Highway Hippies

Day 125- After we woke up the next morning we went to the chemist (that's what they call a pharmacy in Oz) to fill Mike's prescription. We made our breakfast in the parking lot, packed up and hit the asphalt. Having lost a couple days with Mike's injury, we needed to make tracks on our way to Cairns. We drove for a good portion of the day before deciding to rest in a little town that Mike compared to Jasper. We chose the rest area in Kandanga because our trusty app told us there was a shower there. YUP. This would be the day that we would finally get to shower and we couldn't wait. 

We arrived in the early evening and needed to get started on dinner before the sun set. So we cooked up some chicken with potatoes and carrots. 

I have conceded that it will never look as good as it does at home when we're forced to make the entire dish in a single pan. 

While we were cooking I could hear the trees ruffling above us. Quickly, I aimed my headlamp in the direction of the sound and saw two sets of eyes looking at me. I was sure there were rats in the trees! BIG RATS! Then as quickly as I saw them they were gone, jumping from tree to tree. "Do rats jump?", I asked Mike. He said "no, not to my knowledge". Finally one of the creatures came down on a tree right beside us and Mike got a good look at it.. turns out it was our first encounter with the ever elusive possum. How exciting! I tried my best to get a good photo but it didn't turn out great. Here it is anyway.

After we finished dinner and cleaned up the dishes, we grabbed our shower gear and headed to the bathrooms. This was the moment. After 4 full days in the hot Australian sun, walking, sweating, slathering on sunscreen and bug spray, we were finally going to shower. Reaching the bathrooms we began to open door after door, one door at a time, becoming more and more distraught. Toilets behind every one of them! After we walked around the whole unit, fear settled in. Ahhhhhhhhhhh The app had lied to us. No showers!!!! And with deep sadness I was forced to add to Lisa's Log. 

Lisa's Log, Day 4 with no shower- Sadness and anger has taken over, so has a smell like Mike's old gym bag. When we lay down in our campervan, we can smell our feet all the way up to our noses. The smell of vinegar is making me hungry. Flies have congregated around our faces and feet, we swat at them continuously so they don't try to lay eggs on our skin. I can take my pony tail out of my hair and my hair stays in place. Part of me kind of likes it. Mikes beard has become a third member of our team. We speak to it and it talks back. We are starting to think there's no going back at this point and we've lost hope in our trustee app. 

Day 126- We woke up after a delightful sleep and made our routine breakfast of muesli, blueberries and milk. It is a great choice for people living out of a campervan because it's easy, the muesli doesn't need to be refrigerated and it requires few ingredients. 

When we went to clean the dishes, we noticed someone trying to sneak into our home.... don't look now Teresa. It is a very large spider. 

People have always told me about the giant spiders in Australia and I'm glad I got to see at least one. I'm good now. I don't need to see anymore. After we packed up and were about to leave we spoke to some fellow campers. They had some interesting information regarding a shower. We needed time to think...

Lisa's Log Day 5 with no shower:  Rumour has it that there is a shower at the lawn bowl club down the road. Mike and I are hesitant and part of us are scared. We can't remember what it feels like to be clean. What if we don't like it?  Our filthiness has really helped us to become one with nature. I know what Mike is thinking, Bear Grills doesn't need a shower... Survivorman doesn't need a shower... I think he may be starting to loose it. I know what needs to be done. 

Mike and I drove down the street to the lawn bowling club. Many white haired men stopped to look at us as we got out of our car. We went in to the pro shop and told the lady working the front desk that we heard there may be a shower we could use. We were right. For $4 each we could take a hot shower in the tin shed around the back of the building. The shower in the tin shed of the lawn bowling club, was the best shower I've ever had. I actually had to go in twice because when I tried to dry myself off the first time, it was if my skin was peeling off... although it wasn't skin, it was built up dirt, lotion, mosquito repellent, sunscreen and whatever else collected itself there. Mike's beard actually changed color from dark red to orange red. Yes, his beard it red. It was glorious and I will thank the lawn bowling community for years to come for putting a make shift shower in the back shed. Now that we were clean we were back on the road. 

