my wife and i,are going to do a 5 week camper van trip from Cairns to Adelaid in feb 2010. And would like some information, on what to look out for i,e,best camp sites,good dining and things not to be missed,we have already had 2 weeks in Cairns and a week in Sydney, so we will not be seeing to much of those.

I think marg may be very knowldgeable on such a trip.

I am sure she will be along soon.

Good luck

Muck

What route have you got in mind from Cairns to Adelaide?

Hi,we are going on the east coast run,Cairns,Brisbane,sydney Melbourn and Adelaid,but we are not held to that route.thanks.

We've been up and down the east coast many times with a car and caravan and we're only too pleased to help other travellers.
Let me know your interests and what you particularly want to see and I'll recommend some camping spots/caravan parks, places to visit etc. Do you want to stay in the big cities or would you prefer to bypass them?
In February, school holidays will be over and you should be able to get in almost anywhere without booking which will give you the ability to change your mind and itinerary as you feel.

I Marg,We are interested in most things,we like culture,history,walking,and breathtaking scenary.We are not to fussy about cities wehave had a 2 week stay in Cairns,and a week in Sydney, so we are hopeing to see more of what Aussie has to offer,we will be having a look around the tablelands on our way down.thanks mike.

Hi Mike,

Here’s a list of places we would visit from Cairns to Adelaide. I can give you more details if you want them, and also camping places etc. I’m assuming you will want to stay on the coastal highway for most of the time.

From Cairns you could drive through the Atherton Tablelands and come back on the main highway at Innisfail. The Undara lava tubes are interesting – there is a camp ground at the resort and you need to book a tour with their guides.

On the main highway, The Boulders (about 60 km south of Cairns) is a good place to stop for a lunch break or stay in their free camping ground overnight.

Just south of Innisfail and off the main highway is Paronella Park. Very interesting but you need to take their short tour to appreciate it. They have a small camping ground at the park.

Mission Beach is the perfect tropical beach and a nice place to overnight.

At Townsville, you can visit the Reef aquarium, go to the lookout at Castle Hill, wander along the Strand or take the ferry to Magnetic Island.

If you want to go out to some of the islands in the Whitsundays, you’ll need to stay at Airlie Beach (no beach but a man-made lagoon in the town). The tourist offices in Airlie Beach often have last minute deals on island trips.

From Mackay you can do a day trip to Finch Hatton Eungella National Park– we have always seen platypuses there.

Rockhampton is a big regional town – we always bypass the town and stay at Yeppoon or Emu Park – both nice beach towns.

Childers is an interesting little town – turn off there for Bundaberg (visit the rum distillery) and onto Hervey Bay where you can take the ferry to Fraser Island. Fraser Island is strictly 4WD territory so you would need to take a tour or stay overnight at one of the resorts. At Tin Can Bay, you can visit the dolphins.

The Sunshine Coast has lots of places along the coast. Noosa is the most upmarket, Caloundra the biggest town, or cross the bridge to stay at Bribie Island. Apart from gorgeous beaches, you can visit the hinterland and visit Montville (pretty place with lots of little shops and restaurants), the Glasshouse Mountains etc. Eumundi Market is worth visiting.

This is a starter. If you want more, I’m glad to keep on going.

Marg.

Hi Marge,thankyou for those snippits of information,they will come in handy,i dont want to put you to to much trouble but any thing you can pass on will be more than wellcome. thanks mike.

Mike,

More travel notes.
From the Sunshine Coast, it’s an easy run either into Brisbane (I can recommend a caravan park close to public transport and shops etc) or the Gold Coast. Be warned that the freeway is a toll road which I think you can pay either in cash or with an E-tag (electronic toll payment). In Sydney and Brisbane, I think cash or E-tag is accepted but in Melbourne, there are no provisions for paying tolls with cash – you need to have either an E-tag or pay in advance or pay within a few hours after using the freeway. The Gold Coast is a great holiday place – lots of good places to stay, theme parks, casino, terrific beaches etc. The hinterland has some lovely national parks so worth a day’s drive to Lamington National Park or one of the others. If you’ve visited Australia before, you will be aware of the reasonably priced meals served at the clubs – just sign in as a visitor and you can use the club’s restaurants and facilities.

