall, although it was very crowded, Ieuan observed from the edge in the hot sun, fending off the flies. It was also possible to swim at Buley Rockhole, but it was so full Lou decided against it, we did however see a Water Monitor lizard.

Left there as the wind started to pick up, bits of tree were falling on the minibus, and headed for a final stop at a dirty old café nearby, where Ieuan bought an exorbitantly priced stale cornetto and we saw a strange light effect on some clouds, which were reflecting red, blue and green light. From there we headed back, watching a video about of an Australian army major who spends his time driving around the country getting the indigenous people to teach him how to survive in the wild (a bit like a back Ray Mears survival programme only considerably worse).

Ate pizza at hotel restaurant.

Saturday 10 November 2007. Day 82 Holiday Inn, Darwin

Go for breakfast as it’s included, but we needn’t have bothered as it’s really poor, coffee if there was any in the cup was undrinkable. Book some trips, tomorrow we’ll go on a 1 day tour to Lichfield National Park, and then on Monday we’ll go on a boat cruise on the Katherine River in Nitmiluk National Park (unfortunately the 4hr/3 gorge trip isn’t running as there isn’t sufficient water, so we can only go on the 2 hour trip in 1 gorge.

We then head to the internet to book a car for the 660km round trip on Monday, instead of spending hours on a bus with other drongos. We also book a hotel in Perth for the 13th so that we can move our flight forward 1 day as there’s no accommodation here. Head over to the Qantas office, but like everything else in Darwin on a Saturday it’s closed, so we phone up and make the change, not being charged (it’s normally $40 per person) which is a bonus as we already brought the flight forward by 2 days when we were in Cairns. We find bugger all of interest in the way of shops or culture in the city centre, it being made up mostly of tourist shops selling tat (although it has to be said there is a vast array of tat).

Find a café for lunch, where we wait 15 mins before even getting a drinks order in (the waitress loudly states that she’s sorry we’ve had to wait so long, but she’s the only 1 working, which she isn’t). In the afternoon we lounge by the hotel pool and prepare for our trip tomorrow that involves a 7am start. Go back to Hanuman for our dinner in the absence of any other viable eating options (we had hoped that the place we went for lunch would be somewhere that could be considered, but ….)

Friday 9 November 2007. Day 81 Holiday Inn, Darwin

Get up late, savouring the cleanliness & niceness of the HI room, with it’s proper curtains, big clean bed and other luxuries such as a clean bathroom and a kettle. We headed up to the internet café and spend some time booking ourselves out of the Auckland (New Zealand) YHA (we don’t want a repeat experience) and into the Auckland Crowne Plaza. We also try and book an extra night’s accommodation for final night here, as the Holiday Inn is full, but can’t find anywhere with availability (there must be something going on that we are unaware of).

We have lunch at a café opposite, where they refuse to serve bruschetta without feta cheese, telling us that we can pick it off. Lunch was ok (without the bruschetta), although the service involved not getting us the bill when we asked for it, the waitress deciding that her break (which started about 10 minutes after we’d asked for the bill was more important!), it worked in our favour in the end though and they got confused about what to charge us for.

Took a taxi to the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory and spent a few hours looking at the collection of Indigenous Art and the section dedicated to Cyclone Tracy, which completely destroyed Darwin on 24th December 1974. We also saw Sweetheart a 5m rogue crocodile which was captured some years ago after it had attacked a number of aluminium hulled boats, unfortunately it died in the capture process.

Back at the hotel we try and find somewhere for dinner, but there doesn’t appear to be much choice, so we head to what looks like the best of the bunch, which happens to be next door, Hanuman. We had a great dinner there, even if the service was pretty slow, food was a mixture of Thai, Indian & Nonya.

Thursday 8 November 2007. Day 80 Cairns Inn, Cairns

Up early, checked out and crossed the road for the 7am pick up to go to Kuranda via the scenic railway. We were driven by a cheerful Kiwi called Arden. After a few hairy moments in the mini bus, along with another British couple who seemed a bit dazed and confused about the whole being in Australia thing we arrived early & mooched around the gift shop for half an hour before setting off (taking a picture of 3 comical trainspotters squashed together to get a pic of the train as it came in).

