The next stop on our road trip was Brisbane – capital of Queensland. We spent a couple of days enjoying the buzz of being back in the big smoke – we didn’t really know what to expect but were pleasantly surprised! It’s a lovely city, wrapped around a zig-zaggy river with lots of great bars, restaurants and outdoor spaces. We spent a lot of time walking along the South Bank and lying among the palm trees in the Botanic Gardens, reading our books and catching up on our journals.

We had heard that the coffee in Australia could be potent but up until then hadn’t really experienced it. It’s strong stuff! A few too many long blacks at a hipster breakfast joint one morning and we were reduced to crazy eyed, jibbering wrecks – we ended up having to abandon our sightseeing plans to go lie down in the park and hold onto the ground as we spun around!

Back in civilisation!

Streets Beach, Brisbane

South Bank, Brisbane

We thought we were being very clever by arranging to transfer a vehicle from Brisbane to Melbourne instead of paying the fairly hefty last minute air fare. Rental companies sometimes need to move vehicles around the country and so basically offer them free to unsuspecting chumps, I mean, tourists. On this occasion, the rental company needed an old Land Cruiser 4×4 banger called Victor moved from Brisbane to Melbourne…what could go wrong?!

Poor old Victor was extremely rickety and just not built for hammering down the highways. The novelty of riding in such a retro antique wore off after about half a mile… only 1,800 to go!

Our first stop was Byron Bay and we spent a couple of hours at the lighthouse which marks the most easterly point of Australia. Again we were fortunate enough to see some whales on their annual migration. The views were magnificent from high up on the cliffs. We wanted to stay for longer, but we had to hit the road in order to get Victor to Melbourne within our three day time limit. 

Whale spotting in Byron Bay

Cape Byron Lighthouse

Nambucca Heads breakwater

On we drove into the evening, eventually stopping at a place called Nambucca Heads. We quickly pitched our tent in the dark and went to make dinner in the ‘camp kitchen’ where some sort of family reunion seemed to be taking place. We must have looked a fairly sorry sight as one of the family reunion-ers felt obliged to offer us some left over party grub – result! We had a lovely walk along the breakwater in the morning where each and every rock was painted in beautiful bright colours.

Nambucca Heads

Our next few days were filled with excitement as Victor decided to break down …twice!

Pete and Victor at Wangaratta

Despite the breakdowns (Victor and us) and the never ending highway, we began to get used to rattling around in our dusty wagon and taking in the ever changing scenery around us. Then, all of a sudden, on a journey we thought would never end, we caught our first glimpse of the Melbourne skyline in the distance.