We headed north from Sydney to start the classic Australian East coast road trip, beach hopping for the majority of the drive. This used to be the classic British working holiday route and after hearing a rumour that there are over four million German backpackers on working holiday visas and that as a result Australian government has ceased granting working holiday visas to Germans it is obviously not restricted to Brits. Therefore we were a little worried that the coast would just be full of backpackers, but as we were driving most of it during the Australian summer holiday period we just found it full, end of. The highway rest stops were full to the brim every night of people from all over, some sleeping in posh caravans, others in beat-up Combi vans, some even pitching their tent on the grassy verge. In a similar way to DOC campsites in New Zealand, these rest stops provide a cheap and easy place to get a quick nights sleep, with a similar level of services available.
Along the way it was obvious that we were getting closer to the tropics, the forest giving way to lush green fields and farms of cane sugar and bananas. Once in the tropics the weather just got more hot and more humid until it reached critical mass somewhere around Rockhampton and from there on it didn’t matter what time of day or night, it was hot and sweaty, even the frequent showers and storms don’t provide more than a fleeting respite, despite almost washing campsites away in flash floods.
The first stop was Ku-Ring-Gai Chase National Park, an hour or so north of Sydney. Hidden amongst the sandstone and bushland at the end of a 3 mile circuit trek is Resolute Beach, a quiet, secluded beach set in an idyllic bay, or in other words everything that Manly and Bondi are not. Here, forest meets sandy beach meets clear blue sea, a perfect place to relax on the beach, although always aware that a sweaty walk back to the car awaits, unless you are lucky enough to turn up in one of the small yachts bobbing offshore.
We drove all the way up to Byron Bay, the famous New Age hippie haven. Byron Bay is one of those places where people end up hanging out in hostels for days on end, not quite sure why but seemingly unable to leave. It is a pretty town with an iconic lighthouse overlooking the town and the beaches stretching north and south for miles (we enjoyed the much quieter Belongil beach to the north). The trek up to the lighthouse and out to the rocks and Captain Cook lookout is an brilliant walk and the views from the top are very impressive, but the town itself was a little too ‘cool’ for us. The main beach was littered with surf boards and the path above the beach seemed a popular spot to practise juggling or fire poi or high wire walking, or perhaps a bit of transcendental yoga meditation. It is hard to understand why people have to practise these ‘arts’ in the busiest backpacker spots, surely it would be easier to practise on your own in peace and quiet somewhere?
In hindsight perhaps Byron Bay was not quite as over-crowded as we thought, something we realised as we left Byron to meander along the Gold Coast that lies just across the border in Queensland. Now the surfers and backpackers were joined by hordes of Aussie families, enjoying the school holidays at the beach. At both Coolangatta and Surfers Paradise soaring high rise hotels loom over the packed city beaches. Due to dangerous currents and surf only part of the beach is open for swimming so everyone on the beach is crammed into a 100m long stretch. Once in the water people are being thrown on top of one another by the waves, with the big guys at the deepest point landing on the teenagers with body boards who then slide on top of the young kids in the shallows. It is no wonder the First Aid stations always have a queue. Lifeguards patrol the beach and herd anyone brave or stupid enough to risk the surf out of the flags back inside and all the time helicopters buzz overhead, keeping an eye out for sharks! With all this going on it is difficult to enjoy a day at the beach.
Further north the Sunshine Coast is slightly more low-key, with palms fringing the beach rather than concrete jungle, although the beaches still very busy at this time of year. Noosa seemed like the slightly more upmarket resort, with groups of girls getting out of the midday sun by browsing the latest designer labels in the boutiques and then parading their new wares along the beach in the afternoon. Rainbow Beach does not seem quite so posh and here the beach is really protected from the town by a steep walk down through the bushes. Although the water is still so rough here you must swim between the flags, it was easier to find a secluded spot to relax in between dips. Up at Hervey Bay the water is so calm that we finally found the freedom to swim where we wanted. This makes Hervey Bay a popular choice for families but by the time we got there the holiday period was almost over and the caravan park which had been over-booked a few days before started to empty rapidly, as families started the long drive back to wherever.
