Ok so I can't get this blog to sit the way I want it so we have a mismatch of centre aligned text, left aligned text and pictures out of place. ENJOY.
We met a gent, at the place we'd stopped where the tent fell off the roof, who told us about a place you can pitch your tent for free... but as my Nan tells me, nothing in life is free. You had to buy a meal and a drink and then you could pitch your tent/caravan and use the facilities. Seemed fair enough to us. We arrived at dark and got ourselves introduced to the owner, turns out he was pretty racist, despite his Vietnamese wife. The food was pretty darn decent and the drinks were alcoholic, so, happy. Apart from the partying Europeans it was a pretty good set up for us.
In the morning when we packed the tent up to leave there was a really weird looking spider, blue and white. We flicked it on the floor and hoped for the best. After we packed up and ate breakfast it was time to be back on the move. After a drive we stopped near a beach to have lunch with some beautiful views, didn't have a dip due to my still existing paranoia about crocodiles. Had the usual sandwiches.
Even though we were trying to reach Brisbane under a time restraint we found a lovely place to go for a walk and see some waterfalls. It was actually very well maintained and even had rubber mats on the floor. All up hill, we walked to the top, took some pictures then headed back down and found a rock pool which I had a dip in. However, Phil made it his mission to get across to the rocks. I actually filmed it much to my amusement. Although it wasn't to Phil's amusement as he dropped his sunglasses in twice, that made me cackle, before getting his shorts wet on the way back.
We spent the night at what seemed to be a local park, after arriving just after dark and struggling to find a decent spot we squeezed in next to a Caravan. The Caravan's occupier who came to see what the racket was when we were cooking tea. It wasn't that much of a racket but in the dead silence we may as well have been throwing a disco for the locals. Once we got up and noticed 90% of the other stayers had left in the early hours we casually had breakfast and packed everything away. What was amusing was the couple who had a bus with a 4x4 trailed onto the back arguing about having no gas left in the bottles for a shower. Shower? What a treat! You certainly didn't want to sniff us that day.
From Home Hill we headed down to Airlie Beach, it seemed to be the hot spot that all the travellers talked about, the access to the Whitsunday's, one of the most beautiful spots in Australia, so I'm told. Upon arrival we noticed a lot of 'euro-trash', cashed up morons who need an education and application of sun lotion. It was so unbelievably touristy and I was quite disappointed. Couldn't get to the Whitsunday's because it was booked out, even if it hadn't been I doubt I would have liked the expense, so we went for a drive, there had to be SOMEWHERE we could go that didn't charge an arm and a leg... We drove around for a while until we got to the top of a hill and sadly decided to admit defeat, time to turn around and go back. There looked like a safe place to turn. WAIT! What's that? A path so we can go on a walk. We parked, for free, and went for a walk down the path, saw some beautiful spots through the trees, until we came to a beach. The sea was beautiful but as always the pebbles are a little harsh on the feet. I was cautious due to my fear of crocs, but paddled anyway. Then we walked some more to a look out point with gorgeous views. We read that this was an artificial beach, of sorts, debris washed up by a cyclone one year causing the beach to exist. Content with our little find we went back and headed for a camp. On the way back from the look out point we watched a snake wriggle by, my second snake in the wild, this one wasn't black but more of a sandy colour, causing us no bother, we carried on our way.
Using wikicamps we decided on a camp to go to that seemed decent enough and headed to it. On the way to the camp we got stopped at the train lights. With all the signs we had been sniggering about regarding "Give way to the Cane Train", we hadn't actually understood them to the full extent. Turns out after we waited for at least about 5 minutes or more for the longest train in the world, I could understand why they would have to tell people to give way as you wait soooooo long for it to pass. It actually had another train attached to it. God damn snore train. Once the Snore Train had FINALLY passed by we made the camp. Being cautious and uncertain as we were driving through gates to get to what seemed to be someone's farm... uhm... lets look up another camp just incase... oh, no, wait. Loads of caravans, time to find a reasonably flat spot. Ok, we found a moderately flat spot with a slight incline, manageable. Time to cook tea, have a snooze and hit the road again tomorrow. Just ignore the strange noises coming from the trees and hope it's not a serial killer, there is plenty of other people they can kill first, just as long as they do it quietly.
(There wasn't actually any serial killers, it was a loud rustling cow.)