Na ons avontuur bij de Whitsunday eilanden zijn we verder naar het noorden gereden. Het doel was uit te komen bij Mission Beach, om daar een paar dagen van de zon te genieten om vervolgens via de Atherton Tablelands verder te reizen naar Cairns (200 kilometer). Mission beach ligt vlakbij Tully (meer landinwaarts), wat bekend staat als de natste plaats van Australie ... en dat hebben we dus geweten: onderweg werd het weer alleen maar slechter en krijgen we heeeeeel veel regen. We hebben dan ook besloten om dan maar rechtstreeks via de kustweg door te rijden naar Cairns. Helaas regende het daar ook regelmatig. We hebben daar dus maar wat rondgekeken in de grote winkelcentra met de hoop dat het weer op zou klaren. De volgende dag was echter weer hetzelfde en hebben we besloten om vanuit Cairns naar de Atherton Tablelands te gaan. Dit is een hoogvlakte van ongeveer 1 kilometer hoogte. Het is hier dus wel wat kouder en helaas nog steeds bewolkt en af en toe wat regen. Het eerste plaatsje wat we aandoen is Kuranda, een klein bergplaatsje op 30 kilometer van Cairns. Het is mooi gelegen in het regenwoud, maar wel erg toeristisch. Vlakbij zijn de Barron Fals, deze hebben we ook bezocht. In de middag zijn we langs de Curtain Fig Tree en de Millstream Falls gereden. Onderweg hebben we ook nog wat kangaroes gezien. Overnachten doen we in de hoogste plaats van Queensland: Ravenshoe. Van een stel dat we eerder hadden ontmoet hadden we gehoord dat je hier gratis kan overnachten, en we zijn per slot van rekening Nederlands, dus dat was niet aan dovemans-oren verteld! Wel koud omdat het op hoogte ligt ...

De volgende ochtend zijn we begonnen met de "waterfalls way", een weg langs drie mooie watervallen, waaronder de bekende Millaa Millaa Falls. Zwemmen is iets te koud met de bewolking ... In de loop van de ochtend, als we weer richting de kust rijden, klaart het wat op en na wat kranten voor het weerbericht te hebben doorgebladerd besluiten we alsnog naar Mission Beach te gaan omdat ze daar het "beste" weer opgeven voor morgen. En Mission Beach is nog maar 50 kilometer verwijderd van Innisfail, de plaats waar de keuze gemaakt moet worden tussen Mission Beach (naar het zuiden) en Cairns (naar het noorden).

Mission Beach blijkt uiteindelijk een goede keuze te zijn, we hebben redelijk zonnig weer en kunnen als het niet al te hard waait op het strand liggen. We hebben een camping gevonden op nog geen 100 meter van het strand, dus afkoelen in de zee is maar een kort stukje lopen. De omgeving van Mission Beach is in eerste instantie bekend om de cassowary, het beste te omschrijven als een soort van agressieve struisvogel, die alleen in het regenwoud van Australie in Noord Queensland leeft. Onderweg wordt je ook vaak gewaarschuuwd met verkeersborden dat cassowaries over kunnen steken! Het is natuurlijk niet de bedoeling dat deze zeldzame beesten worden aangereden.

 Morgen, zaterdag, gaan we weer naar Cairns en nog iets verder naar ten noorden van Cairns voor onze laatste paar dagen in Australie :-( Hopelijk hebben we dit keer beter weer. Dinsdag vliegen we alweer naar onze volgende bestemming: de Cook Eilanden ... en zit ons avontuur erop in Australie.

Groetjes vanuit Mission Beach, Michel & Jolanda.

Stayed at an awesome retreat called the Sanctuary, healthy tofu thai green curries, yoga and relaxation were the theme dotted with great culture and a few parties too.

Arrived at a friends house to stay - a welcolme break from camping for a few days. We enjoy touring the are including a visit to Paranella Park. We were impressed by the gardens and the kids loved feeding the fish and turtles in the big pnds.

Weather has been rainy - hoping for some sun soon.

We were relived to be in a National park away from the city. The kids did well on the big walk to the falls - lots of big rocks to climb over and it was quite steep. The little one did need a carry at the end.

