Brisbane, avoiding national disasters, lots of cows and finally sun!

Hey hey there,

So we left Byron and headed up to Brisbane. We went through Surfers Paradise - oh my goodness, what a culture shock! Like a mini Las Vegas on the water's edge - full of money and beautiful skyscraper apartments. But also quite tacky in places. Could only afford to fill up with petrol so we decided to find somewhere to park up for the night on the way up to Brisbane.

Unfortunately there aren't many rest stops in Queensland, so we had to double back on ourselves the following morning to go into Brisbane to sort out our van. Yes, again. Luckily she still goes - just, but wouldn't recommend the company to anyone else! Just needed a new aerial (they wouldn't replace it, even though we didn't break it), a new gearbox (wouldn't give us one either), and the handbrake needed tightening (they didn't tighten it much). Still, we stole yet more stuff from the free table!

(Very glad to have left Brisbane, as now the floods are a national disaster - someone has died, many are stranded and roads are blocked. It's sunny here and 26 degrees - what a hard life! But well out of all the rain now, very luckily.)

So headed up and drove to Tairo on Monday. Had a brief stop at the Big Pineapple, then stopped for a couple of hours at Noosa Heads - meant to be like Byron Bay, but it was raining so we couldn't tell if it was or not. The place was quite pretentious and full of money (we much prefer hippy places!) and the beaches weren't appealing in the rain. Yes, it was still pouring, so we decided to head north again and ended up stopping in Tairo. It was a brilliant campsite with hot showers and loos - for free! Unfortunately it was pouring down with rain most of the time, so spent quite a while huddled in our new van, Pinky (Pink Panther themed). Quite annoying needing the loo when the rain is pouring down on the top of the van, making a right racket!

Anyway, we headed north - again, to Maryborough, which was running for the capital of Queensland against Brisbane a few years ago. It is now a really cute little town, with gorgeous coffee shops, second hand book shops, charity shops (Op shops - Opportunity shops) - and little strange and weird shops. But, we had to see the house where the author of Mary Poppins lived, and I took pictures of Mary Poppins characters on plinths, and her statues.

Jetted on to Childers, which is where the Palace Backpackers Hostel burnt down a few years ago. It has been renovated into an art gallery and a memorial for the 15 people who died - it made UK news. The man who intentionally started the fire is behind bars, (he was chucked out of the hostel for his behaviour), and it was a very sobering experience for us. The community really seemed to rally round, and really helped the 69 backpackers who did survive. The memorial was beautiful, but what was more touching was a folder full of cards and letters left from friends and family who had lost loved ones. I'm not good enough with words to really write about this. I'll just say that what happened was horrific beyond belief, but they have made something beautiful out of the mess.

Next stop, Town of 1770. Not a town at all, just a piece of land where Captain James Cook landed on Australia! Drove quite a while just to see the sea again. Oh well, we can say we have been cultural! We did get to see a few boats and some hostels...

Stopped for the night in a random town - well in a layby by a random town with free loos and cold showers. Spent the evening listening to a German guy play his guitar beautifully as he was cooking supper. A little bit of card playing and goon, before turning in for the night (late at about 8.30pm!)

So yesterday we drove through Rockhampton - 66,500 residents, and MILLIONS of cows in the 250km radius. Lots of cow models (see the photos), an interesting art gallery, and some surprisingly pretty buildings. Quite nice for a little rest stop. We then drove for hours up to Mackay, which is where we are now. Ended up sleeping in a rest area - a car park - out the back of a hotel and pub just south west of Mackay. Quite a strange pub, full of locals, but free camping, loos and cheap showers, bliss. Woke up this morning to find the sun shining, and we had parked near sugar cane fields, sooooo pretty. It's a hard life here!

So this evening going to find some platypuses, then head up to the northern beaches tomorrow. Maybe hit Airlie Beach tomorrow or the next day, for a 3 day boat trip Sunday - Tuesday around the Whitsunday Islands, snorkelling and diving on the reef. Dashing up to Ayr on Tuesday night to dive the Yongala ship wreck (top 10 wreck dives in the world) on Wednesday morning... so will desperately try to email sometime in between all that, but please don't worry if we don't get a chance - internet not very common here!

Anyway, love to all from us all, and will write again when we can next.
Love Alice xxx