Chapter 9

The inevitable has happened.....we have turned the corner and started heading south. This means that home is becoming ever closer, yet with the good part of 3 months remaining, we've still got a hell of a lot to look forward to!!

Once again we've covered some k's since our last entry, but as I write, the pace looks liked its slowed down a bit :) So without further ado, here we go for Chapter 9...

Birdsville Races

Despite the 3,000km round trip to get here, this was without doubt one of the highlights of the trip. Without wanting to miss any of the coast, we headed to Birdsville from Cairns, and returned almost exactly the same way. Craziness I hear you say, but that's what this trip is all about; making the most of our opportunities and getting as much out of every single day as possible.

It was a bizarre feeling rocking into Birdsville after driving for days through flat, desolate land that makes the Nullarbor seem tropical and hardly seeing a soul for that period of time; to be met with a hub of activity and thousands of people in this tiny little town. The campgrounds (a huge area of paddocks) were packed as far as the eye could see and the streets of the town were covered with beer cans, and it was only 10:00AM!!

We spent the best part of three days meeting some of the most friendly people you will ever speak to, drinking a healthy amount of cold ales and just generally walking around with massive grins on our faces. The races themselves were brilliant and the sight of seeing horses run around a dirt track was one to remember considering our race of choice back home is most likely going to be on the lush green of Flemington! 

Finally, our weekend was not complete without a visit to the famous Fred Brophy's Boxing Tent, whereby general punters challenge professional boxers to three rounds in the ring! Thankfully we both kept our feet firmly in the grandstand and were able to enjoy the blood, sweat and tears without doing any damage to ourselves.

If any of you are ever thinking about heading to Birdsville at some point in your life, I would wholeheartedly recommend it, and would probably put my hand up to keep you company in the car!!!

- First stop, the Birdsville Hotel

 - Road Block

 - Outback Queensland

Cairns/Townsville

Our return to the coast coincided with a little visit from Maddy's sister Ness which allowed us a few things; time to recharge the batteries, time to explore this part of the country a little more, and time to introduce Ness to camping!

The highlight was probably a waterfall called Josephine Falls which is set in amongst the beautiful rainforest of this area. Similarly, Wallaman Falls, Australia's largest single drop waterfall was pretty spectacular even though we were met with some dreary weather on this particular day.

In addition to this, travelling through Townsville allowed us to catch up with a wonderful friend from back home, Jess, who even took us out to one of her Uni nights which involved drinking and eating as much as we could for the $10 we paid to be put on the bar tab! Safe to say, long term travellers have a lot in common with poor Uni students so I think we definitely got our money's worth....

 - Best Friends!

 - Lake Eacham, Cairns

- That's a lot of fried chicken!!

 - Lookout over Cairns

 - Camping!

- Thanks for having us Jess!!!

Airlie Beach

The threat of crocodiles now behind us, coupled with the sight of pristine aqua waters made our arrival to Airlie a joyous one. Having heard mixed reports, we loved our four days up here and could easily find ourselves returning on another holiday at some point.

Our timing here was also spot on as we managed to catch up with my best mate Sam's parents who generously took us out for a look around some of the Whitsunday Islands. Fortunately, Jackie & Paul love a chat, dance and glass of red wine as much as we do, so the night we spent out on their boat was a real treat and another highlight to add to the ever-growing  highlight list!!

- Hideway Bay just out of Airlie

- we're on a boat!!

- Catching Dinner

Agnes Water / 1770

With some wind in Clancy's sails, we pushed on through towns like Mackay, Rockhampton and Bundaberg stopping only at a couple of nice little places; Blacks Beach and Roslyn Bay. The fear of spending too much time in Pauline Hanson country kept us moving and we are very happy we did as Agnes Water was a real winner.

Known as being the last or northern most surf spot in Australia, there was some obvious excitement upon our arrival which unfortunately was short lived; I think the both of us had seen much bigger waves crashing the shores of Seaford beach! Nonetheless, the beaches were beautiful and the townships had some real character. 

Fraser Island

What's a trip around Australia without visiting Fraser Island?! Dingoes, crystal clear lakes, whales, turtles and picture perfect beaches - it sounds like it has it all. However, they neglected to mention the hoards of Queenslanders on school holidays, but hey, who are we to complain! 

Luckily for us, we were able to tick off whales, dingoes and turtles all on Day 1 and we quickly came to the realisation why this place is so popular. There is a special feel about this place, even if your heart races every time you hop in the car as the threat of getting bogged is incredibly high on all these busy sandy tracks. The wildlife is abundant and to be honest I'm surprised that there aren't any restrictions on the amount of visitors allowed on the island to protect the wildlife; but I'm sure it all comes back to dollars.

Fraser will also be memorable for us as we succumbed to the soft sand and found ourselves completely bogged on one of the inland tracks. Fortunately all our time spent on YouTube last year touching up on four wheel driving recovery techniques paid off and we dug, pushed and pulled ourselves out in no time!!

- Fraser Island Shipwreck

- Hold on to your hats

- Champagne Pools

- Eli Creek, Fraser Island

- Lake McKenzie, Fraser Island

Sunshine Coast

We have been incredibly fortunate that half of Mildura seems to have relocated to the Sunshine Coast and we have spent the best part of the last week catching up with some unbelievably generous friends and family from Noosa to Brisbane. Everyday we are so grateful and consider ourselves so lucky to have people offering us home cooked meals, beds and hot showers!

Watching the grand final at Shazz and Trev's party was unreal and we celebrated hard for Maddy and all the other insufferable tiger fans present!! We also copped our first lot of serious rain since February and remember for a couple of minutes what it's like being home in Melbourne during winter.

- Cousin Anna Power with Willow, Seth and Sunny

- Big City Life

As always, we are super excited for the next part of the journey with Byron Bay to Sydney providing some more exciting uncharted terrain. We hope every is well back home :)

Love Maddy and Luke

(Chapter 9 Author Luke)