In late October, we had some very special guests come and visit us. Oma, Opa and Auntie Allison flew around the world for a second time within a year, to visit us, but for 6 weeks this time! There was a lot of anticipation for this visit as we had many exciting plans for the time that they would be here. Alexis and Reid counted down the months, then weeks and then days until their arrival and finally, on October 26, 2016, they arrived!

After a few days of getting adjusted to the time change, we began our highly anticipated caravan trip in Queensland. We decided to experience a true Australian holiday by renting a caravan and driving close to 2000kms from Brisbane to Cairns. We were looking forward to seeing what caravanning/camping was all about in this country and why it is such a popular way to travel.

We flew from Melbourne to Brisbane on November 1 and spent the night in a hotel in preparation for picking up the caravan the next morning.

The next morning, Opa and I picked up our new home for the next 10 days…

We rented a 6 berth motorhome and planned to drive from Brisbane to Cairns, somewhere around 2000kms in all. This is how the Aussies do! Opa and I took turns driving (Opa did most of it) and Alexis and Reid sat across a table from Allison, which turned out to be a really great way to travel. It was nice to have access to a kitchen for snacks and lunch on the go, while on the road. It was great to be able to come and go as we pleased, on our own time schedule and stop where we wanted to stop.

After we figured out how to get out of the city, we left Brisbane and headed towards Noosa, on the Sunshine Coast. On the way, we stopped at The Big Pineapple for lunch. The Big Pineapple is one of the ‘big things’ in Australia. While we were there, we saw pineapple fields and learned how they are grown and harvested. We rode on a train through the farm and saw some Australian animals and many different type of fruit trees.

After lunch, we continued driving north towards Noosa. Noosa is a favourite resort town for many Australians, with stunning natural landscapes and beautiful beaches. In the middle of it all is Hastings Street, which is lined with designer boutiques and delicious restaurants. We spent our first night in the caravan at a holiday park in Tewantin, just outside of Noosa. We checked out the beach in Noosa and ate at Betty’s Burgers on Hastings St. where we had some of the best onion rings ever. We attempted to spend some time at Noosa National Park but found it impossible to find a parking spot big enough for the caravan.

We left Noosa very early the next morning to drive to Tin Can Bay, a tranquil seaside town known for its abundant wildlife. We traveled there to meet and feed the wild Australian Humpback dolphins. Every morning, a pod of 9 dolphins arrive near the shore to be fed by the volunteers and curious onlookers. Alexis, Reid and Allison hand fed the dolphins this morning. It was an experience that will be remembered for a long time!

After the dolphins were satisfied and swam away, we went back to the caravan and continued driving north. We drove to Bargara, a small coastal town located just east of Bundaberg where we planned to spend the night. The reason for this stop was in search of sea turtles laying their eggs. Each year, from November to January, these nesting marine turtles make their way to shore to lay their eggs. The area called Mon Repos, next to Bargara, supports a large concentration of these turtles in hopes of protecting and conserving the endangered loggerhead turtle. These turtles make their way on to the beach after dark to dig a hole in the sand, lay their eggs and then return to the sea. The eggs will hatch months later and the baby turtles will attempt to make their way to the ocean.

When we arrived at the caravan park in Bargara, we were told that there was a turtle laying her eggs on the beach the previous night and in the morning, someone from Mon Repos had come and collected the eggs and relocated them to ensure they would be safe. We went out that night to the beach in search of turtles but were unsuccessful. Reid claims he saw turtle tracks and a mound where there may have been eggs. He was so desperate to see one that we agreed with him, otherwise we may have been stuck searching all night.

We were surprisingly comfortable in the caravan. Alexis, Reid and I slept above the cab, Oma and Opa in the back and Allison in the middle. Once at a caravan park, we always used the camp kitchen to cook and the camp bathrooms to shower. We usually picked up enough groceries to last two days. It was a really nice way to travel and surprisingly easy to drive, as long as we kept on the correct side of the road! As the days went on, we became more efficient at setting up, cleaning up and trekking necessities to and from the camp kitchen. It is clear to see why so many people choose to travel this way.

The next day, we drove to the town of 1770, perhaps the only town I have ever heard of that has a number for its name. 1770 is a very small town that was built on the place where Captain James Cook first landed his ship and thus, it became the birthplace of Queensland. We went to the place where he came ashore and was met by the aboriginals living there at that time.

After standing where Captain James Cook once stood, we had a quick lunch in the caravan and continued traveling north. Our next destination and stop for the night was Capricorn Caves, just north of Rockhampton. The Capricorn Caves were discovered in 1882 by John Olson’s two sons. These ancient caves are nestled in a limestone ridge and were only discovered when the Olson boys went out to look for a missing horse. After they discovered the caves, John Olson went on to claim the land without telling anyone about the caves. Three years later, John opened the caves to tourists, making this Queensland’s longest-running tourist attraction.

We took a guided tour through the caverns and labyrinths to see cave coral, stalactites, dangling fig tree roots and heard thousands of little bats flying above our heads.

The most spectacular part of the tour was the natural rock cathedral where a recording of ‘Hallelujah’ was played to demonstrate the cavern’s incredibly perfect acoustics.

We stayed in the caravan park at Capricorn Caves. It was the one and only place we were allowed to have a campfire, so we did. Alexis and Reid roasted and ate an entire bag of marshmallows that night.

The next day was a long driving day in the caravan. On a typical day in the caravan, we all had our own ways of passing the time. There were a lot of eye spy games, singing songs, ‘guess who I am thinking of’ games, 100 bottles of beer on the wall, eating tim tams, enjoying lollipops, knitting, crossword puzzles, map reading and sleeping. On any given day, we had anywhere from 150kms to 400kms to drive, however, it always seemed to take the same amount of time to get there!