The journey up was good with some great views, stopping at Barron Falls, which didn’t have a lot of water due to the lack of rain & the damming of the river upstream. At Kuranda we walked into the village, passing a Cassowary on route, only to find it was a village entirely devoted to junk filled tourist shops and ice-creameries. It really wasn’t very inspiring at all.

We left to catch the 7.5km skyrail cable car back down the mountain, which gave us spectacular views over the rain forest, out to sea and the whole Cairns area. It was quite bumpy and at one point it rained but was really good.

Once down we got picked up by our tour guide who spun yarns about his younger days when he spent 8 years traveling the world, before dropping us back at the hotel (after taking a wrong turning as he was too busy talking). Had a truly awful lunch at a café near the hotel, spent some time wandering around, visiting the art gallery shop, the main shopping centre & the esplanade before catching a taxi to the airport, managing to forget one bag which we had to go back and collect.

The facilities at Cairns airport were pretty basic, so had a Hungry Jacks dinner (despite swearing not to after our last encounter with the brand), this was somewhat better.

Landed at Darwin at 9pm and got taxi to the YHA only to find Lou had booked us into the most disgusting hostel imaginable, it didn’t look good when we went up the dirty concrete steps at the back of the open reception, but when we found our room next to the blaring tv lounge and with a spare bed propped on it’s end outside we knew that we had made a terrible mistake! Lou opened the door of the room to find a dirty, dingy, shabby room with dirty blue bedspread, sheets that had turned blue from being washed with the bedspread and manky curtains which didn’t even cover the windows properly. The bathroom was old and dirty, the taps were rusty around the tops and there were no towels. Ieuan was none too pleased at this turn of events (Lou had assured him at the time of booking that it would be fine!) and so we headed to the nearest internet place to see if we could find somewhere better (by now it’s after 10pm). We passed a Holiday Inn next door and ascertained that they had a room available for 3 nights. After much searching on the internet which revealed not much being available (although Ieuan in his tiredness managed to find availability, trouble was it was back in Cairns!!) Went back to the hole of a room, where Lou made the decision to do a runner to the Holiday Inn (especially after finding on the internet that they had availability for 5 nights, we’re scheduled to be here for 6 nights). We gathered our stuff and left dropping the key in the key return box on the way out, and slipping out the back gate, hoping that whoever was standing at the reception door chatting didn’t see us go.

Next morning Lou phoned up to explain that due to an undefined emergency we had to leave shortly after arriving.

Wednesday 7 November 2007. Day 79 Cairns Inn, Cairns

Up early due to room being really light, get suncreamed up and walk down to the Reef Pier to catch the “Reef Rocket” (if this is as fast as rockets go, then all space programmes are a lie) boat to Green Island. Set off at 9am, arrive on the island at 9:45. When on a great semi-submersible for a half an hour look at the coral and fish, of which we saw many different types, a couple of sea turtles, a large lobster and some huge clams. While never having been seasick while being on a boat on the surface during his rather long life, Ieuan starts to feel seasick towards the end of his journey, and bolts upstairs for some fresh air as soon as the shore was in sight.

Afterwards Lou did some snorkeling off the island seeing some great fish, coral and clams, although she doesn’t think much of the other snorkelers, one of whom decides to dive under her and then surface right where she is. We forego our trip on the glass bottom boat as we don’t think we’ll see anything we haven’t already seen, and catch the boat back at 12:15.

Purchase ourselves some dips and crisps for lunch from the Woolworth across the road, Ieuan gets his haircut and we use the internet. Send some further parcels back to the UK, then sort and pack our backs so that we don’t check out with the same number of backs that we checked in with!

Go back to La Fettucina for dinner, much to Lou’s chagrin as she suggested that we went here yesterday only for the idea to be poo pooed by Ieuan!

Tuesday 6 November 2007. Day 78 Cairns Inn, Cairns

Have a lie-in in our full sized bed (luxury after the confines of the campervan). Go to the internet café next door for an hour or so, then head to Cairns Central (a shopping centre) to get some lunch. Weather is really hot here.

