Exploring the East Coast

When Jacket decided to come back to Australia I started thinking about what I should show him. During his first trip in 2014, we focused on the country’s southeast – covering off bits of Sydney, Melbourne, the Great Ocean Road and a few places in between.

For this trip, I decided the best bet would be to take him down the east coast – a trip popular with backpackers, tourists and locals alike.  We had ten days up our sleeve and while that might seem like a fair whack of time, we were hoping to knock off 2000 odd kilometres.

So I got online, found relatively cheap flights to Cairns  – and we were off.

We arrived around 0930 and hit the ground running. We picked up our rental car, found the Captain Cook Highway and started our journey north.

We didn’t get all that far though. Apparently a crack-of-dawn start helps you work up an appetite. So we stopped off at the big shopping centre at Smithfield and grabbed some sushi for now, and supplies for later.

It wasn’t long before we were back on the road, tearing north towards Port Douglas. Around an hour later we arrived at the fantastic Mossman Gorge and stopped for a few hours to cool off. The humidity in Far North Queensland is disgusting (in my opinion) and so a bit of a swim was just what we needed.

It wasn’t long before we were back on the road, continuing north towards Cape Tribulation.  We spent a couple of hours checking out a few of the beaches (and avoiding the crocs) before heading back to Port Douglas to settle in for the night. We found a hotel, a bit out of town, The Pink Flamingo resort (!) checked in and made our way into town. It was Tuesday night and there wasn’t a great deal going on so we just headed to the local pub – the Rattle & Hum for a couple of pizzas.

We had another crack of dawn start on Wednesday as we head into the Port Douglas Marina for our trip out to the Reef. After HOURS of research I decided to book our snorkeling trip with Wavelength and we weren’t disappointed. It was a long and satisfying day and it wasn’t over yet.

Around 1700 we hopped back in the car and made our way south, back towards Cairns. Tonight we were staying in Njoy! Hostel which was far from fancy but it did the trick. It was a bit of a way out of town – about a 15-20 minute walk, but for the amount of time we spent there, it was OK.

On day three we had a 0300 wake up call for our Hot Air Ballooning adventure high above the Atherton Tablelands.

It was a very long day, and by the time we hit the second part of our day – a trip to Green Island we were beginning to feel it.

Thankfully our afternoon involved nothing more than swimming, snorkelling, failing and relaxing.

By the time we were hoing into our less than spectacular steaks at Waterbar and Grill Statehouse, we were pretty ready for bed.

Luckily we got to sleep in the next day right? Wrong.

On Friday we were up again well before the crack-of-dawn for our 0530 flight to Brisbane. The good thing is we arrived at 0740 and had pretty much checked into Bunk Backpackers by 0800. That meant we had the entire day to check out the city. We did a walking tour we found in Jacket’s Lonely planet – taking in plenty of sights and sounds, before relaxing at the public beach at South Bank.

Just when Jacket thought he couldn’t possibly face another early start – the alarm went off. 0600 for our 0840 flight back up north, to Proserpine. Poor planning on my behalf saw us hopping in a taxi to Airlie – when we should have organised a transfer. It was a relatively costly mistake (Around $120 to the Whitsunday’s Coast Airport) but in a way it was worth it, because we got to listen to an hour’s worth of the local taxi driver trashing the local government, and more importantly, we made it to the airport in time for our scenic flight out over the Whitsunday’s to the Great Barrier Reef.

Back on firm ground, we checked into our accommodation – Backpackers by the Bay and took a walk into Airlie Beach to have a look around.

At some time during the day, I received a call to inform me that our sailing trip to the Whitsunday had been cancelled due to poor weather and rough seas.  We had a few options, and because we only had one other day in town, with nothing else to do, we decided to book onto another, bigger boat, that was guaranteed to brave the seas the following day.  The replacement came with the endorsement of the travel agent, but I wish we’d spent more time reading the forums, because we didn’t have the best experience.

In the end though, when Sunday rolled around, we got to see the Islands, go snorkeling and visit the pristine Whitehaven beach – so I guess we can’t complain too much.

That night we braved the locals and head into Airlie to see what was going on. The town’s population of nearly 8000 is inflated all year round, but the throngs of backpackers who pass through here – hoping to explore the Whitsundays. So if you can’t imagine how that affects a small town’s nightlife consider this: Live bands, wet t-shirt competitions, cane toad races and jelly wrestling. Combine this with a whole lot of horny local men, and pretty young Scandinavian barbie backpackers, and you’ll get a fair idea of what goes on.

We only got a glimpse of the goings on as back to back early starts were taking their toll.

A sleep in just wasn’t meant to be, and on day seven we were up at 0600 for our transfers back to the airport. (having learnt from our expensive taxi drive into town).

We made our 0840 flight with plenty of time back to Brisbane. We arrived around 1015 and before long we had picked up our rental car and were making our way north towards the rather Ritzy Noosa.

We spent the day chilling in the pool and checking out Noosa’s famously chilled beaches. We had a couple of beers in the surf club before heading up the road to my favourite pizza place – Zacheries.

We had an early night before our 0545 pick up for our day trip to Fraser Island.  We had a great day cruising around, tearing up the Island’s sandy beaches and splashing around in Lake Mackenzie and Eli Creek. It’s among one of my favourite day trips and I’d definitely recommend you check it out.

Back in Noosa we had a few (too many) cocktails at the Sheraton before grabbing dinner at the perennially busy, but not fantastic Laguna Jacks.

Wednesday, February 11th we FINALLY got a chance to sleep in. Luck would have it though after a grueling schedule for the last week – we couldn’t help but get up with the birds.

We had a fab breakfast at Raw Energy at Perigan Beach – on the recommendation of the hotel’s manager and we were on our way. Finally our trip was reaching holiday pace as ambled south towards Surfers Paradise. We arrived just after lunch, checked into our hotel – Mantra Legends and head out to witness what the glitzy Gold Coast had to offer.

On Thursday we had a slow start – enjoying breakfast at the hotel, before hopping back in the car for the last leg of our journey – the easy 100 kilometre drive down to Byron Bay.  We had a look around down before checking in to our hotel and chilling in the pool for a while.

In the evening we took a short drive up the road to the fantastic French Restaurant – Che Bon.

Friday was the last day of our East Coast adventure – and with our flight taking off from Ballina 1650 – we had the morning to enjoy a bit more time in Byron Bay. We had a look at the town’s famous Light House, checked out Kings Beach before trying Lonely Planet’s recommendation to try the Byron’s Best Fish and Chips – Fishmongers Gourmet.

We got to the airport with plenty of time and were home in time for tea.