BACK TO 'REALITY' AND A SHORT ESCAPE TO TIN CAN BAY

Eager to get close to Brisbane as it's only a week till we fly back to Melbourne for another festival (a tad celebrity I know). We put almost a thousand Kilometres behind us, sleeping at the side of the highway and becoming a little robotic in our driving modes – drive – stop – eat – drive – sleep – drive. In honesty and hindsight we we're a little hasty, whizzing past turtle egg laying, crocodile tours, rum country.. and ending up in WHITE VAN HELL at the 'Sunshine Coast'. Sounds alluring doesn't it.. 'The Sunshine Coast' but the truth to the region is there if you look hard enough as I’m now pretty sure the whole coast is a cleverly concealed retirement village, a cocktail of that and posh-campers is a little hard to swallow so fresh out of the rainforest.

TIN CAN BAY AND RAINBOW BEACH

We backtrack slightly up the coast and spend a couple of days between Tin Can bay, a sleepy little town where first thing I the morning you can feed 'wild' dolphins if you've got $5 for a fish, the patience to be surrounded by a thousand morons with sticky fingers trying to pet the things and a group of 'wild life protecting' enthusiasts who are so overwhelmed by the tourism the dolphins attract and the bird-life that presumes (rightly so) if there’s fish being handed out then they deserve some as much as the next critter, that they have taken to fending off the birds with large poles. So real is the threat from the birds that the feeding itself feels more like some form of sordid drug-deal than a family album moment.. 'you have the drugs?' - 'you have the cash?' - all under the ever watchful and twitching eyes of over-dedicated, under appreciated, retired hobbyists in khakis armed to the teeth with poles, paddles and a crazed, fierce stare, the likes of which could probably trigger an instantaneous regurgitation of stolen fish in the most serious and hungry of pelicans. 

And Rainbow Beach which is neither hippie nor 'fruity' but gets the name from its multi-coloured sandstone cliffs. The beach would be lovely but for some reason the council permits people to tear through it in their four-wheel-drives and motor bikes. Great if your a petrol head, not so great if your a bit 'old fashioned' and believe the beach should be vehicle, petrol and excessive noise free. Still, the beach has a hidden gem 'Sand Blow' a micro desert created from the the dunes being blown inland from strong sea winds. Quite incredible and no vehicles permitted.

And WE CAN SWIM IN THE SEA AGAIN! Though after weeks of refreshing rainforest swimming holes the soupy warm ocean doesn't really compare. Still, nice to know the options there.

EUNGELLA

Basic little ramshackle yet idilic campsite in the heart of the Eunguella national park built and run by a nutty old fella named Wazza. Bush showers, frogs in the toilet, butterflies, gorge swimming, huge lizards and some elusive platypuses. A beautiful Tuesday / Wednesday. 

WALLAMAN FALLS

The Wallaman Falls , the higest single drop waterfall in australia, time for a swim!!!!!

 

UNDARA TO INGHAM

Absolutely blown away by the scenery... AGAIN! To give you an idea - The countryside here looks like some form of hybrid heaven formed from English countryside, Jurassic Park and that bizarre idilic looking country house image you look at whilst taking an eye examination at the opticians. IT'S JUST SO LUSHEOUS AND FURTILE! Put it this way – I'd be surprised if premature germination wasn't a common problem among seeds here!

 

UNDARA

Now I know what your thinking but no, Bill Murray is not giving theatrical ghost busters tours! This is in-fact Bram Collins, 5^th generation of the Collins family here in Undara (the middle/right hand corner of nowhere). But the Collins family haven't always dressed as ghost busters for a living, oh no! The Collins family were and had been happily herding cattle until they realised they could probably make a far grater living from the MILES OF HUMUNGOUS LAVA TUNNELS they had been grazing their cows above for over a century!

And so here we are at The Undara Lava Tunnels. The name pretty much says it all, huge tunnels left over from when the regions volcanoes we're erupting around two hundred thousand years ago. Amazing. 

 

Storm's first drive in Vanny !!!!!!!!!!!

THE DAINTREE RAINFOREST

The Daintree is 6-10 times older than the Amazon! I enjoyed that fact and thus far it seems the only one of hundreds I've managed to retain, It is a good one though!

Here the forest runs rite into the ocean,dense rainforest merging seamlessly with the turquoise waters. At low tide the mangroves sit exposed on dreamy, long empty bays like magical giant bonsai trees that have up-rooted and left the forest canopy for a better view of the ocean.