Back at the apartment we watch some tv before heading out to eat at an Italian round the corner. Looks nice but inside it’s not so great! The main waiter (perhaps owner) reminds Ieuan of Basil Fawlty for a number of reasons (bearing in mind today was The Melbourne Cup, he wants to talk about our wins/losses of the day, plus we feel that whatever we order we’ll end up with whatever he wants to bring us), and the waitress whose first language isn’t English and who struggles to understand us. When she turns up with the wine it appears that she sneaks up on us, whips the already opened bottle from behind her back & pours 2 big glasses – not quite up to Ieuan’s high standards of wine pouring etiquette. Food wasn’t great, everything was served with sufficient salt to dry out the entire state’s slug population.

Booked a couple of trips via the hotel reception, out to an island (coral cay) on the Barrier Reef, and to Kuranda via the scenic railway & skyrail.

Returned home to find the usual army of ants marching around the room.

Monday 5 November 2007. Day 77 Campervan – Big 4 Caravan Park Mission Beach

Up early pack up all our stuff & clean van out for handing back. Left the van park at about 11am, after seeing a huge red spotted beetle on the outside of the mens loos. Stopped in hippy-ville mission beach to post home our 3 huge parcels at the post office, which resulted in us causing the biggest queue the place has probably ever seen (at least 3 other people).

Onward to Cairns, passing lots of sugar cane, cane trains & other camper vans coming the other way. We stopped at a shopping centre on the outskirts of Cairns to pick up Lou’s new prescription sunglasses and have lunch.

Use newly purchased map to navigate directly to hotel, stopping in the bus stop outside (to the annoyance of the bus drivers, but hey where else is there to park!) to unload our 20 or so bags of stuff. Drop the van back at the Maui depot and get a taxi back into town (we’re driven by an Irish man who tells us that there are no Cairns natives, and we don’t meet anyone who was born there in our 4 day stay).

Use the internet several doors down from our hotel, and wander round the streets to get a feel for the city. Back at our room we were both thrilled to find that the Valencia GP was being repeated on tv, so we head out and watch the end of the 125 race in a bar, grab some food at an Italian (La Fettucina, where we had a really nice 2005 Tempranillo from WA called Stella Bella), before heading back to the bar to watch the big bike race.

Sunday 4 November 2007. Day 76 Campervan – Big 4 Caravan Park Mission Beach

Visited the little market opposite the caravan park where we purchased some back issues of Australian Geographic, before heading for a walk down the beach (there is one here unlike at Airlie), which was really beautiful with the rainforest right behind it and Dunk Island just offshore. Watched some parachutists coming down and landing on the beach, quite a number of them were tandems, it’s quite cheap to do a freefall from 14000 ft here. We were surprised how many people were in the water despite it being stinger (jellyfish) season, even though an area of the beach has a special stinger safe area (basically a safety net that goes out into the water). Our guide book says that there is a small type of stinger that will get through that however and is also extremely poisonous.

Bought some mince (animal unidentified) in order to make our tea, and then had lunch at the Monkey Café. Both had salads which weren’t great. Headed 3 minutes down the road back to the van, where Lou doused Ieuan in sun cream and went and lay be the small pool for a bit. Later Lou cooked rea while Ieuan chatted to the neighbours, before we took an evening stroll on the beach to see if we could spot any wildlife. We didn’t just some local ruffnecks from the hippy campsite and came back to eat tea.

Packed up some of our stuff ready to hand the van back tomorrow, before spending an hour killing the various bugs we didn’t want to share the night in the van with.

Saturday 3 November 2007. Day 75 Campervan – Big 4 Caravan Park Airlie Beach

Left the caravan site, went into Airlie Beach to use the internet and then set off towards Mission Beach, 500kms away. Stopped at Bowen for lunch, a deserted little place where the only sign of life was at the only open shop – subway. Had horrible subway sandwiches for lunch and then motored on through the nicer, more lively looking Ayr & Townsville.

