Australia: East Coat Road Trip v2
- Will Boddington
- Apr 27, 2019
- 5 min read
Some people never get to drive down the East Coast of Australia, but we've been lucky enough to do it twice!
After our week in Tasmania, we still had a few weeks before our planned trip to Uluru. We managed to find a campervan relocation from Cairns to Melbourne that fit our time frame perfectly - and the best part? 12 free days and two free tanks of petrol! Thank you Traveller's Autobarn!
We drove from Cairns down to just above Townsville for the night, stopping via the Big Cassowary - one of Australia's Big Things - which turned out to be a bit of a lucky charm as we saw our first wild cassowary while we were driving about an hour later! We also stopped at Panjoo Lookout and Hinchinbrook Lookout, which overlook Hinchinbrook Island.
We were intending to go for a swim in our favourite lagoon just outside of Townsville but unfortunately it was closed for maintenance so we continued down to Airlie Beach, with a quick stop at the Big Cane Toad in Sarina. We spent a day in Sarina last time we did the trip, but neither of us got a picture of the cane toad for some reason.
We really wanted to see the Whitsunday Islands but the trips were all quite expensive and the weather wasn't the best for a beach day, so we impulse booked a skydive over the Whitsundays instead! It still doesn't quite feel real that we've jumped out of a plane 15,000ft in the air, but it was such an incredible experience.
We were staying at Seabreeze Tourist Park as it was close to get to and from the SkyDive office, and made the most of the park by staying for an extra night so we could use the swimming pool, the amazing showers and have a meal at Banjo's, a popular restaurant just down the road.
As we had already driven to most places along the East Coast and due to our time restrictions, we continued down over the next couple of days to the Gold Coast. We stopped here before (briefly) but Julie had since been back to compete at Nationals and was looking forward to spending a few hours in Broadbeach, the area she had stayed in for those few days. There was a cafe that did an amazing brunch she was shown last time, and was determined to find it again. True to Julie style, we had a great big walk around Pacific Fair before she realised it was at the other shopping centre a 5 minute drive down the road... We eventually found it, and it was sooo worth it. We highly recommend Elk Espresso if you're ever in the area!
In a bit of a food coma, we crossed over the road to go for a swim and sunbathe on the beach for a few hours, before quickly grabbing the best ice creams from The Gelato Shop to sustain us on our drive down to Sydney - Julie went for Ferrero Rocher and salted caramel, and Will also tried the salted caramel with a scoop of Mars bar ice cream.
We drove down to Sydney and spent a morning on Bondi Beach - thanks to a handy app called Oscar Share Parking for the cheap parking! - before heading away from the coast and over to Canberra, as we kept to the coastal route last time and didn't make it to the capital. We pulled into a free site next to a lake - only there wasn't any water, but lots of kangaroos instead! We also chatted to a man in the van next to us, who told us he was a photographer at the Balloon Extravaganza in Canberra, which was starting the next morning. He told us that from around 6.30am, lots of hot air balloons launch over the city, and that he was heading to a nearby viewpoint on Mount Ainslie to watch. We decided to join him, so at 6.30am the next morning we were one of many people staring over Canberra, waiting for the balloons to rise. Sunrise came and went, but no balloons... A few people drifted away, including the photographers, so we decided to head into the city to get a better view from the grounds they were launching in, at the Old Parliament. After a quick social media search on the way, we realised the weather had been deemed as too bad to launch the balloons, but a few were secured on the grounds so people could have a look. We wandered around for a bit, surprised that there was so much action and festival vibes were getting into full swing at only 7.30 in the morning!
We managed to also do a quick bit of sightseeing around Canberra, so before lunch time we were already on our way down to Wilson's Prom. We realised en route that the national park was still closed due to fires, so we carried on over to our next destination, Phillip Island.
Visiting Phillip Island on Labor Day weekend probably wasn't our smartest idea, but it wasn't too busy. We arrived in time for the pelican feeding at San Remo, which was great to watch - every day at midday, around 30 pelicans gather on the beach waiting to be fed the leftover fish from the nearby restaurants. Once we'd had a good giggle at their antics, we continued over the bridge and further onto the island, heading for the coastal walk to the shipwreck at Kitty Miller Bay. From the car park, it was about 1km across the beach, over the rocks, up around the coastal path and down a steep dirt slope to the wreck of SS Speke. The Speke was originally a three-masted steel ship over 90 metres long, however the majority of the ship was broken up into smaller debris that was scattered along the coast.
We continued down to The Nobbies Centre, where there is a short boardwalk with amazing views over The Nobbies and Seal Rocks, with Australia's largest colony of fur seals. We also saw some penguins! We saw a few in the little burrow-type nests on the hill, as well as a few sheltering from the wind under the boardwalk.
On our way back across the island, we did one final stop in the chocolate factory for a hot chocolate each and a caramel slice before heading to our camp for the night.
Our final day in the camper was fairly relaxed, as we didn't have anything planned due to Wilson's Prom being closed the previous day and moving our plans along a bit. We drove into St Kilda and had a walk along the beach and pier, then drove around to the other side of the bay and had a walk along Williamstown beach.
Being able to drive down the East Coast again and seeing places we recognised, as well as seeing and doing new things, was an amazing experience and a great spontaneous decision. Being able to use a high top van was also a new experience as we'd never considered renting one before as they're more expensive than van we hired previously. Van relocations are definitely a great way of being able to get from place to place while seeing a bit of the country, but we were glad we had already done this route as we had to be really selective with where we stopped and did so much more driving each day than before. It was still a lot of fun and we're really excited to continue our travels!
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