After an uneventful night on the boat we woke with the sun. Lack of curtains will do that …
Hannah's view from the pillow this morning
Around 8am we had Bob and his faithful dog Barnaby rock up to show us the ropes.
Archive for category Big Lap 2011
Day 90 – Nara Inlet
Oct 6
Day 89 – Airlie Beach
Oct 5
Up at the leisurely time of 9am, we had bacon and egg sangas for breakfast. It was then time to have a look around Airlie Beach and Shute Harbour. It didn’t take much driving before we realised that we absolutely hated the place 😉
2 harbours, lovely houses, tons of useful shops, great atmosphere all round really. Pity it’s so far from home.
Shame we’ve got to leave it tomorrow …
Day 88 – Airlie Beach
Oct 4
Today was supposed to be a short trip down to Airlie Beach for a couple of nights, but it turned out to be a lot longer than expected … lucky we’d planned on a short day!
We packed up the van by 8am and said ‘bye bye house’. We had to take the keys back to the agent before skipping town, that was the first detour. Precious little parking area near the agents office meant that there was a bit of a walk to return the key.
No big deal … back on the road for about 5 minutes and there’s a huge patch of slow on the road out of town due to roadworks. No big deal, at least we were moving. … and then we weren’t.
Day 87 – Magnetic Island
Oct 3
We caught the ferry across to Magnetic Island today as part of our continuing quest to find the best beach.
The weather was being kind to us and the trip across was met with barely a ripple. Yet another horrible day up here … raining, pouring, windy … What? You don’t believe me?
Day 86 – Townsville
Oct 2
We had a bit of a lazy old sleep in at Mission Beach. Kel & Blake wandered over to the Sunday market across the road and came back with the usual stuff. Nothing too spectacular…
Hannah was up early and having a play with Risa. They were both in the pool before breakfast. You’d think she’d work up an appetite, but she still ate breakfast like a mouse.
Day 85 – Mission Beach
Oct 1
Wow, what a game!
I couldn’t bring myself to watch it until after half-time, I just listened to the radio version instead. Part of the reason for that was that I couldn’t get the game on the TV in the van, despite the TV tower only being a few km away.
After half-time I went over to the camp kitchen to watch it on the screen there, only to discover that it was a delayed broadcast and I was better off listening to it anyway!
What better way to celebrate a hard fought grand final win than a walk along Mission Beach?
Day 84 – Cape Tribulation
Sep 30
The day started out, for me, bright and early with a walk around the rainforest trying to catch a photo of the Cassowary we keep hearing. No luck though.
Toyota that didn’t make it
Day 83 – Cape Tribulation
Sep 29
Welcome to the Daintree, where the rainforest meets the sea.
We got a complimentary snazzy breakfast of pancakes courtesy of the park this morning. Had a chat with some fellow Victorians, also with an Expanda, also towed by a Prado … and then we were on our way to as far north on the east coast that we’ll be going on this trip. Cape York will need to wait for another time.
The drive up to Cape Tribulation is pretty slow. 60kmh for most of it leading up to the ferry. 40kmh after that with a bit of roadworks thrown in too. But what’s the hurry?
Day 82 – Cairns (Day 5)
Sep 28
Today was all about waterfalls. A bit of other stuff snuck in at the start of the day though.
I was up early and grabbed a nearby geocache at the top of the hill behind the park. It was a bit silly walking through knee high grass around here, but I survived. Everybody was still in bed by the time I got back. Not for long though, Kel & Hannah were doing water aerobics at 9am. Blake stayed at the van and helped me put out the washing and do some research.
Once everybody was back from the mornings activities we set off for a drive to see a few of the regions waterfalls.
Today was Kel’s idea, but she forgot that we had to drive back up to the Atherton tablelands to get to them all … not a pleasant drive at the moment with all the roadworks going on. There was a bit of car sickness going on by the time we got to Malanda. It’s an awful lot of twistery to tackle at speed in the Prado. It doesn’t rock around like a boat much cos the suspension is tight … because its tight when it detects corners, it becomes really harsh instead and super bumpy. Either mode isn’t pleasant thru the corners when ya in a hurry.
First stop was Malanda Falls, where we had some lunch.
Day 81 – Cairns (Day 4)
Sep 27
The day started bright and earlyish, as usual. We’d booked yet another cruise/tour for today and it left at 8:30 from the Cairns Wharf. This is only 6km away so no big hurry was needed.
The cruise was set to take us out to Green Island for a few hours and then take us to a pontoon on the Great Barrier Reef for another few hours before taking us back to Cairns at 5:30. A bit of a full-on day. Three boat rides with plenty of activities in between tired us all out. Some more than others.
