More driving

So, we left Hervey Bay and Fraser Island behind, and continued our long journey south, and embarked on what would be our longest session of driving since we got the vans.

We drove through Proserpine and Mackay before it started to get dark, so we decided to stop off at the next place we came too. This seemed like a bad idea when we turned up at a place called Marlborough. This was basically a small little "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" town, as I called it, whos population doubled when we strolled into town. In order to actually get to the place, we had to drive down a pitch black dirt track, passed signs of "bridge out - detour this way" signs and also a random set of trains tracks (which Christy decided to feckin stop the van slap bang in the middle of!!). These things combined with the fact that all 3 of us had gotten separated had started to send a chill through each of our spines. Imagine it, lost in the middle of an isolated town, that we haven't told anyone we were going to, since we didn't actually know the name of it until the following day when we were leaving, and also that we hadn't a clue of its geographical location, other than its in Queensland somewhere between Hervey Bay and Brisbane!

We broke through into the town from the detour along the backroads and felt like all 35 of the local eyeballs were staring at us. 3 camper vans emblazened with all sorts of funky lookin graffitti tend to stand out in tiny little towns. Basically, the "town" is literally one street, maybe 100 metres long. It had a pub and a few houses. That was it. We asked a local if there was a caravan park, not expecting much luck, and were told we can park up behind the pub. We had a look but it was too tight a space for 3 vans to fit so we drive up around the corner and asked in the petrol station and out of pure dumb luck, there was a really good caravan park literally right across the road...the road being the Bruce/Pacific Highway that we've been driving along all day! What we thought was a totally solated backward town, was in fact just off the bruce highway and surrounded by a pretty densely populated area! I we had've taken the next exit off the highway, we would have ended up where we were now!

We stayed there in the caravan park the night for roughly 9 dollars each, and headed off the next morning. I picked up the new Offspring album in that garage. Wasn't great...:p

So off we went again. Rockhampton, Bundaberg, stopping in Maryborough to pick up some tourist information brochures, and found out that Australia Zoo was just a few hours down the road, as was a big fish world amusement park. Myself, Christy, Dave and Nikki went to Waterworld, while Donna and Ciara went to Australia zoo. On the way down, we stopped off at a Toys R Us and picked up the biggest super soaker they sold, as back in Maryborough, Dave and Nikki had bought small little water guns in a newsagent to destroy us with water. This resulted in a full length water war (which stretched from Maryborough to Brisbane!) which actually started when I flung the contents of a 2 litre bottle of water out the campervan window at the girls, followed shortly by the bottle itself! When we purchased the super soaker, we did it as stealthily as possibe. We picked up a bit of speed and made some distance between us and "Pacman" (corresponding to the design on the side of Dae & Nikkis van). Just enough distance, in fact, for us to go into the nearest toy shop and buy a super soaker!!

So we returned to the van after the purchase, just as they pulled up beside us. I had to stash the gun up my jumper. We then headed on down the road again with them still unaware of our purchase. During our many pitstops/pullovers, Dave pulled up beside us to talk through our windows. This was when they found out about our new weapon in the form of litres of high pressure water in their respective eyes!! The look on their soaking wet faces was worth the 50 dollars I spent on the gun, but it also stepped up the stakes a bit. Water bombs were bought, and mid-motorway high-speed water fights ensued. Yes it ws dangerous, but hell it was fun! And sure isnt that the impotant thing!!

At the next garage stop, me and Christy cornered Dave in the toilets when he went in to use the facilities. Lucky for him, hes a lot quicker on his feet than he looks! When we got back to the van, we saw Nikki messing with it. As it turned out, she had placed some form of cream, like suncream or some woman sustance, in the handle of the van. Luckily I noticed this as Christy was about to open the van.

We drove on again passed Rainbow Beach, Gympie, and Noosa heads, before we drive past Australia Zoo just before Beerwah. The girls had gone into there, but it was late by the time we got there so we headed on to the waterworld, which was open later, and was jsut a better option at that time of the afternoon.

We drove back up towards the zoo afterwards, where we met the girls again and parked about a kilometre down from Australia zoo. This was so we could get an early start and a full day in the zoo, which inceidentally was really cool. It had some huge crocs, and all sorts of weird creatures, including the super smelly koalas, and giant turtles. cassowaries, snakes, alligators, elephants, tigers, and pretty much everything else ya'd expect! I'd recommend it to anyone in the area. The croc shows are pretty cool too!

While we were in the zoo, the girls drove on, as they'd been there yesterday, and we followed them down at about 4pm. They had gotten to a place called Redcliffe. Last stop before Brisbane.

We found a nice little car park beside the surf club to park for the night. The gates were locked at 11pm, and didnt open til 7am, but that was fine by us, since we were staying the night, and wouldnt even be awake by 6am when they re-opened. We could see Brisbane across the water. One more night and we'd have some form of relative stability, accomodation-wise.