End of the East Coast road trip

Days 13 and 14: Fraser Island

I had booked a 2-day tour with The Discovery Group, which I think was a good thing because a 1-day tour would have been much too rushed.

We were very lucky with our guide – a very funny German guy, extremely experienced, he’d been working on Fraser Island for a crazy number of years. He knew so much about the island and had so many anecdotes to tell. We ended up in a group with a Scottish couple, a Dutch family, two French backpackers and two Italian friends. Very nice bunch of people.

We started off by an early morning drive through the lovely countryside; it was beautiful – very misty, with kangaroos grazing in the fields. We spent a couple of hours in Tin Can Bay where I was able to feed a wild dolphin, but it was a little too much of a tourist trap for my liking…

We then crossed over to Fraser Island and had a bit of a dramatic incoming tide for the 80km/hour beach drive (along with the pouring rain!), it was honestly super impressive! Our guide told us that a few years ago there was no speed limitation on the beach and accidents were very common, especially with young backpackers who had no experience driving on the sand and didn’t respect the tide hours… Some of the stories were unfortunately very tragic L We stopped at the Maheno shipwreck, climbed up to Indian Head (stunning view!), and wandered along Eli Creek. A lot of the sites on the island are sacred for the Aboriginals, it was very interesting hearing about their stories and the way they interpret nature, etc.

We spent the evening around a BBQ in Happy Valley with our travel companions, had such a nice time chatting with everybody under the starry sky!

The next day we went for a nice walk in the middle of the rainforest at Central Station, and then had a lovely swim in Lake McKenzie. The water is so pure there, infused with essential oils, you feel so nice and refreshed when you get out. It was proper freezing though!

We then had to drive all the way back to Brisbane and spent the night near the airport in an Ibis hotel to catch our plane to Cairns the next day with Jetstar.
 

Day 15: Cairns

Doro and I managed to arrange a last-minute meeting in Cairns. She had originally planned to leave for a road trip to Ayers Rock the day I was arriving in Cairns but the group she was travelling with ended up delaying their departure so it all worked out!

Doro was woofing in the suburbs with a lovely Navy guy called Daniel. He picked me up in the city centre with his Navy uniform and his army van, it was surreal lol! It was great seeing Doro again after our time apart, we had so much to tell each other! We went shopping for food and packed the two cars for the next day with the roadtrip bunch, and had a nice BBQ all together.

Day 16: Kuranda

The next day I went to Kuranda to meet up with my parents. We decided to go on the Skyrail above the rainforest – checked out the Barron Falls and had a nice walking tour with an Aboriginal guide – loved it! We stayed at Kuranda Rainforest Park Accommodation. I didn’t really like Kuranda, the city looks like it’s been designed especially for tourists – so fake - and there are wreckless drunken Aboriginals everywhere…

Day 17: Port Douglas

We drove all the way to Port Douglas and booked our Quicksilver Cruise to the Great Barrier Reef which was the birthday present I had chosen to give my parents. We then crossed the Daintree River with the little local ferry and arrived at Daintree Deep Forest Lodge, my favourite accommodation of the whole trip! Right in the middle of the rainforest, completely isolated, incredible! We celebrated Mum’s birthday with a torch-lit dinner at another luxury lodge nearby, and on the way back stopped to watch the million stars in the sky… Mum even spotted a pademelon which is EXTREMELY rare.

Day 18: Cape Tribulation

We drove up to Cape Tribulation beach – looked out for the crocodiles though :s Had a picnic there and I spotted a lace monitor lizard in a tree. We then went for an exotic fruit tasting session followed by an ice cream factory – gorgeous!

Day 19: Great Barrier Reef

I had been looking forward to this for months – I was not disappointed!!! One of the best days of my life. It took about two hours to get to the Outer Reef – I recommend taking sea sickness tablets for the faint hearted because it can be a rough crossing! We went to three different sites in the Agincourt Reef, it was a fantastic day, the weather was good and the snorkeling was spectacular, just like in the movies!!! So many beautiful, colourful fish – such a dream!!! So, so worth it.

Day 20: Daintree River

We spotted 3 cassowaries just off the road and then went for a cruise on the Daintree River to spot crocodiles, they were MASSIVE! Much more impressive than the alligators I saw in the Everglades…We also decided to take a different road back to Cairns in order to see a bit of the outback.

We then had to catch our flight from Cairns to Sydney with Tiger Airways and had a bit of drama at the airport due to misleading information regarding their luggage restrictions… Long story short: I am never flying with this company again!

Day 21: Off to Bali!

Went tourist shopping at Paddy’s Market and had a nice lunch with my parents at Darling Harbour before I went off to catch my plane to Bali!