It was such a breath of fresh air driving into Cairns via the beautiful lush Atherton Tablelands and seeing such rolling green pastures again….
and then amongst the vast sugarcane fields.
Much to Dan’s delight, we found many road side stalls selling fresh fruit and veges, but nothing more wonderful than a lady selling the first season mangoes. We bought a whole case and devoured them all over the next week on various beaches, with the juice running down our arms and loving every spring moment!!!!
We caught up for an afternoon with our friends, the Campbell family, at the Cairns lagoon. We said our goodbyes for now as we were going to be travelling at different paces down the coast, but we plan on catching up later in the year.
Very heavy rain fell that night, but by lunch time the skies were clearing and we loved spending the afternoon in beautiful Palm Cove. We strolled along the beach checking out many swanky resorts that lined the waterfront.
We ate lunch at the Chilli Café. Being the very small world that it is, Dan ended up knowing the owner, Tony Moore, an ex- Sydney sider. He is doing a fabulous job with his great people skills at settling into his new café venture. As he said to us, ”this is the CAN DO café”. Nothing was a problem and he made a fabulous sandwich and Sas and Boo claim, one of the best smoothies on the trip!
We drove on up to Port Douglas for the evening and had dinner at one of our old favourites - the Salsa Bar and Grill. Absolutely delicious!!
More pics from Cairns
We left Cairns the following day, after Walt had a service and we had done a little retail therapy. After being so remote, we even found Cairns to be too busy and bustling, so we went in search of cuter, quieter places and ended up in Mission Beach. This was much more our pace. A cute little village and a chilled out beach. We rode our bikes along the sand…..
The girls enjoyed some rustic little beach huts made by previous kids, then had a go at building their own….
More pics from Mission Beach
Then it was on further south to Airlie beach. We spent three days here with the Ramke family. We played a little tennis, had BBQ dinners and the kids played for hours in the pool. It is always fun to spend some time with the company of other travelling families to share stories and it is a relief for Sassy and Boo to have playmates other than each other!
We spent a morning at the Airlie lagoon.
One of the highlights of our Airlie stay was a day of Ocean Rafting on the ‘Wild Thing’, to the beautiful White Haven beach. This boat was an ex-ocean rescue vessel and its maneuverability was incredible. We had a crazy skipper, who flung us over waves and spun us around corners at high speeds. There were constant screams of joy from the girls, as it felt like a never ending thrill ride at an amusement park. It seemed the more they laughed and screamed, the faster and crazier he would drive!
We stopped at Hill Inlet Lookout and walked up through the bush (with the march flies) to the lookout. It was breathtaking. It turns out, that this view is the fourth most photographed spot in Australia. It really looked like a postcard.
Next, it was an hour of snorkeling at a secret location….
We then arrived at White Haven beach for a 2 hour stop. We swam, relaxed and had lunch on the beach.
Bella spotted two frisky goannas that tumbled out of the bush onto the sand.
The day ended, with a spectacular race back to the wharf with three other rafting boats that had gone to separate locations. Exhilarating speeds, crazy turns and a ‘360’ to end it all right in front of the wharf.
More pics from Airlie Beach
The following morning it rained and rained and rained!!! We travelled down to Rockhampton and felt lucky we had such beautiful weather in Airlie. We only stayed one night to have dinner with a lovely couple we had met on the road, (Noel and Joy) who were home from their trip and had invited us to their home. We had a delicious dinner and they invited their whole family to meet us. It was beautiful to see them again and such a treat to have a home cooked meal!
We were all very excited the next day to be picking up Jasmine at Gladstone airport. She flew in for 5 days to spend some time with us in between her busy uni/work and social calendar! We have all missed her very much and she was greeted with huge hugs. We drove further south and stayed for 4 nights in the little beachside town of 1770. Shackers graciously bunked down in the tent and Jas was upgraded to the master suite again. I think he enjoyed telling other travellers he was in the ‘dog house’ and gaining false sympathy!!
As the name suggests, the town was named in 1770 when Captain Cook first set foot on the east coast. The town has remained relatively undeveloped and unspoilt as it was unsuitable for pasture with not much fresh water supply. Apart from a campground right on the inlet, a beautifully landscaped boardwalk with surrounding parklands and a cute café called ‘The Tree’, there was not much else there. We loved the laid back vibe.