On route we passed through miles of sugar cane plantations, stopping at a level crossing for a cane train to pass on its way to the cane refinery. Today we spotted a variety of wildlife inspired creeks, including, Kangaroo, Emu, Cassowary, several Alligator Creeks, to be added to the already seen Spider, Pig & Little Pig Creeks. These appeared in quite a run, although we were soon back to the boring 6 mile creek type of name. Also spotted didgeridoo lagoon. Most of the creeks that we’ve crossed are completely dry and even some of the rivers that look like they have been quite large at one time are also dry.

We made it to Mission Beach by about 6:30, after driving through a reportedly Cassowary infested forest, needless to say we saw neither hide nor hair (or should that read feather) of them. Checked in, cooked tea, ate in the van to escape all the nasty local bugs our van is bagged up to a meter wide ditch, the other side of which is rain forest.

Friday 2 November 2007. Day 74 Campervan – Big 4 Caravan Park Airlie Beach

Phone the local doctor to make an appointment for Lou as she still has a cough. Catch the bus into town, and Ieuan beds down in the internet cafe, whilst Lou goes for her docs apointment, then also goes to get an eyelash tint (the beautician girl doing it, turns out to be from Bristol originally!).

Go to the deli for lunch and get some nice sandwhiches, which we each next to the lagoon. Then we decide to walk round the headland, part way home, where we can stop at the shopping centre and buy tea, and then catch the bus the rest of the way. 10 mins into the walk, we are sweltering and realise the walk is longer, and there is less to see than we (lou) thought! We persevere, and are soon faced with climbing a very steep hill to try and take a short cut along the road to the shopping centre. After another 20 mins of hot walking, we finally arrive, get our stuff and catch the next bus home, waiting at the bus stop with a crowd of very dodgy looking individuals, some of whom look like they have just left the "Department of Corrective Services" which is right next to the bus stop.

Spend the rest of the afternoon by the pool, only after Ieuan has been thoroughly covered in a layer of suncream by Lou and arrangements made to keep his burnt parts under the shade.

We make a chicken balti for tea and crack open a delicious bottle of 2004 Lakes Folly wine to go with it. (Lakes Folly winery don't sell outside of Australia as they are a small winery, so they always sell out locally, and before the end of the season).

We evict the grasshopper that likes to come into the van each night and go to bed.

Thursday 1 November 2007. Day 73. Campervan – Big 4 Caravan Park Airlie Beach

We spend the morning sunbathing by the pool at the campsite. The weather is pretty hot but there is a nice breeze too. Lou braves the pool and the giant toadstool waterfalls but Ieuan prefers to stay on his sunlounger. In the afternoon, we catch the bus into Airlie Beach (with an extremely cheerful bus driver!) and spend some in the internet cafe, and wandering round the shops. Chatted to the bloke working in the internet cafe who comes from Walthamstow, and updated the blog. Sent off some postcards and things at the post office, and bought some aloe vera after sun gel.

Caught the bus towards home and got off at the supermarket to buy tea, then walked the rest of the way home and Lou cooked spag bol for tea. No wine as Ieuan was dehydrated from all his sunbathing. During tea outside the van, Lou spotted a possum like creature with a big long rat-type tail slinking in silhouette across the fence at the back of the site. Saw it (or something) again later lurking in the bushes nearby. Apparently the site have reared some injured or orphaned possums so it may have been one of those.

Lou applies ice cold aloe vera to Ieuan's sunburn patches (he did put suncream on apparently, but strangely, all the parts he did burnt, and all the parts where Lou was given the task of applying suncream to, didn't!!)!

Wednesday 31 October 2007. Day 72. Campervan – Rockhampton, Tropical Wanderer Resort

Leave Rockhampton at the crack of dawn again (9:30) and by 10:30 we’ve done 100kms and stopped for a break in a rest stop, where a couple of earthy types in a hippie van are playing the guitar. We follow an Apollo campervan for a good part of the day, occasionally getting in front when they stop but mostly traveling behind since they seem to be overtaking everything in site (breaking the speed limit in the 100kph zones and then traveling at 105kph in the 110kph zones – barmy).

The road consists mainly though of us with no other vehicles in sight, plus miles and miles of dry forest with many trees burnt or dried out and dying. Also saw some mountains as well as some strange tree trunks left after the trees had been chopped down with small trees sprouting from them.