                     

About a week prior, I noticed an old friends name come up on facebook. I went to junior high with him and Mike and I both went to high school with him. I hadn't spoken or seen him since high school. I added him that day and later noticed that him and his fiance were moving to Australia later that week. I felt like it was a crazy coincidence and Mike and I decided we needed to meet up with them to catch up. That was our next destination. Our old friend moved to Noosa Heads on the Sunshine Coast and only after a few days of them moving to Oz we had plans to meet up for a cold one. We arrived in Noosa early in the afternoon and stopped at the beach park for lunch. 

This was our first opportunity to go in the ocean in Australia but we were so clean we didn't want to risk our cleanliness on a dip. Yes there are beach showers but apparently they frown upon people using shampoo, conditioner and soap to wash off while a queue of people are waiting to rinse off. So instead we took the opportunity to use McDonalds' trustee wifi and work on the blog. We ended up spending the next 4 hours there and managed to get a good session in. 

After our friend got off work we went to the Surf Club to grab a drink. We followed this up with a delicious taco dinner at Mooshka. Look who it is... It's Joey and his beautiful fiance Michelle... and the crazy chihuahua from the taco bell commercials!

            

After reminiscing about our younger days and catching up we said goodnight but not before making plans to see Spectre then next day. Mike and I drove to a quiet neighbourhood near the McDonalds and tucked ourselves in for the night. 

Day 127- We woke in the early morning and set up shop at McDonalds once again. However, this time not in McDonalds. We found a parking spot close enough that we could catch the wifi signal from our living room (the back of the van). We also discovered an easy way to enjoy cheap coffee while on the road. We did this by purchasing a 50 cent ice cream cone and asking for a cup of hot water. They never charged us for the hot water and we had a jar of instant coffee in our van, ready to brew.

Next, we went to a farmers market that Joey had recommended, in the town of Eumundi. He had told us it was a good one but as a bit of a farmers market expert, I was reserving judgement until I perused the goods myself. 

Turns out Joey knows a thing or two about markets himself! It was one of the most diverse, hippie, authentic and real farmers markets I've ever been to and it made me feel right at home. Unfortunately, Mike and I got there too late, just as they were about to close. So we did our best to run through as much of the market as we could, taking note of all the things we wanted to return for. We did however, manage to indulge is some delicious turkish food and bought some fresh mangoes and mandarin oranges. 

I didn't realize until now that the photo I took of the market perfectly captured the sculpted body of the Eumundi fireman calendar poster. Oopsie :) 

We returned to Noosa and went back to our little spot in the park by the ocean to make dinner. We made smokies on a slice of bread and had a little audience looking for some crumbs. 

After dinner we met back up with Joey and Michelle to catch opening night of the new James Bond Flick, Spectre. It was fantastic and I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it. Although to our dissapointment, our friends were not as impressed as we were. We may need to reconsider this friendship thing, how could we get along with two people who didn't LOVE Spectre. We had to have a couple shaken Vodka martinis to get over it. 

As we walked back to our car, I noticed a note on our front windshield. At first, I thought it was a ticket, but when I read it, I realized it was much worse. He had found us. 

                      

After my initial fear that Charlie had indeed found us, I looked over at our friends and realized that they were the onces who left the note after we had told them of Charlie the night prior. Even though they were laughing and we knew it was them who wrote it, their refusal to "say the words", left me feeling uneasy. They may not have loved Spectre but they sure do share our sense of humour. We said goodbye to our friends, at least for the time being, until we would return to Noosa. 

Day 128- This was the day we'd make some serious tracks toward Cairns. We got cozy in the driver and passenger seats and Mike and I took turns collecting kms on the odometer. As many may already know and for those who don't, Australia has a large assortment of wild animals that roam the highways. Because of this, they have warning signs across the country with the picture of the animals on them. Such as this one below, watch out for Koalas crossings everyone. 

                

What is a textbook sightseeing item that people usually see while on a roadtrip? Giant fruit of course and Australia has a lot of them! We were excited when we saw our first big orange. That is until we came across an even bigger one. 

There is an office in this giant orange.

The entire time we've been driving around Australia, we've noticed beautiful purple trees everywhere. We would find ourselves driving through the countryside with green grass and trees all around us and scattered throughout are these beautiful purple trees. A local told me the trees are called Jacaranda. Here are some pictures of a tree that had my attention for some time while we took a break at a rest stop. 

And of course no road trip would be complete without some giant animals as well. 