After a breakfast on the deck at The Tree, the Phase 10 challenge was on again.
We spent 2 of the days just enjoying the wave beach at nearby Agnes waters and enjoyed being able to swim in the sea again, in a region that was stinger and ‘croc’ free. We caught up with the Ramke family and all the kids played for ages building a village in the sand.
Sas has been loving her ripstick and Bella decided to part with her own cash pocket money and invest in the same fun. The paths along the waterfront at 1770 were fabulous for ‘ripping”.
One day we went on a day of adventuring on the LARC. This was an amphibious ex-army vessel, once used to transport cargo in the 1960s and stands for Light Amphibious Resupply Cargo. It was instrumental in transporting all the building materials to restore the lighthouse and its cottages up on Bustard Head.
Nowadays, it is painted pink and is used for a fun 4WD day trip around the 1770 waterways and the sandy beaches of Eurimbula National Park. It was quite a crazy, unique vehicle, able to tackle all terrains.
We were transported to quite remote beaches across the water then up onto the banks. It felt like being in ‘Chitty Chitty Bang Bang!’ We stopped to collect some gorgeous ‘Checkered Bonnet shells’.
We were taken up the steep and rocky headland known as Bustard Head, for spectacular views over 1770, then up to the restored lighthouse for a very informative history of the area and the families that were once its keepers.
Then it was a picnic lunch at the LARC camp, in the middle of nowhere with no one else around except for thousands of soldier crabs!!
Sas was enthralled and not afraid to pick them up! She is such a nature lover.
Then it was time for sand boarding down the dunes. Bella was first up the dune, but Sas claimed the title of junior champ for sliding the longest distance. She ended up in the mud flats then into the water! The look of fear on their faces shows you how steep it was and how fast they were going!!
The next afternoon, we dropped Jas at Bundaberg airport, finishing our Phase 10 challenge while waiting for her departure. She left on a high as she won the final challenge and was crowned the new ‘Fucawi champ!’ Saying goodbye, Bella cried the longest, but we knew it was only 3 weeks until we were all home.
More pics from 1770
After restocking our supplies, we drove on to Hervey Bay. We stayed overnight, then headed over to Fraser Island the next morning. We drove Walt up onto the barge for a 40 minute transfer to the island. Then the 4WD adventuring began!
Fraser was as beautiful as we remembered it from a backpacking trip 20 years ago. Being a little travel weary at this end of the trip, we opted for a 3 night stay at the Kingfisher Resort instead of camping. It was heaven to have a break from the van and to enjoy the luxury of real beds and a bubble bath after full days of island exploring.
The central ‘roads’ on the island are soft sand tracks, many with tree roots running across them, very bumpy and strictly high clearance 4WD. The 30km/h limit meant getting around was time consuming but lots of fun.
We spent our first day discovering the stunning freshwater holes at Lake Birrabeen and Lake McKenzie. Both had powdery white, pure silica sand and clear, warm turquoise water. Our favourite was Birrabeen, as it was far less commercialized and just as beautiful.
The main highway is still a 72km stretch of beautiful white sandy beach and its wild, shark infested waters. It was great fun to belt along the beach in Walt at 80K/hour, along the sand and through water crossings.
On our second day, we visited Lake Wabby. It was a 2k walk through the bush and up and over spectacular sand dunes to get there. On one side, its deep green waters were bordered by a giant sand dune that is slowly moving into the lake. In a century or so, the sand dune’s unstoppable march westward across the island will see it completely swallow the lake. We could see many large black catfish swimming in the water…….
We then drove inland in search of ‘The Fairy tree’ a tortured Ficus. After some time, we finally found it. It was like a tree out of a picture book – tall, wonderfully twisted and quite magical.
We stopped and made hamburgers for dinner on our little BBQ amongst the rainforest. Everything was lovely, except we had skipped lunch and we were all starving. All burgers were ‘inhaled’ in minutes, despite the fact that we had forgotten the tomato sauce!!
The next day we ventured to lake Allom to see cute pig nosed freshwater turtles. As we are now true Aussie adventurers, killing march flies and feeding them to the turtles was very matter of fact!!! That’s one of the side effects of spending so much time in the bush ….
