We left Mission Beach and returned to the Bruce to make the journey south to Townsville. This was the largest town we had come across so far and as we drove in we had to first pass through a rather substantial suburbia before finding ourselves in the centre. Our initial plan was to have a wander around and find the information centre to get an idea of what to do here but soon found this was harder than we had planned. It seems Townsville doesn’t do Saturdays. Every shop we found was closed and there was barely anyone on the streets but at least we could park for free. Eventually we found a tourist office that was open where Linz could indulge herself in her developing addiction to pick up every leaflet available. This made it fairly obvious that we didn't have any plans and a friendly worker soon filled us in on everything that was going on in town and we left, with a carrier bag full of brochures, maps and leaflets, with a good plan for our time here.
Each year, on the Queen’s birthday, Australia celebrates the day Captain Cook first set foot on the country and part of the celebrations include a re-enactment of the landing using a replica of his ship called the Endeavour in the northern town of Cooktown. The ship had temporarily been docked in Townsville on its way north so we planned to have a look round before calling it a day. Unfortunately we were a bit late in the day and a two hour queue meant we’d never get anywhere near the ship in time for closing. We agreed to come back tomorrow and instead headed to Woolworths which in Australia is a supermarket but more significantly not closed down.
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| Looking out from Townsville beach over to Magnetic Island |
Our campsite for the evening was a few kilometres from the centre of town which we chose on the basis that we had a 10% discount their range of campsites up and down the country. Unfortunately 10% off an incredibly expensive place doesn’t mean much especially when you consider we didn't even want a site with electricity. There was little to differentiate this park from previous ones we had stayed in so we assumed that proximity to the centre of town was how the owners justified the $40 charge. Later on we ventured back into town to watch The Hangover 2 at the cinema. Except for a vastly inaccurate depiction of Bangkok it was just as good as the original and a great way to end the day.
The following morning we returned to the empty street from the day before as on a Sunday it becomes one of the towns more popular markets. The highlight had to be a blueberry muffin I picked up from a fake Starbucks as the market stalls themselves weren’t so great, but it was nice to see other people in town. We had got up early to visit the market as we planned to hit the Endeavour for opening time and avoid the masses. Unfortunately we were slightly late and unbelievably the same two hour queue had managed to form. We should have camped in the queue overnight. This time we had to abandon our ship plans and instead move down the road to Reef HQ aquarium.
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| Finding Nemo... |
Despite tours to the Great Barrier Reef being offered from every town we had stopped in so far we were biding our time waiting for the right time, and price, to go so for now had to settle for the aquarium. The exhibits were good but the highlight, and our main reason for going, was the turtle hospital they have which housed around a dozen injured and recovering turtle round the back of the main building. Ever since Cairns we have seen examples of Australia cashing in on Finding Nemo and the clown fish’s new found fame, and Reef HQ was no exception given that these orange and white fish were given their own little tank right by the kid’s area.
Next door was the Museum of Tropical Queensland which featured a few different exhibits and we chose to start with the one regarding the Pandora. This was a ship, sent by the British Empire, which crashed on the Great Barrier Reef while trying to reclaim the mutinous Bounty which had fled to Australia. It was fairly interesting although nothing too extraordinary and we moved onto the next area of the museum keen to make the most of the place. Perhaps unsurprisingly, given our tendency to veer towards science museums, we headed to Mind Zone which was more of an area to please the easily entertained by including a bed of nails and the Flatulator. Following this we had a quick walk through the area exhibiting the many different species Queensland has to offer which offered mild thrills but mainly due to Linz having to learn more about Australia’s deadly spider population.
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| A recovering turtle and me |
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| Linz scoring big points on the Flatulator |
It was getting late in the day by now so we headed to Castle Hill which offered a great view of the town as the sun was setting. The steep and winding road up to the summit is a popular jogging track for locals as we must have passed over a hundred of them on our way. I felt like cheering some of the slower ones on but decided instead to revel in my ease of reaching the top. The views were excellent of both the town and Magnetic Island just out to sea and we were pleased to get there at the time of day that we did. At the top we also saw not only a drinking fountain for joggers but also one a few inches off the ground for the surprisingly large number of dogs who accompanied them.
