Diary Australia - Part 4 - The East Coast

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Cairns was our introduction to life on the east coast and it's reputation for being a cheesey backpacker party place was pretty accurate. The city itself isn't particularly exciting - it doesn't even have a beach - but the surrounding areas are stunning.

We were trapped in Cairns for a few days while the car had another visit to the workshop - the roadside repairs had been fine, but now the stub-shaft needed replacing (more expense!).

We signed up for some diving, but stupidly missed the pick-up thinking it was 2 hours later. Fortunately by the next day the car was ready so we were able to drove up to Port Douglas to catch our dive boat the next day.

We weren't particularly inspired by the diving - especially having paid extra to go up to the Agincourt outer ribbon reef. Our overall impression was that a combination of mass tourism, coral bleaching and crown of thorns starfish (which eat all the coral) have rather decimated the dive sites.

So we continued north to Cooktown via the CREB track (Cairns Region Electricty Board) - a very steep and extreme track that takes you right over the top of some volcanoes and through the rainforest (above). If the track hadn't been bone dry we would have struggled - some of the track was so steep that we had to engage the diff lock just to stop ourselves sliding back down.

But we made it to Cooktown - a sleepy, hazy place where Captain Cook landed to mend his boat, the Endeavour, after running it into the Great Barrier Reef. The place has a great lighthouse and interesting museum which gives you a real sense of its history.

Tempted as we were to continue north to the rugged Cape York peninsula, our lack of time and funds persuaded us to head down the coast road to Cape Tribulation - where the 'rainforest meets the reef' (above). The humidity made the air so hazy that the horizon was just a blur.

While Cape Tribulation was undeniably stunning, we found that a few miles south in Cape Kimberley the beaches were deserted and we were also lucky enough to spot a rare dusky rat kangeroo

Toby and Helen

Further down the coast we spent a couple of days at Mission Beach - another stunning stretch of endless white sand. The wind had picked up and the air was so oppressively humid that we were looking forward to a good storm. According to the locals, the first rain of the season washes the box jellyfish or 'stingers' down from the estuaries where they go to breed, to the sea. So we'll be looking good in stinger suits (a kind of thin, lycra wetsuit) from now on.

Somehere on the road towards Airlie Beach, we overtook Toby and Helen - friends from home who are cycling from Cairns to Sydney. We swapped stories over a cup of Earl Grey and compared our tan lines.

We found Airlie Beach to be full of weirdos and didn't hang around long time before heading out on a boat, hoping we weren't about to re-live the final scenes of Dead Calm.

The Atlanta had been recommended to us by friends back home - a beautiful old, wooden schooner, built by the owner and sailed twice round the world. The weather was calm for our first couple of days as we gently cruised around the Whitsunday islands - sunbathing, snorkelling, eating and kidding ourselves that we would try and learn something about sailing the next day. We slept out on deck and had a very relaxing time - contemplating sailing back to the UK.

The wind picked up on our last day and the angles achieved as we raced the other yachts back to Airlie Beach were quite disturbing - especially when Nic volunteered to take the helm.

aboard the Atlanta

'dorsal' and friends

But as previously (on one very scary crossing of the Red Sea - another story) some dolphins appeared to reassure us and we made it back to the mainland all too soon.

Shipmate Phil became our new roadie for a couple of days as we travelled via Eungella National Park to see the platypuses/platypi (what is the plural of platypus?). We camped in a peaceful spot next to the river and a particularly friendly possum joined us for some evening entertainment.

The next day was a long, uneventful drive to Hervey Bay, one of the set off points for Fraser Island. For once everything went according to plan and we were able to buy our permits and ferry tickets to leave the next morning.

Fraser Island is the largest sand bar in the world and a World Heritage listed site accessible only by 4x4. Having done a fair bit of off-road driving by this time, we were feeling quite confident as we cruised off the ferry and along the soft, sandy tracks through the forest. Confidence turned to a slight sense of smugness as we calmly cruised past stuck "professional" drivers in their huge 4x4 tour trucks or canny locals in a hopelessly bogged 3 way snatch!

It's a truly stunning island and despite the large number of tours that visit each day at 120km x 15km, it's still big enough to find a deserted beach all to yourself. We were pleased to find that it wasn't over-rated and had a great time exploring.

Maheno Beach, Fraser Island

Eli Creek

Firstly, we headed across to Maheno beach on the east coast - a 70km stretch of beach that becomes a bit of a highway at times. After having a quick look at the Maheno wreck, we stopped off at Eli Creek (left) to float down the fast-flowing, crystal-clear water. There are lots of freshwater lakes and creeks on Fraser to swim in, which is good as the sea is out of bounds (tiger sharks and strong currents).

We then continued north away from the crowds and up to Sandy Cape - the most northerly point of the island. Two currents meet here so the sea is very rough and the wind is strong, giving it a wild and desolate feel.

We found a sheltered spot to camp for the night and watched the sun set - not a sight or sound of other people in the area.

The next morning, we weren't too disappointed to find that high tide was at 9.30am so we were pretty much stranded until the afternoon. We explored the huge sand dunes and spotted lots of turtles in the shallow waters - it appears to be mating season - and enjoyed having this part of the island to ourselves.

Later we headed back round to Indian Head lookout and drove west to Wathumba where we hoped to drive down the west of the island. This area turned out to be one huge swamp so we stayed the night - again not a soul in sight - then headed back to the east.

Dunes at Sandy Cape
Lake Mackenzie

After a brief visit to Champagne Pools (where the bubbles are formed by the waves crashing over the rocks into the rock pools), we explored the interior. The forest drives took us to some beautiful lakes, including Lake Wabby and Lake Mackenzie. The water in these lakes is part of the island's water table and is incredibly clear.

We wandered through the sub-tropical forests of Yidney Scrub and marvelled at the huge trees. During our 5 day stay on the island, we were constantly amazed at how beautiful and varied the island is.

We camped in various sites right behind the beach and met a few dingos in search of food.

After leaving Fraser Island, we had an increasing sense that our journey was coming to an end and that soon we would have to start rehabilitating ourselves back into society and getting used to city life again.

We continued down the coast via Brisbane, Surfer's Paradise and Byron Bay and stopped in at Newcastle to visit friends-from-home, Vicky and Rob. After a day in the Hunter Valley vineyards, it became evident that our alcohol tolerance had become appalling low.

And so it was on November 17th 2002 that we set off from Newcastle with our flags flying, on the final stretch of our long journey.

Finally!

As Route 1, which covers the whole circumference of Australia, turned into a 6 lane motorway we reflected how the very same road had been a single lane gravel track up in the north, and what an amazing variety of countries and places we had seen throughout this trip.

10 months, 23 countries and 33,000 miles since we left England , we felt a growing sense of nervous exhilaration as we caught sight of the Sydney CBD and drove across the famous Sydney Harbour Bridge. It was a perfect, sunny day and we felt very lucky to have arrived safe and sound, and hoped that we wouldn't break down or crash at this final stage.

We made our way to Bondi Beach where we were welcomed by Rich - our ex-Aussie flatmate in Bristol who we'd promised to visit many years ago - and sat down to enjoy a very special moment with a very nice, cool beer.

MISSION 'OVERLAND TO OZ' COMPLETE.

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