Cairns to Brisbane Road Trip

Welcome back, this week I talk you through a road trip we did from Cairns to Brisbane. We stop off at all the top spots including; Cape Tribulation and the Daintree rainforest, Mossman Gorge, Milla Milla Falls, Babinda Boulders, Lady Musgrave Island and Fraser Island. We dive deep into far north Queensland's natural beauty and see some amazing wildlife. 
If you want to see footage from this trip you can find us on Youtube, search Shire Travels. 

Transcript

Welcome to shire travels. in this one we are heading over to the opposite side of the country from last week and we are traveling from the dentree up in north Queensland. all the way down the coast to Brisbane. This is a trip we have done a couple of times, firstly as a couple in June, and then as a group of four of us with my sister and her husband in October, both times of year were great nice sunny weather still warm enough to swim everywhere. October was a little bit more humid and rainy, but still a really great time to travel. In this one we are going to start our adventure in Cairns, travel up to the dentree and keep tribulation, down to Mossman gorge, Babindaoulders, the Atherton tablelands, past Townsville and down to the Whitsundays. now we do have a separate episode on Hamilton Island. There is so much to see and do there, so it's worthy of its own place in the podcast. After Hamilton Island we headed to Bundaberg and did a day trip out to Lady Musgrave Island, which was beautiful. we then headed down to Fraser Island and spent a couple of days exploring all the fool drive tracks there. Finally it was on to Brisbane and that was the end of our trip on the east coast. so the trip we did with my sister and her husband was for roughly three weeks. Now this isn't a very long time to spend traveling such a big distance. However, we were limited by the amount of annual leave we have. so this would be an ideal itinerary if you are short on annual leave, or perhaps you are traveling to Australia from overseas. We've traveled this route a couple of times, once in June and once in October, both times the weather was fine, June was a little bit colder, and October was slightly rainier, but both warm enough to go swimming in the ocean and swimming at waterfalls. We've also traveled a couple of different ways. The first time we did this trip we were in a small camp of Anne and we stayed at caravan parks and then the second time we hired a car and we stayed in airbion bees. Both were good options and worked really well. The good thing about the east coast is because it's so well developed. There are heaps of accommodation options, especially compared to the west coast. The trip we did with my sister was around about three weeks and the start of this trip we all flew into cairns. We had a stray up to Palm Cove and decided to stay there instead of cairns as we had all been to Cairns a few times before and wanted to see something a bit different. The other reason was I really wanted to see Palm Cove at sunrise. There's some beautiful palm trees that lined the foreshore there, and to be stayed in an airb and beef fairly close to the beach, which meant it was only a short walk to get down there at sunrise. After taking in the beautiful sunrise we headed up north, so we started heading to the Daintree rainforest. This meant crossing the Deentree river on a ferry. This is very easy to do We just paid when we got there. Now we had a bit of time to skill before we could check into our Airbnb, so we decided to do a crocodile seeing tour. We hopped on a boat, we went with solo whisperer and unfortunately we didn't see any crocodiles. Now they do have a policy if you don't see any on your tour, they give you a free return pass. so on the way back down from the d Dan tree, we actually hopped on another tour at a slightly different location and were lucky enough to see a few ccodiles. Anyway, continuing north to our destination in the daint tree, we stayed in an abbian bee again. This was a really beautiful spot. It had a bedroom and a kitchen area down below and then a separate building up on a hillside. just had one bedroom and then it also had a kind of a plunge infinity pool. Despite being freezing cold, it was a really nice place to just sit with a glass of wine that we could see really far out over the rainforest and actually in the very far distance we could even see the ocean, which was really cool. Bioni slightly negative thing, a interesting thing that really happened there was at night bandicoots came out. We didn't know there were going to be bandicoots there and at first we thought maybe it was wild pigs and then we thought it was people trying to break in. Tom went out there with a little pocket knife to see what it was and there was basically just imagine crash bandicoo happening in real life. That was pretty much it. After we recovered from our nightly ordeal, we made our way to keep tribulation bitch. This is where we were