The Road Trip through Australia has already shown us many beautiful things. In terms of distance, we are already about three quarters of the way from Melbourne to Cairns. Yet we are still a long way from there, because we saved the best for last. The area of the Great Barrier Reef, Australia’s very own natural World Wonder is up next. We will visit the are of The Great Barrier Reef and Whitsundays. The further north we drive with the camper, the more tropical the climate and nature get. The state of Queensland, also called the Sunshine State, has the most beautiful beaches, tropical rainforest, mountains and special islands. Strechted along the coast for hundreds of miles, accompanying all these sights, is the biggest underwater paradise on earth: the Great Barrier Reef; Australia truly is a natural paradise. In this blog we reach the big climax of the road trip, with a dream come true here and there!
From Mosquito Paradise to Kangaroo Beach
In the previous blog I wrote about the special meeting with Aunt Cor, my grandmother’s sister who lives in Yeppoon. During our overnight stay in their large country house, we were wonderfully pampered. In fact, it just hurts to continue in that mobile solitary cell again after that lovely soft bed. Don’t get me wrong, the camper is a great solution; without it, our credit card bill would be more like a roll of toilet paper. But a bed without kitchen tools under your pillow, is worth something too. The bed in the campervan is in fact something like a jigsaw puzzle, that sags if I even gently fart on it.
Moreover, every night we are faced with the big question of how we will die this time: stabbed to death during a mosquito feast with the window open, or waking up with the window closed and melted like a chocolate bar in a deep fryer. We usually hesitate between open and closed, which means we wake up in the morning in the world’s only mosquito sauna. Anyway, we are on a wonderful journey, so complaining is certainly not an option. Just thinking about an office job on Monday mornings in the Netherlands often works as an excellent remedy against mosquito bites.
Mackay and Cape Hillsborough
The next special destination we visit is the relaxed town of Mackay. We take a dip in the gigantic and free outdoor swimming pool called Blue Water Lagoon, but what really matters here is the nearby Cape Hillsborough. This nature park has a beach that is permanently inhabited by kangaroos and wallabies; we have to see that!
We make a fantastic walk on a rugged beach. In a dense jungle we encounter many of Suus’ favorite eight-legged animals. I voluntarily walk in front to clear the way, i.e. scoop up one spider web after another with my face. All so that princess can take her walk without too much screaming.
Unfortunately, still no kangaroos, so we return to the car quite disappointed. And typical for us: three hours straight through the jungle, a kilo of sand in our shoes, so much spider web in my face that I seem to have been attacked by Spiderman. We did everything to find those animals and then they sit there as a kind of welcome committee waiting by the car, as if they need a lift. We stay for another hour watching both kangaroos and wallabies, eating their lunch undisturbed in the grass around our car. Can’t be filmed, right? Although of course I did. Such beautiful animals!
An unlikely paradise: the Whitsunday Islands
The place you cannot miss on the east coast of Australia is Whitsundays. It’s without a doubt the most beautiful group of bounty islands off the coast of Queensland. The beach is so white, the water so bizarrely blue and the nature so unspoilt and pure, that your mouth will drop in amazement. With a cruise from the seaside resort of Airlie Beach we are transported from island to island all day through an area that I can only describe: a dream world.
Whitehaven Beach
We start at Whitehaven Beach, the biggest and best beach. This beach is even regularly named as the number one beach in the world. Yet, it’s not even the highlight. With a smaller boat we sail to a large inlet of Whitsunday Island, called Hill Inlet. Between the green hills full of tropical animals and plants lies a blue-white plain of water and sand. It looks like a kid’s dessert, from when you used to stir two colors of custard together with a spoon. We climb to the top of one of the hills for the most amazing view and arrive at a plateau. Unfortunately, of course, about thirty people are exuberantly waving cameras and selfie sticks around.
Anyway, are you Wout of the World or are you a mass tourist? I sneak out with Suus and we walk a bit through the bushes to arrive at a large rock where the view is even better. So fantastic that we later hear that the rock is used by the locals as a place to propose to someone. Suus even makes a joke about it, but he would have to be patient for a while..
We sail to the next beach, Chalkies Beach on Hazelwood Island. There we make a nice trip through the reef with our snorkels. The first thing I see underwater is a green sea turtle! This gives us a nice taste of the Great Barrier Reef, the next destination on our ultimate Bucket List!
Cruising in a Barbie car on Magnetic Island
On the road from Whitsundays to Cairns, finding a nice place to stop with your camper is about as difficult as finding a McDonalds in Manhattan. We drive through one beautiful nature reserve after another. When we pass the seaside resort of Bowen, the highway is almost ON the beach! So we decide to hang around for a day. We are positively surprised by this typical ‘Queensland’ town where you find the brightest blue bays, but hardly any tourists. Time stands still for a moment and despite my restless body that is always looking for adventure. I can relax just about as long as a new born baby in a pile of glass. Yet, even I manage to enjoy the peace and quiet that prevails here.
