Wednesday, 14 November 2012

Australian Road Trip - Melbourne to Port Douglas on the coastal route!

First night out of Melbourne - not much sleep thanks to demon koala!

Lakes Entrance  

Buchan Caves - camping with kangaroos!

Orbost

Dangerous Point lookout - Ben Boyd National Park

Little Dan - Big Waves

Eden

Termite mound monster






Tuross Heads.
Our drive plan became to see where we were around lunch time and then
head for the nearest lake... with spectacular results.


Okay there are lots of beach pics but it was thousands of km of coast road!



Unedited.



Morning camper!

Pelicans.

Famous sea road btw Wolongong and Sydney 

Dave and Naomi - our new friends

The famous (ahem) robertson potato

Rainforest walking...




Wombat hole.
(wombats are really cool and are now dan's second favourite animal)

Kangaroo Valley.
Our first wwoofing experience with the wonderful Barker family!


Echidna!


Fireweed.  A love hate relationship developed after 140 acres of weeding!


Nicky and Ruari come to visit!

Sydney.



Crowdy Bay.

Big roo. Little roo.



Gold Coast.



Dan chuffed with his surfing!


Nicky learning!  It's harder than it looks!

Byron Bay.


Great Keppel Island.




Nari.
A lovely couple we met walking on the beach invited us on their yacht!
It was so awesome to see the islands from the sea.









Mackay.



Nicky and Ruari left us in Mackay but we found this map of their part of the journey.

Nebo.
Everyone who we have since told that we spent 2 weeks in Nebo said...
Really?!  Why?!
Wwoofing takes you to some interesting places!
Denise and Magoo had a great house project we helped build!




Dan's beautifully sanded floors.

Pip's painted mural of kookaburras in a red gum tree.




Duck-Billed Platypus!
Extremely rare to see one this close in the wild.  Very lucky!






Australian views are so frequently unbelievable - mother nature
spent a lot of time here just showing off!




Townsville


Ingham.
Alisha and Jay's flaming galah - Ruby

To bee or not to bee...
Staying with the beekeepers meant getting involved! 

More mural painting from pip!

Perfect swimming hole.  Being friends with local people means
you get to see the local treasures!

Making hives

Bees!

Pineapple!
That's really how they grow!

Fishing trip with Jay.  Caught lots of bream and
saw a croc.


Yummy crabs!

We finally finished 88 days of agricultural work!  And met great people along the way.
Our road trip finished in Cairns where we sold PWA to a fun german couple.
May her wheels turn smoothly and her engine sing for them
as wonderfully as she did for us! 

Port Douglas.
After a fantastic visit from Dan's Dad we have planted ourselves in
Port Douglas for a couple of weeks.  Jobs were easy to find.  The tent living lasted a week
leaving us almost in tact to enjoy our new apartment for a couple of weeks!
5 months of camping makes the luxury of walls and electricity and a real bed
incomparibly excellent!

Dan at work!

On the beach for the solar eclipse!
A total eclipse darkened the day for two minutes.  It was really magical.
With only 2 weeks left in australia we thought it about time to share some of our road trip pictures!  So many kilometres, meeting so many people, seeing so many weird and wonderful things!  
Next stop.... New Zealand!