going to get picked up for a four day tour out to Michaelman's K. Cape Tribulation Beach is a really special spot. It is where two world heritage sites meet, so the daintry rainforest and the great barrier reef. Now they do get crocodiles here, so you just have to be cautious, particularly in the warmer months if you are hanging around the beach, you might see a crocodile there. fortunately for us, there weren't any there, or at least there weren't any that we could see as we had to climb up into a small tender to which we'd get out to our bigger boat, which meant getting in the water a little bit unnerving, but we live to tell the tale so we get out to our main boat. It is a beautiful catamaran. Now I said in our YouTube video though 20 or 30 people on a tour, looking back, I reckon there are only about 10 or 15. There's hardly one there at all, which was fantastic. It meant we had heaps of room on the boat to spread out. They had a netted section at the front that you could lie on, cushions, seated area, lots of space to spread out. It was a four day tour and it was all inclusive, so morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea, snorkeling gear and stinger suits if we wanted them, we were there in October and marine stingers aren't usually present there, so we were felt comfortable enough not wearing them. The first bit of the tool we sailed out for quite a distance and then we stopped to go snorkeling. This was great. We saw a really nice section of the great barrier reef, lots of healthy coral, lots of different fish. We even found Nemo as well, which was pretty cool. Then it was back on the boat and to head out to my common'say, so this is a sandbank in the middle of the ocean beautiful pure white sand, the most clear turoise water, a really beautiful tropical paradise, the type of place that you would be happy to be stranded for a couple of hours. We also did so snorkeling while we were there as well, and we got to snorkel with our first turtle, which was really exciting. Now later on on the trip we do go to Lady Musgrave Island and you couldn't move for turtles there, but at this point we hadn't swung with one before, so this was a really exciting experience. After getting our feel of snorkeling, it was back on the boat and we actually sailed under canvas back into Cape T tribulation, which was pretty cool. We also visited the Dentry ice cream Company on the way back to our accommodation, really nice. They have lots of interesting tropical flavors there. You can also see where they grow pineapples as well. and I had thought that pineapples grow up in a tree. They don't, they actually grow in a bush on the ground, which is quite interesting to see. The next morning we woke up early we wanted to try and hop on a crock tour as I said before, we got our free return trip as we hadn't seen any crocks, hopped on a tour, saw some crocks, and then we made our way down to the Atherton tablelands. This was quite a long drive. Just remember when you're driving along there are lots of tourists there might be a motor homes. everyone's going that little bit slower than they probably should be because it's just such a beautiful landscape. The road is also quite windy and twisty, so just be aware of that and take your time. On our way to Atherton we stopped off at Mosman gorge. This is a freshwater swimming area. It has some nice boulders that you can sit on and a bit of water that you can swim in. Now it is very commercialized and touristy. When you get to Mossman gorge, you have to stop at the cultural slash visitor center, hop on a bus and then head down to the gorge. I'm pretty sure you have to pay for the bus as well. It is very busy. It is a very popular tourist spot so just be aware of that before you come. I think beversly you used to be able to park and walk down to the gorge by yourself, but now you do have to take a bus. The water itself was pretty cold, but it was still a really nice spot to just hang out in the water. We also sat up on the boulders and some beautiful big turquoise blue butterflies appeared, so there were heaps of them that kept landing on me. I don't know if it was because of my sunscreen or I was a little bit sweaty or they liked the color of my bracelet. no idea what it was, but they kept landing on me, which was really cool. One thing to bear in mind, though, is bush turkeys. This is something that we had no idea about popped our bags on the ground, when in had a swim, turned around, and there was this bush turkey in our bag just taking everything out that it could find. if you are going, try to zip up your bag, put something on top of it, or if you can, maybe try and tuck it up on top of a rock or kind of in a tree so that the turkeys can't get in because they are absolutely relentless at trying to get stuff out of bags. There's also a few short walks you can do there through the rainforest. We did one that went and saw a curtain fig tree, and we also saw some really