Wednesday, March 24th 2020 - Escaping the lockdown in Sydney , we crossed the Queensland state border the day before it was closed to the rest of Australia and the world ... the months after were some of the craziest 6 months of my life.
SpringBrook National Park -
- Natural Bridge
Glasshouse Mountains -
Noosa - We stayed here for almost a month , living in the Van fishing and swimming everyday. There wasn't much to do and it was amazing ...
- Noosa Fairy Pools
Something about a Noosa sunset
- Rainbow Beach
Carlo Sandblow -
Coming up isn't nearly as fun as going down
Agnes Waters -
- Paperbark Forest Boardwalk
It was butterfly migration season. Every day, the sky in Agnes was filled with blue monarch butterflies.
- Red Rock Beach
Horizons Kangaroo Sanctuary & Camp Ground -
As restrictions got tighter, it wasn't possible to keep living in the van hoping from place to place ...
17/04/2020 - We got kicked out of Agnes by the cops with nowhere to really go. Parked on the side of the road in Gladstone , we saw a facebook post that said something along the lines of "backpackers welcome on my 11 acre property" posted by a woman named Pam" We shot our shot and within an hour we were on our way to rocky ...
Pams House - We rocked up to Pams around 7pm but it could have easily been midnight. It was pitch black out on a side paved road leading out of "Rocky" Rockhampton Queensland. Pam had left us a message saying "ring me when you get to where the bitumen road turns to dirt" . We waited for what felt like an hour but could have easily been the 10 minutes it took her to get up from her chair and onto her quad to come meet us...
Follow me she said as she waved at us and drove into the pitch black aussie bush, with what looked like a tiny dog sitting on the back of her quad . Young Dumb and scared shitless we followed down this bumpy, uneven ... honestly you couldn't even call this thing we drove on a road if you weren't in Straya.
I can't really say that we "quarantined" .... It felt more like we were living while the rest of the world was sleeping. We spent nearly 2 months living in the bush drinking, partying and enjoying a place that me and a dozen other backpackers with nowhere else to go home... "
Don't buy a machete..
Aussie firing range
Aussie firing range
Snakes every other day in the toilet..
Spiders in our bedsheets and towels..
Absolute strangers became friends for life and the commune became a home away from home
We left the same way we came in, with an absolute gem of an escort
Thank you Pam .
We left Pams and drove 4 hours in land to Emerald, the goal? to find work on a grape farm, or any farm really. Somewhere we could work and get our 88 days to renew our visas and stay in the country.
Some days were good, and others were pretty bad , everyday felt the same but somehow came with a different surprise.
Brought some new friends and some old friends along ...
Most weeks were 6 days on and 1 day off ... so we had to take advantage of our one and only day off
- Carnarvon Gorge
In Emerald we were making about 0.12 cents per grapevine we rolled which equaled to maybe a hundred dollars a day if you had a good day , but there weren't very many good days ...
So when I got a call saying that Alfie, Kelsey, and I could get work where we’d be paid by the hour if we showed up at the farm the next day, we drove 12 hours through the night down red dirt roads south to Gatton, Queensland.
Gatton came with its own good and it's own bad.. But the good outweighed the bad so for 7 weeks me and Alfie picked celery, while Kelso planted tomatoes, 6 days a week for 7 weeks to finish out our days and finally save up some money to go out and do some fun stuff
89 days later ... The fun stuff begins
21/08/2020 - After 3 months in land, we spent a few days in Surfers Paradise seeing really really old friends, fixing up the van and enjoying the beach before spending the next 3 months living out of the Van again
Whale watching in Hervey Bay -
Fraser Island - dingo ate yo babey
- Lake Mckenzie
SS Maheno -
" Fuck me... " The guy driving this boat
- Emerald Lake
Jelly Alien
The Whitsundays -
The pilot let Kelso steer for a bit, so logically, I projectile vomited as soon as we landed...
Hill Inlet -
- Heart Reef
Spent a few days near Arlie beach, a couple days in an Airbnb , a couple camping in lake prosperpine and a nother few days living on a pirate ship with a hot tub.
Magnetic Island -
S.S Adelaide - " Fuck me too..." - the guy driving this boat
23/10/2020 - Paronella Park - n On the way to the tablelands we found this spot
Atherton Tablelands -
- Ellinjaa Falls
Josephine Falls -
- Millaa Millaa Falls
Wallaman Falls -
26/10/2020 - Port Douglas
Daintree Rainforest -
Where the rainforest meets the ocean -
After 3 months on the road, our funds were running low, and having seen basically all of Queensland, we had to decide where to go... Byron, Brissy, and even back to Sydney were options. But ultimately, we decided to go somewhere new, and we took the long way to get there...
