Mission Beach & Bingil Bay

From Jourama falls I ended up at Wallaman Falls, the longest waterfall in Australia. A little shot of me driving there



When I arrived there at night I pretty much had time only to set up camp and have dinner, it was a bit strange to be on my own again after the night at Jourama Falls, but with a bit of music playing it was all right. The next morning I headed to the lookout to see the falls, and saw this:

A big white cloud! But after a 2k walk down a steep hill I got to the bottom and saw this instead:



From here Mission Beach was the destination, it was a bit of an anticlimax to arrive at the famed beach in the rain and wind. I took a shot half for the beach and half to show my current home:




I'd just finished dinner when the crew from Jourama rang from Bingil Bay around the corner, so off I went to visit them- you never know if people you meet are really going to call you or not so I was pretty happy they had. It was Anna's birthday the next day and in between having a few wines and listening to some pretty cool music (while watching the waves through Log's [the van!] window the other two had hatched a plan for the birthday- my job was pretty much to turn up the next morning. So the next day began and was one of the best of my life for sure- top ten easily- who knows, maybe the best ever. It would be impossible to describe every thing that happened, every joke, every funny thing that was invented or organised so I won't even try. All I can say is that it felt like the four of us were at the center of the universe that day. But for history's sake I'll give a bit of a synopsis... Notker and Eleanor had prepared the campsite in the morning, and when I arrived having packed up camp Anna was finally allowed out of the van. First thing she had to do was walk down the coconut avenue and be presented with her bag and crown. The bag and contained an air horn ( to summon her minions- us) whenever she required anything. From there she was presented with her birthday present, the hammock: then the breakfast menu. She chose "Breakfast of champions" comprising of a beer and cigarette... From there the day just rolled on in a haze of laughter and fun. The chief minion and i did a bottle shop and supermarket run, Notker and I renovated the campsite and built a bar Robinson Crusoe style, and we ended up inviting everyone in the entire camping area over for sunset drinks. We even had a little coconut campfire for a while before it smoked too much and was dispatched. The super long straws may seem like a novelty in the photos, but consider the merit of leaving your drink on the ground while drinking from it! It's time to let the photos do the talking but if I had to live in a 'groundhog day' that day would be it- and more fun in the space of a few hours than I can remember having for years... and that is why you travel!

Supermarket kung fu, minion style

the other minions, Notker and Eleanor

Birthday queen, Anna

The crew

Minion smoko



Campsite renovations in progress




Finally got to use the axe

At the bottle shop- not sure what the bottleshop owner was thinking..

Fairly late in the proceedings- several bottles of various things were empty at this stage!





Notker in full swing with joke no 342 for the day

And lastly, the breaky the next day- Bingli Bay, the greatest campsite ever!

Jourama Falls

From Townsville I headed north, spending the first night about 50 k's out, at a place called Rollingstone. The park was right on the beach, as is the custom up here so it was a nice spot. The next day I was packed and off early to the Paluma Range National Park, where I pulled up at a camping area near Jourama falls. I found an awesome spot to camp and was all set up by about 11am so the day was set for a cruisy read and a nice meander up the track to see the falls. Here are the falls:

Later in the day I'd just about eaten dinner when a van pulled up in the campsite next to me, out pile a couple of girls (Anna and Eleanor) from Tassie and a German, Notker (as I discovered later). A little while after I went over to say hello and before I knew what was happening I was playing cards, drinking scotch, playing guitar and generally having a bit of a ball. Notker, complete with a German accent, is just about the funniest person I have ever met... Passionfruit was the theme of a breakfast the next day before we swapped details and I headed for Wallaman Falls- the guys had mentioned a festival and it sounded pretty good to me so we made a vague plan to meet up at Mission Beach in a day or two and head there.

Notker, Anna, Me and Eleanor

And their van, "Log"

Airlie beach & Townsville

From Mackay I headed to Conway beach for a night, and then headed to Airlie Beach, a pretty popular tourist and backpacker mecca for reef trips and the like. I decided on a day trip to the reef to get a taste and to see the famous Whitehaven beach. Airlie was touristy but I liked it, the water was spectacular as were the Euro backpackers suntanning by the lagoon- and I spent the afternoon fishing, or rather feeding prawns to an assortment of small tropical fish that kept nibbling away at the bait. I caught a few exotic sorts of things, would love to tell you what they were but I have no idea! Here is Whitehaven beach as seen from a little lookout on Whitsunday Island:

Myself on the boat:

And another shot of Whitehaven beach- the white sand comes from the high silica content apparently-

Well, when I jumped on the boat they asked if anyone wanted to scuba dive- I'd never done it so I volunteered as did an English couple, Adam and Caroline. I guess that put us in the same boat and we got talking, firstly about the indemnity form we had to sign, which had in bold letters the word DEATH, right above where we signed.