interesting lizards in the trees as well. After Mossman we headed straight to accommodation in Atherton and we got there in the evening. It was just an Airbnb, a unit that someone had next to their main house. There was also a visitor there to greet us, a big huntsman spider, which was hiding in the bathroom, which was a nice little tree. While we were in attherton we went up to youngerorough to try and find platus, and I say try they were actually really easy to spot and there were heaps there. It always surprises me when I see people go there and they don't see any because we saw so many they were so cute to watch, very entertaining, the kind of swim around in the water really really fast very cute to watch. We also went and looked at the curtain fig tree, so this is a much bigger wonder the one we saw at Mossman Gorge. It has a boardwalk that you can do round it really simple, quick as you walk. It is a very impressive tree to seize, so it is a tree that's been taken over by a parasite and it's got vines all over it. It's a good spot to stop off and stretch a legs. We also decided to do the waterfall circuit they've got there, so the first stop was Miller Miller Falls. This would have to be one of the most popular waterfalls in the area. If you were to draw a waterfall, this would be a single draw up over a cliff edge into a barely nice big pool below. Now you can swim in the pool, you can swim up and climb behind the waterfall as well, which is really cool. The water wasn't too cold for memory. We went in the middle of the day when the sun was right on it, which definitely helped. I'd recommend wearing reef shoes or water shoes if you're there, so the bottom of the waterfall is really rocky sharp rocks, and then when you go behind the waterfall, the rocks there are quite slippery as well, so definitely having some sort of shoes on would help. This waterfall is very famous because it featured in the Peter Andre mysterious girl video, and it also featured in the Herbal Essence ad as well. You know the one where they put the hair in the water and they flick it back? We of course, then had to have a go at reenacting there and took a whole heap of vitches and videos, which is quite fun. Now there is a car park there. There's also toilets and there's a big grassy area where you could sit and have a picnic as well. After millimilla we went to aindra Falls I think it's pronounced and autozill Falls. We didn't swim it either. We just went down and had a look both really nice spots and definitely worth a visit. We also visited Josephine Falls as well. This one you can swim up and it also has some natural slides kind of built into the rocks, so you can climb up onto the rocks and then slide down into the water, gives you a little bit of a sawb bal after doing it a few times, but it's all good fun. Once a time in Attherton was over, we started heading towards Townsville. on the way there we stopped off at the Binder boulders. We loved the spot and as recommend it far more than Mossman gorge yes, at mossman gorge or more in the rainforest Babinda Boulders is a bit more open, but the good thing is at Babinda Boulders, you don't have to get on a bus. You don't have to pay anything. You can just park in the car park, make your own way down there. It was a lot quieter and just a lot more relaxed chilled out. The main area is kind of a shallow pool. It may be up to knee, thigh depth, and then there's a bit where you can swim further out, hop upon some boulders and actually jump into the water, which was pretty fun. Once we cooled off, we kept arriving to Townsville. Now we were only in Townsville for one night. We knew of this trip we were really going to have to pick and choose what places we stopped out, what attractions we saw. We decided to miss magnetic Island on this trip. It was a bit of a shame everyone who goes there raves about it, says it's so much fun you can get those little pink topless cars to drive round the island on. We just didn't want to rush it. We don't want to try and do it you know, in a morning or in an afternoon. We did miss it this time, but it's still on the bucket list to do in the future. In Townsville we pretty much just went out for dinner at a place on the water front, came out, went to sleep, got up the next morning and drove all the way to Aly beach. We were hopping on our ferry out to Hamilton Island. We had pre booked our ferries so we had to be there on time. We also dropped our car at backpeck's and we paid I think $10 or $20 a night just to store the car there and then we walked down to the marina. Well, we had to run because we were very close to missing the ferry. Our ferry was heading out to Hamilton Island. Now we have done a separate podcast on Hamilton Island because we've been there a couple of times. There's heaps to see and do there. You can also do trips out to the Great Barrier Reef and explore White Haven Beach as well with heaps of sailing and aerial tools that you