We coasted back down the hill, successfully avoiding the panting masses, and finished the day on the Strand which runs along the seafront up to the town’s manmade lagoon. We sat to watch the sunset and were even joined by a healthy sea turtle who bobbed his head out the water, just beyond the shore, every so often.
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| Townsville from above with Magnetic Island in the background |
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| Fishermen were getting dangerously close to where the turtle had just surfaced but I suppose the turtle hospital was just round the corner |
We left Townsville in the early evening heading for a free nights stay just off the Bruce Highway to our south. While I take on the majority of the driving Linz gets to grips with her mountain of leaflets but most importantly the atlas which labels free camping sites around the country. Tonight she nailed it buy finding a petrol station which offered a grassy area for campers to spend the evening free of charge. Although not being the most scenic of spots, it meant we could be sure that we were allowed to stay there and not have to worry about the prospects of fines or just being moved on during the night. It was at this stage in Australia that it was becoming really cold at night to such an extent that our night in the roadhouse was the first of a few spent in a jumper and hat.
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| Out the back of the petrol station |
We set off the next morning, avoiding the temptation to join the truckers in cafe for a breakfast bacon roll, and continued our journey towards Airlie Beach. On the way we could enjoy one of the biggest benefits of the freedom of having your own car by venturing up a particularly steep hill to a view point overlooking the Bruce and surrounding bush. This was the first real test for the van as the road up was incredibly steep but it pulled through.
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| Up the top of the hill |
Having achieved a free night’s stay we would again need to find a campsite as staying for free within towns has proven difficult. We had actually stopped off at a police station on our way into town to ask about where we could and couldn’t stay but no one showed at the reception despite repeated use of the bell. Hopefully we never need urgent police action while in town.
We found the Seabreeze Holiday Park just three kilometres from the centre of town which offered a decent price for a powered site of around £10 each. We didn't get off to a great start as I let the dog out the office resulting in the owner swearing loudly before taking off in hot pursuit. He never returned so his wife checked us in an explained that we could use any of the empty sites she had highlighted on the map she gave us. See seemed to highlight the entire map so we found a shady space and settled in and enjoyed a Kookaburra which had nestled in a neighbouring tree.
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| Our neighbour |
We then drove into town as we had decided that Airlie Beach would be our gateway to the Great Barrier Reef and needed to book ourselves onto a tour the following day. Airlie Beach is also the gateway to the Whitsunday Islands so our trip into town become an incredibly expensive one as we dropped £200 on the reef and about £160 on the islands. Having said this we managed to get our reef for half price which was a massive bonus.
We returned to the campsite to finish the day off but soon found ourselves being turfed out of our site as we seemed to have picked the only site on our map not highlighted by the owner. This caused quite a stir with Linz and we ended up driving around for a good while trying to find another site while making sure, on Linz’s request, to drive past the people who had moved us on while looking sad. That night was the first of three State of Origin rugby matches between Queensland and New South Wales so a few of the campervans around us had been decked out in the maroon colours of Queensland who eventually won.
We had to be in town early the next day to be picked up and taken to the port by bus for our day on the Great Barrier Reef. It started badly as our all day parking plan was in danger of failing as the meter in the car park was broken and we were concerned that if the machine later started working we would appear to have opted against buying a ticket. Consequently we went over board and not only left a note on the windscreen explaining our dilemma but also found a phone number of some lady who works at the council and left her a voice mail. I'm sure she found it rather confusing.
Having arrived at the port we queued at the FantaSea jetty to board the rather large catamaran that would take us to the reef two hours from the mainland. Having boarded we were rather pleased to find free toast was available so completed a good few trips to the toaster seeing as making toast in the campervan was an arduous task involving the grill and a strict bread rotating policy. There was an option of paying extra money to scuba dive around the reef, rather than just snorkel, but you had to be at the briefing session, which took place on the trip to the reef, or else you couldn’t do it. They made it quite clear there was no obligation so we thought we might as well hear the briefing or else scuba diving wouldn’t be an option. However, after the presentation we decided it was too much money despite really wanting to do it so we thought that was that. In fact, the scuba team then continued to pressure us into doing it by effectively claiming that snorkelling was a waste of time, but we resisted them until we reached the reef.
