Road trip!

Being a fan of things wheeled, Seamus arranged with Avis for a one-way rental to Melbourne allowing us 9 days to make the trip from Cairns. A 3.8 petrol V6 Mitsubishi 380 Platinum should do the trick. Vroooom.

We bid goodbye to our sailing buddies and headed off after a final dose of fine sushi. Night the first was to be spent in Townsville, a coastal town a few hours down the coast. We had over 4000km to do in 9 days so we'd need to be aiming for 450 or 500km a day. Queensland has an awful lot of empty space, long empty roads and roaming packs of suicidal marsupials determined to dent your bumper. We managed to avoid the koalas, wallabies, 'roos and cows that blocked our path, just about. Along the way we stopped off at tiny roadhouses, motels and parks at Marlborough, Gladstone, etc. They start to blend together after the first couple of non-descript motels.

A 3 day trip to Heron Island provided a welcome respite from the road.

Back on another catmaran

Yarr

Lemon Sharks in knee-deep water.

Yes of course we went in for a swim!

A Black Noddy, nesting outside our window

A Green Sea Turtle returning to the water after digging a pit and laying over a hundred eggs

The southernmost Island on the Great Barrier Reef, Heron Island is a coral cay, formed from dead coral polyps over millenia rather than a true island made from land, or at least that's what I think it said on the resort spiel. We passed the time snorkelling with sharks, turtles, rays and fishies, and walked the beaches by night to watch Green Sea Turtles crawl up the beach to lay eggs. What a stunning sight. The island is home to huge numbers of birds including herons, noddies, something brown that makes eery noises at night, bizarrely similar to screaming children. The sun, sea and sand couldn't last forever, we headed back to Gladstone to continue south to Surfer's Paradise, where we took a tour up the tallest residential building in the world, Q1. At 330 metres it tops the Eiffel tower. Tourists can access the 77th and 78th floors with panoramic vistas over Southport, Surfers and the ocean.

Nearly there! (Q1 at Surfer's Paradise)

We continued on to Brisbane, and drove straight past it. Byron Bay beckoned with its beautiful beaches and good food. We managed to find the same place we stayed in 4 years ago and bought some jewellery to mark the occasion. Our final coastal stop on the way south was at Nelson Bay, an hour north of Sydney. Whalewatching beckoned, we headed out on a huuge catamaran in big seas and caught up with a family of humbacks, blowhards with tails all over the place. A fantastic sight.

We skirted Sydney, stayed away from Canberra and made the final approach to Melbourne on a rainy Friday. Our last night on the road was spent in a remarkably bland motel in Gundagai. A 5 hour trek on Saturday morning and we roll in to Carlton in time for a feed of pints with Paddy, Ben, Ruth, Barry and some of their local friends. It's been a long time coming. Stats to follow.

Having the last remains of itchy feet, we set out again at the first opportunity, taking a drive down the Great Ocean Road to Apollo Bay and Beacon Point. More Koalas than you can shake a stick at. Welcome to Australia, mate.