Jucing in Australia

We haven't posted much about our time in Australia because we haven't really done much yet here.  We spent our first two nights with CouchSurfers Tereasa and Charles, a very friendly couple that helped us plan our time in Australia.  The rest of the week, we stayed with Lorena, a friend from college and New York, and her roommate, who have been living in Sydney since October.  During the day, we just walked around Sydney and took in the usual Sydney sites like the Opera House (including seeing the Sydney Symphony perform with the cheapest tickets we could find), the Harbor Bridge, and Bondi and Manly beaches.  No bungy jumping, jet boating or glacier hiking this week.

Our time in Sydney was lazy by design because we've been constantly on the move since leaving Santiago at the beginning of March, not staying in any one place longer than three nights during that span, and had a two week, 2,000 mile road trip planned from Brisbane to Cairns and back.  To add to the fun, we're bringing along Lorena as a third wheel, and all three of us are staying in a Jucy Choppa.  What's a Jucy Choppa?  A conspicuously painted camper van with a hip name (you know it's hip because it's spelled incorrectly) that likely belonged to a soccer mom (or rugby mom, or whatever the equivalent is down here) in its previous life.  If you're curious about the sleeping arrangement, the photograph below should explain everything.  Lorena is sleeping on the roof.

On Syndey, we picked up our Jucy in Brisbane and immediately set out north with no plans except we knew we wanted to SCUBA dive and snorkel in the Great Barrier Reef and wanted to try to visit Fraser Island and the Whitsunday Islands.  We didn't even know where we would be sleeping that night.  While we were on the road, Lorena suggested we go to Mooloolaba on the recommendation of a friend.  The town and beach were pleasant, but not spectacular - it's the kind of place where it'd be nice to stay for a week with the family, but not the kind of place for which you travel across the world.  We didn't have time to soak it in anyway, though, as it was getting dark and we needed to find a place to stay.  Thinking we'd be able to pull off the road somewhere and sleep for free, we drove around for over thirty minutes, only to be confronted with "no camping" signs, so we broke down and paid $40 to stay in an RV park.

The next day, we took a short walk to see some waterfalls in Buderim Forest Park, and then it was back to the road.  The plan was to get to Yeppoon, but it was getting dark and we came across a free campground on the side of the highway.  Magge made us dinner on our gas burners in the dark, while we tried our best, and failed, to keep flies out of the vehicle.  There weren't any tables in sight, so we step up the tiny table in our fly-infested Jucy (top right circle in the Jucy picture) and had dinner.  The experience wouldn't have been complete without our washing the dishes in the dark campground bathroom, with only the dim glow of our reading light (thanks, Mom!) to show us what we were doing.  Did I mention it was free?

Behind the waterfalls in Buderim Forest Park

L

Lorena taking pictures of the falls 

Australian sunset

 

The destination today was the Capricorn Coast, an area the brochures show to have clear blue waters, white sand beaches and verdant islands.  As we were driving over a ridge, I anticipated the beautiful coastline coming into view.  The anticipation turned to slight confusing.  "The water's so brown.  It looks like the Jersey shore," Lorena said.  Brown indeed.  We drove further up the coast, waiting for the water to turn the same blue we saw in the brochure, but it remained brown.  To add to the Capricorn Coast disappointment, we found out the national park we had been excited about visiting, or at least the parts we were excited about, was only accessible by 4x4 vehicles.  We visited a different part of the park by driving down a bumpy dirt road that I'm not sure I'm allowed to drive on in this rental for twenty minutes and got to a secluded beach.  We all agreed that it was pretty, but the brown water took away from it.

We were the only people on this beach.  I guess the locals don't like brown water either.

Crocodile minefield

We're off now to find a campground for the night.  I think there's a free one that's not too far.