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| The catamaran to the reef |
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| The catamaran parked up at Reef World viewed from the top deck of the semisubmersible |
The boat was always heading towards a stationary pontoon called Reef World which lies just off the reef itself and includes changing areas, viewing platforms, a waterslide, easy access to the coral and even a semisubmersible to allow people to see the reef without entering the water. Having disembarked from the ship we were immediately drawn to a large crowd peering over the edge. Everyone was looking down at the most incredible fish I have ever seen. It was called the Queensland Groper and was almost three metres long but looked just like a standard fish. The effect of essentially scaling up a fish to this size is rather amazing and we returned to look at him a few times during the day as he’s a regular visitor.
After this we headed to the equipment area and picked up our wetsuits and snorkelling gear before heading off to get changed. I now found myself in an extremely awkward situation of having to change out of all my clothes in a tiny changing room in dangerous proximity to the only other occupant of the room: a ten year old boy. I have never been so careful while doing anything. I successfully emerged from the changing room and found Linz, at which point we realised we were the only people to have opted against wearing a stinger suit designed to prevent jellyfish stings hurting. So we decided we might as well get a couple and I found myself returning to the dangers of the changing room but pleasingly the boy had moved on. This time the embarrassment came as I exited the room as a stinger suit can only be described as a full body leotard and it appeared I had been left with a bright green one where as Linz managed to claim herself a black one.
Finally we could enter the water, which was made slightly less cold by our wetsuits, and swim towards the coral. We could see below us the few people who had opted to scuba dive but soon enough found ourselves face to face with a variety of fish as well as a number of enormous clams and sea urchins. We were followed for the majority of our time by a number of striped silver fish who seemed quite entertained by our presence but however much I tried I couldn’t get an arm’s length photo of me and one of them. We made it to the end of the allocated swimming area before decided to return to the pontoon but we were so lucky to find a green turtle swimming along near us. Amazingly he then swam almost straight at us and passed inches from my face easily making it the highlight of the entire trip.
We stayed out longer than most other people so returned to the pontoon to find most people had already enjoyed the buffet lunch but there was still easily enough steak to fill us up. There was also some salad but it was always going to struggle when fighting against a free steak buffet. We finished our time on the Reef World by taking a trip on the semisubmersible which takes you inches from the coral, visible through its glass bottom. We had already seen the coral close up, albeit in a different area of the reef, so couldn’t help but get most of our excitement from watching how close the sub came to outcropping bits of coral.
We were on the last sub ride of the day so re-boarded the boat after this to head back to the mainland, however on the way we were lucky enough to stop at a miraculous feature of the reef on the way called the Waterfalls. As the day had gone on the reef had become more exposed above water due to the outgoing tide, and as a result water was getting trapped in huge area taken up by the reef with only a couple of drainage points available. Consequently a clearly visible height difference appears in the sea, which in itself is amazing, and something similar to waterfalls are seen at the drainage points. This was great to see as it only occurs following huge tides.
On the way to the reef we had seen a humpback whale quite a way off in the distance but we weren’t so lucky on the way back, however we did have three episodes of Mr Bean on the ships TV screens to keep us going. Also we could entertain ourselves by looking through the photos of us taken throughout the day including some from underwater which we later purchased. An unexpected highlight of the day then presented itself as the scuba instructor made his way over to us to gloat how his group had seen a turtle swim off in the distance. Having shot him down in flames regarding his relatively tame turtle sighting he then began to clutch at straws trying in vane to come up with reasons as to why scuba diving was better. Eventually he literally stormed off in a huff.
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| The Waterfalls. Its hard to see it in the photo but the water behind the reef is considerably higher than the water this side |
Having returned to the town centre after a highly enjoyable day on the Great Barrier Reef we were relieved to find our parking tactics had worked and we were not fined. Although the machine had clearly not been working all day and no one else had felt the need to leave an essay affixed to their windows. We now had to the trouble of trying to find a free night’s accommodation on the side of the road which proved to be quite a mission. We found many campers pulled up in a town car park but decided the $2000 fine for camping was not really worth the risk so turned it down. We also got rejected from a hotel car park and decided against parking in a residential road before coming across a rare sight: a campsite open after 6pm. In fact it was an Australia wide hostel chain called Base which happened to offer a few campervan sites so we accepted defeat and paid for another night.
