Overland Australia

Today was fathers day and the girls all made a fuss of me and I got to spend most of my day reading my book. We have been eating a lot of jerky on this trip and take the opportunity to buy it when ever we see it, most of the jerky has been fantastic apart from the Top End Jerky which we bought from Mindil Beach markets and looked and tasted like Schmacko's... The girls decided to buy me a food dehydrator for fathers day so I can make my own Jerky and its waiting for me at home and we are all looking forward to trying it out. The weather today has done a 180 degree turn from yesterdays superb weather with the wind being up and very overcast conditions as a result we didn't venture far from camp. Anna did whip up a very tasty chocolate cake in the Ecopot and as usual it didn't last long. Distance Traveled = 0 km Total distance traveled with camper = 37,420 km   Total number of nights in the camper = 281

We don't have much to report for today as we didn't really do a lot and it was awesome. We woke up to clear skies and no wind and just enjoyed the warm beautiful weather and surrounds. The highlight for today was spending the day on the beach and in the water.We are having such a great time here at Bingil Bay we have decided to stay another night. Distance Traveled = 0 km Total distance traveled with camper = 37,420 km   Total number of nights in the camper = 280

During the night we had some heavy rain and just after midnight Anna woke me up as a large branch fell out of a tree right behind our camper. We were very lucky for it not to flatten the awning.  The morning was a little overcast with a few passing showers but it soon became fine which allowed the kids to continue building their cubby and to play in the playground and on the beach. Whilst Anna was busy making more scones in the Ecopot we had a group of sky divers land on the beach in front of camp which was very cool. Just before lunch we took a short drive down to Mission Beach and had a look around, its nice here but a fair bit busier than Bingil Bay and I'm glad we are staying where we are. Anna cooked up some delicious pizza's for lunch and we then chilled in camp for the rest of the afternoon, we read our books and the kids amused themselves running wild on the beach and playing their elaborate games. I really don't want to come home as its wonderful seeing the kid...

Today we were heading to Bingil Bay and Anna had phoned the care taker this morning and he confirmed that a few campers were leaving and if we hurried we may be lucky enough to get one. You can't book a site at Bingil Bay and sites are allocated on a first in first served basis. By 8.30 we were all packed and on the road, we hit a few sections of roadworks that slowed us a little bit but we soon arrived at Bingil Bay and met the caretaker Tom. He showed us a couple of spots and recommended site 8 which is the last site and in his words was "shit hot". The camping here at Bingil Bay is sensational with the sites being right on the water the cost is $20 per night which covers 2 adults and up to 2 children and there are flushing toilets and hot showers. The weather today has been a little hit and miss with passing showers and then brilliant sunshine and warm periods. We settled in at camp for most of the afternoon and then went for a walk along the beach where the kids f...

We had a few light showers overnight and woke to a damp overcast morning. After breakfast we made our way to the Botanical Gardens and had an enjoyable time looking around. We grabbed a coffee from the café and had morning tea in the gardens. From here we made our way down to the Lagoon on the Esplanade and by midday the weather had improved with the sun coming out for the rest of the day. The kids had a ball swimming in the Lagoon and we enjoyed a late lunch in the shade before setting off to buy a few goodies in town. Later in the evening we packed away our big awning in preparation for tomorrows departure and to prevent it from getting wet again as it looked like it might rain again tonight. Distance Traveled = 28 km Total distance traveled with camper = 37,289 km   Total number of nights in the camper = 277 ...

One of the main reasons for us coming to Cairns was to experience the Kuranda Scenic Railway and the Cairns Skyrail which we had booked onto today. We made our way to the Skyrail terminal at Smithfield and then caught the shuttle bus to the Freshwater Train station where we boarded the train to Kuranda. The kids were very excited as they had never been on a train before let alone a cable car on a sky rail. The train ride up the range was fantastic and we passed through 15 tunnels and over several bridges past beautiful waterfalls. to think that this railway was built by hand in the late 1880's is amazing. We stopped at Barron Falls to stretch the legs and take some photo's, the creation of Tinaroo Dam has reduced the flow of the water and I can only imagine how impressive they would be in full flow after some rain. From here it was another 10 minutes and we were disembarking at Kuranda Station. We walked through the township and explored the markets and then found a pub to ...

Today was another huge day in the car (not)… We had to kill time so we didn't get to the caravan park in Cairns too early so we took our time packing up and were on the road just after 10am. The drive from Port Douglas to Cairns along the Captain Cook Highway is very spectacular and to slow us down we stopped in at most of the look outs along the way. We also stopped at Ellis Beach and had a walk down the beach to stretch the legs. We got to the out skirts of Cairns by 11.30 and we still needed to kill more time so I followed some signs out to Holloways Beach where we found a park for the kids and had some lunch. After an hour or so we continued south to Sunland Leisure Park which seemed to have positive comments on Wiki Camps and was quiet cheap. As you will know by now we aren't fans of caravan parks and when we were handed keys to unlock the bathrooms and told to lock everything at all times to prevent theft we knew we had booked into a dodgy area... Anyway we had booked o...