Having spent so much time on these beaches it seemed like natural progression to make Fraser island the next port of call. The world’s largest sand island, Fraser Island is home to some really unique wildlife and nature, with crystal clear creeks winding their way through the rainforest and the beaches being patrolled by Australia’s purest strain of dingoes (wild dogs). There are also plenty of rainwater lakes, so clean and pure it felt almost medicinal to have a swim in, with Lake McKenzie probably being the most popular and famous. Finally there is an impressive ship wreck lying on the beach, the Maheno being blown onshore during a cyclone in the 1930’s. Luckily there were no fatalities as the passenger cruiser had been retired by then and was being towed to Japan to be scrapped.
Along with Fraser Island, the other top drawn along the East coast are the Whitsunday islands, just off of infamous Airlie beach. Airlie has a reputation something akin to that of Magaluf or Benidorm but we were pleasantly surprised. OK, so the highlight of our accommodation was to be given a drinks voucher for a dodgy looking blue cocktail and a money-off special on a beer and meal combo at the rowdy bar next door but it was easy to escape once we had had enough. Perhaps the fact that Airlie really is in the tropics and therefore subject to afternoon storms puts a dampener on the madness at this time of year. The Whitsunday islands should be the pinnacle of Australian beaches but unfortunately we had three days of rain. There are dozens of yachts heading out for overnight cruises around the islands and we plumped for the Venus, primarily because the evenings are spent onshore at Hook island, giving us a chance to get off the ship for a while. The Venus package also offers one free introductory scuba dive whereas most boats charge around $150 for the privilege so we took advantage of that offer to see what all the fuss is about, although to be honest I spent most of the dive checking my air dials and fixing my buoyancy so didn’t see half as much as I had done whilst snorkelling at the couple of sites the Venus took us to each day, even here at the Inner Barrier Reef the coral was very colourful and most sites had tonnes of reef fish swimming around. We also stopped at the famous Whitehaven beach which despite the weather remained a very impressive site, the swirling sand changing shape as the tide rose into Hill inlet. From the lookout we could also see sting-rays and leopard sharks circling in the shallow water below and down on the beach could wade in the water just a couple of feet away. At this time of year full wet-suits have to be worn even when just going for a quick dip due to the presence of the evil box jellyfish and it’s tiny cohort the irukandji.
The last stop before we arrived in the Cairns region was a brief visit to Mission Beach, surrounded by thick rainforest. One of Australia’s last populations of cassowaries (giant turkey-like creatures) roam around this area but unfortunately we were unable to spot any.
Driving up from Sydney the Pacific Highway skirts the coast all the way up through New South Wales and makes the journey quite easy with dual-carriageway most of the way whereas heading north through Queensland the Bruce Highway is a poor road to travel, single-lane for much of its 1800km length up to Cairns and closed at least once every 100km for some sort of roadworks. Another development that doesn’t seem to have caught on over here, or in New Zealand either, is the bypass. This means that in between all the beach and coastal highlights we have also driven through a number of towns along the way. In between Sydney and Byron Bay we passed through places like Gosford, Newcastle, Port Macquarie and Coffs Harbour, all fairly non-descript places in all honesty, the only thing I remember is that Gosford is home to the Central Coast Mariners, who are the top football (proper football) team in the Australian A-league. Between Surfers Paradise and Noosa sits Brisbane, the state capital of Queensland and Australia’s 3rd biggest city. I remember reading that the reason Australian travel writer Peter Moore started travelling was because he was from Brisbane! Although pretty unremarkable we did enjoy a day around the city centre, wandering between the libraries, lagoons and giant Ferris wheel along the new South Bank development and relaxing out at the really impressive Brisbane PowerHouse, a riverside art centre set in an old power station. Hmm, south bank development, giant ferris wheel, art gallery in old power station... they obviously took their inspiration from somewhere! Of course a year ago the Brisbane area was suffering from horrific flooding and the recovery that has been made is a testament to the dedication of the people.
North of Hervey Bay is Bundaberg, surrounded by cane sugar farms which go towards producing Australias favourite tipple – sickly sweet Bundaberg Rum, perhaps best enjoyed mixed with Ginger Beer, known as a ‘Dark and Stormy’. It is also a very pretty town showing off some colonial architecture which gives it a feeling of history missing from most Australian towns. Further north, the Bruce Highway took us through Gladstone, Rockhampton and Mackay, with the only point of note being that, as previously mentioned, from Rockhampton everything really does get tropical – the nights are just as humid as the days, the afternoon storms barely give a moment of relief and rivers and the sea no longer offer respite due to the potential presence of killer jellyfish and crocodiles taking the place of the sharks and surf further south. We also spent a day in Townsville, a fairly quiet and low-key town with a beautiful harbour sitting under the giant rocks of Castle Hill. The only blemish to our stop here was me being showered on by a possum sitting in a tree above as we sat in a park. Luckily a heavy thunderstorm followed to wash the dark yellow stains from my shirt and shorts.