To all travellers thinking about coming here; don't bother. Skip it and go straight to Cairns. Unless you want to skydive, there is absolutely nothing here. I thought that this would at least be like Airlie Beach with a main strip where everything happens. How wrong I was; this place is the arse-end of nowhere. At least the locals are friendly, which pretty much destroys my theory of most Queenslanders being buttholes.
The coach terminal is a Shell service station which isn't really anywhere near the beach. Also it's in Wongaling, which is actually a good fair distance from Mission Beach. Thankfully my hostel, Absolute Backpackers, is only a very short distance from the coach stop, meaning an easy get away when I check out. The hostel itself is okay, it is run by a very nice elderly Dutch couple and they have nice clean 4 share rooms, a big kitchen and TV room. Unfortunately there is absolutely bugger all here.
The main reason for my going to Mission Beach is because it's a nice halfway point between Townsville and Cairns, which breaks up the journey. Also, ever since reading about it I've really wanted to go to Dunk Island, which is one big floating nature reserve with some nice walks. I check into my hostel and buy a return ticket for tomorrow with the Dunk Island Water Taxi, which at $30 for a ten minute journey each way is a complete rip off. However, it is the cheapest way of getting there and is also only a 15 minute walk from my hostel. I then decide to walk to Mission Beach proper; big mistake. I try going down some roads first off but they are residential and end in cul de sacs. There are vicious looking dogs running down long driveways barking at me, completely unleashed. I make a speedy getaway and follow a public access route through some forest and onto Wongaling Beach. Then I have a ridiculous hour and a half trek across the beach, part of which involves me wading through creeks. I wasn't prepared for this but I've come too far to turn back. Somehow only the inside legs of my shorts are soaked; the outer legs with the pockets containing all my stuff (including phone and mp3 player) are fine. I keep asking random passers-by where the main stretch of Mission Beach is, with all the bars, restaurants etc. They always look a little blankly when they answer while pointing me in the right direction. It is only when I reach the caravan park and come out back onto the road that I realise why. Here there are a couple of restaurants, a couple of bars and a shop or two. And that's it; there is naff all here. And worse, it's in the middle of dense forest. This really is the most emptiest place so far this trip.
I think about getting a bite to eat but decide I'd rather get the hell out of here and go back to the nothingness of Wongaling. There is a lady outside a bar smoking a cigarette; I ask if there is a bus stop around here. She says the buses have stopped now. I ask if there is a taxi rank; she says it will cost me up to 30 bucks to get back. I say I have no choice but to pay, it's getting dark and I do not want an hour and a half journey back in the dark wading through creeks. She says to wait there and disappears inside. When she comes back out she says she will take me back to Wongaling for free! Her name is Kendal, she is about my age, maybe younger, good looking and friendly. Turns out her mum runs the bar and Kendle drives a courtesy bus and actually has to go to Wongaling for a pick up. This is a new one on me; I have been in courtesy buses to hostels but I have never seen or heard of a courtesy bus to a pub before! I guess it makes sense; when everything is so spread out and taxis are dear, you can't drink and drive so why not have a bus to take away the driving? This totally seems like an Australian thing to have though.
She drives me back right outside my hostel, I say thanks and we part company. Then I walk over to the Shell service station. A new Greyhound Coach has arrived and backpackers are getting off and into courtesy buses. There is one for Scotty Joe's hostel, which I know has a bar and grill open to the public. I ask the lady in the driver's seat how far it is; she says not far and lets me hitch a ride! Double fantastic, what luck! Her name is Tanya, she is Swiss and has been working here for two months. I tell her I have just been here for under 4 hours and I'm already going nuts. She tells me she is starting to go nuts also and needs a break from the place.
There is one final brilliant note to write to make this a standout day, despite how desolate and backwater this place feels. Scotty's Bar and Grill has an excellent menu but there is one dish that really stands out and this is probably the perfect place to try this dish, locally made in a natural environment. Tonight is the first time I have ever eaten Kangaroo. And it was absolutely delicious. It cost me $19 and was deliberately served medium rare, only slightly bloody but it enhanced the taste, in a plum sauce with fries and salad. This was by a huge margin, the best meal of my trip so far. Thank you Mission Beach, you suck but I love you.
Upon my walk back, using my keyring torch that my ex-girlfriend gave me, because the Australian government hasn't heard of adequate streetlighting, I pondered the nature of this place. There feels like nothing here yet there are strange pockets of civilsation. Amongst the dense forest I saw a semi-open air dojo, where a karate master was taking a class, and next door there was a team playing basketball. The Police Station is a detatched wooden shack. This feels like real Australia. I'm not sure if I like it; it seems too barren to keep me entertained. There is farmland everywhere, you can smell it. The city and suburbia may drive me round the bend but I think the isolation of farm work and small town life would equally do my head in. The funny thing is, in the Northern Territories and Western Australia it's only going to get worse. Maybe I'll stick to the Eastern side. Then again, maybe not.

