Cairns and Darwin

From Brisbane we continued a little further north to a stop on the Sunshine Coast. We enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere and incredible beaches there before continuing on. Our next stop was in Rockhampton. It is touted as the beef capital of Australia and has the rural, farming town feel to match. Another long day of driving through cane fields brought us to Townsville. It is a beautiful town with an incredible white sand beach, an active nightlife and a wonderful hill in the middle of town that provides beautiful vistas of the surrounding country. A final long day of driving through banana plantations brought us to Cairns. Townsville was definitely worth a visit but it is hard for us to recommend the drive. As one website we read said, “take a look at how long the drive from Brisbane to Cairns is and then buy an airline ticket.” 

Cairns is the stopping off point for most tourists who hope to see the Great Barrier Reef. We were no different and as soon as we got into town, tried to find a boat that would take us out to see it. Unfortunately for us it was the end of a long Easter weekend and the boats were already full. We were disappointed, but managed to have some fun by going to a BBQ where we met other travelers and tried emu, crocodile and kangaroo meat. Cairns does not have a beach for relaxing and swimming so they built a large pool called The Lagoon in a waterfront park so that people can enjoy swimming near the sea. We certainly learned a good lesson about checking holiday dates and making bookings in advance. 


We were ambitious enough to drive up the east coast, but driving to Darwin was way outside of our timeframe so we hopped on a plane. The first thing that we noticed when we landed was the incredible heat. Temperatures neared 40C with humidity over 80% and I started sweating almost immediately while Jenni glowed. The city of Darwin is pretty small without much going on in the CBD, but in the surrounding country there are some incredible national parks and an amazing variety of wildlife. We were hoping to visit Kakadu National Park but found out that the minimum time for a tour of the park was three days. We only had time to do a day tour of Litchfield National Park. The tour included a visit to see crocodiles on the Adelaide River, the magnetic termite mounds and some beautiful waterfalls.