Of course driving the 3000km or so from Sydney up to Cairns meant a lot of time to tune into Australian radio. Unfortunately we left the only decent station we had found, Triple R, behind in Melbourne so we settled for tuning into ABC News Radio. There were no dodgy adverts for sex clinics like New Zealand radio but even in this national news station all the DJ’s sound a bit retarded. Reading the news seems to be a bit of struggle, we have heard news-readers struggle over words such as ‘decomposition’ and ‘interpretative’ and heard a sports reporter describe a goal as being scored “again the run of play”. The longest section of the news bulletin is at the beginning when the current time in each state is listed due to the convoluted time zones in Australia and the weather reports are comical, only listing the state capitals in a one sentence synopsis, e.g. “Brisbane – fine and sunny with afternoon storms and strong winds, top 32°, it’s 29° now”. If they could just manage to include Broome, Cairns and Alice Springs at least all corners of the country would be covered! The radio highlight is when Rural News kicks in during Country Hour and reports come in from the markets reporting the ups and downs in new lamb prices or the price of potatoes, the current situation with the Indonesian beef export crisis and the weather reports discuss the depth of dams and take on a new attitude to rainfall! Still, it is hardly fair to expect clear, accurate and concise reporting from the news when the Australian politicians set such a poor example. I don’t mean the usual evading answering questions, lying and going back on promises, hardly unusual traits. The problem here is that all politicians sound as though they are reading from a script, not even pausing in the correct places, with Prime Minister Julia Gillard probably being the worst offender. I have been following her with interest on Twitter for a couple of years, now I realise that Twitter is her ideal medium, on radio she sounds like a farmer’s daughter at a speech festival. Just as bad is the opposition leader, Tony Abbott, who tries so hard to ‘identify’ with the electorate by starting speeches with ‘Look, mate....’ and takes any opportunity to change the subject to one of his current issues, whether it be his racist attitude to asylum seekers or take another chance to criticise the state of the economy.
Our East coast trip finished in Port Douglas, just forty miles or so up the coast from Cairns and a quieter and more secluded place to stay whilst visiting the tropical rainforest of northern Queensland and the Great Barrier Reef. We picked up my Mum and her husband at Cairns airport as they had flown out from the UK for a holiday, spending a week with Monika and I before continuing on to spend a couple of weeks diving around Australia.
Mossman Gorge was almost full to overflowing as we took a trip north, probably making it more impressive although unfortunately the rain did keep the saltwater crocodiless hidden away in the Daintree national park, despite our best efforts to spot them in the mangroves as we took a river cruise. The road to Cape Tribulation was almost turned into a river as small waterfalls suddenly sprung out of the rock faces and we were glad to be able to drive back down to Port Douglas.
We had better weather for visiting the Sunday markets by the marina at Port Douglas, people wilting away in the sun, causing snaking queues at the Slush Puppy stall and the weather held for a snorkelling trip out to the famous Great Barrier Reef. Having been very impressed with snorkelling in places such as Indonesia, Thailand and Egypt we were not sure what to expect from the famous Barrier Reef. Luckily the experience did live up to the reputation, the Agincourt reef in the Outer Reef area was full of colourful fish swimming around the bountiful coral and showed no signs of being visited by roughly 200 snorkellers and divers every day. We visited three sites at the reef with the highlights for Monika and I being visiting a Blue spotted Stingray lurking on the seabed and being visited by two White-tipped Reef Sharks. I guess many people imagine the Great Barrier Reef as being one long uninterrupted coral reef almost poking out of the ocean, despite how unlikely this sounds. Of course it is not quite like this, the shallow reef areas separated by dips and troughs on the sea bed, at high tide it can be quite difficult to spot the walls and atolls in the water.
The rain returned for our final day on the East coast, driving back down towards Cairns, stopping at picturesque and posh Palm Cove to wander along the beach and stopping at the man-made swimming lagoon on the esplanade in Cairns, another novel way to beat the threat of jellyfish in the sea. We returned to the Botanical gardens that we had stopped at on the way up. These are really impressive, if I lived in Cairns I would probably go running in the gardens several times a week!
