Sydney Monday 7 December

One of Sue’s Ebay contacts has suggested we meet when we arrive in Sydney. We rendezvous at the Sydney fish market - after only minor confusion about which entrance is the main one. Carole has bought several pieces of Poole from Sue in recent months and was very helpful with suggestions of places to visit. We have an excellent meal at one of the restaurants in the vicinity of the market then return to their home which is nearby, for us to see their collections. As well as Carole’s Poole her partner Ewan collects English (Liverpool) porcelain. They both seem very knowledgeable and their beautiful small 19th century terraced house is full of their collections and other antiques.

 

It is early eening before we return to Lane Cove camp site which is attached to a nature reserve. Lorikeets roost in a nearby tree.

Sydney. Sunday 6 December

Sue manages to navigate successfully through Sydney using only a very basic map from a tourist information guide (there is a better one inside but she doesn’t notice that). We book in at Lane Cove, a National Parks site on the outskirts of the city and take a train to Central Station. Our first view of the harbour is when our train crosses the Harbour Bridge. We have a look at Paddy’s market and then take another train to Circular Quay to look at the Opera House.

 

The Opera House is an amazing building and the setting couldn’t be better. The harbour seems to have endless bays and inlets so there is a lot of waterfront with mostly low rise buildings apart from the business district. It is a very attractive city.

 

We find a bronze statue of a boar outside a hospital in the business district. The snout is bright where people have touched it - but this is not the only part of it's anatomy that is untarnished...

We walk back through the botanic gardens and eat at a restaurant near the station before returning to the campsite.

Gafton, Coffs Harbour and Hunter Valley. 1-5 December

The next day we continue on a scenic route along the Tweed Valley and end up in Grafton where we find a Big4 holiday park to stop in. These are a chain of camping and motorhome sites that are very big in Australia. You can’t fault them – they are clean and tidy, well run and efficient – and terribly boring. Why anyone would want such a suburban utopia when they are on holiday I can barely imagine.

Sue has bought Macadamia nuts at the side of the road – a kilo of them for $3. Unfortunately these have shells on and are proving very difficult to crack. We resort to driving over them with the van. Although this can be said to work it does tend to mash shell and nut together and leave pieces of road grit and tar embedded in them. As this is less than ideal I buy a special macadamia nut cracker in Grafton. This costs $13, but it keeps Sue occupied for days and the nuts are very good.

We take a scenic route to Coffs Harbour and have an excellent lunch at the fisherman’s co-op by the harbour. We find camping outside the town and I go for a walk to Muttonbird Island.

The next day we decide to take a scenic drive inland. We follow the Waterfalls Way toward Dorigo. It is another winding road that climbs through forested valleys. When we reach more open farmland we stop, intending to have lunch, but as soon as we opened the door – flies. On several occasions we try but each time the flies drive us on. The countryside looks pleasant and well ordered agricultural land but the flies don’t go away. They try to get up your nose and in your eyes and ears and mouth. Giving up, we head back to the coast again through endless miles of twisting and turning forest road. Eventually we find a truck-stop at the side of the road in Wauchope where we camp for the night.

Sue spends much of the night scratching herself. The sand flies seem really to have caught both of us since Coffs Harbour and we are covered in bites. In the morning we continue on to Port Macquarie where we park by a beach for Sue to swim – actually it is too rough, she just jumps around in the surf.

We drive on down the Pacific Highway and the Great Lakes Way and eventually find ourselves at Beuladelah where we turn off to Myall Shores and camp at the edge of a lake at an “Eco resort” (costs the same as a Big4 but scruffy like a cheap site).

In the morning we take a ferry across to the south side of the lake and find our way back to the Pacific Highway. We realise after visiting an Information Centre that we are near the Hunter Valley wine region so take the road for Cessnock and do a tour at Tyrrells. We get to do tastings both before and after the tour and they seem quite generous so I have to hold myself back as there is more driving to do. We carry on to cross Wiseman’s Ferry and stop at a site by the Hawkesbury river for the night. Sydney tomorrow.

Tambourine Mountain to Mt Waring. 29-30 November

We take a while today to clean parrot poo off the van. A flock of them gather in the trees in the campsite and they have left their marks last night when it was very windy. We head south today, back to Brisbane and beyond. Neither of us are particularly interested to see the city so we bypass it and continue on to Tambourine Mountain in from the coast. We stop the night at North Tabourine where I get a snap of a Noisy Miner Bird – very common here but quite mad looking.

