Queensland

I rushed North to steer well clear of Cyclone Ului (which aimed directly at Airlie Beach where I just was).  After doing a drive by of Mission Beach, I arrived in Cairns. I’m really starting to feel the heat, now. The weather has improved somewhat and I am really glad to see some sun. Just out of Cairns, I caught [...]

Townsville is a bit of a mess at the moment due to them completely renovating the main shopping mall. I spent a day exploring the town, visiting the aquarium, going to the IMAX and I finished off by heading up to Castle Hill lookout. The next day I caught the ferry to Magnetic Island (affectionately [...]

My 3 day sailing adventure on “Silent Night” an ex-racing yacht was an awesome adventure. There were 12 of us on board plus 2 crew. Due to the approaching Cyclone Ului, the wind conditions were very borderline, which made the adventure even more exciting. Sailing is exhilarating. I have never been on a yacht before and the [...]

The drive between Town of 1770 and Airlie Beach consists of long straight roads, lots of signs warning about driver fatigue, rest areas, the odd sign warning for Koalas or Roos, acres and acres and acres of sugar cane and not much else. I did make a couple of significant discoveries on my way through. [...]

The Town of 1770 was named after Captain Cook’s first landing in Queensland. The place itself is a lovely small beach town. It is popular because of the day trips to Lady Musgrave Island. I took a gamble on the weather (and won) to see one of the most southern-most islands on the Great Barrier [...]

Close to Gin Gin I visited the Mystery Crators.  They are completely natural but their origin are a complete mystery to international geologists. They were discovered by a zucchini farmer about 40 years ago and uncovered to display what you can see today. There are 35 crators, all in one location. They are over 25 million years [...]

Best purchase: Umbrella Tripometer: 1406 kms Current Location: Mackay (about halfway to Cairns now) Number of Current Mossie Bites: 35 Highest number of Mossies taken out in one slap: 5 (yeah) Days of glorious sunshine: 2-3 Days of rain: Way too many (thank God I’m not in a tent!) Worst moments:  – GPS device crapping [...]

Wiggle…..wiggle……dig…..dig….ruuuuuuuuuuuuun……swim…..swim Arriving at dusk to the tiny spot of Mon Repos, just East of Bundaberg, I slathered on the insect repellent and waited at the Mon Repos Turtle Rookery. The modern vistors centre gave me all the information I could possibly need to know about the Loggerhead turtle. Like clockwork, between November and January every year, [...]

Spent the morning on tour of the Bundaberg Rum Distillery. No photos were allowed as we had to take everything out of our pockets and leave our bags behind. Apparently there is a risk of a battery sparking a fire from the ALCOHOL FUMES. The whole place burnt to the ground early last century and [...]

From Hervey Bay I joined a day trip guided tour to discover Fraser Island. Fraser Island is a World Heritage listed site and the world’s largest sand island at 120 km x 15 km. It is the only place in the world where rainforest grows on sand. I was up early to catch the barge [...]