Over the past 18 months in Australia I've struggled to get a good work/travel balance. I've been getting guilts about not working enough, guilts about spending too much, guilts about not travelling anywhere, guilts about having guilts, and all on top of my impending two year visa expiry date. But praise The Lord, I finally managed to save the dollar and by the end of March I started to see more of this wonderful country! So apologies in advance for the hefty blog post you're about to embark on.
The blog took a bit of a backseat whilst I travelled down the East coast of Queensland with my two pals from home. You can't experience everything fully with your head in a laptop, so given the twenty hour bus ride between Alice Springs and Adelaide that I'm now enjoying, it's the perfect opportunity to get some writing done.
Myself, Sophie and Kate flew up to Cairns and picked up our big green van, where we then started our three week road trip down to Brisbane. This marked the start of our out of control gelato addiction, our inability to socialise with anyone outside of the safety tripod and the daily Adele car karaoke renditions. It was the first time we'd all been on holiday together since Ayia Napa 2010, or really properly spent time together in over two years, so it was really bloody lovely.
Our first stop was Cape Tribulation and the Daintree Rainforest, which I'd been recommended to visit by some friends. It was the sweatiest and scariest place I've been in Australia. Living in Melbourne, the only wildlife I ever saw was the mouse that got stuck in our bathtub, which the neighbour ended up having to sort out. It's basically England. Cape Trib however. What on earth. There were more warning signs of what could kill you than there were normal road signs. Nonetheless it was a beautiful place and we all felt like we were in I'm a Celeb.
We then made our way back down to Cairns to pick up a day boat trip to explore the Great Barrier Reef.
The dive itself was pretty surreal, and as an intro dive for the day, we were taken down straight away. I pranged out a bit with the sensation of breathing underwater but I soon began to chill out when a little turtle came swimming up to me. I'm such a pussy when it comes to any activity like this, I really am. But I'd definitely recommend everyone should go at least once in their life, as minus my tantrum it was magical.
After arriving back on dry land, we stopped off for Kates first ever Grill'd before heading down to camp near Milla Milla waterfalls, which when driving in the dark seemed off the beaten track aka we were going to be the stars of Wolf Creek 3. That was probably made worse by the innocent old man next to us at the campsite offering us the use of his kettle. We shared a 'yeah he's gonna kill us' look before having the most paranoid night sleep of our lives.
We managed to survive the campsite and take in the waterfalls. They were insane! And pictures obviously cannot do it justice. Especially this one.
Magnetic island was our next stop, where we ditched the van in Townsville and boarded a boat. My lucky friend Liz from the orange packing factory now lives here, so it was lovely getting to catch up with her. Our time on the island was filled with 4x4 exploring, reptile loving and having cuddles with our new pal.
Although it was a wonderful two days, we spent our evenings swerving Base hostel's finest dickheads. Apparently declining shots made Sophie and I the "most hostile people they'd ever met". Thanks huns.
Once we'd finished exploring that island, it was on to the next. The infamous Whitsunday islands! I've been desperate to visit them since day one of Australia, and to experience those glorious white beaches. We booked onto a little boat trip where we sailed around the islands for two days and two nights, taking in more of the wonderful Aussie coast line.
Experiencing beautiful place after beautiful place, where was the downtime? Rockhampton. Rockhampton was definitely the downtime. It was the ugly member of the East coast family. It seemed similar to Las Vegas, but like the failed tribute act version of it. Albeit our experience was probably not helped by being warned of a 'small' 12 foot boa constrictor at our campsite. Thanks goes to Kate who treated us to a little upgrade that evening.
We headed out of Rockhampton pretty swiftly and headed to Rainbow Beach to pick up our next tour: Fraser Island. The king of the East coast. A pretty unique place, and on reflection the best spot we visited. Our three day two night included freshwater lakes, serene hikes, 4x4 driving, and a whole lot of 18 year old goon drinkers making us feel like weathered old timers who were more concentrated on getting a good night sleep rather than reciting the rules of Ring of Fire.
Don't get me wrong, I'm the first one to crack open a bottle of gin. However, when you're surrounded by paradise with 7am starts, the last thing you want is to feel like a hungover, dried up, shrivelled raisin in the 30 degree heat.
Our penultimate stop was Noosa. An upmarket version of Byron Bay, just a little less hippies and a few more tapas bars. It was good to chill here, especially after the last two weeks of early starts and organised fun. Here, i discovered the most delicious gluten free cafe, Kate discovered a kimono with her name on in the local charity shop, and Soph discovered the forgotten coleslaw from Cairns in the camper-van boot. She took one for the team and disposed of it, although spent the following hour dry heaving on the back seat. Thanks Soph.
BRISBANE! Our final stop. We managed to book into a cute little air B n B for our last two nights together before parting ways. To be honest we really didn't do much here, after finding out the owner had Bridget Jones on DVD, a jacuzzi bath and a decent wifi connection. We got up all our photos on a little slideshow which was bloody cute, and it was amazing to see how much we had crammed into three tiny weeks.
We then had our sad goodbyes, with Kate heading back to the UK, Sophie down to Byron Bay and myself to Adelaide before heading into the Australian outback.
Thanks for Ayia Napa 2.0 gals - for affirming our wonderful friendship, for putting up with my shit driving, and for teaching me that a gelato a day is definitely OK.
Oh, and most importantly,
For reassuring me that I've been fine for three years.
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