The next day we were picked up by a minibus to take us to a jetty where we would start our Whitsundays tour. There were many tour options which mainly included sail boats or catamarans but we chose the option including jet boats. We were taken from the port to the Whitsunday Islands in no time by these ultra fast boats only slowed down by the driver taking the opportunity to spin the boat and few times or target a particularly big wave. Our boat, which was one of two going our way, was named Jammin’ and was crewed by two classic surfer dudes who made the entire trip even more memorable as their well worked double act kept the boat laughing for most of the day. It was clearly going to be a fun day when they shot away from the jetty choosing to blast “Y.M.C.A” out of the speakers.
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| Jammin' and Thriller arriving in style |
Following this we headed round the corner to another bay which proved to be considerably more fun than the previous one. We jumped into the water to find ourselves surrounded by hundreds of fish including a couple of massive Rass about half the size of each of us. Although a little intimidating, swimming so close to such massive fish was very exciting. The atmosphere in the water was made even more frantic whenever Murray, one of our guides, would hurl fish food into the water.
Our next destination was about half an hour away but it was one of the best moments of the trip as our captain spotted a yacht in the distance so gunned the engine to catch up, at which point he effortlessly bounced in its wake causing the boat to jump rather impressively. This also gave great entertainment to those on board the yacht and was generally as great thing to be a part of. Unfortunately the yacht was heading elsewhere so we parted soon after and ventured towards a lookout point on one of the islands which we reached via a short bushwalk.
The view from the top was of the stunning Whitehaven Beach which is unlike any beach I have ever seen in my life. A mix of perfectly blue water and pristine white sandbars create a staggeringly good view which just cannot be done justice with a camera.
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| Playing in the wake of someone elses yacht |
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| The amazing colours of Whitehaven Beach |
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| Riding around all day in a speed boat gets rather cold, hence the jumpers on a perfect looking day |
We had to leave eventually though but only so we could spend some time on the beach itself so it wasn’t all bad. This was our first experience of squeaky sand. The sand here is so fine that just by walking in it you create a squeaky noise generated by the sand rubbing together and it is even so fine that it can be used to clean jewellery. We had an excellent pasta lunch on the beach made even more entertaining as Linz was mugged by a group of seagulls for her scraps. One would distract her while another flew in from behind causing her to spill it everywhere. Seagulls one, Linz zero.
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| Linz was having wind related hair issues all day. I had to get permission to use this photo |
One of the guides entertained the group by chucking chicken legs into the air in time for passing eagles to swoop in and catch them in mid air. Somehow, despite being on this miraculous beach surrounded by mind-blowing views and even some eagles, Linz and I managed to fall asleep for most of the hour we were there.
When we left the beach we headed back to the mainland while continuing to marvel at the beautiful Whitsunday Islands but seeing as everyone was getting rather exhausted by this stage the jetboat acrobatics were put on hold. At one stage we passed one of the catamaran tours and our driver, along with one the other jetboat which was with us, chose to shoot past either side of it emphasising the difference between the style of cruises available, and hopefully making the customers on the catamaran question their boat choice. As we approached the jetty “Are You Going To be My Girl?” was selected on the boats music system and the captain finished in great style by pulling out a few consecutive spins and then jumping on his own wake. Quite some finale.
The money we had spent on our two days on the sea in Airlie beach were undeniably two of the most expensive but also undeniably two of the best. I had been hesitant to spend so much on two tours but once again was so pleased I had as the jet boating round the Whitsundays had been so much more than I had expected.
That evening we returned to Seabreeze as we had already booked another night here before finding Base was in fact cheaper. Our days here had taken a lot out of us so on our final day in town we just lounged around its lagoon in the sun recuperating from our exploits so far.
Once again we hit the Bruce and continued south where finally we would be able to find a free night’s sleep. Linz had found us a recreational reserve used by the small town of St Lawrence on very rare occasions, so consequently it was made available to campers for the rest of the year. The site was down a quiet road through the bush and as we approached, as it was evening by now, we were greeted by a dozen wild kangaroos. These were the first we had seen in the wild and we stopped for as long as they hung about before moving on to the field we would sleep in.
The next day we woke to find it was another cloudless winter day in Australia. As we had no check out time to adhere to we slept in and lounged around the van the next day until around 3pm, only achieving a short birthday video to send home to Mum. By now we had been in Australia a couple of weeks and hadn’t covered that much distance so the next couple of days will include a lot of miles as we push towards New South Wales.
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| Waking up to yet another perfect Australian day |
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