The plan I had in my head was to drive straight north then slow down and explore on our way back south. On the day we picked up the camper, everything took longer then expected. By the time we left the rental office, it was rush hour in Sydney and already getting dark. Although it was already late, we stopped at a supermarket to stock up on a few days worth of food before getting on the highway to our first campsite. We ended up camping at essentially a truck stop a little off the highway. At least it was a very scenic truck stop along side a neat gorge.
We were feeling refreshed in the morning and started the day by organizing the camper for our month long journey. This was much easier then in our last camper van because this one is so much larger with many storage options.
We drove most of the following day and Sara found a nice free spot for us to camp that night. We arrived after dark to another rest area off the road, but this time it was in a nice woodland park. That night I realized the true power of this RV. At no point did I even have to go outside. We parked, cooked dinner, relaxed and even showered without leaving the comfort of our RV.
On the third day of driving north, Sara started getting antsy. Unfortunately, the rental company wanted to charge extra for having two drivers so I was doing all the driving while Sara worked on editing photos. She was ready for something more scenic then highway rest stops – we realized that I also hadn’t completely communicated my driving plan. After talking it over, we modified the plan to find a nice beach campsite that night. Unfortunately, the drive took longer than anticipated so for the third night in a row, we camped at a rest area on the side of the road.
It only took about two hours the next morning to get to Agnes Water. There was a library in town so we stopped to use their Wifi and pick up some information about the area. We got to the campsite relatively early and had a nice afternoon relaxing on the beach. It was our anniversary and wanted to go out that night for dinner. Apparently, the campsite is popular and fills up at night so left our camper and walked into town. The restaurant which seemed like a nice seafood place as we drove past was in fact just a fish and chips shack. There was nothing else within walking distance except for Thai food, and that didn’t sound appealing. We shared a fish and chips for 2 and it was fantastic. The fish was delicious and the portions were huge. My only complaint was the lack of real ketchup.
The next morning, we headed to a slightly nicer caravan park to hopefully camp right on the beach with good views. But first, we stopped at the library for more Internet. That is when I discovered that a friend had joined us in the camper. I saw a giant spider in frame of my door! Sara saw a reaction but only asked if there was bee – I just played if off so she would not worry. I took my shoe and tried to coax the spider outside but instead it ran inside! Sara began to scream and immediately left the camper. After a short standoff, I eventually prevailed and got the spider out. I couldn’t believe how big it was!
We went to the Caravan park in the neighboring Town of 1770 and the caretaker gave us a nice spot right next to the water. We parked, plugged the RV into electricity, and enjoyed the built in air conditioning while planning the rest of the day. We decided to walk to the end of the point for some scenic views.
During the walk, we passed though a wooded area and all of a sudden hundreds of butterflies took flight at once. We were walking in a sea of butterflies! It was beautiful. After a few moments of dream like tranquility, the butterflies faded away. We hoped that they would be there on the way back!
The scenic lookout we found was surprisingly beautiful. We were surprised because the drive north did not have views and gave us the impression Australia would not be as beautiful New Zealand – so glad that impression was wrong! As we explored off the published trail, we could see schools of fish swimming amongst the rocks below. I don’t know how they managed not to get busted to bits as the waves crashed on the rocks. I kept climbing along the rocks to a cool lookout while Sara relaxed and took in the beautiful ocean view. On the way back, our butterfly friends were back to great us in the woods, lucky us!
The rest of the afternoon was spent relaxing on the beach. I did a little snorkeling and even though it was just a sand bottom I saw two big stingrays. I tried to swim out to a sandbar on the middle of the bay but the outgoing current was too strong and I didn’t want to get pulled out to sea. That evening, we went out for our anniversary dinner again… This time at a real restaurant. It feels like we are finally getting into the Australian groove!
At $44 AUD per night, we could only stay at the caravan park one night. Before we left in the morning, Sara and I went for a morning snorkel in the bay. There wasn’t much again but we did see a small squid that swam with us a for a bit. All the caravan parks have a very early check out time of 10:00 so we couldn’t hang out too long. We got back on the road, this time with a destination: Eungella National Park to try and see a platypus.