can do there. and that podcast will be coming out next week. Once on a time in Hamilton Ireland was over, it was time to keep heading the south and we headed down to Bundburg. Now again we missed out on heaps of places on the way down there. We missed out on Mackay, Yeppoon, great Kepel Island, all those sorts of places we unfortunately miss, but again they're still on the bucket list for next time. The reason that we were staying in Bundabburg was we were doing a full day trip out to Lady Musgrave Island, so when we arrived there we pretty much went to our Ebnb had some dinner, went to sleep, woke up the next day and drove to the marina. This was a full day trip out to Lady Musgrave Island. It left at seven in the morning and got back at five o'clock in the evening. again it fully inclusive tour, morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea also included our stinger suits and snorkeling equipment as well. Additionally, you could also buy food and drinks on the boat as well if you wanted to. Now these sailing out to Lady Musgrave Island it takes two hours to get there. The day we went it was pretty overcast and the sea was rough. Everyone was being sick, people kind of falling all over the place, trying to get outside. It was very, very rough. My advice, sit on the front of the boat out in the open for me personally, being able to see that horizon and get that sea breeze on your face really did help. Eventually we got out to the island and it is absolutely beautiful, so it has quite a nice shallow lagoon around it. The first thing we did was hop on a glass bottom boat tour. This was really cool. It hadn't been on one before. We went all over the reef and our guide pointed out all the different coral and marine life there. Really exciting the coral there was beautiful, very much alive. I'd been worried about bleaching or that the coral would be dead, but it was great. It was very vibrant. Our gas bottom boat then dropped us off at the island and we did a walking tour from one end of the island to the other. It is quite a small island. It's very flat is it not really many hills or inclines there? The island has an amazing bird population, so as you're walking round the Torga points out all the different birds there, they are roosting in the trees which are just above your heads, so you do kind of have to watch while you're walking when we got out to the other side of the island in the shallow waters there were also lots of black tipped reef sharks there, which is really cool to see only juvenile ones, though, so nothing to be too afraid of. Then it was time to head back to the main bow, have a bit of lunch, chuck on our an okland gear and go for a swim. Now they had boys set up in the water so you could see kind of the area that you were allowed to swim in, but then you could pretty much do whatever you wanted, swim by yourself, swim as a group, etc. We explored some of the reef around by the boat and actually saw quite a big reef shark there, which I thought was pretty cool, but my sister did not appreciate me pointing it out. She probably tried to swim back to the boat. Then it was time to try and find some turtles, and I say try it wasn't that hard. That's because there are turtle cleaning stations in the reef there, so the turtles swim round in loops and small fish come up and they eat may be parasites or bacteria or algae that might be on the turtles, so the turtles are hanging round, they swimming very slowly, giving the fish a chance to come up and clean them. It was amazing. We saw so many different types of turtles, all different shapes, sizes, colors. They really didn't care that we were there. The visibility, even though it was overcast, was really good. If you were there on a clear day it would be absolutely incredible. We had heaps of time in the water, plenty of opportunity to swim along with the turtles. If this is something which is on your bucket list to see a turtle to swim with one, definitely head to Lady Musgrave Island. I feel like you could pretty much guarantee that you will see one there. Then it was time to begin the rough journey back into Bunderburg. Now it wasn't actually too bad on the way back in, but again, if you're feeling a bit seasick hop up the front of the boat. the next day we left Bunderabberg and we headed to Harvey Bay. This was a really exciting part of our trip because we would pick up before we'll drive and heading into Fraserzer Island for a couple of nights. Fraser Island is I'm pretty sure the biggest sand island in the world and there is heaps to see and do there. Two nights was definitely not enough, but that was all the time we could allow. in future we do plan on coming back there for a couple of weeks and bringing our small hybrid caravan that we've now got. But back then we had to make the most of the time we had, so we went to Harvey Bay, picked up our forward drive and we got the ferry over from Riverheads directly to Kingfisher resort