Lunch at MacKay at the deli, Ieuan had the biggest sandwich we’ve ever seen. Afterwards we passed sugar plantations by the bucket load, plus a couple of grim looking sugar refineries. The sugar cane was being picked and transported on a set of small wagons along a narrow railway at the side of the road.

As we headed passed the tree lines road, Lou spotted a cassowary bird lurking in the bushes.
We also saw lots of forest fires in the low reaches of the nearby mountains giving off smoke – the weather is particularly hot and dry today so no surprise.

Creeks spotted today included Spider Creek, 3 x Alligator Creek, one 6 mile creek, one 14 mile creek and one 7 mile creek, plus a Plentiful Creek, which was anything but.

Arrived at Airlie Beach at about 4pm and drove around the town, then checked into our campsite. Walked over to the supermarket, then Ieuan cooked chicken curry for tea, which we ate on the “veranda”! Lou packed up 3 huge parcels to be sent home.

Tuesday 30 October 2007. Day 71. Campervan – Brisbane, Northside Caravan Village

Set off before 10am with a plan to reach Bundaberg for lunch & Rockhampton for the night, an ambitious drive of 625kms in all. En route we decided to stop before Bundaberg at Maryborough, on the Mary river which the locals (further upstream) are trying to prevent being dammed. It was also home to a giant statue of a man (about 3 times human size) dressed in full armour (from the middle ages or so) with a shotgun, all this on a garage forecourt. Maryborough was a real Hicksville place with no nice lunch options so we ended up with a nasty burger from Hungry Jacks (Burger King elsewhere in the world).

After lunch we continued spending much of the time overtaking slower vehicles and tracks when there were overtaking lanes, and other times without a vehicle in sight for miles. Passed a field where all the cattle had a personal attendant bird standing next to them, plus a tree with hundreds of the same type of bird in it. Stopped at the Coliseum roadhouse for a break, which close up looked like a highly dodgy and dirty place, including a motel and the slogan ‘It’s worth stopping for’ alongside a picture of a scantily clad girl. Passed 5 Six Mile Creeks as well as a variety of other amusing creek names, eg Little Pig Creek/Farmer Creek) as well as the Steve Irwin Drive.

Reached Rockhampton & found a very nice campsite, getting a Pizza Hut pizza from the take away on the opposite side of the road to save on the cooking/washing up chores. Used the dodgy all in one internet terminals briefly which took 10 minutes to load each page, so we gave up. Had a nice bottle of Brokenwood wine with our pizzas.

Monday 29 October 2007. Day 70. Campervan – Brisbane, Northside Caravan Village

Got the train into Brisbane (after the lady at the campsite recommended the bus as the best way to get in, urrgh, no scummy busses for us thanks! Sat opposite two real drongos who talked about the bloke’s impending court date, the fact that they had spent all their money and her pysch appointment, while making a call to her mother and saying top her that this would be the last time that she’d make a request like this, only to get off the phone and tell the boyfriend that they could do this every so often.

In Brisbane we used the internet, then went and had lunch in one of the food halls (not the greatest lunch we’ve had), before trawling around the shops for the afternoon. There are a huge number of shops, some chain stores and some smaller local shops & designers, many with a Japanese influence.

Ieuan typed up some more of the blog and we browsed borders for a while, before trying to find a restaurant for dinner, looking at a couple of recommendations we had, Italians which were mainly seafood unfortunately. We walked down to Eagle Street Pier to look at another couple of Italians, again mostly seafood, but there was also one which did one pizza we would eat, however Ieuan wanted more choice, so we caught a 93 seater taxi to Caxton Street (the other side of town) to a Thai there.

It was BYO (bring your own alcohol, as a lot of places in Australia seem to be), it looked ok, 2 tables were occupied, although we later realized one was the owner's family who were watching Home and Away on the tv which had the volume seemingly turned up to full. Needless to say we had a horrible meal with very fatty meat, so we paid at the counter and made a sharp exit before they spotted our barely touched plates. Walked back to train station passed hordes of noisy drunkards (not locals, perhaps they were from somewhere close to home) and got the train to Zillimere and walked back to the campsite.