We camp at Cape Tribulation Camping in the heart of the forest, It's glistening white sand beaches,   coconut trees, lizards, shrub turkeys and the infamous and ever illusive cassowaries. It's also about as far north you can go on the coast in a two wheel drive. So we take a four wheel drive tour a little further one morning with a local and learn a little about the landscape, the aboriginal locals, the flora, fauna and just about anything else you want to know whether it's Daintree related or not, the man is a driving encyclopaedia! No crocs to be seen unfortunately but the buff-breasted paradise kingfisher we're told is a pretty special spotting. 

Swimming at a secret little spot deep in the forest, always helps to befriend the locals!

Digging in to some alien-looking exotic fruits, sour sops, paw paws, bread fruits, custard apple fruits, chocolate pudding fruits (I forget their official names).. Ridiculous and delicious.

Hard to leave Cape tribulation, or 'Cape Trap' as the locals know it. Feels like there’s so much more to see but we've almost been here a week and it's time to start moving south. At times this year we've both felt as if the year couldn't move quick enough but now that there’s only weeks left and we're finally adventuring we're both fighting the feeling of being a little rushed for time. Alas, Australia is too bigger place to be explored or understood in just a year and I doubt very much this will be our only time here! Southward.

*In the Daintree we also celebrate 4 years of Storm + Jaimie!

ECLIPSE

So we got the basics - the moon will pass directly in front of the sun and for a couple of minutes we will be in shadow, yeah yeah ok. Fair to say, not fully prepared for the single most spectacular thing either of us have ever seen. Completely bizarre, it's not just dark it's a totally weird light unlike the light at any time of day, like a slowly developing black and white photo, everything becomes very still. It was confusing enough for us humans to comprehend but we also had an insight into an animals reaction as a poor dog was roaming around during the eclipse, mind absolutely shattered, its face a perfect representation of it's sheer bewilderment. The birds who had only just perked up moments before (it was 5.30am) went back to sleep and two minutes later began their second morning chorus accompanied by some legends who had speakers attached to their backs playing the Beatles 'here comes the sun'.. perfect. After waiting until their was no sign of the moons silhouette  we shuffled back to the van for some kip feeling very privileged!

FESTIVAL

We pick up a hitch-hiker on the way to the festival, well it's probably about time we stop avoiding other travellers and get into the festival spirit eh?! Lovely chap can't remember his name, but can almost remember the smell of his feet resting on the seat behind my head. Quite hard to keep conversations about us-them, the man, love and oneness going whilst keeping at bay the incessant urge to strangle the smelly hippie and launch him from the vehicle along with the now infected cushion. Still, he did contribute to the fuel kitty, which should buy a few bottles of bleach!

Boom festival in Portugal was arid, this is post-apocalyptic, fallout wasteland! Dust blows in thick waves unearthed from vehicles misguided, confused and weary like overloaded camels blinded by a sandstorm and those who have abandoned their camels for foot and are shuffling at the roadside, clinching their maps and joining queues behind tens of others in-front of a man who has a high-vis jacket and a walkie talkie but wishes with every bone in his sun scorched and sweat sodden body that he didn't!

 

Ah beautiful chaos. We finally settle Vanny 'somewhere' amongst the madness and go about setting up for the week. Now one notably different and great thing about Australian festivals is that you can drive your vehicle right into the general camping and plonk it wherever you like and not be restricted to only the 'camper-van field' at the back end of the festival site. Which means, amongst other things that people go all-out on their campsites as they don't have to drag the entirety of their supplies and shelter through miles of knee deep mud, or any mud for that matter! Awesome to have your vehicle at a festival, let alone your home!

Awesome festival, did Jaimies injection a little early in the week so spent the first few days settling in and acclimatising / recovering. Nice though, when a festival's a week long it almost forces you to surrender the usual festival routine for an approach with a little more longevity and sustainability anyhow, especially given the heat in the days. Still however ended up being when most serious stomping was done!

 Dancing under the sprinklers, hooping and spinning, swimming in croc infested waters (which they advise you not to put your head under...) bush survival workshops with Koa (the man who claims survive for a couple of weeks on a hand full of ants), morning yoga, chi gong, meeting Alex Gray the famous visionary artist, making new friends, meeting old ones (Ro, a fantastic bloke I met at a festival two years ago and hadn't seen or spoke to since, turns out he now lives in Cairns as a GP which is hilarious if a little disconcerting) Poco Loco (the only bar at the festival where all drinks are FREE), insane fire performances, partying with loads of Japanese people! (lovely folk), hanging out with Tom Morris (Jaimies neighbour from the Gower who despite some misleading facebook reports is alive and well and hasn't been eaten by crocodiles!), adorning glow-stick genetalia, sitting on a huge flower sculpture watching the festival-world go by from above with some amusing French people, receiving skeena therapy, turning Vanny into a cocktail lounge!!!