Around the world (ish) in a builder's van

Well, we finally made it to Cairns, after travelling a total of 3,216km in Carol up the east coast.  Definitely an amazing way to travel and see Australia, despite the occasional overheating engine, and I recommend it to anyone.  Luckily for anyone who, like us, doesn't know the area very well, Australians have developed a handy way to get around in unfamiliar territory.  The trick is to name streets and roads after places they are heading to, from, or passing through.  For example, if you join Pennant Hills Road you can be pretty sure (well, 50/50 at least, you might have picked the wrong direction) that you are on your way to the Sydney suburb of Pennant Hills.  They don't just restrict this to cities and towns though, they can be much more general as well.  A few times we have been in a small coastal village looking for the beach and have found it at the end of, you guessed it, Beaches Road.  Brilliant stuff.  But anyway, let's pick up where Sarah left off...

It ended up taking about 5 or so hours to reach Bargara, just east of Bundaberg, so we arrived well into the evening.  Tired and grumpy, we pulled up outside the Strube's house at about 11pm.  The Strubes are friends of the family from back when I used to live in Bundaberg as a young ranga (Aussie slang for gingers) and Geoff, Sherilyn and Paige were very kind to put us up.  Unfortunately we were unable to find our way into the house (the Strubes were out) and ended up spending another night in the van, about 20 feet from a freshly made bed and hot showers.  When Sarah found out about this the next morning (and the fact that the reason we couldn't get in was because I hadn't listened properly to Geoff's careful instructions) she was not very happy, but soon cheered up with a lovely breakfast and the chance to clean ourselves up and generally look and feel more human.

I remember telling my life story to a dwarf who probably regretted deciding to visit the same bar as me that night.

The house is gorgeous, with a garden that ends with some dark volcanic rocks and then the Pacific Ocean.  The sea floor here drops off quite quickly so they have been able to see whales, and even a 6m hammerhead shark, just a stone's throw from their back garden.  We didn't have too long to admire though, as Geoff and Sherilyn took us on a quick tour of Bundaberg to see if I remembered much (sadly not), ending with a quick dip in the sea at Kelly's beach.  The water was unbelievably warm as well - all up the coast the sea has been warm once you got used to it, but here it was like walking straight into a bath.  The rest of the day was spent relaxing and we were luckily enough to be put up again for another night before leaving in the early afternoon the next day.

Now we were heading for Agnes Water and Town of 1770, two small townships about 2 hours north of Bundaberg.  (Just so you know, Town of 1770 was renamed from Round Hill in 1970 to commemerate Captain Cook's first landing in what is now Queensland).  It was here that we released the Hells Angels within us and went on a chopper tour of the towns and surrounding areas.  They aren't real choppers, unfortunately, but modified scooters.  However, they run on petrol and actually go quite quick (I managed to get mine up to 75kph, which feels lightning fast when you are low to the ground with the wind in your hair).  The tour was in a convoy of about 20 to 30 of these choppers, led by Rod on a genuine hog, and lasted for about 3 hours with a small dinner at 1770 to see the sun set.  Very small in fact, it was 10 wedges - I counted.  We were again planning to spend the night in a beach carpark, but left after some local kids turned up and started to set off fireworks.  Instead we slept outside the house of the local principal, whom we met at breakfast with the Strube's back in Bargara.  Lovely chap who also said to use his name if we had any trouble with the police, but luckily we didn't.  Proof, however, the it's who you know that counts!

It was a big drive the next day, 8 hours in total from Agnes Water to Airlie Beach.  Despite only stopping for petrol and a quick lunch at McDonalds in Rockhampton we still didn't arrive in Airlie Beach until late but luckily managed to get into a campsite right in the town centre called Koalas (also a hostel).  We had found out in Bargara that there was a cyclone up in northern Queensland that we needed to keep an eye on, and while it was no longer a cyclone at this point (and situated further west) we still encountered a wet and windy tropical storm.  We ended up spending the whole night sheltering in the van, along with a few other critters.  This included a juvenile huntsman spider that I found and had to evict the next morning.  I would like to say that I calmly removed the blighter with an authorative air, but I think a yelped swear word and a flinging action that resulted in me almost slipping on my backside out of the van and into mud is closer to the truth.  But the important point is that I got the spider out, and neither of us was harmed.

The rain was hard, heavy, and rarely let up all the way from Airlie Beach to our stop for the next night.  In fact, there were a couple of points where we had to drive through some water on the road with only the 4x4 and lorry in front of us as a guide to how deep it was.  Not the best situation (we certainly wouldn't have tackled anything deeper) and the van drifted a bit in the current, but we made it through to Townsville.  Now, let me just say that neither of us liked Townsville.  I will admit, however, that this is completely biased by the fact that it was pouring with rain, I got soaking wet trying to find somewhere to stay, we couldn't find anywhere to stay after all anyway, the place is a mess of one way streets and the van's gearbox started acting up and making unhealthy sounds in first, second and reverse.  Either way, we couldn't wait to leave the small street we stayed in and hit the road early the next morning, on the way to Mission Beach.