We are becoming increasingly bothered by bites. The sand flies and mosquitoes seem very persistent. In the morning we stop at the local Information Centre where they have a small exhibition of the more poisonous insects in Australia and ask how common they are. We are told not to worry about the insects – the really dangerous things are the eucalyptus trees. More people are killed by falling branches from gum trees than poisonous snakes or spiders. Camping beneath them is definitely not recommended as they tend to drop branches without warning as a way of dealing with drought.

 

We stop to look at the Natural Arch and buy supplies at a local store in Chillingham.

Continuing on south we keep to the hinterland through pleasant farmland and villages in the Tweed valley. We find a place to stop near Mt Waring.

Fraser Island. 27-29 November

75 Mile Beach

Lake McKenzie

Fraser Island 2

We are staying in Hervey Bay at a campsite by Scarness beach. It is very warm but the sea is even warmer, like bathwater. Yesterday evening small fish were washed up along the beach dead, presumably due to lack of oxygen in the water. Even Sue decides to forgo a swim.

We have booked a trip to Fraser Island, the reason we drove north from Brisbane in the first place. It is, I believe, the worlds largest sand island and quite a unique environment. We catch the tour bus at 7.20am which takes us to Riverhead where we take a ferry over to the island and continue the trip on a 52 seat 4X4 bus.

There are no proper roads on Fraser Island, not even gravel tracks, but soft rutted sandy trails leading through the forest. Our bus lurches and grinds along through the forest passing smaller and more agile off-road vehicles bogged in the sand. We stop at an old logging camp and follow a boardwalk trail, and then continue across to the other side of the island to join 75 mile Beach – the island’s motorway. There are quite a few other vehicles heading up the beach with us. Most try to keep to the damp sand for the smooth surface but there are places where the sand has drifted or a stream crosses, and vehicles swerve to avoid these and other obstacles. Even so, all seem to keep pretty close to the 80kph speed limit. The beach is designated as a road and traffic laws apply.

We stop to bathe at a valley where a freshwater river joins the sea, then on to an old shipwreck and an outcrop of coloured rock. We have a buffet lunch at the island resort – so far so touristy. The best part of the day, apart from the amazing coach ride, was the hour or two at Lake McKenzie, a beautiful fresh water lake with white sand beaches in the centre of the island.

Tin Can Bay. 26-27 November

We spend the morning re-organizing the camper to prevent crockery and pans rattling and rolling about in the cupboards. Yesterday there was a cacophony of crashes and bangs at every corner and bump in the road. Our clothes are put in cardboard boxes that fit in the roof space - much more accessible than the storage beneath the seats. Its nearly midday when we set off for Hervey Bay. Sue takes the wheel for the first hour or so down to the coastal plain at Noosa. We stop for a snack at Laguna Beach and paddle. Dusk begins to fall and we have a fair way to go before Hervey Bay. We still havn't seen Kangaroos, but the signs at the side of the road warn of them. Not wishing the first one we see to be coming through the windscreen, we decide to divert to Tin Can Bay and spend the night there. It is a fortunate choice. We are told about the Dolphin feeding that takes place each morning.

In the morning we are up early for once and make it to the boat ramp at 7.40. In the water two women volunteers are standing with two dolphins waiting patiently beside them. Nothing much happens until 8 when the feeding begins. You can pay $2 for a few pieces of fish and stand in the shallow water to give it to the dolphins. They take the food from people's hands very gently, lying placidly in the water next to their minders.

 

The story is that in the late 50s an injured Indo-Pacific Humpback Dolphin took refuge in the bay and was fed by local fishermen until well enough to fend for itself. It subsequently returned bringing others from the pod and several generations later two or three dolphins turn up regularly each morning, sometimes bringing their young.

 

Wednesday 25 November. Maleny

After making tea we set out to find a gas refill. A local petrol station at the top of the main street refills the existing bottle, they don’t seem to replace the size of bottle we have. The petrol station has a retro look to it, as does much of the town – it has the feel of a small country town in the 1960s. We spend much of the morning buying supplies and mooching about in the main street.

We drive to a viewpoint to make lunch of asparagus and bread with salad, and later go to a local swimming hole where kids are sunbathing and swinging on ropes to jump in the water. Sue swims. Later we walk into town and try to spot platypus again – no luck today. I get a beer in the local pub and we walk back to the showground to cook tortilla.

