Road Trip… To Cairns

After researching a lot of possibilities we had finally decided on making our way to Cairns, to find work and hopefully save some Australian Dolars..!

I had been looking into relocation camper vans, where basically a camper has been used and dropped off at a location; and it needs returning to its original city. Instead of hiring and paying a driver, companies advertise these campers at $1 a day cost to people exactly like us! It was a perfect way to explore and head to Cairns on our own route. The journey had to be done in 4 days, and we had to pay for our own fuel… It was booked and we were super excited!

I spent the next few days at the library researching possible stop off points and the route to drive. The journey would be a just over a massive 1000km… Before looking into this I think we were both quite naive to the size of the country we were now residing in. For example

We would be driving up the east coast of Queensland; starting at Brisbane which is located pretty much exactly in the bottom right hand corner of QLD. And driving up to Cairns, roughly around as north as where that image reads “Queensland”… The journey was the same distance as driving from our home in Torquay, U.K. To Barcelona in Spain. 

The places we would stop and check out were all planned, including where we would be sleeping each night. We checked out of ‘Chill Hostel’ early Monday morning and went to pick up our new home for the next few days… The paperwork etc took longer than expected but after around an hour of waiting we finally had the keys, and we set off!!

The camper itself was great to drive, initially the sound of plates and cutlery smashing around had me worried but I soon learnt the art of “slow” cornering.

  
Being on the road and having our freedom was a great feeling, the first breathtaking thing we experienced was the scenery. It’s sounds obvious but driving down he main highway, I kind of expected it to be similar to driving the M4; road, fields, trees and service stops. But the ‘fields’ were a different, the trees never seen before and the services were pie vans or “motels”. It was great. The six hour drive soon disappeared as we admired the views and “Australian” looking environment we were driving in. Our first stop off for “services” had us pulling off the highway and driving 5 minutes on a small track and ending up in a rural village in the middle of nowhere. It was surreal, no one to be seen, no cars or people; like a ghost town. The toilets were located at the back of the village hall, next to the cricket field and there was a single petrol pump outside the grocery shop. It all seemed  very odd; Australian. Again we were soon onward to our first overnight stop Agnes Water; near 1770.

We had been excited from the first sign we had seen the iconic warning “kangaroo” sign on the roadside. We had seen one not long into our journey and both were on the edge of our seat to be the first to “spot the kangaroo” after about an hour of not seeing one the excitement wore off and assumed we wouldn’t be seeing our first kangaroo in Australia this day. As the drive went on we did happen to see an all too familiar sight though, roadkill. Our first view of a real kangaroo in Australia, was dead, on the side of the road. At first we were in denial, but every hundred metres it seemed a fluffy Australian icon led lifeless. It was quite traumatic. But this would be the most common sight on our entire trip!

I was aware that one of my old friends from school was also in Australia, living north of Brisbane. In a place called Agnes Water; next to a common stop off 1770; yes the town is literally called 1770 ( after the year James cook landed in Australia ). Seemed like the ideal place to stop for our first night and catch an old friend! After a not so bad 6 hours it was nearing 5pm as we got close to the town; and I could swear I just saw an actual kangaroo, alive! We both sat eagle eyed again to spot another, which we did! Holly was overjoyed! We later learnt that they, quite smartly, take shelter in the shade all day and only come out at dusk and twilight to avoid the blazing heat. Once we had seen one, we literally saw hundreds in the fields next to the road as they came out! The numbers were crazy and they really weren’t far from the road, not surprising accidents did happen! We arrived in Agnes Water and raided the local shop for some Australian sausages and bacon for our dinner on the hob! We also bought some eggs and cereal for our breakfast. It would be wrong not to have sausages and bacon for breakfast when camping!

We had initially planned to stay at Workmans Beach, a popular camp sight in the area which cost a mere $10; however when we arrived there was no spaces! Plan B, we headed down the road to an actual camp sight, which was more expensive but it had hot water and a pool etc and we could also plug the camper into the power.  The campsite had a bush trail which led to the beach; as the sun was soon to go down we took a walk down to see the Pacific Ocean! The walk was longer than expected and we got down just as the sun was setting, we couldn’t help but put our feet into the water; the first time I had been in the oceans off Australia!

