Chapter 8

It hasn't been too long since our last update, but boy oh boy have we seen some things and covered some k's! It's been pretty intense recently with long days in the car and corrugations that shake the life out of you, however, we've had a cracking time and made it to the very tip top of Australia; a momentous occasion that makes everything worth it! But let's start with our holiday from our holiday a few weeks ago..

Bali

I think a combination of things made this the absolute best holiday we've ever had - having lived on the road for the past eight months, being on a budget, and not swimming in the ocean for a while. To get to Bali and be able to sleep in a bed, have a toilet and shower, eat and drink like kings, and surf and swim every day was the bees knees. 

We got off the plane and went straight to a beach called Balangan, about half an hour south of Kuta and made ourselves at home for ten glorious days. It was a constant cycle of eat, drink, surf (or sun bake in my case) repeat. Between banana pancakes we also found ourselves in Kuta buying an entire new wardrobe each, and also checking out the rest of the Bukit Peninsula via scooter. One epic night was also had down at Uluwatu with another troopy couple, doing the same trip as us, and who just happened to be in Bali at the same time! Too many bintangs later and it was time to head back to Clancy and the road awaiting.

Sunset at Balangan

Luke at Balangan

"Perfection"

Dinner with a view

Happy Camper!

Lawn Hill National Park

Back in Darwin we had a brief catch up with a few long lost friends. One of whom was the notorious Davies family that we met all the way back on Kangaroo Island and feel like we have known forever. It was great to see them and exchange a few tales of our journey since then. Another was Georgie, a close friend from back home who has just signed up for a three month stint at the Darwin Hospital. It's so good seeing familiar faces on this adventure when you're constantly meeting new people and trying to remember their names. Luke is much better at this than me!

After that we pretty much legged it over to QLD, the sunshine state! The one spot we had heard a lot about and really wanted to check out was Lawn Hill. Just as you cross the border, north of Mt Isa, is this beautiful N.P and the definition of an oasis in the desert. Luscious green/blue water fills stunning gorges, through which you can paddle to the prettiest waterfalls. We were a bit tight on money so instead of paying the $50 to hire a canoe, I SUPed up while Luke paddled his surf board. We got a few funny looks but hey we saved $50!!

The Sunshine State

Lawn Hill Gorge

Gorge Lookout

Tropical North Queensland

Back on the road we started to see a real change of scenery; from flat, dry, golden plains to green rolling hills and mud beneath our feet. We couldn't believe it. We honestly couldn't remember the last time we saw so much green. And it was raining! We hadn't had rain since February!! (Sorry Melbourne friends).

H

Our first port of call was the beach in Cairns, just to say we had officially reached the east coast and get our eyes on some more salt water. Even though you can't swim it was still a wonder to smell that salty air in the sea breeze without inhaling dust. We then checked out some of the waterfalls around the Atherton Tableland (there are tonnes!) before heading up to Port Douglas for the Food and Wine Festival. 

Port Douglas was super pretty and reminded us a lot of Noosa, except for the no swimming part. I stupidly asked Luke to google croc attacks in the area which guaranteed we didn't hang out at the beach for long. The Food and Wine Festival was a real treat (food and wine being my two favourite things) and saw us splurging a bit of the budget for once. Luke usually has me on a pretty tight leash when it comes to wining and dining, which is fair enough because if I was in charge we'd have run out of money and be home already.

After Port Douglas we continued north to Cape Tribulation. This is part of the much anticipated Daintree, where the rainforest literally meets the ocean. It is without a doubt one of the most stunning beaches we've seen, however, the recurring theme; no swimming. We instead spent the day attempting to climb palm trees and throwing things in the air to snag coconuts. We were very unsuccessful.

An amazing sight after so long in the outback

Nandroya Falls

Cape Tribulation

Cape York

North of Cape Tribulation is where the road starts getting a bit hairy. We had heard absolute horror stories of people flooding their cars, writing them off, and even of people dying. If that doesn't make you want to do the Cape, I don't know what will!! So we prepared ourselves for the worst, realised it's never as bad as people say, and actually ended up really enjoying our trip up there!

Our first couple of days were spent at Bathurst Head where we caught up with another troopy couple, Mitch and Jade, who we had initially met in Port Lincoln. These days were bliss and really what the whole lap is about; sitting around a fire on a beautiful deserted beach, having a few drinks, and Luke's favourite part - catching and eating a 60cm barramundi. Life doesn't get much better. Well maybe if you could swim at the beach!!

After this, the only thing we really wanted to do was get to "the tip". For those that don't know, there are two roads you can take to get there. The first is the Old Telegraph Track (OTT) which is lined with intense creek crossings, stunning camping spots, waterfalls, and rutted out sections that really get the troopy rocking. There is also the Peninsula Development Road (PDR) which is a bypass of the OTT that you can cut back on to if the creek crossing looks too sketchy. We decided to do bits of the OTT, get a taste of it, but bypass those crossings where we thought we might die.

I think we ended up seeing the best bits of the OTT and Clancy got a good work out without losing his life. I'll let you look at some of the pictures of the creek crossings and the waterfalls along the way, which were surprisingly some of the best we've seen so far. And we've seen a lot of waterfalls! 

After crossing the Jardine River ($100 return for a one minute ferry) we finally got to "the tip". We lined up for our photo, looked at each other and said "hooley dooley we made it!". And amongst all the grey nomads and bogan 4WD nutters who else did we see?! Our good friends, Vicki and Jamie! We ended up having a great night with them and some other friends at Loyalty Beach which really rounded off our Cape experience nicely.

Fruit Bat Falls - Cape York

Barramundi!!

Twin Falls - Cape York

One of the "easy" sections!

Chasing Waterfalls

We did it!!

We're on our way back down the coast now, and in case you haven't noticed, I'm a bit sick of this not being able to swim at the beaches business. Bring on the rest of QLD and the crocodile free areas!! Oh and wish us luck at the Birdsville Races next weekend.....

Blencoe Falls - south of Cairns

Until next time...

Maddy and Luke

(Written by Maddy)