Considering we were rather wet and miserable, and that the rain had prevented us seeing the reef at all, we were very happy to leave the clouds behind soon after leaving Townsville and arrived in Mission Beach in a blaze of sunshine (and glory).  There are actually four main areas here - Mission Beach, South Mission Beach, and Wongaling Beach and Bingil Bay.  We ended up staying at a hostel here called Scottys as they let us park up in the shade and use all the facilities (showers, toilets, pool, discounts etc) as long as we booked something through them, as they get commission.  'Hmmm....what shall we do,' we wondered.  'Let's do a bloody skydive!'

Now, let no person call Sarah and James cowards as we signed up for the highest jump possible - 14,000ft with a promised 60 second freefall.  This is actually more like 30 seconds but let me tell you, you aren't counting as you hurtle towards the ground with a face looking like a cross between Jim Carey and silly putty.  It is incredibly high up and I remember having a deep gulp after asking how high we were so far and being told that this was only 4,000ft - I could see the bloody clouds below us!  The experience was absolutely amazing and I'm glad to have a dvd to help remember it by, as you keep thinking it may not have happened otherwise.  Sarah was a bit nervous, but managed to keep it together up until the point where the door of the plane opened, at which point she started to scream.  In fact, this is the last thing you can hear on the video as I go over the edge of the aircraft.  Apparently this is one of the best skydives around as you land on Mission Beach itself and the view, once your parachute opens and you have a chance to take it all in, is spectacular.

The hostel itself was great fun as well, especially our first night which involved a scavenger hunt in which our team (Sarah and I plus two lads from Ipswich) came second, narrowly missing out on the prize because we didn't have a porn mag.  However, we pulled it back in the bonus round thanks largely, if I may say so, to a spot of brief nudity on my party.  In fact, the lady in charge said it was the best bit of nudity she had ever seen.  What can I say, I'm a natural(ist - boom boom!).  The other two events of note while at Mission Beach were that I managed to sunburn my lips, which is very painful and results in chapping and swelling and has only just healed, and a quick bit of English and German engineering on Carol Campette the Campervan.  You see, at some point during the journey the front right mudflap had come lose and needed to be fixed back in place.  Luckily, the local hostel handyman Ronny supplied the German ingenuity and tools and I provided the English brain (aka I 'supervised'), and the mudflap was screwed back in place after drilling some holes through the chassis.  Not ideal, I'll admit, but a hell of a lot cheaper - free - than visiting a local garage.

We spent two nights in Mission Beach before having to leave for Cairns as the van was due back at 3pm.  It was only a short distance though and we arrived in plenty of time to unload the van into our new hostel, Gilligan's, and get the van to its collection point.  This was a sad time for both of us as Carol Campette had been brilliant to us throughout the journey, especially as the man who took her from us was a bit of a, well, 'horrible prat' is being kind.  However, he didn't notice the DIY mudflap and returned the full bond amount, so we can't complain too much.

Gilligan's is actually an ex-hotel and is a huge complex of dorm rooms.  Not only that but, owing to its hotel background, the bathrooms are top-notch for a hostel and there is even a pool and nightclub attached.  The prices weren't the cheapest in the area, but loads of people we met on the drive recommended the place and we did get a free meal with a drink every evening.

Now, up until this point neither of us had really drunk much due to financial and driving constraints.  Now we were unleashed however, and decided to hit the town hard.  We planned to go to the Woolshed, but as soon as we passed the attached club (Castaway's or something) Sarah heard some music she liked and insisted we went in.  I can't remember exactly, but it was probably Ne-Yo, Usher or something similar.  Either way, this was where we spent the night and not much more can be remembered, although I do remember at one point watching Chelsea v Stoke live while telling my life story to a dwarf who probably regretted ever deciding to visit the same bar as me that night.  Needless to say the next day was one of relaxation and sore heads, but by the evening we were raring to go again and this time actually made it to the Woolshed.

The Woolshed is a strange but funky place.  Downstairs they have a small room that seems to play techno/electro while upstairs seems to be whatever the dj feels like playing at that particular moment in time.  The best bit though is that dancing on the tables is allowed, in fact encouraged, and we had a good boogy up on the wooden tables and chairs trying to avoid drunken men and low ceilings (Sarah and I respectively).

Now I have been going on for far to long now, although my excuse is that there really was a lot to mention.  However, I'll finish it up with our trip today on the Skycable, just outside of Cairns.  This is essentially a cable car that heads up a mountain and over a gorge covered in rainforest to the small township of Kuranda.  There are two stop-off stations along the way where you can have a ranger-guided tour along a boardwalk through the rainforest and learn more about the area's ecology/history.  The best bit was the waterfall though, which was just spectacular.  Due to all the recent rainfall the rivers were swollen (and bursting at some points) and the volume and power of the water as it crashed down the waterfall was incredible.  Sarah and I were both very awestruck, and while the Skycable seems, and is, much more tame than some other trips/tours/experiences you can do in Cairns, we thoroughly recommend it.