 By the time we had walked back to the camper, after delayed messages sent only from the fuel station, my friend from school Matt had found us. We spent the evening catching up and sharing stories and opinions of Australia. Then tucked into our “snags” (sausages).

The next morning, after a surprisingly good sleep, we set off early for the longest drive of the week. I had a specific place I wanted to stop to spend the night. The drive again was less strenuous as we passed our time with a morbid game of spot the kangaroo, which of course wasn’t of the type which still breathed…

We neared needing petrol, close to the last quarter as we passed a petrol station; telling myself we would stop off at the next one for a break and re-fuel. 90 minutes later we still had no sign of a petrol station. This wasn’t the M4 with a convenient service station and McDonald’s every 20 minutes, panic was setting in. The warning light illuminating our imminent doom had been on for an uncomfortable amount of time, and possible scenarios were being discussed. We genuinely thought we were about to break down in the middle of nowhere… We took to the sat nav to locate the nearest fuel station. By some luck there just happened to be one 5 minutes away. By some tactical coasting and fumes in the tank we rolled into the most attractive roadhouse we both had ever seen, it was time for an Aussie pie and relax.

Back on the road, with a full tank, and we eventually reached Cape Hilsborough; a national park with a campsite on the side of the beach. We got our space and took a walk along the most amazing beaches, such a contrast to the beaches in indonesia, with rugged cliffsides and unfamiliar types of rocks etc. It had a sort of “Canadian” feel if that can make anysense, with the dense forest starting at the sands edge and worked its way up the hills.

We needed to find some more food, and after some confusing directions we got an understanding of our campers off-roading abilities… After a painful detour we did end up at our intended shop and bought the evenings grub. The main reason for us staying at this specific camp site was what happened at dawn. So we got an early night with the alarm set for 5.30am

I woke surprisingly before my alarm and shuffled to the toilet a walk across the campsite. As I got back to the camper, through the front window I could just about see a small wallaby stood on the beach. I woke Holly and we soon wrapped up and quietly walked down the beach. The early start and journey was worth it. A dozen kangaroos/wallabies up early before the days heat foraging for their breakfast. The sun slowly rising behind them, silhouetting them on the beach. It was fantastic.

  

We took a walk along the beach and watched as the small wallabies eventually ventured back into the shelter of the woodland. Holly couldn’t help but try and get up close to one of the kangaroos as it rested on the side of the beach and even managed to get a selfie…

  

We had breakfast and freshened up ready to move on by a reasonable, 8am. We had time to stop off on this day at a scheduled stop at Airlie beach, the gateway to the Whitsunday’s. The view coming over the hill into Airlie Beach was breathtaking, bright blue water and white beaches, with islands and reef in the distance.

  
We explored the small popular backpacker town. Amazed by the lagoon right on the front, a man made pool and beach, as the sea is infested with marine stingers (box jellyfish) from November to April, a great free feature for tourist and locals, which looked very popular and appealing. We wandered around and had lunch before getting back on the road!
Next stop was Saunders beach, a free campsite located near Townsville. We arrived just before sunset and managed to enjoy another walk along this huge beach. Every one we had visited being different! We enjoyed our noodles in the camper and understandably had an early night!

The last day of the journey and we would be in Cairns! We stopped off in mission beach after a “cassowary” route; which you would likely see wild cassowaries ( huge black flightless birds with blue heads ). We didn’t see any… Just lots of warning signs. Mission beach was a quiet town with a huge stretching beach and tropical palms. We had some lunch we had prepared on a bench beside the beach and got in the camper for our last leg of the journey!

    
Cairns. We had finally arrived at our destination, the drop off of the camper was smooth. Ironically I had gone 1km over our 1200km allowance so had to pay an additional massive 24 cents! We were sad to say goodbye to our home of 4 days, the motor had served us very well and we had found the whole journey extremely comfortable. The experience was amazing, and it may sound like we spent the majority of the time driving, which would be true, we still got to see so much of Australia. The changing environments which we travelled through and past was so interesting to see, so was all the small towns we had visited.
We emptied our bags into a taxi. Destination Tropic Days backpacker hostel.