                          

Then, there was nothing left to see but the open road, the captivating scenery and the sun to guide us.

We decided to rest after driving for some 460 km and 6 hours of driving at a little rest stop off the highway called Lawgi Hall. It was a nice place to sleep for the night and they even had showers!!! We couldn't believe it ourselves but we were going to get a shower two days in a row. What a treat!

To cap off our night, Mike watched some football while I journaled and read my book. It was a peaceful evening. 

Day 129- We woke up in the morning ready for another strenuous day of driving. You may think I'm crazy to say driving is strenuous but sitting for six plus hours can really run a person down. We hit the highway and continued our journey north. 

The sign below gave us a laugh, just as we were starting to get tired. It's blurry but it says, "Still a long way to go kids", even though the sign doesn't know where we were going, we couldn't help but think, "Aw man". 

The views from the highway were constantly reminding us why we chose to rent a campervan and  take or transportation into our own hands. The countryside of Australia is so charming, we couldn't take our eyes off of her.

We finished off another day of driving, 6 hours and 530km took us just outside of Mackay. We set up for the night at a BP gas station truck stop. They had a parking lot for the campervans to park at and once again they had hot showers. They also had a park for us kids to play on and parrots just hanging out in the trees above.

                 

Another pasta dinner before settling in for our very own drive in movie. 

Day 130- We didn't waste any time in the morning getting back on the highway. Fields of green surrounded us. I think below would be what highway hypnosis would "look" like. 

Just when we started to get restless, a giant mango was there to revive us. We figured it was a good opportunity to cut up a mango of our own and join the happy fella. 

                          

And I'm telling you, the mangoes in Australia might be the best I've ever tasted. We drove a little further  until we noticed more GIANT fruit. Goodness me. A giant cantaloupe and watermelon. 

5 hours of driving and 428 kms later we arrived at Rollingstone camp site. Yes, you read that right. Not a rest area, a real live campsite. It was a beautiful night and the bugs were at a minimum so we sat outside and enjoyed the freedom of the great outdoors. My lovely sister sent me some amazing one-pot recipes for our campervaning (I made that word up, ok) and this was the night we were going to try them out. It is a dish with chorizo, green and red peppers and potatoes. It was easy and Mike enjoyed it so much that we're going to make this dish when we get home. 

                       

Phil, is the van behind us what you thought we were living in? You're right.. it is way cooler. :(

Day 131- We were tired and getting anxious to finally make it to Cairns but we still had some driving ahead of us. But before we could even settle in to our driving we noticed a jolly mango from the road. We needed to stop to say hurray. The camera was slightly crooked but you get the point.

                     

We continued on and found a little pull off by the beach. It had been a few days since we'd seen the beach and all we wanted to do was go for a refreshing dip. 

We found it odd that no one was in the water, in fact, no one was even close to the waters edge. Oh well. Who needs em right?!

Ohhhh we get it. We were in salt water crocodile territory.  We soon learned that much of the beautiful beaches in the north of Australia are ridden with crocs and dangerous box jelly fish. Some of the most beautiful beaches in the world and they can't be swam in? Shame about the crocs. 1 star. 

We decided if we couldn't swim, we could at least go for a skate. No crocodiles could catch up to us on our skateboards right? Not with Mike mean muggin them like that, that's for sure. 

                         

Next we headed through a town called Tully Gorge to stop for lunch. We enjoyed some avocado and ham toasties as the Aussies like to call them and they were scrumptious. 

We heard they had a GIANT gum boot in Tully and we couldn't help ourselves but to stop and see it with our own eyes. The boot represents a record rainfall that Tully had one year. The boot shows the amount of rain that fell that year. 

                         

Stairs on the inside take you to the top of the boot to see the town. 

After 293kms and 3 1/2 hours of driving, we finally made it...

We found a nice park by the ocean and settled in to make some dinner. It was another easy recipe from my sister. 6 cans and one pepper went into a pot, cooked for an hour and we were eating. Not before we got some help from two professional chefs. Thanks Vince and Katrina. 

                        

How's it smelling Mike?

And Voila, chicken taco soup. First time I've ever eaten chicken out of a can and it won't be my last.

We spent the rest of our evening using the McDonalds wifi, and parked on a side street to rest for the night. 

Happy to be in Cairns.