Na een goeie stapavond dan toch maar naar Daintree Rainforest vertrokken en party-stad Cairns achtergelaten.. Zonder camera helaas - die gelukkig wel teruggevonden werd in de (gelukkig) afgesloten locker.. Daintree rainforest is erg cool - ongelofelijk dat je dit soort regenwoud ook in Australie hebt. Vooral de - soms goed voor enige consternatie onder het vrouwelijke volk - aanwezige insecten zoals gigantische spinnen en kevers zijn het bezichtigen waard.

En natuurlijk de casuari vogel - prehistorie in levende lijve - en de krokodillen...

In Daintree hebben we een casuari in de dierentuin gespot - in mission beach liep 'ie gewoon in de voortuin. Maar goed, Daintree: prachtige stranden, fijn hostel aan het strand maar bloedje heet en humid.

Om eea nog wat verder te onderzoeken heb ik samen met wat mensen een nachtwandeling gemaakt door het regenwoud - jammer dat mijn fototoestel in Cairns lag.....

Na nog een overnachting in Cairns ben ik op de Greyhound bus gestapt richting Mission Beach en ingecheckt in het Treehouse hostel.... Dat zal ik nooit vergeten - wat een tophostel, leuke mensen ontmoet, boek gelezen, zwembad gelegen, ipod in de stereo en puur relaxen.. Volgens mij had ik daar nog wel een paar dagen kunnen zitten.

En nu dus in Airlie Beach maar daarover binnenkort meer...

Epke

Left Townsville today (after a great break with our friends) to visit Melissa's uncle and aunt in Tully.  This part of Australia is a sugar growing area, so lots of cane.  The cutting season is now almost over but still a few mills working.  Unfortunately none are open to the public - they only open during the main harvest of June to November.  We drove through Halifax to Lucinda to see the world's longest jetty.  The sugar is brought to a huge plant at Lucinda and then carted along a 7km jetty out to the waiting cargo ships.  The jetty stretches out to see almost as far as you can see, quite incredible really.  We drove on to Cardwell for lunch, another little coastal town, which is just up the road from the newly developed Port Hinchinbrook.  This is a marina development which is the jumping off point to go out to Hinchinbrook Island.  It looks very nice (and no doubt very expensive).
As we neared Tully, it started to rain - Tully is the wettest place in Australia with a current average rainfall of 4 METRES a year!!  The Big Gumboot in Tully is 7.9m tall, built to this height as it marks the highest rainfall the town has had - incredible to think about when many areas of Australia are in drought and are lucky to get a few millimetres of rain a year.
Uncle Henry and Auntie Edna live between Tully and Mission Beach and have a place with beautiful tropical fruit trees, along with a boat, courtesy of which we dined on prawns and coral trout!  We also enjoyed fresh lychees, dragon fruit and a black sapote pudding - the black sapote is a fruit that tastes just like chocolate. 
On our second day, our uncle and aunt took us for a drive around the area.  We went down to Mission Beach which is famous for bringing "the rainforest to the sea".  The hills go right down to the beach so the rainforest has been left in place.  This means that you can readily see things such as cassowaries right at the beach or on the road because their habitat is intact.  This whole area was heavily hit by Cyclone Larry early this year and the damage is still obvious, all of the trees have had their tops snapped off.  It is quite strange to see, actually.  Most buildings have now been repaired, but you can still see the destruction in the environment.

