Travelling Gypsy Life Entry 40

Man alive, so much has happened since I last posted! I’ve done a million and one things, seen most of coastal Queensland and now I’m in sunny Cairns, questioning how they cope with their summers if it’s this warm in their autumn. But anyway…

Since I last posted, I have stayed in Noosa for around ten days with another amazing Helpx family. A nice big house, with my own big room and their own kegged beer and cider! What more could a girl want? The work was easy and their kids were cute, which I often don’t say. Plus beer and cider on literal tap.

I did the typical stuff in Noosa such as walking through the national park, going to Eumundi markets, to get fat, and laying at the beach. I also tried fishing for the first time which I’m not sure if I quite believe in, being vegetarian and all, but I didn’t catch anything so no harm done.

After Noosa I headed to the Fraser Coast to stay with a quirky family, who probably weren’t quite for me. To put it nicely, they were pretty open-minded, way more than I thought I was, as most evenings they have nudist spas with their Helpx helpers… Safe to safe, they did tell me this before I turned up so it wasn’t like I got there and it was, “so Becky can you strip please”, but at least now I can tick that off the list, and no I won’t de displaying my experience with any pictures. Apart from naked spas with strangers, I got to see Fraser Island and Rainbow Beach which was pretty spectacular and different from your typical Aussie beach. The family had their own boat so I was lucky enough to go out on and see Fraser Island for free! Also, a couple of dolphins came up to the boat with was pretty surreal! We went fishing and the family caught a small shark and that’s confirmed that I hate fishing and I never want to do it again…

Then I took a fourteen hour night bus to Airlie Beach. Why oh why is everything so far away here?! In Airlie Beach I couchsurfed with a pretty interesting bunch. The host was great but his housemates were dodgy, and he knew that so he thought couchsurfers could brighten up the place. Another story to tell after a few drinks.

I didn’t like Airlie Beach too much. It is the gateway to the beautiful Whitsundays but the actual town is backpacker central, so far too many sunburnt British guys with shit tattoos and bags of goon. I didn’t get a chance to sail the Whitsundays in the end as I met up with two German girls who were road tripping to Cairns and I jumped at that opportunity instead, and I’m so glad I did!

These two Fraulines had their own van/big car and we camped/couchsurfed/vanned it to Cairns and saw some incredible things on the way that I never would have seen otherwise. We stopped in Townsville and couchsurfed with a seventy year old man who was like a big granddad, I didn’t want to leave him! Then we sailed over to Magnetic Island for the day, which was nice but not a place I would say you definitely need to stop at. We snorkelled, hiked around and fed some wallabies which I wanted to put in my backpack and ship home.

After Townsville, we spent the last few days exploring waterfalls and acting like the mermaid I was born to be. We hiked and swam in Wallaman falls which is the highest in Australia. Then we swam and slid down rocks at Josephine falls which was pretty sweet, but I've got a huge bruise on my ass now, so not too pretty...
However, I’m loving northern, tropical Queensland. So much rainforest everywhere with a million and one banana farms and tons of tropical fruits. The landscape up here is beautiful and so green and the temperature is pretty perfect for me, so just 25-28°c, perfect tanning weather! We got to Cairns yesterday and I parted with the two amazing German girls and I spent my night couchsurfing with a guy who does his own tours around Cairns. And now today, I’m ready to move onto my next Helpx family today.

So to cut a long story short….the past few weeks have been fun, but my road trip was incredible and I'd love someone to grab a van with me. Excited for the next few days scuba diving in the Great Barrier Reef and going crocodile exploring. Can’t believe I’m already in Cairns, this trip has gone so quickly, and only a month or so left in Aus before I head to New Zealand to pretend I’m Gandalf for a few months.

Peace out for now x