After a long day of driving, we made it to Airlie Beach, which would be our base for exploring the Whitsundays. We stayed 2 nights at the Airlie Cove Resort which had a fantastic kid’s splash park and a pool with a waterslide. We did our first and only loads of laundry here as it coast $4/load. The next day, we walked to the marina to board the Cruise Whitsundays boat for our full day cruise to Hamilton Island and Whitehaven Beach.

The boat dropped us off at Hamilton Island for the morning. Hamilton Island is the largest inhabited island in the Whitsundays. It is a highly sought-after holiday destination with luxury accommodation and white pristine beaches. The island felt like a slice of resort paradise where the paved roads were plied by golf carts and the steep rocky hills were dotted with holiday goers crossing over from one side of the island to the other.

We spend the time exploring the charming town and riding the free shuttle bus from one side of the island to the other. We were able to use the pool at the island’s resort as well as having access to stunning Catseye Beach.

Before leaving the island, we stopped at Marina Tavern and enjoyed a pub style lunch with stunning views of the island’s marina. We were joined by the island’s very bold cockatoos who seemed intent on stealing lunch and quickly cleaned up the leftovers after patrons had left. Before getting back on the boat, we enjoyed a very yummy, overpriced ice cream cone at the marina.

We boarded the cruise boat again and traveled to Whitehaven Beach. We spend the afternoon there enjoying the 7km stretch of unspoilt, pristine, impeccably white sand complemented by crystal clear waters along Whitsunday Island. It is one of the most beautiful beaches in the world. The sand is so pure and fine that it can clean jewelery. We enjoyed playing in the sand as well as swimming and jumping in the waves, wearing stinger suits because of the presence of jellyfish. We were warned that the jellyfish are as small as a fingernail with a transparent body and have a sting that can send you to hospital for a couple of days.

At the end of the day, we returned to our caravan park in Airlie Beach. One of the reason for staying at this holiday park was for their regular morning visitors. Every morning, just before 8am, the rainbow lorikeets arrived and made a lot of noise. It took some time, but these beautiful birds ate right out of our hands.

After the birds had been fed, we left Airlie Beach to continue our road trip north. It was another long day of driving. Every time we stopped for petrol, we picked up lemonade lollipops for Alexis and Reid (wel-lem-ade wollipops, as Reid calls them). The lollipops always bought us another 30 minutes of driving time. While driving 2000kms through Queensland, we saw endless fields of sugarcane, but occasionally we saw the sugarcane train, banana trees and herds of beef cows as well.

That night we stopped in the tiny town of Cardwell as it was too far to drive all the way to Cairns in one day. We stayed at a lovely little caravan park which was across the road from the beach. We enjoyed the refreshing pool and a walk on the beach that evening.

The next morning, we continued on to our final destination of Cairns. Just south of Cairns, we decided to take a break and check out the Babinda Boulders. The Babinda Boulders are surrounded by lush rainforest and is a popular swimming hole for tourist traveling through. It is a fast flowing tropical creek that is lined with huge boulders. The cool, clear water weaves between the boulders and fills in large pools where people can swim. Opa, Reid, Alexis and I went for a refreshing dip in the rock pools.

We also went for a walk further down the river to view two spectacular lookout points.

By early afternoon, we had finally made it to Cairns. We made a quick stop at the grocery store, one last time, and carried on to the Coconut Cairns Holiday Resort, where we stayed for 3 nights. The weather was perfect and really had been for the entire trip.

Our first full day in Cairns, we went on a Reef Magic cruise that took us out to a pontoon on the Great Barrier Reef. It was one of the highlights of the whole trip, a once in a lifetime experience for us! The pontoon is a permanent structure on the edge of a reef. Once on the pontoon, we made sure to do every activity we possibly could! We enjoyed the glass bottom boat, the semi-submersible boat, fish feeding, buffet lunch, snorkeling (Reid, Alexis and Allison loved the snorkeling) Opa and Janet braved the scuba diving and Oma mastered the helmet diving!

Our last full day on this incredible trip, we decided to spend some time in a small town in the middle of the rainforest called Kuranda. To get to Kuranda, we took the Skyrail Rainforest Cableway, a gondola that took us from the coast up into the rainforest. The gondola allowed us to glide just metres above the rainforest canopy, providing spectacular views of the rainforest, tropical Cairns, the magnificent ocean and the highlands surrounding Cairns. The gondola made two stops along the way allowing us time to admire the magnificent trees and the mighty Barron Falls (which wasn’t so mighty at the time due to lack of rainfall), before ending up in the small, charming village of Kuranda, a place filled with natural beauty and unique artisan markets.

There is a lot to do and see in Kuranda, so we had pick and choose what we had time for. An absolute must was the Kuranda Koala Gardens. In Victoria, where we live, people are not allowed to hold koalas but in Queensland, this is not the case. At Kuranda Koala Gardens, Allison and Alexis were able to cuddle a koala, which was one of the biggest highlights of the trip for them.

The Kuranda Koala Gardens has more attractions than just koalas. There were many different Australian native animals there. Alexis and Reid enjoyed feeding handful after handful of food to the resident wallabies. We were also lucky enough to catch a glimpse of the very shy bandicoot.

The Kuranda Scenic Railway was our mode of transportation to get from Kuranda back down to Cairns. It was a spectacular journey, passing through dense rainforest, steep ravines and picturesque waterfalls. This railway was constructed between 1882 and 1891 by hundreds of men who build the 15 hand-made tunnels and 37 bridges.

What an incredibly beautiful way to travel!

Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end and the time had come for us to go home. Our Aussie caravan road trip adventure was an incredible journey that will be long remembered and cherished forever!