because we once set up to camp we did decide to stay at Kingsfisher resort. We just booked a two bedroom holiday cabin that they had. The accommodation was okay, but the annoying things were we couldn't park outside the accommodation, we had to park up the top of a hill, which is a bit annoying to get to and from every day. The accommodation was fairly expensive from memory. It is part of the resort. We could have used the pool, could have used the restaurant. We just didn't have the time to. One thing that was slightly annoying with our accommodation was despite being two couples, they gave us a cabin which had a double bed in one room and bunk beds in another, which was a little bit interesting sleeping in as adults, so beds like kids, it was basically like the scene out of stepothers. Once we were all impact in our accommodation, we decided to head out to late Mackenzie. It's a fairly quick drive from kingfish resort maybe only about 20 minutes. Now the week after we stayed on Fraser Island, Prince William and Kate were coming, and there was a lot of cleaning, tidying up, maintenance going on to make the island look extra beautiful for the royal's arrival. in particular there was a lot of grade in going along on all the roads to make sure that they didn't have to go over any bumps, so he made it down to late Mackenzie and it was absolutely beautiful. The water there is so clear and blue. It has a beautiful big white sandy beach. Even if you've got a couple of tall groups there, there's still plenty of room to spread out. The water is quite chilly, which surprised us. We thought it was going to be warm, but it was still an awesome spot to hang out. We spent a couple of hours here just relaxing, swimming in the water, and then we headed up to the picnic area to have a bit of food. Now it is worth noting that the picnic areari has a dingo fence around it and a gate, so you don't have to worry about being harassed by dingoes while you eat your lunch. We did, however, get harassed by guanas and cuckabarras. The guanas there are huge and they definitely wanted to have a bit of our lunch. The cuckabaras as well watch out, you turn your back and they will swoop down and take your food as well. That evening went to the resort for dinner rather than cooking just to save a bit of time. After dinner we bought some drinks and played a few games of cards. The next day we decided to venture up the east coast. We headed all the way up to Champagne pools and then made our way back down. Champagne pools was as far north as we went. We didn't go through Nala rocks or anything like that. We were by ourselves and in a higher car and we didn't want to push anything. didn't want to get stark or risk losing our bond. I think the bond from memory as well was about $4000, so we definitely didn't want to do anything to risk breaking the car. Also worth noting as well that getting a tow truck to and from Fraser around that is something does go wrong is very, very expensive, so we made our way up to the beautiful champagne pools. We got there to think just on the right tide, so the water was splashing over the rocks and making the lovely bubbling of about making you feel like you're swimming in a big bath of champagne. After we had soaked in the bubbles for a while, we then decided to walk back to the car. Now, if the walk back up to the car park from champagne pools is quite nice, you walk on a boardwalk and you can see over a few of the other beaches around. It's a really nice vantage point. We popped into the general store at Orchard Beach as well just to grab an ice cream and a bit of extra fuel. There are a couple of places on the island you can top up with fuel Yes, it's more expensive than the mainland, but it is very convenient. On our way up and down the beach we also stopped off to look at the min shipwreck. This is a really interesting wreck which has been on the beach for decades now. It's very rusty, but you can still definitely tell it was a big ship. It's a really interesting spot to get out and have a bit of a walk around. Make sure you don't get there on high tide, though, get there on a lower tide so you can actually actually walk around and have a really good look at it. It's also a nice spot to get a picture of the car in front of the boat as well. Just be aware, though, that the beach actually has highway rules you can drive up to 80 kilometres an hour on the beach. It is basically a road so just be careful where you're stopping and getting out the car. Just be aware of other cars around you. Now as we were driving up and down the beach, it was really cool we got to see quite a few dingoes and we actually saw a dingo pup as well, which was very cute. Just remember, though, even though they are very cute to look at and fluffy and they do look a bit skinny, you think oh, should I feed them? don't feed them, they are wild dogs, they're not pets. They can become aggressive if people do feed them so please don't do