So, we've done our skydive, saw Cairns, attended our first Ozzie BBQ and had our introduction to Australian life, now its time to break loose, and see what we can find on the road!!
On our last day in Cairns, we picekd up our Wicked Campers from the depot. We got a taxi from town out there, bags in tow, just like back in Thailand. Only this time was our last, because once we pick up our mobile abodes, we can throw our bags in there, and never have to worry about lugging them around....until October 4th anyway.
So, we arrived at the Wicked depot, and saw nearly 100 very cool looking vans, complete with individual, unique body paint. There was a queue. We had seen lots of these Wicked Campers around Cairns so knew they were popular. We waited nearly an hour until finally we were given our vans. Myself and Christy were given "Old Man River", named after an Australian Singer, the 2 girls were given "Pinky & The Brain", and Dave and Nikki got "Pacman". Our first impressions were good. They weren't the most luxurious of vehicles, but our excitement made us overlook that fact, and we weren't long in jumping in and setting off on our way.
The vans are actually quite nice. They have a kitchen, complete with oven and fridge, and theres also wardrobes, living room, a nice sofa and a double bed. Hmmm, sounds good on paper, but I'll elaborate. The van consists of a worktop counter (the "kitchen") in the back, with gas stove (the "oven") and cooler box (the "fridge"). Then in the middle is where it gets really interesting!! It has wooden compartments in the bottom (the "wardrobe") and a middle section that folds out to form a table (the "living room"). Either side of the table, there are cushions (the "sofa") for sitting at the table. At night, the table comes down and the flat cushions go over the wardrobes and forms a soft-ish base for lying on (the "double bed"). Still though, its adequate for what we need!!
So anyway, we stocked up on supplies, said our goodbyes to Cairns, and headed north to Port douglas.
We took the Bruce Highway north, for a few hours. Its a straight road so nothing major to write home about here. There was some decent scenery, but I didn't get to see any crocodiles in any of the creeks, or kangaroos leaping through fields!! Boring!
Port Douglas seemed like a nice place. We drive into the town and there was nice restaurants, and a few bars lining the streets. I got the impression that this area was more affluent than Cairns, evident by the abundance of yachts, and yacht club, and basically a lot of sailing/yacht ownership related shops and restauraunts.
We found a car park next to the yacht club to park. We decided to stay there for the night, after we had a quick look around the town. There wasn't really much for backpackers there. Just expensive restaurants and expensive shops! We settled for a crate of Carlton Cold beer and dinner back at the van. I think I had noodles that night. Very posh!!
We were getting a lot of attention from people, curious as to where we got the vans, and who painted them etc. We had to tell a lot of people our story, ie Irish, and travelling for the year around Oz. Despite the locals friendliness, I couldn't shake the feeling that we were an unwelcome eyesore, on the pristine face that is their affluent town. After all, if you spent a lot of money buying a nice house in a nice area, you don't want some smelly backpackers coming in and messing the place up! I was half expecting some of the locals to tell us this, or even for the police to come along and ask us to move on.....but neither happened. Maybe I'm just being self-conscious on my first day as an itinerant!
Anyway, we slept there the night, with no problems and travelled further north the next day.
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