Second day
Eric and I were exhausted but eager the next day as we got on the road headed North. We had our coffee and hit a local grocery store for road snacks. One thing I learned from this road trip was that in Australia you can go a hundred kilometers without any sign of human life so remember to bring lots of water and snacks. We seriously lived on both of these products along with the occasional lunch kiosk.
Although, I am not a fan of long car rides myself, the best way to experience Australia was behind the wheel. You could truly take in all the beauty that Queensland had to offer.
On the way North, we started seeing signs for a place called Glass House Mountain National Park. Even though we were on a schedule we didn’t want to be bound to it and miss something fun so our first (of many) detours began. The scenery was beautiful and very lush green. It like a scene taken straight from Jurassic Park when we went through some of the thickest forests. The contrast between the flat lands and the soaring peaks beyond was a unique and truly beautiful sight. As these were the first large stone mountains I had ever seen the experience was striking.
After a long scenic drive up and up, we discovered a lookout center and we were able to take it all in.
After some breathtaking views, we and far too short a visit, our time constraints pulled us back down to sea level and back on the road to Gladstone. But first, we had to sample the local pineapples, obviously!
The next several hours of driving saw the scenery change from a lush green foliage to dry plains. We may have listened to a certain Toto song once or twice through this area. This too, was a beautiful region with it’s own unique biology and felt worlds away from where we had started that morning.
After what feel like a thousand hours of driving, we rolled into Gladstone as night fell. To our delight, we saw that there was a cute little festival happening (apparently it’s something pretty regular there in Gladstone). It was a nice little change from driving around all day so we decided to take a walk around.
I was told in New Zealand that Australians are obsessed with Crocodile Dundee so when we got back to our hotel we were amused to find none other that the great Mick Dundee himself. An appropriate way to fall asleep on the road to Cairns if I ever saw one.