At least, for one day, because then it’s time for more adventure!
We drive on to Townsville for a short city trip and more importantly: the nearby Magnetic Island, affectionately called ‘Maggie’ by the locals. There are a million reasons to visit this island, including vast forests, wildlife, even more amazing beaches and old forts from the Second World War; but the reason for us to visit Maggie is to play Barbie and Ken for a day. Of course I did that before, which makes sense if you have an older sister, or was I an exception? Anyway, you can drive to all the semi-highlights on Maggie with a very boring city bus, but touring in this pink topless car, and I realize how disturbed this sounds now, is the highlight of our day.
The animals of Magnetic Island
Our little pink friend takes us first to the rock wallabies, who literally eat out of our hands. They’re so irresistible that if I had the matching pink Barbie trailer, I would have picked up some anyway. One even had a little one in her pouch!
We also drive to the most beautiful walking route, where we walk up to the old forts of WWII. Along the way we see a small sleeping koala in a tree. I have to say that not much sleep was achieved when two frenzied tourists had to photograph him in just about every possible pose. Yes, soon I will be able to order an entire photo album with this one koala in the leading role. We end romantically by driving the pink toy car to a secluded bay. In the meantime we’re living the motto of Barbie and Ken: ‘Life in plastic, it’s fantastic!
Looking for the ‘dinosaurs’ of Mission Beach
The last stop before we reach Cairns is the town of Mission Beach and: we are definitely on a mission! The town doesn’t have much to offer compared to all the paradisiacal highlights in the area. Still there is one very special animal lives in the jungle out here. It’s actually one of the longest living creatures on earth, that once walked among the dinosaurs: the cassowary! Everywhere we see images of this ostrich dinosaur with its blue head, sharp teeth and enormous horn. It would’t stand out in any of the Jurrasic Park movies. If I had a picture you would see what I mean, but I don’t.
We take several walks through the jungle, wait, did I say we? Suus walks three meters, sees a spider of three meters, jumps about three meters in the air and makes a dive of three meters, straight back into the car. In the meantime, I cross half of Australia’s East Coast jungle. Straight through rivers, I inhale more mosquitoes than air, but still without succes. No cassowaries. If they wait a little longer to become extinct, I’ll try it again someday.
The ‘grand finale’ is the Great Barrier Reef off the East Coast of Australia
The time has finally come! We’ve been dreaming about it for years. We even got our diving certificates especially in Thailand and traveled half a continent to see it! Nothing stands in our way anymore. One of the planet’s greatest natural wonders, visible to the naked eye from space (and especially from my couch at the BBC Earth documentaries): the amazing Great Barrier Reef, Australia.
The city of Cairns is the ideal base and we decide to go on two different expeditions from here. We first make three dives in the most spectacular ‘Outer’ Reef. Then we also visit the coral island ‘Green Island’ to snorkel in the shallow ‘Inner’ Reef.
Diving among the most beautiful coral in the world
Diving in particular is very high on the well-known ‘bucket list’ and we are very excited during the boat trip. We have no idea what to expect, but the movie Finding Nemo is pretty much what I envision. This is also the first time we are going diving after our introduction to the underwater world on Koh Tao. That’s where we just got our PADI’s in Thailand, so it is all very exciting.
In the middle of a deep blue ocean we come to a palette of bright green and turquoise blue currents in the water. This is it! Together with our guide we start the first dive and immediately every expectation is exceeded. Clear water in which we can see much further than in Thailand, fish that are bigger than ourselves and in the first fifteen minutes we see a turtle, a few rays and a large reef shark. Kill me now, because I won’t see many more beautiful things in my life. Certainly not if I swim with the turtle for a while and, of course, lose the rest. If that oxygen tank had no limit, you could make a new Disney movie called Finding Wouter instead of Nemo.
It’s all so overwhelming that a 45-minute dive seems like a minute of paddling. Luckily we still have two more dives to go. After some coffee and lunch we see much more coral, in all colors of the rainbow. When we get back up, I grab a large encyclopedia with all the fish species and I come up with a hundred species that we have seen. An experience to never forget!
More beauty above water: Green Island
If we go to Green Island the next day, things couldn’t get any better. But I found something about that about a month ago. As I said, my friend Suus had to be patient for a while. Today we have known each other for exactly five years and in Sydney I made a plan. I took advantage of some alone time by choosing a beautiful ring. Where and when better to ask her to marry me than here and now!
From the pearly white beach, among the greenest tropical wilderness of Green Island, we snorkel through a completely new and impressive reef. You know, where small clownfish play hide and seek among the waving soft coral. Then I turn on the camera on the beach and Suus thinks we are posing for a photo. And of course I got down on one knee in the sand.
And how that story ended could be seen in the video. Hopefully we travel happily ever after, but first we are going to exchange Australia for a completely different adventure: Japan! Read about it quickly, using this link: Cultuur shock in Osaka, Japan.
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