Tuesday 24 November. Brisbane

We drop the car off at the airport, hoping they don’t notice a scrape on the front spoiler – not sure where that came from. We have to hang around until 1230 for our flight to Brisbane. We get in at 1415. Nearly two hours by jet and we’re still in Queensland. It brings home what a huge country Australia is. We take a taxi to pick up the camper van in an industrial area of the city and take possession of an old Toyota hi-top with over 400,000k on the clock. Despite this it seems in reasonable mechanical order, if a bit battered around the edges.

We set out into heavy traffic. The plan is to head north for a few days to Hervey Bay where we can visit Fraser Island. The Rough Guide recommends Calounda as being less developed than the rest of the Sunshine Coast so we head there. The information kiosk suggest Dicky Beach as a lovely camping place, but it turns out to be crowded and scruffy. Unimpressed, we decide to give the Sunshine Coast a miss today and head inland. Maleny is supposed to be a bit of an enclave for old hippies with a laid back feel. We head there. As we climb from the coast it becomes cooler and the countryside greener, with spectacular views south to the Glasshouse Mountains.

We find camping at the Maleny showground for $15 including an electric hookup. We settle in to cook a meal, but discover the gas bottle is empty. After driving around the area in a vain attempt to find a refill we give up and get fish and chips. Very Good too.

Monday 23 November. Atherton Tablelands

After a refreshing nights sleep, a healthy breakfast. Sue is taking full advantage of the tropical fruits available while we are here, and we have muesli with fresh papaya and passion fruit. We leave at 10 with an itinerary from Kate who runs the hostel, which will show us the highlights of the area and leave time to return to Cairns by nightfall.

We start at the Curtain Fig Tree – a strangler fig that caused the host tree to fall across at least one other tree and then spread to form a curtain of roots to the ground from 30 metres or so above.

At Dinner Falls Sue swims. Near Milla Milla Sue swims and later we see turtles sunning themselves at another falls (too shallow for Sue to swim). Finally we go to Eacham Lake where… Sue swims again. Even I get in the water – it’s a bit fresh but at least it doesn’t have crocodiles.

The Atherton Tablelands are pleasingly green and rural after the heat and dust of the Bush and the intensity of the Rainforest. The climate is milder and the towns, well Yungaburra in particular seem sleepy and idyllic.

We go on to another lake where I am told one can get cream teas. When we arrive the tea shop is closing. It is 4 pm. Tea time as far as I am concerned, but there you go. We take the Gillie highway back to Cairns. This must be one of the windiest roads I have ever encountered. It twists and turns down the hill for mile after mile, and the temperature and humidity increase as we descend. Back in Cairns we book into Tropic Days hostel which is allied to Travellers Oasis where we stayed previously. It is barbeque night again but we decide to do washing, get WiFi and go out for pizza. It is our last night in Cairns and tomorrow we fly to Brisbane to collect a camper van.

Sunday 22 November. Crocs and Platypus

We check out from Cape Trib and drive south to the ferry across the Daintree river. On the southern side we turn upriver and stop at the wonderfully named "Bruce Belcher's Daintree River Cruises" for a crocodile spotting trip. There's a bonus with the midday trip - you get a meat pie and a cold drink afterwards - the full Australian experience. Bruce himself is driving the boat and has a magnificent moustache. We get to see a couple of young crocs basking in the sun on the river bank, although they are so still that one wonders if they are models placed there to keep the tourists happy (I've seen Crocodile Dundee).

Later we do get to see a larger crocodile swimming in the river though. They ride pretty low in the water so you don't see a great deal of them, but I'm a believer.

After the trip and the meat pie, we continue south to Mossman Gorge for a brief stop before continuing towards the Atherton Tablelands, a plateau inland from Cairns. The road winds upwards and it becomes noticeably cooler. Sue buys fruit at roadside stalls and we stop in Atherton to get supplies at the IGA supermarket, then on to Yungaburra where we have been recommended a hostel. We find the place “On the Wallaby” (an expression similar to Waltzing Matilda, I believe), book the evening’s barbeque and go off in the Hostel van for the Platypus spotting trip. This is a short distance away at the town bridge. We are told to look for something resembling a wet sock in the water that will appear, then dive below the surface to feed and reappear nearby to swallow its food. Sure enough, a couple of wet socks do appear, mostly submerged in the pondweed and diving then reappearing as promised. They are not photogenic (then neither am I) and we don't get a shot of them, but I do feel privileged to have seen such bizarre creatures. We take a short walk up river and see turtles then return to the Hostel for the great value barbeque. At night we have a 4 bed dorm room to ourselves and it is bliss to sleep in cool conditions for a change.