Heading south, you could visit Mt Warning National Park, Bryon Bay, Ballina, Yamba, Coffs Harbour, Port Macquarie – all very nice towns with good beaches and facilities. Port Stephens (just north of Newcastle) is a bit off the highway but worth the detour – again nice towns, good beaches. If you want to stay in Sydney, Lane Cove caravan park is situated within a national park, has a very good reputation and is close to public transport to get into the city.

If you intend to bypass Sydney, there is a freeway almost all the way through the city which will be signposted Canberra (that’s assuming you want to head down the Hume Highway and visit our capital city). Great museums, art galleries, parks, etc – generally lots to see. The Telstra tower on Black Mountain and the lookout on Mt Ainslie are worth visiting to get views over the city. From Canberra, you could turn back to the coast to Batemans Bay and then follow the coast road through to Melbourne. If you go this route, stop off at Narooma and Merimbula (great caravan park at Pambula Beach five km south of Merimbula), visit Tilba Tilba, perhaps Mallacoota or Lakes Entrance. You could detour to Wilsons Promontory which has spectacular coastal scenery or to the Tarra Bulga National Park rainforest.

The alternative is to take the Hume through to Melbourne, detouring to visit Bright and Beechworth and some of the other small towns along the way. Melbourne is my home town so let me know if you want suggestions – great winery area, good zoo, excellent art galleries, etc. If you don’t want to visit Melbourne, then I’d suggest that you follow the coastal roads to Sorrento and take the ferry across the bay to Queenscliff.

I always think the next best thing to having a holiday yourself is to help some one else plan their holiday so stay tuned for the next instalment.

Hi Marg,Thank you for the latest installment,you are realy making us look forward to it even more.Could you please give us some tips on the spiders ect,and how best to avoid getting bitten.thankyou so much.mike

The spider threat is much over-rated, Mike. The most venemous is the funnelweb, mostly confined to sandstone areas in the Sydney region, I understand, and in the VERY unlikely event you were to see one the best way to avoid getting bitten is to refrain from picking it up, a good rule for most spiders.

The most common dangerous spider is the redback, related to the American black widow; not life-threatening except perhaps in the case of small children but it can make you pretty sick. It is however sluggish and non-aggressive and prefers dark and secluded places like the underside of rocks. Australian gardeners are used to them and wear gloves. Unless you enjoy fossicking around in rocks etc. you're highly unlikely to see one.

One spider that can freak visitors out is the large, hairy-legged huntsman. It's harmless, although it can give you a nip if you're silly enough to grab it. They often come into our house and roam around on the walls and ceilings - most of the time we ignore them and they ignore us.

In the (I repeat highly unlikely) event that you're bitten by a venemous spider all Australian hospitals carry stocks of anti-venene. It helps of course if you can tell them what variety fanged you.

Venemous snakes are numerous but prefer to stay clear of humans; if you're bushwalking they'll usually hear you coming and make themselves scarce, so you probably won't see any of them either.

If you hike in coastal regions in particular, there's a small chance of picking up a tick. The best way to remove them is to tie a loop of thread around it, as close to the skin as possible, and gently pull it out.

In Far North Queensland heed local warnings about saltwater crocodiles and cassowaries (a large flightless bird that can be aggressive).

Personally, I worried more about bears and rattlers in the States than I ever worry about the wildlife in Australia.

<Personally, I worried more about bears and rattlers in the States than I ever worry about the wildlife in Australia>

Neil, I'm probably as amused by this comment as Australians are amused by tourists' fear of Aussie creepy crawlies.

I hail from bear and rattler country, and haven't seen a bear since I was a kid (in Yellowstone), although I've seen their paw prints on hiking trails and my mom had a brush with one a few years back. I've never encountered a rattler, and I'd like to keep it that way.

