January 9 The last day. I’m leaving on the 10th, at 5 in the morning. Happy and sad, it was a great trip. Anyway, we hiked around Danbull national park for a couple of hours (and almost got lost), then drove down to Cairns. The brakes of the van started squealing when I drove down the mountain, even though I was driving as fast as possible to avoid using them....
Jan 2 I don’t remember much of this day - we drove until Carmilla. We have been driving on the Bruce Highway for days. Every time I see a “Bruce highway” sign I have to think of Monty Python’s sketch about Australia . We met a nice but slightly passive guy named Mick at the campsite. He told us that the plantations we drove through the whole day are macadamias. Jan 1: We got up pretty late and quite hung over....
December 26 We went to Byron Bay. Barbara tried to book a trip to Fraser Island, but it didn’t work out. The beach was fantastic: We walked down to the beach and saw the lighthouse in the distance - “20 minutes”, said Barbara. I said it was going to be longer, but to be honest I didn’t expect it to take an entire hour as it did. On the plus side, the views were fantastic and I saw my first wallaby (a small kangaroo)....