April 26, 2004
Brisbane
First impressions of the River City were as we drove through on the way to drop off our campervan after the 3 week drive down from Cairns, was that Brisbane is a fairly small city, nice and compact as it's divided by river. We were staying in the relaxed west end not far from the South Bank riverside area ,where the free artificial beach and fresh water swimming lagoon is located.
Our first few days adjusting to public transport were tramatic - we found it a bit odd not returning to the van each night and instead having to get used to the pain of suffering that is known as 'the hostel experience'...
Brisbane is a very relaxed sub tropical city and the weather was a nice 30c most of the time, with it cooling off during the night. Apart from the nice South Bank,
where we spent a great deal of time, we took advantage of the free city loop buses in the city center, to get around the small CDB area, to check out the riverfront piers and take a stroll through the botanical gardens. We also visited the free Brisbane art gallery and took a trip up the City Hall Bell tower for a slightly higher view of the city.
One evening we took to the west end for dinner and had our chinese meal interupted as the restaurant turned into a scene from ER. One of the vietnamese waitresses was in the kitchen when a there was a flash fire which set her alight. Once the laughter from our naive fellow diners had calmed down, we were shocked to find that none of the other staff knew what to do or had even gone to her aid yet... so at which point David decided it was time to investigate the screams from the kitchen... and to find that she had nasty burns to her arms, chest and abdomen. Quickly taking control of the situation he ushered the manager into calling an ambulance and managed to confort the girl whislt hosing her down in the back yard with a hosepipe. When the ozzie ambulance finally arrived, we got to witnese first hand the laid backness of the Brisbane emergancy services, when the medic strolled into the restaurant is if he was going to be eating there not attending a serious burns victim! it was also disturbing to see that the rest of the restaurant staff appeared to be too frightened to stop work and go to the aid of the poor girl... once the medic finally got to see her and the police arrived, we decided it was time to make our departure and find somewhere else for David to get over the trauma of the past half an hour. If he had a cannula and some iv fluids/ some morphine they would have been in!!....she was so afraid and left alone, I couldnt believe how appallingly she was being treated, the manager was much more concerned with keeping the restaurant going and getting his dollars !!!.......creepy little shit!...
Anyway, once a nurse I reckon always a nurse, what can you say....
Apart from that drama brisbane was quite a nice chilled out little city, the west end has stacks of nice little cafes/bars and the south bank has a nice feel to it.
A wee word about the hostel, we stayed at the brisbane backpackesr resort. Not the worst place but not the best, we opted for a pvt room which did have a tv ,fridge, ensuite and balcony. Its kind of another of these places that you might love when your 17 and away from home for the 1st time. It offers good cheap food and a good courtesy minibus into the city and back every hour but stops a bit early at 10.30pm. Its got a small pool and mini tennis court also, kitched was fairly rank with minging fridges........just the usual then........meeeow!..
April 17, 2004
Queensland Campervan Experience
A wee bit late with the journal entry...emm about a month....whoops, better late than never!.... sometimes sitting in internet cafes is pain in the .......
Anyway, heres a wee summary of what weve been up to over the past month since we arrived in raint cyclone threatened Cairns.
It had been raininmg for 6 days before we arrived and then rained for another 2 days after we got to cairns. Tropical cyclone Fay I think her name was was about 100k's off the cairns coast and was threaterning to come in. Thankfully she toddled off somewhere else eventually, so the winds died down and rain eventually stopped.
We stayed in Nomads utopia just outside cairns which was a bit on the foosty side but good basic facilities, too far out really but we were loving our ensuite, fridge and AC....
Cairns itself isnt much to write home about its the kind of place that if you were 17 and away from home from the 1st time you would love it. Kind of backpacker disco dolley heaven really......lol..
So many tour selling shops, overwhelming. lets say it caters for the non independant traveller very well, your a freal if you want to get a ferry to a place or hire a car and get there on your own. Because the weather was so rough we decided not to go to the gt barrier feer from cairns and let the weather settle a bit. We visited Kuranda which was really nice , we took the Hogwarts express View image on the way there and took the forrest canopy skyrail on the way back. Because of the rain the Barron falls were amazing and the views over the rainforrest were spectacular. Its a bit expensive about 76 bucks each but its well worth it.
Met some nice girls in the hostel Jules and Laura from Birmingham who had some video footage of us in the mardigras parade !..
Didnt do much else in cairns, chilled out at the fantastic free sea water lagoon on the esplanade, its really beautiful clean and free ! Why cant we have stufflike this in the UK....??
