day to day

DAY 5 (march 7) . today started off at the top of a mountain. literally. in the town of eungella to be exact. after nearly 10 hours of driving yesterday, finally making our way to the city of mackay, we found ourselves at the entrance to the local national park. after walking our way up the path we made it to paradise - a massive rock pool underneath a waterfall. as we were all sweaty from the walk up, we happily took the plunge into the cool waters.

it was like something of a dream to be able to swim in the rock pool like that. so fresh. so cool. so awe-inspiring. the palm trees and other jungle foilage hung overhead, shading us from the late afternoon heat. ariana and i set out to see if we could make it to the waterfall itself - first by swimming straight towards it and then by pulling ourselves along the slippery rock walls to inch our way closer. we never made it. our arms strained to cling to the tiny rock ledges as we desperately kicked our feet in order to propell our bodies closer to the crashing waters. all we accomplished was a near disaster in losing our bikini bottoms in the rushing water.

as time went on we decided to join the other people in jumping off the edge of rock surrounding the pool into the deep depths below. i should say it wasn't so much as a group decision as it was ariana asking me if i'd like to go jump with her - saying the question with a big mischievious grin plastered on her face. she made me momentarily forget that she is afraid of heights and it wasn't until i took the plunge and looked back up the rock face did i realize we might have a problem. ariana wasn't ready to jump. she didn't want to. her fear had kicked in and her body and mind wouldn't let her go.

so i treaded water and tried to talk her down.

about 30 minutes later she plunked herself into the water and the guy beside me in the water missed it. he was bummed as we had all been waited for her to do it. i didn't care if he had missed it or not - ariana had jumped and that was all that mattered. she had faced her fear head on and did it. hated it. didn't have any fun doing it. but she did it.

after that we towelled off and made our way back to the trail that would take us to our campervan. only the sun was quickly setting over the other side of the mountains and we had yet to find a place to park for the night. so we started jogging. dripping wet. wearing flip-flops. bags and towels swinging - we jogged. we jogged around corners, across the rocky ground and down the hill. the remaining sunlight showing us the way we jogged through the river crossings and didn't stop to catch our breath untill we were near our campervan. we still had enough light to find the spot we were hoping to get to - eungella. a small town further in the mountains that apparently had a rest stop we could park overnight at.

so we drove.

eventually we got to the base of the mountains and were faced with large warning signs indicating that the next nearly 5km would pretty much be straight up the mountain with hairpin turns. i was used to driving roads like that from the many trips to the rocky mountains back in canada. but not in a campervan. and not at the end of the day when we had mere minutes left before it became pitch black.

so we drove.

and up we went - around corners, over grates, passing waterfalls and gazing out over to a view that became more and more breathtaking with every pass we made. it seemed like forever untill we made it to the top and there were a few moments where i questioned our van's ability to even make it up there. but we did - we made it to the top and found the rest stop to be a lookout over the entire valley below. we parked the van and just got out to stare.

shortly after the sun was completely set and we were on our own in the lookout area, eating our food and gazing up to a clear sky where all the stars had come out for the night. i can't remember the last time i've just done that - just taken the time to watch the stars. or even been in a place where i could even see the stars. all of them. the milky way. the whole bit. ariana and i just laid out on a large rock and just looked at them. they make me feel so small and remind me that the world out there is so much bigger. that all the problems i think are huge in my life really aren't. they remind me that no matter what comes my way, everything will be okay.

and then we went back to the van and slept.

this morning, i woke and peeked out my window to spot pink-tinged clouds along the horizon, indicating the sun was about to come up. i got out of the van as fast as i could and was just in time with my camera to capture the sun rising up over the valley - all orange and firey. today would be a good day.

after breakfast, i made the most of our "au-natural" camping spot and decided to have a makeshift shower. cold water in our dish tub, swimmers on and head bent at an unnatural angle - i was ready. i scrubbed out all the dirt and grim from my hair as i stood in the middle of the grass and could feel the sun rising up higher and higher - heating my back. it was one of the most beatiful showers and it brought me back to the days of hiking through BC - where i would regularly shower like that, but in a glacier-fed river. love it.

as it were - we couldn't spend all of today at that spot - as much as we wanted to. it was time to move on back down to the valley where i would drop ariana off to try forest flying (aka: ziplining). being that i've been on a pretty tight budget, i chose to skip the tour and spend time chilling out in the river where we spotted a swimming hole closer to where i'd park the van. and that's just what i did. and it was beautiful.