The trip north from Byron Bay to Noosa took us past the Glasshouse Mountains, home to the now world-famous Australia Zoo, and home to the legendary Crocodile Hunter, a.k.a. Steve Irwin. We had already planned to stop and visit the zoo before leaving the UK, with the vain hope of seeing the mentalist in action first-hand. Unfortunately a cruel twist of nature meant that this was not meant to be, but we were undeterred nonetheless.

The main stars of the show are the crocodiles, who play along with the show in spectacular fashion. We now know that a crocodile hunts by sound, rather than by sight, but is still scarily accurate, will strike if you are within 2m, will take down a cow, and probably most importantly for you and I cannot run very fast, contrary to popular myth.

Other highlights of the zoo were the bird show, the elephants, the numerous venomous snakes, and lastly, but definitely not least, the tigers. Even though the tigers are in captivity they appear to be very well looked after, and much of the time is spent nurturing their natural instincts, rather than depicting them as commonal house pets.

We also had the pleasure of watching Bindi Irwin filming for her show on the Discovery Channel, under the watchful eye of her mum, Tracey, and a number of rather large bodyguards. Not bad for an eight year old!

After a good day animal watching, we got back into the Camper Sutra and made the short trip up to Noosa. The time spent here was very much chill out time to help us recover from the strains of Byron Bay (!?!). The campsite was fantastic, mainly due to its location on the riverbank. Therefore it was only right that we spent our afternoons supping many a good glass (make that bottles...plural) of wine from our select Barossa Valley collection, whilst enjoying the relentless sunshine. Oh, the trauma!

With our livers well and truly pickled, the camp chairs were packed away once again and the Camper Sutra trundled on up to Hervey Bay, the jump-off point for our next excursion, the 4x4 Fraser Island Self-Drive Safari.

Fraser Island is the largest sand dune in the world, and is also a World Heritage site. With lots of sand comes some extreme driving conditions, hence the need for a 4x4. Pam and I took the option offered by many a hostel to jump in a very pink 9-person Toyota Landcruiser along with 7 other strangers, taking our own gear and food supplies, and camping on the island for 3 days. The driving duties fell to my goodself primarily. I found this to be a complete chore, having to negotiate heavily sanded tracks and sand dunes, and to bomb along a 80 km beach at 70 kph - awesome fun.

In our truck we had a good cross-section of nationalities. They were: Matt & Nichola, from Bristol, England; Sun, Luna, J & K, from South Korea; and Carmen, from Germany. We were also travelling in convoy with another very pink jeep, which contained Mike & Rod, from Canada, Maxine from Germany (friend of Carmen - they drew the short straw), Supriya from Iceland, another couple from South Korea, two American girls and a Canadian girl (as you can tell they made a huge impression - sorry ladies). All-in-all a veritable mixed bag, but we are pleased to report that all international relations are still intact, and we now know how to cook a fantastic Korean dish.

Fraser Island was all about the sand, driving, sand, the scenery (which is stunning, especially the lakes, Lake MacKenzie in particular), sand, making new friends, sand, drinking too much cheap wine with sand, eating sand, late nights and very early mornings (mainly due to the heat of the sun and the not-so-friendly tide timetable). Did we mention the sand?

On a negative note, imagine walking through a desert for days on end, without any food or water, only to come upon an oasis that serves very cold beer. However, you cannot have this beer because you have left your wallet in the hotel. This is the ocean around Fraser Island ... the sun is baking down and the sea is so blue and inviting. But, if you take the plunge, if the tiger sharks or box jellyfish do not get you, the lethal rip tides will. Really frustrating, but also synonomous with much of Australia. Fortunately, Lake MacKenzie is a tropical freshwater oasis, with white sands, ridiculously clear, blue water and no hidden dangers except yourself (or two Canadians by the name of Rod and Mike teaching you to swim if you happen to be of Korean origin).