My fear of snakes and spiders here in Australia far outweighs my fear of bears and rattlers though. I've seen plenty of snakes and spiders here, and yes those huntsman are creepy with a capital C.

Fortunately, most of the crawlies here seem to abide by a live and let live policy, which suits me just fine.

I totally agree with you Melnq8, huntsmen are scary. I don't mind when they run around on the ceiling, I even tolerate the one that wants to live in the compost bin, but it totally freaks me out when they get into the car!

Hi Mike,

I'll lived in Australia most of my life and have never been bitten by a spider, and I've only seen two or three snakes so you'll be pretty safe.

While you are in Victoria, I’d suggest a visit to Sovereign Hill in Ballarat (really good folk museum) and the Gold Museum. Melbourne has a great zoo plus a native animal sanctuary in Healesville – if you drive to Healesville, you’ll go through the Yarra Valley which has lots of wineries. The Queen Victoria market in Melbourne is a great place to buy food, clothes, gifts to take home etc. Lots of nice beaches around the bay. St Kilda has a market on the Esplanade on Sundays which is worth visiting just to people watch.

From Melbourne, you’ll probably want to take the Great Ocean Road to Adelaide – it’s a very scenic route with lots of places to stop. Depending on how much time you have, you could stop overnight at Anglesea or Apollo Bay or Lorne – lots of caravan parks along the way. Mariners Lookout (just east of Apollo Bay) has great views, and there are some walks to waterfalls etc near Lorne. Our preference is to wander our way through to Port Fairy and stop there. It’s a little old fishing port – lots of caravan parks and places to eat etc (good fish and chips place on the river). If you want to see some more Australian wildlife, you could visit Tower Hill (about 15 minutes away) for emus, possibly koalas and kangaroos. You can usually see koalas at Mount Eccles (about 30 minutes north of Port Fairy). Warrnambool is a fairly large town with a maritime museum.

From Port Fairy, you could head north to Halls Gap – a small town in the middle of the Grampians national park. If you want to go bushwalking, then this is the place. You should see emus and kangaroos in this area. From Halls Gap, you can head a bit further north to Stawell or Horsham both of which are on the main highway to Adelaide. You can detour off the highway at Murray Bridge and take the ferry across the river to Mannum and then onto to the Barossa Valley – great area to explore, particularly if you like a glass of wine – and then drive into Adelaide from there. In Adelaide we always stay at Adelaide Shores caravan park at West Beach. It’s not the closest caravan park to the city but is large with good facilities and clean. It’s close to the airport with a bus service to the city from just outside the park. It’s also close to Glenelg which is a nice outer suburb with lots of places to eat.

If you prefer to follow the coast, it’s a longer route but goes through Mount Gambier and then along the Coorong which is pretty unique and normally has lots of water birds.

Let me know roughly which places you want to stay at, and I can recommend some nice free camping areas plus some good caravan parks.

Good luck with the planning.

Being an older person who has lived most of my life in remote and rural areas and spending much of my free time in the bush, I have been exposed to these creatures more than most. I have been bitten at least twice by spiders. I say at least twice as most spider bites are as consequential as most mosquito bites. Both of these times I was handling the spider.

I was once bitten by a snake when it was not obviously my own fault. Though a poisonous snake it did not envenomate.

It really is true that if you leave them alone they'll do the same for you.

I was at Undara Lava Tubes the week before last.

There is a camp ground - you need to book. The food in the restaurant was quite good, and not too expensive - considering the cost of a bed in one of the train carriages for a night!
Especially recommended is the bush breakfast - out in the open. One little German princess failed to cope with having to make her own toast over a campfire, and waited for table (or log - in this case) service. Wonder if she's still waiting?

Proves that princesses should not travel without their attendants, margo.

Hi everyone, I would like to thank you all very much, especially Marg, for the infomation you have given us. As most of you are from Oz, I would just like to say how lucky you are, and what lovely people you are. We are looking forward to our Aussie adventure, and we will be thinking of you while we enjoy ourselves!

Thanks again, Mike & Denise.