Cyclones and Coasters

In the past 2 weeks we’ve driven down from Cairns along the coastline through every single town that’s now swimming in floods. Luckily we made it down to the gold coast just in time to spend a few days at the theme parks before they were closed. Of course it wasn’t the best weather for rollercoasters but it didn’t stop us. It was however the PERFECT weather for water slides so the wet n wild water park was totally awesome.

The Floods are here but we are safe

Just a quick one to say yes we are caught up in the bad rain and flooding down here at the Gold Coast. We have abandoned our tent and are heading to a hotel for the rest of the storm. We'll be safe :-)

Subscribing

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Crikey! What a Zoo!

Steve Irwin, lets applaud the man. Australia Zoo is just north of the town of Beerwah on the aptly named “Steve Irwin Highway”.  The sun has well and truly gone now and we are into persistent rain and cyclone season, but this wasn’t going to hold us back.

1 in a 1000 Turtle

For the last time before we head past the southern end of the great barrier reef we took advantage of one more opportunity to get into the water and explore.

The beautiful lady Musgrave island is part of a small collection of islands that stick out the top of the ocean about 40 kilometers off the mainland. The coral surrounding the island has created a lagoon in the middle of the ocean no more than 10 meters deep where the rougher currents break around the edge and water inside is calm and protected.

YEE-HAH Cowboy!

Rockhampton likens itself to a town from the Wild West era. All the building here look like something from a John Wayne film and there are cattle ranches everywhere as you drive into the city.

We headed down to the botanical gardens and zoo to get our very first look at that good old ozzie icon the Koala! Cool to look at but that’s all you can do…look at them. They don’t do much, in fact they don’t do anything at all. Just sit there hugging that tree like it was the last one on earth. 

The GB Reef: A Birds Eye View

The Whitsunday Islands are a group of 74 tropical islands off the east coast bridging the barrier reef from the pretty town of Airlie. Our original plan was to jump on another dive boat, but then we spotted something much more interesting…a flight around the reef in a plane the size of a mini cooper.

Coconut

A chance to stretch our tropical skills presented itself at Mission Beach south of Cairns. All along the beach lie palm trees dropping dozens of coconuts onto the sand. 

THE GREAT BARRIER REEF

And so, into the deep blue sea for the one we’ve been waiting for, one of the things to do with your short time on this planet – The Great Barrier Reef. 

Mossman

Rainforest country is eery. Miles and miles of wilderness then little spots of beauty here and there. We visited one such spot called Mossman Gorge for a swim in and around the river that runs through the forest.

Coffee and crocs

The plantation we visited just one hour from Cairns in the town of Mareeba was the first to establish itself in Australia back in the early 70's.

1 minute, 1 BBQ

Sunshine Shark

Front pages of the newspapers the other day covered with this story. We're heading down that way in a few weeks so will keep our eyes open and arms and legs out of the water!!

Dolphins...

Didnt have enough time on the itnernet to upload this video for my dolphin post, so here it is now!

From Bushfire to Wetlands

Two and half hours in the air landed us in Cairns, home of course to the wonders of the Great Barrier Reef. As we approached the view of the water from the sky was incredible.

We picked up our new wheels for the next journey along the Queensland coast, a nice silver Toyota Corolla to deliver us into Brisbane, Surfers Paradise and a bunch of roller coasters.

36,000 feet with a bang...

I think I’ve finally discovered the REAL reason that bottled water isn’t allowed on planes. You see over here it transpires that you can take a half empty 2 liter bottle of water through security and onto a domestic flight say from Sydney to Cairns in this case.

Flipper & Co.

The town of Newcastle is predominately associated with shipping of mined materials, mostly coal, out from Australia. That’s it…nothing else to see here. What the half a million people that live here do I have absolutely no idea.

So we headed further up the coast, attracted by a place referred to as “The Dolphin Capital of Australia”, Port Nelson. Who doesn’t like dolphins? 

Our Humble Abode...

Head north away from the fires...

We’d been “Freedom Camping” (otherwise referred to as slumming it) for the past 4 nights as every camping park we tried to book into was fully booked. So in search of showers and a stove to cook a meal we headed north of Sydney in the direction of Newcastle (fingers crossed its not a homage town to Alan shearer, jimmy nail and ant and dec) to the town of Belmont on the beautiful Lake Macquarie where we finally found a nice campsite for a few nights. The lake is stunning and caught some lovely shots of the boats resting in the sunset after we arrived.

The Blue Mountains

We’d been repeatedly told that one of the “must do’s” in around the Sydney area of New South Wales is to visit the area of the Blue Mountains about an hour west of the city.

We headed up there on the back roads from Canberra via a small town called Oberon. Probably the closest we are going to get to driving in the outback on our trip as we’re mostly sticking to the coastline. Along the way we stopped of at one of the services areas on the main road. As you can see from the picture below they leave a lot to be desired…

Bridging the gap to Capital Country

New Years Day marked the start of what we're hoping will be an awesome 2013, and we could think of no better way to commemorate it than by climbing the Sydney Harbour bridge just a few hours after it had been set alight. 

Realities of the road

A refreshing dose of reality follows, for all those who think we are currently "living the dream", which is not meant to be, nor should be perceived as unappreciative - we know we're lucky.

Home life has routine, it has a level of comfort that you can control. To live life on the road however you must embrace unpredictability, risk, sometimes danger, massive exhaustion and all too frequently for my liking times of massive hunger. 

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Wow. What a show.