They were from Northern England, and we had a good time all round. The scuba dive was pretty cool, definitely something I'd do again. We got down to about 10 metres and cruised around the reef, we saw a few schools of fish but the highlight was simply breathing under water- freaky! Anyway scuba diving is off the 'bucket list' now. I ended up having a night out in Airlie with those guys, and the following day I packed up and headed for Townsville, mostly to return a stupid rooftop tent I had bought- to cut a long story short I ended up with a trusty Oztent, much happier with it.

Townsville was a very cool town I thought- I arrived there and it was 25 degrees, balmy, and was so nice with its beachfront, city marinas packed with snazzy yachts, and the streets lined with stylish buildings. I was pretty impressed, and was even more so when I pulled in three nice Trevally off the jetty the next day. Here is a view of Flinders Street:

One of the Marina's

And Magnetic island seen from the beachfront:

The highlight of the whole Townsville effort was sailing from Magnetic island to Townsville with Geoff, a guy I had met (along with his wife Maree) at Carnarvon Gorge. He had given me his number and told me to ring him in Townsville, which I did, to discover he was moored at Horseshoe Bay on Magnetic Island. I took the ferry over, caught the bus to Horseshoe and he came ashore in his dinghy and picked me up. What a life the yachties have- they were all pretty social out on the water, if someone needs a spanner they just jump in the dinghy and motor over to the next yacht. We went ashore for dinner, then stayed at Horseshoe on the yacht overnight(I had a cabin in the bow), then sailed for Townsville in the morning. All up a great experience so thanks Geoff!!

Poor old Captain Cook never sailed with a VB in hand, though it might have explained the Endeavour running aground

Geoff, the Skipper




Sunrise on the yacht at Horseshoe bay

the boat, I forgot the name!

Horseshoe Bay from a landlubbers perspective

Sailing in full swing, wasn't the breeziest of days though:

My cabin for the night:

And that was that... Townsville could be home one day!

Woolgoolga, Carnarvon Gorge & Mackay

Hi everyone, thought I'd put up a few pics of the trip so far. So here we go, this is Pop's beachhouse at Woolgoolga, where I spent a bit over a week:





And then Evan's head to stay with Paul and Becky, Lewis and Jack:


And here is the Disco crossing the border into Queensland:






Carnarvon Gorge was a top spot, a really interesting sandstone gorge in central Queensland. Had a good time there, the place was interesting enough and I camped next to an interesting couple from Melbourne, Geoff and Maree, who invited me to share their roast dinner, which was nice, and Geoff invited me to go sailing around Townsville. Here are a few of the Gorge



From Carnarvon I headed to my cousin Matt's place in Mackay, where I spent the next two and a bit weeks, I had a cool time there. Matt's place is awesome and they all enjoy a good lifestyle up there. It was great to meet Caitlin and her family as well and of course all the excitment is about the baby due in a couple of days from now. Here are some pics, firstly Matt and Caitlin

We went 4wd'ing one day, Matt managed to reverse his Navara into a tree:




possibly because he was laughing at me getting stuck and needing to use the winch for the first time! naturally I explained that I'd always wanted to test the winch out for real and I just saw the perfect opportunity on this track- I don't think it was generally believed.




Here's Matt's awesome boat returning to the marina at Mackay- no luck that day, but cruising around was a laugh anyway, not for Terry, Caitlin's dad who you can see holding on- he got a bit seasick and was pretty happy to be back on dry land


Oh well, we still managed a feed of mud crabs thanks to Debbie, caitlin's mum- best thing I have eaten for a while. I went to BCF the next day and bought a pot so hopefully somewhere up the cape I'll get on to a few.

All up Mackay was great- gave the car a service with a bit of a hand from Matt, and left with a bunch of fish in the freezer and a tank full of free diesel thanks to the generosity of some of the mining companies Matt's mates work for! Caitlin's family were great as well and had me over for tea a few times all up- by the time I left I reckoned I'd eaten and drunk enough to keep me going for a while. I'll catch up next time with a few pics of Airlie beach and Townsville, cheers, Dan

Post number 1!

Hi everyone, finally got around to getting this thing going! It's about a month since I left Melbourne now, and as I sit here in the net cafe in Townsville I feel the adventure is really getting going now. To give everyone the briefest possible run down of the trip so far, I spent about 10 days in Woolgoolga with Pop, which was fun and good to see him and the family up there again. From there it was up to Paul and Becky's for a night at Evan's Heads, a very cool place. From there I crossed thje border into Queensland and headed for Carnarvon Gorge for a couple of nights (a pretty spectacular place) and then to Mackay where I spent 2 and a half weeks with Matthew and Caitlin. Left Mackay last weekend and stayed at Conway beach for a night before heading to Airlie beach for a couple of nights on the Whitsundays- and now I've made it to Townsville, where I'll be for a couple of days. So a few more detailed posts are to come and of course, some photos if I can get them on this thing. For now, just picture balmy nights, palms swaying in golden sunshine and you've pretty much got the picture. Cheers!