Rainbow beach✅ Airlie beach✅ Cairns✅
It's been a while chaps I'm sorry.
A month yesterday marks the beginning of our East Coast road trip when we left Sydney.
4090km later we're leaving Cairns and the East Coast to head into the outback. By the end of today we'll have travelled the distance from Lands End to John O'Groats three times over. #statattack
I'll pick up where I left off.. the PAJERO was in the garage after the clutch issue and we were stuck in Rainbow Beach while it was getting better.
In the mean time we sold our surfboards because after Rainbow Beach the East coast waves die out and sharks and stingers become more common.
I also bought a book (which I have now finished) but that was the first time I've read a book in absolutely ages so I'm chuffed: Philip Margolin - Ties That Bind, really good read - all about a cartel and its connections with high ranking US government members and how it all gets brought down. Grisham-esque.
There were no other problems with the Paj luckily so we picked it up Friday at about 2pm and bombed it up to Airlie beach for 2am with stops. Huge drive!
The Whitsundays cruise left the next day but I'd done it already with Mark in January so didn't go again even though it was immense! Instead I said bye to Paddy, Aaron and Anina and reluctantly made friends with the 7 girls in my 9 bed hostel room 🙊😜 We all pre-gooned and went out and it was a class night.
Next day was a serious chill day, one of the girls in my hostel room and I went to the lagoon. Airlie Beach and Cairns among others have lagoons (outdoor swimming pools) to stop people going in the sea because the sharks and stingers are much more prevalent up north. Anyway we swam, read and sunbathed till lunch then in the afternoon went on a bushwalk to this little pebble beach with loads of washed up coral and amazing views and I had a swim.
I lost my sunglasses on the walk to the beach and on the way back was scouring the path for them when all of a sudden..
...so creepy! But back at the carpark I found the guy who'd done it and thanked him, mystery solved!
The drive back was at sunset and pulled over to see this. Fantastic.
The following day (Monday) the others got back and I went to their boat's afterparty!
Tuesday we left for Cairns and got as far as Jourama falls where we camped for the night. In the morning we decided that walking up the path to the lookout wasn't challenging enough so armed with a GoPro headcam and nothing else we went climbing up the falls. It was so good - clambering over rocks, swimming through rock pools, sliding down mini waterfalls and jumping into deep ravines. Absolutely loved it.
We carried on to Cairns and booked ourselves into a "quiet" hostel. After staying at Nomads hostels most of the way up the coast we needed a break from the party hostels! Having said that I didn't get to bed any earlier coz I binged on House of Cards every night! Nearly finished the new series now.
Thursday we just chilled - I began searching for farm work and made a few calls but it's the end of the summer now so it's not looking as promising. Evening house of cards binge. Standard.
Friday went to another waterfall - Crystal Cascades - same deal but higher water level, much stronger current and more difficult rock climbing. So not really the same deal. Oh and the jump I did at Crystal Cascades was much higher. Don't think I've ever jumped from that high before, it was terrifying and my balls absolutely killed afterwards, think they got pushed back inside my body! Also blew up the airbed and did some airbed white water rafting which was all fun and games while you were on the airbed but was really painful if you fell off. Smashing your knees, feet and arse against submerged rocks isn't as fun as it sounds. Evening we smashed a 2kg lasagne between three of us and watched 'A Bug's Life' - forgot how funny it was!
Saturday we moved hostel to a nomads, shock! Then went on a 'croc cruise' which cost $24 and we saw two fucking crocs. $12 a croc! Bullshit! But at least I've now seen a croc, jelly and koala in the wild. Just need to see a snake and a shark to get the full Oz experience!
Had a big night out with some girls we met at our hostel in the evening. A 2-for-1 at Gilligans meant we got smashed on $2.25 schooners! Bargain!
Went back after Gilligans and stayed up for some reason. We played volleyball by the pool and had pillow talk - ended up staying up till 4am. Ha.
Sunday we went to lagoon in Cairns and then drove to Port Douglas which is an amazing scenic ocean drive and is responsible for my new cover:
Port Douglas was quaint - we played slap ball on the beach and went in the sea coz they had an enclosed stinger free area! When we got back we watched 'Crazy Stupid Love' which is actually really funny and then played cards downstairs. Spoons got out of hand.
Got up early Monday morning to go on a Great Barrier Reef snorkel tour which was pretty special. The GBF is a giant version of what I saw at the Whitsundays before. Saw parrot fish, some huuuuge fish and a couple of sharks which was amazing - they were reef sharks so only about the same length as a person and not a danger to us.
Today is Tuesday and we left for townsville this morning on our way to the outback. I write this with a full head of hair but when we reach Townsville I plan on shaving my head. I don't really know why.. but why not?
Here are some last shameless selfies of me with hair👦👦
Sadly if you're reading this from the UK when you wake up it'll be done and too late to convince me to change my mind. Aaaaaaah!
👴👴👴
See you round suckers!
PS. Outback reception will be shite so if I'm off the grid for a while don't go crazy we're prepared we have 20 litres of water, a 20 litre Jerry can with spare fuel, enough food to last for 3 days and all the camping gear, suncream and bug spray we need 😘💪👊
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