it because if they get aggressive and bite someone, they do get destroyed. Next we headed to the beautiful Eli creek. Now this is a very famous spot on the island where you park up and spend the day floating up and down the creek. The creek is absolutely beautiful. Just be aware there that you do have to take a boardwalk to get there, and there is also a boardwalk up to the toilets as well. w with this in bare feet and it was absolutely boiling. honestly, it was so painful walking on the boardwalk where it had been in the sun all day so hot tip make sure you wear your shoes. Pun intended. Now to get to the beachy bit where you park up for the day, you do need to drive through some water. I do believe from memory that it was fresh water. However, it was pretty deep. The car that we were in didn't have a nor cool and we were a little bit nervous, but after we have seen a few other people drive through, we just gave it a go and made it through it no problem. We were in a trusty hundred series land cruiser, so to be honest, I don't quite know why we were so nervous. Now it's probably only a couple of hundred metres walk on the boardwalk to get down to where you hop into the creek at the start. I think Eli Creek pumps out something ridiculous like 300 million lit of water a day so you can guarantee you'll be flowing when you get there. You hop down a couple of steps at the end get into the lovely water, and this is where bringing something inflatable p pays off. You can sit back, relax and just float down the creek back to your car. We didn't bring floaties with us or anything inflatable, but we just didn't have enough room in our bags. If we had back next time with our own car and caravan, we'll definitely load it up with all the inflatables. If you know if you don't have anything to float on, it's still a really nice spot to just walk along. You're amongst the trees. It walking through the beautiful clear water. It's a really popular spot. once you get back to the car to stop and have some lunch, you want me the only one having that idea, though it is a very popular spot for tourist groups to stop and have lunch as well? Now one thing about Fraser Island is that it really does key for everyone, so you might have groups like Erst just hiring a car and bringing it on to the island for a few days. You might have backpackers who are taking part in a tagong tours. You might have people coming in four drive groups in their own cars, you might have people coming just for a day trip on a big four-wheel drive bus. It really does appeal to a whole wide range of travelers. Now if you are stopping and having food here again just a reminder this is a really populous spot for dingoes to hang out as well. just be aware if you do have little kids with you they're playing splashing round in the water just keep your eye out for the dingoes because they definitely will be hanging around. Once we' done at Eli Creek we decided to explore some of the inland tracks and head out to some of the other lakes. We drove up to the lookout where you can see lake Wabi. This is the lake that's right next to the huge sand dunes. If you look at pictures of Fraser Island, I'm sure it'll come up. This lake is actually slowly being lost as the sand dunes shifts across is actually making the lake smaller and smaller, so see it where you can. We then drove up to lake Birabin for a look as well. Some people say this lake is as good as lake Mackenzie to be honest I didn't quite think so. Yes, it does have white sand, but the water was a little bit brackish, and you wouldn't really want to swim there. We explored the inland tracks further as we slowly made our way back to the accommodation. It is worth noting that the inland tracks are quite narrow in a lot of places they are one way, so just take your time as you may have to stop, pull in or reverse to the end of the cargo pass. The drive through the rainforest, though on the inland tracks is absolutely stunning, definitely do it, go exploring. You'll most likely be given a map when you head over to the island if you're hiring a car or make sure you take a bit of time to explore those tracks. In terms of four-wheel driving there, it's really not that technical at all. Yes, there is nagala rocks and people do get bogged after they drive through it. However, for the most part, the rest of the island is very easy driving. while my husband Tom is a very experiencedfulwel driver me, my sister, her husband really didn't have that much experience at all. I don't think any of us are actually driven on Sam before and we are all absolutely fine. There really isn't anything too technical at all. You just need to make sure that you slow down for washouts on the beach. They can sneak up on you and watch out for the tides. You don't want to get yourself stuck when the tidees coming in because it would be a disaster. On our way back to Kingfisher resore we did have an unfortunate incident with the snake where we