The Maheno Wreck is still quite a spectacle along the beachfront and we stopped to take a closer look.
A picnic lunch at Eli Creek was incredibly beautiful. It was so much fun to just pull up on the stunning white sand, under such blue skies, to make some gourmet wraps by the creek. With our fridge in the back of Walt, spontaneous picnicking has been easy.
The girls then floated down the creek on their surf mats.
We spent our final morning chilling by the pool at Kingfisher Resort with the Ramke family before taking the barge back to Hervey Bay. We loved Fraser. Such a stunning place and lots of thrilling 4WDing!
More pics from Fraser Island
We arrived in Noosa on the afternoon of the Noosa Triathlon. It was buzzing with people and all the post frenzy of ‘Tri- Fever’. Fit bodies, lots of lycra and a generally inspiring vibe of health! We all vowed to get fit again once back in Sydney and the girls are entering in a kids’ triathlon in January. Shackers has signed up for the Jyndabyne multi-sport solo event and Dan has vowed to do the bike leg of a triathlon event with Shackers. After a lap of the paddock, it will be a challenging come back!
We spent three days here and loved having some decent shops to explore, some great restaurants and the best coffee we had had in many, many months. We spent a day on nearby Sunshine beach and Sas won the Melbourne cup sweep with some friends at our campground.
The next morning, Sas and Boo spent some pocket money at the fabulous Eumundi Markets. All the way around Australia, they have been wanting to buy an old fashioned wooden box, to keep treasures in that they have been collecting. One of the first stalls we came across had exactly what they had envisaged. It was quite uncanny and the little old man behind the counter looked so like the toy maker from the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang movie!
One afternoon in Noosa, we had a surprise visit from Dan’s fabulously crazy sister, Julie. We knew she was working nearby in Coolum at a conference, but we had planned to stay with her in Byron later that week, so had not arranged to meet sooner. She could not resist the temptation to call by after work……..unannounced. Dan was in the shower block racing to get ready for a dinner at an old friend of David’s who had invited us to his home. She found Tilli amongst other campsites and Bella jumped into her arms and wouldn’t let go! She then proceeded down to the shower block to find Dan. From under steam and shampoo, her crazy calling of nick names was heard and Dan was in disbelief. We laughed ourselves silly in the echoing cubicle!! It was torturous having to rush away, but we knew our stay with her in Byron was only 5 days away…
Our dinner with Eric and Lindsay and their fabulous neighbours Vic & Neil from Sydney was great.
More pics from Noosa
We then pushed on to Miami Beach on the Gold Coast. We avoided much of the razzle dazzle of the ‘Goldie’ by staying in Miami right on the beach. We opted out of visiting the ‘worlds’ as we had been to Sea World before and after seeing such spectacular places of natural beauty around the country, we had no desire to queue with thousands of people for rides at Dreamworld.
We visited Dan’s Uncle and his beautiful Eritrean wife, (also named Bella) and their stunning little girls, Sara and Lilly. They entertained us with a delicious Eritrean meal at their home and Sara and Lilly enthralled us with their gorgeous personalities. Dan wanted to take them home!
After dinner, Bella even roasted her own green coffee beans over the stove, ground them, and then made coffee over hot coals using her traditional coffee pot. It was a heavenly, rich brew – even David had a cup!!! He’s now doubled his lifetime coffee intake.
The following morning, we had planned to see Dan’s 93 year old grandparents who live in Broadbeach. However, we had a call that morning that ‘Doe’ (Dan’s grandmother, Dorothy), had been taken to hospital overnight with what appeared to be a bad bladder infection. We spent most of the next day visiting her. Thankfully, she made a quick recovery over the following days and is still so vital, beautiful and witty. She is still such a treasure and has a great sense of humour and it was a relief she was OK. We picked up Dan’s mum from the airport the next day as she had flown in to take care of Doe.
More pics from Miami
Our trip down the coast to Byron Bay was filled with excitement at the prospect of seeing Dan’s sister Julie, and her husband, James again. An hour of text messages ensued as progress to the very last kilometre was tracked! As we rounded the bend into their street, we laughed hysterically as we read the welcome sign!
The next 3 days and nights were full of silliness, wine and laughter. Dan and Julie walked to the lighthouse and enjoyed a ride on the moped.