The second night proved to very eventful with Supriya ignoring the advice of, well, everyone, and choosing to sleep alone under the stars. Why should you not sleep under the stars alone? Because, as Supriya found out to her cost, the not-so-friendly dingoes like to have a good sniff around campsites at night in search of food. Food, which is now known to consist of babies! Supriya knew this but like all head-strong teeenagers knew better (only days to go until my 30th), only to wake up with one Dingo licking her face and another nibbling away at her feet. Brilliant! Needless to say, she quickly relocated to a tent as suggested by about 17 other people and a few park rangers.

Fraser Island was well worth the trip, and was definately topped off by the spontaneous after-party back at Hervey Bay.  The Koreans decided they would like to cook a traditional Korean meal for us as we had introduced them to the Aussie Barbie and Pasta Bolagnaise.  The food was fab and the Koreans were getting merrily wasted.  With every beer their English improved which made for more beer!  Once the hostel bar closed we, the party hardcore (us, the koreans, Rod, Mike & Maxine) dragged our leftover booze from Fraser to the beach to carry on the party.  We were then joined by three Aussies, two of which decided it was funny to start pulling moonies, and other things which cannot be described before the 9 o´clock watershed , and a couple of the Korean lads joined in (J & K)!  Crazy boys!!  Anyway all good drunken fun with us staggering back to the Camper Sutra at about 4am!

Our next exciting adventure was sailing around the Whitsundays.  To break up the journey we stopped at Town of 1770.  This small backwater is famous for the fact that Captain James Cook landed here in, yes you have guessed it, 1770.  We took the obligatory photo and moved on quickly (very dull).  We arrived at Airlie Beach which was a happening little hub, not too disimilar to a spanish holiday resort - lovely! We bumped into Rod, Mike, Maxine and Carmen the night before we set sail and were strong and kept the wine to a minimum as hangovers on boats are not good!  So the next day we set sail.  The sun was shining, the ocean was a beautiful blue and the wind was up - hurray!

We were sailing on a boat called the Matador, which was a 80ft Maxi racing yacht and two times winner of the Sydney to Hobart race. Basically the real deal. On the first day we visited Hamilton Island, where James and three other lads hired a golf buggie to explore the island.  Whereas myself and Heather chose to walk.  We then set sail again to Whitehaven Beach which is the most famous beach of the Whitsundays.  James cruised us into anchor (v. impressive) and then we were all dinghied ashore.  The beach was pure white sand becuase it is 98% silicone.  The only downside was if you wanted to swim you had to wear your stingers suits, which kind of takes the edge off the tropical appeal.  We moored up at this beach for the night for an evening of good food and good company.

Getting up at 7 am the next day we sailed for a few hours before arriving at our dive spot.  The site was good but the water was freezing so a 40 minute dive was more than enough, but as the dive was free we could not complain too much. While we were here we also bumped into Mike, Rob, Maxine and Carmen again who were on the party boat, and suffering somewhat!  After the diving we made our way around to Blue Pearl Bay to watch the sunset and spend our second night aboard the boat.  On board it was the birthday of one of the girls, so it turned into a bit of a party, with the honour of making a fool of themselves falling ominously to James, who, having drunk significantly more than the birthday girl, gave a masterclass in how to striptease (I stopped him before the pants came off).

Very sore heads were cleared the next day with a dive in the ocean, off the boat, before breakfast, followed by some snorkling.  We then, sadly, had to head back to shore.  The whole time we were on board though we got to learn some sailing things.  We ground the coffee grinders to winch up the main sail and some of the stronger boys heeve-hoed up the jib by pulling on ropes (all very technical - not!).  We also learnt how to carry as cup of coffee without spilling it whilst the boat was moving (eventually).

The night we arrived back there was yet again an after-party, where we and the boat crew made the most of being ashore for the first time in three whole days, i.e. we drank, danced and drank some more!  The Irish people on board, who had steadily drank continuously for the whole time aboard, dragged us to the Irish bar.  Lots of dancing and staggering to the beach afterwards led to another 4am finish, and another good night!

The next day we headed up to Mission Beach, somewhat later than originally planned, and who knows what crazy, no scary, no fun things we might get up to there!??!.....................