(I'm back in the US, and finally have good internet, final Oz blog posts all shortly.)
On November 21st, I left Canberra in my Toyota Corolla, loaded up with travel food, 18 liters of water, a sleeping bag, a GPS (not that I thought it was really necessary, an opinion I would soon shed), and
Pete Murray's crooning. December 1st, I pulled into my northern destination of Port Douglas- just an hour and a half north of my original destination of Cairns. Little side trips into towns, mountains and beaches excepted, my route looked something like this:
I put a little over 4000 kilometers on my rental (2500 miles for the metric impaired) --- I "car camped" five nights --- stayed in hostels the rest of the time --- I grew to love McDonald's and their free WiFi and their surprisingly good quality lattes --- I ate a lot of boiled eggs and tuna --- I mostly drank hard cider --- ran into very very few Americans; a family in Bundaberg, a backpacker in Airlie Beach and a few folks in Port Douglas- Americans, it seems don't travel or, perhaps, don't leave the big cities --- I got sunburnt once, damn you Noosa Heads and my blistered tata's (the sun was much stronger the further north I headed) --- paid as little as AUSD 1.36/liter for gas and as high as AUSD 1.51 - roughly $5.60 to $6.25 a gallon in US prices --- it rained on me for 1600 kilometers (Blue Mountains to Brisbane, essentially) --- there was one area I labeled "The Highway of Death" owing to the kangaroo carnage (seriously, like one every 1/8 of a mile) --- saw rainforests, forests, cities, towns, one and two building 'communities', shrub covered deserts, beaches, dried up lakes, miles upon miles of sugar cane fields, and macadamia trees, and corn, and bananas, and mangos, and lychees --- in all, this was perhaps my most favorite part of my most favorite holiday.
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| Blue Mountains. |
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| "Highway of Death" area. |
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| About 1500 kilometers into the 1600 kilometers of rain. |
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| More rain further north. This prompted me to stop at an exotic fruit winery called Murdering Point. |
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| The ferry to Cape Tribulation. |
2 comments:
sounds like you had a great journey - look forward to the rest of the pix!
Really, really cool. We loved our visit to Australia, and you're making me need to go back. Also, nice touch on the photos with the GPS in the frame!
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