Epic roadtrip and final destination: Cairns

Hervey bay - Agnes waters - Rockhampton - Emu beach - Mackay- Airlie Beach - Whitsundays - Whitehaven beach - Townsville - Ingham - Mission beach - Daintree Rainforest - Cairns

Joined heaps of lovely backpackers going to Frazer Island on monday morning, just with an exception that we didn't pay 350 dollars for it, but got a free lift to Rainbow beach where we hopped off. Rainbow beach is another town where Vodafone does not work. Luckily our lovely bus-driver let us use his phone to contact our new travel mates. Oliver from Germany and Fabio from France with a Brazilian background. Oliver had a jeep, so that was our new home on wheels for the week.

Hervey Bay

Wanted to stay the first night at a small town called Agnes Water.

We needed to wake up 5.30 the next morning to see the first semi-final of World Cup as it was Germany vs Brazil. Unfortunately Agnes Water and the whole area, including the next town 1770 had had a power-failure in the morning so there was very weak phone reception if any and definitely no tv reception. The best option was Rockhampton, 226 km away, but our boys would have driven the whole night if needed to not miss the game. Ended up in a hostel at Emu Beach 10-ish km away from the town.

Woke up for the game and wish I didn't, it was pretty sad. A good game and a party for Germans but horrific for Brazil.

Stopped for lunch at Mackay.

Reached Airlie Beach by evening. A super bubbly vibrant little town. Found a camping ground and happily started tenting in winter. Luckily we had driven so far up, that from -2 and 0-degree-nights we had made it to 13-14-degrees nights. With our tent not having a properly closing front door and the sleeping bags being summerly, it still is not horribly warm. Days are great tho!

This night was the third and final game of State of Origin. An annual best-of-three series of rugby league football matches between the Blues and the Maroons, who represent New South Wales and Queensland. Referred to as Australian sport's greatest rivalry. Joined other Queenslanders at a nearby pub and witnessed them win big at the third game. As NSW had already win the previous two (for the first time in nine years!) they were the overall winners and as one of the players said in a footie-ad “about time they got one!”

Had a beach-chillax-morning and explored town and hiked at a nearby mountain in the afternoon. 5.5 km and heaps of nice views.

What is sad about North-Queensland, even though they have so many incredible beaches with warm water they don't swim, or go even close to the water as everything tries to kill you. If I'd live in Oz I would probably choose Gold Coast or Sunshine coast, as they still have to worry about snakes and sharks, but at least not about thousands of species of deadly poisonous jelly-fish, other fish, corals or bugs, plus of course the fear of the northerns – crocodiles. As all the signs advise us, they are everywhere and potentially dangerous.

They build lagoons to swim in instead. 

On our last day at Airlie we did our first official tour in Australia. One just cannot go to Airlie beach and not see the Whitsundays, especially Whitehaven beach. Whitehaven Beach is a 7km stretch along Whitsunday Island. The beach was awarded Queensland's Cleanest Beach in 2008. In 2010, it was named the top Eco Friendly Beach in the world by CNN. Whitehaven Beach is known for its white sands. The sand consists of 98% pure silica which gives it a bright white color. Local rocks do not contain silica so it has been suggested that the sands were brought to the beach via prevailing sea currents over millions of years. We took a full-1-day tour which consisted of around 4 hours of boat-ride, 2 hours of beach-time, a Mediterranean lunch and two hours of snorkelling  Saw heaps of colourful fish, a dolphin and a huge super ugly, but cool kinda gangsta fish. Certified divers could go diving instead. They saw the same fish, and a shark.. nothing special.

The same night drove towards Townsville and stopped at a random resting area. I'm quite convinced it was not meant for tents but that did not worry us too much.

Magnetic Island! 

Stopped for another hike at Paluma Range National park.

And were hoping to grab lunch at an Italian town Ingham. Incredible pasta, pizza or gnocchi still remained in dream state as it was Saturday and all the Italian restaurants were shut. Found an iconic, ancient pub tho and were satisfied.

Finally visited Mission Beach. 

Before settling down in Cairns for a while, drove another two hours further to visit Daintree Rainforest and Cape Tribulation. Daintree is the oldest tropical rainforest on earth, home to an incredible array of plants and animals. At around 12,000 km2 Daintree is the largest continuous area of tropical rainforest on the Australian continent. The complexities of the oldest surviving rainforest in the world continues to challenge humankind as it strives to comprehend the continuity of growth, intricate relationships and incredible diversity of life-forms refined over 170-million years. Cape Tribulation is a headland and locality located within the Daintree National Park and the Wet Tropics World Heritage area. It's population is about 300 people.  

Went pearl-hunting and met a scorpion between the rocks.

And Germany won World Cup. The Germans in our hostel can't hold their emotions. Playlist of the day consists of about five weird German songs, "Don't cry for me Argentina" and "We are the Champions".