Dan's "Big Lap" of Oz: 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!