We visited the Byron markets and bought a few herbal treasures, then watched as the local hippies ‘lost themselves’ to the beat of the bongo drums and the inhalation of local weed!
The girls fell in love with Brandy, Julie’s pet rabbit, better known as ‘Baby Girl or BBG’- the cutest, most indulged bunny on the planet. They hand fed her peanuts and carrots every night.
A swim on Byron beach after another walk to the light house was divine.
And NO trip to Byron would be complete without a burger at the local ‘Top Shop’. This is the old fashion corner store with gourmet burgers, muffins and coffee and white paper lolly bags with ‘$1.50 worth of mixed’. Remember when they were 20c?!?!? We loved this place….
On our last night, we had dinner at the Treehouse. It had a great relaxed vibe, cool music, fabulous food and an eclectic mix of furniture.
After that, we went home and enjoyed an open fire around ‘Brad Pitt’. Sas and Bella showed off their new bush skills of toasting marshmallows…..something they have had much practice in doing over the last 8 months!
More pics from Byron Bay
We then headed further south to meet up with David’s brother Ben, his wife Kara and their boys, Max and Oscar, at Emerald beach. It was so lovely to see them and spend some badly behaved evenings catching up on all their news!
We stayed right on the beach and spent most of our days chilling on the beach with the kids playing together.
The boys enjoyed having a very long overdue surf together, while Dan and Kara were made to photograph them from the shore to try and catch their best wave on camera (no mean feat!!) It was a little reminiscent of a scene from Puberty Blues, minus the Chicko Rolls!
Sas, Bella and Max also tested their skills on the waves, while little Oscar belly laughed as he ‘lasered’ David with his pretend laser gun. Bella was the star surfer and Ben nicknamed her ‘Gidget’.
It was a great five days and precious time for brothers, sisters in law and for cousins.
More pics Emerald Beach
And so, our final days at Southwest Rocks and Sandbar(in the rain), have been spent detoxing from our two previous stops, mentally preparing for our re-entry into Sydney and reminiscing on our great adventure. One 'sunny' upside was a visit to and old school friend of Dan's Sarah and her husband Dan and their girls in Charlotte Bay, near Blueys Beach. What a beautiful home and location to live - we have talked about doing a house swap in the future!!! Sas and Bella loved the purpose built yoga room. Dan is a travel writer and we left with many pages of stories about the places we had been (if only we could write like that!!!)
We have sold Tilli on eBay and although it will be a little sad to see her go, she has served her purpose well.
More pics from South West Rocks
Some amazing stats must be noted. We have travelled 33,212km, burned 6,064 litres of diesel fuel (most expensive - $2.05/L in the Kimberley & cheapest - $1.22/L the night before we left Sydney!!), spent over 500 hours in the car, taken over 9,000 photos, 'taken out' 2 roos, 6 birds and had only had one flat. We have managed to survive the transition from living in a large house to an 18 foot caravan, or 4 man tent and somehow still love each other, perhaps even a little more! There have indeed been trials and tribulations, tears and laughter, the challenge of school work on the road and the absence of all the creature comforts of home. We will never again take for granted the following things……..a dishwaher, a washing machine that does not require coins, a shower without crocs, a toilet that doesn’t require Kenny to empty it, or a bedroom separated by walls as appose to curtains!!!
Memories of the Great Ocean Road, The Nullarbor, The Kimberley, Ningaloo Reef, Broome, Cape Leveque, The Top End, remote regions of the NT, Uluru, Aboriginal art, The Gulf of Carpentaria and stunning beaches on the Queensland and NSW coasts, will remain forever. We feel so fortunate to have had such an adventure together.
We hope you have enjoyed following our ‘Lap of this Big Paddock’, sharing our stories along the way. We have learnt that it IS possible to turn your dreams into a reality and hope we have inspired some of you to get out of your comfort zones and see this wonderful and amazing country of ours. A final thank you to the beautiful Divine family, who were our inspiration to make this lap of our own.
And finally………….as we pulled into Sydney, with mixed emotions of excitement, relief, and sadness, Sassy and Boo yelled out from the back seat…..”Have we done a lap yet? And with numb bottoms, we all said YES WE HAVE!!
Over and out,
The Fucawis!!!