may have ever so slightly ran over one. It was some baking on the track and we thought it was a stick and then the last minute realized it wouldn't. The snake was jet black in color and we think it might have been a tian. These are extremely deadly and poisonous. We took a very quick picture and then got out of there because it was not happy. We did ever so slightly squish it on a sandy track, though, and I think it actually squashed down into the sand. didn't appear to be injured, so we just left it be. Our final night back our accommodation and we just made some food and fortunately they had scrabbled there as well, so we had a couple of games of scrabble. We also walked down to the jetty area where the boat comes in because the sunset there was absolutely fantastic. It was so orange the water was really still and calm. It was a really beautiful last night on the island. The next day we got up quite early and hopped on the ferry back to Harvey Bay. Now is our responsibility to wash the car after we had been on the island, unfortunately in Harvey Bay and Riverheads they do have really good car washes there, obviously because a lot of people do go to Fraser Island and get salt water on their car. We gave it a really good scrub, took it back to where we borrowed it from and picked up a higher car, absolutely no issues there at all, and then we started making our way south. We were heading to Brisbane and it was time to head home. We did stop off in Noosa on the way. We just grabbed lunch at a random seedood place, which was near the river. We did attempt to go into the main part of Noosa in order to get some ice cream. However, there was absolutely nowhere to park. It was chockers. I'm pretty sure it was a Saturday and it might have also been the start of school holidays as well, so it was just so busy. Then we eventually made our way to Brisbane Air. My sister and her husband went back to the UK and Tom and I went back to Melbourne. This was a really fantastic trip and I think what stood out for all of us was just the natural beauty up in North Queensland the beaches, the waterfalls, all the rock holes that you can swim in, all the bird life, turtles, lizards, sharks, snakes, dingoes, butterflies. We just saw so much wildlife there. It was incredible. This is definitely a part of the country we want to have back to, and actually explore further north of Cape tribulation all the way up to Cape York. There's also so many places we missed out on and they're definitely on the list for next time places like Yopoon, all the Capel islands off there as well, plenty of the places in the Whitsund is that we didn't get to plus magnetic island, and there's a few other national parks here as well that we want to explore to. Now while the east coast is far more populated than the west coast, for example, it does mean that you have an abundance of options when it comes to accommodation. If you fancied staying at a really high end resort, every location you went to, you'd probably be able to find it, and at the same time, if you wanted to find budget accommodation or caravan parks, that sort of thing, you'd also have plenty of choice at all the really popular tourist spots. For us we chose pretty low cost Airbn bees throughout our whole trip, and they were all really good, very clean, very safe, no complaints. The episode coming out next week is going to be Hamilton Island, which I missed out on this podcast because we've been there a couple of times and there's heaps to say about it. Our accommodation there was very expensive. I taught more about that next week, and that was the one part of the trip where we really wanted to splurge and just stay in the nicest place. It's also very easy to self cater when you're in that part of the country as well. There are plenty of supermarkets and most accommodation, even backpacker hostels will have big kitchens that you can use in order to cook your own meals and save some money. The same goes for car hire or moat home rent as well. There's plenty of places you can pick up and drop off cars and if you're in a motor home, there's lots of places to stay. However, there really is a much free camping in all the tourist hotspots, so just double check when you are parked up, you are definitely allowed to be there. Tom and I got caught out yet we were complete rookies, we stayed overnight in a place where we were not allowed to park and ended up with a fine of I think about $400, which was not ideal. One final is taken into consideration if you are driving is that there are always roadworks on the Bruce highway. Does a matter what time of year you are there, there will be roadworks just factor in a little bit extra time when you are traveling between places. That's a wrap on this episode next week I will see you on Hamilton Island. Don't forget if you want to see any footage of these trips you can find us on YouTube at Shire travels. You can also find us on Instagram too at shire.travels.