For what felt like the majority of May, we were holed up in and around Byron Bay. With the exception of my birthday and the last few days of May we managed to escape. I’ll give you a travel update here on where we’ve been and what we’ve been up to, because we’ve managed a fair distance!
Byron Bay to Noosa, 335 km
208 miles
This journey looked more like Kingscliff to Byron to Noosa. Silly me had left all of our important documents in Byron Bay so we had to return to fetch them again. We retrieved them and pretended like that never happened, so this heading is a bit misleading and should really say Kingscliff to Murwillumbah to Byron to Murwillumbah to Noosa.
Moving on. We met a couple in Kingscliff that suggested we take a scenic drive through Murwillumbah, Chillingham and Numinbah Valley. It skipped out Gold coast which we wanted to avoid anyway having stopped off due to necessity (to pick up my stoma bags), and hated it.
The gold coast is great for those who have lots of money, like the hustle and bustle of cities, always want something to do. We’re just not city people so it was overwhelming, chaotic, loud. We were glad of the scenic route that avoided it at all cost.
Fewer cars, sealed roads and amazing views of the Numinbah Valley as you drive alongside it and then through it. Best road trip so far and I think Ben would agree. We also finally crossed the New South Wales (NSW) border into Queensland (QLD). 6 months of NSW!
We arrived in Noosa about 30 minutes before the sun went down. It was wet. It was getting dark. We took a quick stroll around before driving to a free campspot outside of town. Maybe it’ll be somewhere we explore on the way down because I’ve heard lots of great things, but we weren’t in the mood to stay.
Noosa to Hervey Bay, 186 km
116 miles
The next morning we said goodbye to Noosa and headed up the Queensland coast into Hervey Bay. Greeted with the high tide that came all the way up to the flood barrier was a beautiful site on a sunny day.
This part of QLD is the only genuine stopover for humpback whales on their migration to the antarctic, with up to 10,000 deviating from this journey! They stay for up to 10 days playing and socialising in this area. Unfortunately we were a little early as they come by July-October, but we’re hoping we can catch them on the way down.
We spent some time here soaking up the (very much needed) sunshine, walking along the Urangan pier to look out to the well known K’gari (formerly known as Fraser) island. The Uragan pier is one of the longest in QLD and stretches almost 1km into the ocean.
Hervey Bay to Bundaberg, 110 km
68 miles
Our next sought after destination was Airlie beach, but we thought while we were passing, we may as well pop into Bundaberg and check out the Bundaberg distillery.
Bundaberg is an Australian rum with all of it’s ingredients sourced and processed in the Bundaberg Central city. We took the tour at $30 pp, and learned of the history of rum in that region of Australia and the history of the factory.
Bundaberg rum is made from molasses. A by product of producing sugar from sugar cane, and has flavour notes similar to treacle, golden syrup and licorice. We took a look inside their biggest and oldest molasses vat, saw their fermentation tanks and learned they keep their specific yeast strain dormant in the national collection of yeast bank in the Quadram Institute, Norwich, England! Where I did my undergraduate research project!
Bundaberg to Gladstone harbour 186 km, 116 miles
From Bundaberg, we stopped off at Gladstone harbour just to break up the longer drive to Mackay a little. During WWII Gladstone harboured around 8000 US troops in June 1942.
We took a walk around, ran in the water jets, did a little workout in the outdoor gym and said goodbye the next day.
Gladstone Harbour to Mackay, 443 km
275 miles
A very brief stop in Mackay, just to sleep really. But we did find a park with a giant wooden hamster wheel we ran about in and injured ourselves. It was worth the fun though. There is a little video on instagram for your entertainment.
Mackay to Airlie beach 151 km, 94 miles
Airlie beach (oddly pronounced Ellie and not Air-lie). The gateway to Whitsunday islands, famous for their incredibly blue waters and white sands. Getting to the islands was a bit out of our price range so we did the next best thing and took a little hike to a lookout spot to see the islands.
This really was the bluest water I’ve ever seen in my life. Even on the cloudy day we arrived the water was BLUE. We delayed our stay and our hike to experience Airlie on a sunny day and wow the view didn’t disappoint.
We certainly saw why it is so popular among all the sail boats and yachts bobbing in the port and the huge cruise ship in the distance. The town was commercialised as you’d expect for a tourist destination but it was clean with a free pool just by the sea.
There was no ocean dips here as we saw our first warning sign for box jelly fish and Irakanji. I’d rather not swim about where there could be a potentially fatal jelly fish that’s hard to spot at 1-2cm. Also nobody else was in the water, and that’s enough to give me more than a bit of hesitation.
Airlie Beach to Townsville, 272 km
169 miles
The journey continues and now we’re exploring Townsville. We’re a bit tired from all that driving, 1683km (1046 miles) in under a week has gotten us a little jaded.
While we’re here we plan on exploring Magnetic island before heading up further north to Cairns! The depressing reality is we’re running low on the money we earned a few months ago so we’re having to spend our time applying for jobs. Wish us luck and I hope you enjoyed this travel update!