After our cairns week we picked up put camper van and became jerryspringer people for 3 weeks travelling along the queensland coast, eventually ending up in brisbane after 3000 klms .
Coupla points about rural north queensland...an awful lot of people with no shoes and blokes with mullets and ponytails and blokes with waist length beards and no teeth........hmmmm
We really enjoyed it, its a fab way to see so much of a country and it gives so much independence, you just have to adjust to the cramped conditions and get into the swing of the whole trailer park thing......lol..
Must say that our Britz van was extremely well equiped and kitted out, with camping, cooking gear etc..
Heres a quick summary of the route we took/ things we did and a few pics along the way.
From Cairns we headed north up towards Port Douglas and eventually to Cape Tribulation View image .Cape T has some amazing rain forrest fringed deserted beaches and mangrove swamps. Humidity is stiffling up here and an awful lot of beasties !.....so many bites we got....yukk!...
From here we headed south again through the Atherton tablelands which was very different to the coast. Stopped at the stunning Mossman gorge and swam in the crystal clear creek( just kind of blocking out the croc thing....)
Stopped at an amazing winery in the tablelands called Golden drop( its the only commercial mangoe winery in the world) the wine was delicious!
From the table lands we drove onto Mission beach View image(vis dinner falls and volcanic crater)
The 1st day on mission beach we seen people falling out the sky!.... skydiving obviuosly and landing right on the beach. Kris being kris so santed to do this but I was terrified...anyway he persuaded me and we both did a 10,000 ft tandem skydive onto Mission beach. I was SO afraid, but it was so exhillerating, I loved it!...the views of the rainforrest and reef were amazing and then landing on the tropical beach was something truly to remember...and yea I would love to do it again.
From Mission we attempted to get to the outer reef to dive and snorkel but our boat was forced back by the high winds. A good tip is to go to Mission beach for your activities as the skydiving/w water rafting and reef trips are much closer and much cheaper !.... cairns is a rip off
While in mission beach I went fishing for the 1st time ever and caught some whopping barramundi, I didnt have a clue it was so funny, but I caught a whopper!.. View image
We took a very long off road trip to the stunning Wallaman Falls, which is the longest single drop waterfall in the southern hemisphere View image
Next was onto Townsville for a couple of nights, where we met up with two other campervan travellers Stuart and Tracey (good luck on finding a place to settle), we also continued our world cinema experience with the shocking Passion of Christ...
Onto The whitsundays and Airlie beach..
Here we took a sail around the whitsunday islands View image, weather was a bit unsettled so im sure we didnt see them at their best, Whitehaven beach was stunning View image.
Spoilt ourselves yet again by taking a private helicopter ride out to a deserted island( s .molle island) and had a champagne picknick for a couple of hours and then got picked up again by the helicopter View image. Sheer indulgance but amazing. Views over the whitsundays were stunning...
Airlie beach itself is another backpacker tourist trap, glad we stayed in the beautiful island gateway varavan park, great value.
Popped inland shorlty after the whisundays after a brief stop at Bowen at horseshoe bay. Stppoed overnight at the eungella national park, here we seen some wild platypuses .
Straight to Hervey bay after this brieflt via rockhampton and Tannum sands.
In Hervey bay we stayed in the best van park ever... fraser lodge a big4 park, fantastic facilities!..
From here we took to the air (yet again!) in a light aircraft over to Fraser Island.
We hired a private 4 WD vehilcle and explored the island, its an amazing place , stunning beaches and rain forrest, wild dingoes abound also on the island. The 4wd drive is essential as the tracks are a nightmare to drive on!.. stopped the Meheno wreck( which was clyde built !) its now rotting away on the sandbar, but quite a site.
Spent some time beside the stunning Lake McKenzie, this has the whitest sand and bluest water ive ever seen outside the maldives!....
After fraser we drove onto Noosa via an unusual town that caters for the alternative punter - a place called Gympie (for some reason I thought on you Sanj when we saw the shopping centre! View image). Noosa is a really beautiful place with multimillion dollar riverside homes, we took a boat ride around the area and were green with envy at the stunning houses.....maybe one day.... View image
Last stop before hitting Brisbane was up in the glassshouse mountains, really intersting volcanic formations. We also visited Australia zoo home of Mr Steve Irwin the croc hunter. He was actually there that day, so we seen him do his thing !... View image quite funny really in a really tacky way. The place itself is ok but just another zoo really.