DAY 6 (march 8) . so yesterday ended off with a bang as we spent the remaining part of our afternoon headed towards dingo beach which is slightly north of airlie beach, the main hub of activity for travelling to/from the whitsunday islands.

we chose dingo beach simply because a local told us to go there. we had met the man while gasing up our campervan and he pretty much chattered our ears off of where he thought we should head to. we took him up on his proposition to skip airlie beach and head to dingo instead. ariana and i were pleased with the outcome once we arrived.

white sandy shores encased a bay of water so calm and rich in blue intensity. mountainous islands sprouted up from the ocean waters, creating a look ariana and i didn't expect to see in australia. we were hooked. only downside was that as tempting as the waters looked to go for a dip, the temperature of the water had to have been over 30 degrees celcius as it had been sitting in the sun baking all afternoon.

instead of a swim, we focused our prospects on attempting to find somewhere to stay for the night. we wanted to be close to the beach to go swimming as we pleased, but everywhere we looked there were signs indicating fines would be applied for overnight camping - anywhere in the range of $50-1500. we didn't want to chance it. so we went to the pub to get some grub and more information from the locals on where we could go. they suggested we go to hideaway beach and try there - and worst case - we could do the caravan park that was there.

so off we went again - down another stretch of road to the next bay. hideaway beach had the same signs threatening to empty our pockets if we dared parked anywhere overnight. so caravan park it was.

today we woke up super early to make the rest of the drive towards cairns. 8 hours later we made it and after getting more information on the city we took a quick dip in the lagoon and decided to drive our way slightly further north to port douglas. it turned out to be a good choice - the beach here (4 mile beach) is incredibly beautiful and ariana and i have full intention of making use of it tomorrow on our first official day of nothing. i am stoked. now if only we can find a place to stay for the night...


DAY 7 (march 9) . last night ended with us in a fit of giggles over how uptight and on high alert we were at our inital overnight parking location. we had chosen a spot right by the beach and in front of the public bathrooms. it wouldn't have been so bad had there not been a car driving by every 2 minutes, causing us to bolt awake and stifly sneak peaks out the windows as we painfully awaited the mystery person's departure from the vicinity. we had closed the back hatch (which we never do) in hopes of better concealment of our plans to stay the night. we did this in vain as it's pretty difficult to conceal a large white van with gigantic purple flowers painted all over the surface. as a result, the inside of the van shortly began to resemble something of a sweat lodge - regardless of the fact that we had cranked all the remaining windows open, donned our bikinis and attempted to lie as still as possible.

as it were, the constant activity of vehicles driving by combined with our fear of being told to "move along" prompted us to try for a new parking position. we found a secluded residential street where we could park behind some trees for privacy. it wasn't untill we awoke many hours later from our deep slumber that the trees we had parked behind actually did very little to shelter us from any potential watchful eyes.

needless to say - we slept wonderfully and awoke to pursue our first ever beach day of the entire trip. i started with a lengthy run on the 4 mile beach and then continued with lazing around in the calm, torquoise waters, reading my book and doing a whole lot of nothing. i couldn't have asked for a better day.


DAY 8 (march 10) . today we packed up our things and headed a little bit further north to mossman's gorge. set in the rainforest, we parked our campervan in the midst of an ongoing dump of rain and set out with rain jackets and umbrella for our short trek to the swimming pools. once there the green waters looked too inviting so we hopped right in, all the tour groups donning garbage bags and other waterproof materials simply gawked at us (and a few others) who decided to take the plunge into the cool waters.

after mossman's, we simply hopped back into the van and set back down towards cairns in order to explore all the northern beaches. beach after beach we stopped at to take pictures, feel our feet in the sand and run from the rain when it got too heavy. we made a pit stop at a bar and grill during the worst of it in order to kill some time and then eventually we made our way to cairns to catch a movie. alice and wonderland seemed appropriate - especially since we had to wear 3D glasses.


DAY 9 (march 11) . today is our last day with the campervan and it is bittersweet - especially since we're not even driving that much today. ariana has gone on another day tour to the reef to do snorkelling and i'm sticking around the city, catching up on postcards, journalling and such. it's hard to believe that tomorrow we have to turn in the keys to the campervan and that this part of the journey is over. in fact, the whole journey for me and ariana is over all together as we will fly back to sydney on the 13th. i am excited to start my next journey with anika and see more of australia - but it is hard to have to say goodbye to the fun ariana and i have been having in the last week and a half. anyway - as it is - enjoy all the picture updates and such and i look forward to writing more some day near in the future!! :D