East Coast 'Summer' Holiday

The east coast, it almost feels like home. The familiarity of the densely vegetated coastline with the constant backdrop of the great dividing range is like a breath of fresh air. It might sound odd, but on the most densely populated stretch of Australia's coastline, there are actually more trees, scrub and lush vegetation than on the vast unpopulated tracts of the west, north and southern coastlines put together (with some exceptions of course). And it is nice to be back amongst such a lovely setting.

The east coast really is the home stretch for us. We are getting weary of the constant travelling, running low on money and looking forward to seeing friends and family. So we decided to come down the coast fairly quickly. We have travelled this part of the country many times and so we just decided to make it a bit of an East Coast Summer Holiday. We stopped in at several Summery coastal towns, soaked up the sunshine and turquoise blue waters and enjoyed some yummy food and superb coffees.

We started our August Summer Holiday in Cairns. It was a brief stop but we had time to stock up on amazing fresh produce at Rusty's Market and have dinner at Yorky's Knob Boat Club with some old friends of Rob's.

As we left Cairns it was a gorgeous sunny day but as we neared our next destination, Bowen, the clouds started to roll in. We then experienced our first rainfall in four months. It wasn't torrential but it was enough to remind us we were leaving the dry season of the top end, which also meant saying good bye to crocodiles, barramundi, tropical temperatures and the land of termite mounds. We've really got quite attached to the red, brown, white and yellow towers being a constant part of the scenery.

Despite the rain, we were still able to get out and about and appreciate the quaint seaside town of Bowen. Bowen is exactly what an old-school seaside town should be, it has big wide streets, a good bakery, an imposing heritage style corner pub (used in the movie 'Australia'), gorgeous beaches, a lovely saturday market and friendly locals. We only stayed in Bowen for a couple of nights, but it was a lovely stay.

We aren't particularly fond of the stretch of coast between Bowen and Noosa, which is over 1,000 km's so we decided to just get to Noosa as quickly as possible. With a brief overnight stop in Rockhampton we arrived in Noosa after two long days of driving. Surprisingly though, despite Noosa being one of Australia's favourite holiday destinations, it really didn't do that much for us. The glamour of Hasting's street was a bit too pretentious, the cafes lacked the flare that we expected, the suburban sprawl in the surrounding areas is far from glamorous and don't get us started on the parking. Having said that, there are some beautiful beaches, you can't really beat a beer at the Noosa Surf Club, the rolling green hills and lush rainforest of the hinterland is spectacular and the Eumundie markets were an absolute treat. So although we won't be rushing back to Noosa in the near future there was plenty to keep us occupied and to top it all off, we bumped into Rob's cousin Pete and his family. So all in all our visit to Noosa was a great success.

From Noosa it is an easy drive to the infamous Byron Bay. We used to frequent this gorgeous part of the east coast regularly in our teen years, but hadn't been back in about 10 years. We had prepared ourselves for a complete shattering of the Byron Bay we had once known. And we found that it is true, Byron has changed but hey, so have we. But like Byron, the changes were mostly on the surface, we may not being driving around in a clapped out combi but Big Red makes enough noise to draw attention and has certainly seen better days and we may not be fire dancing on the beach with the locals but Jarvis sure has a good hip wiggle going on when the band is playing at the pub. So we looked past the expansion of the town, the uprising of several chain stores and the crowds that persisted even in winter, and got down to the business of enjoying what Byron has to offer. We lazed away the days at the beach, ate breakie at several amazing cafes and drank beers at sunset at the Beach Hotel while whales swam past.

It was the perfect way to finish our east coast travels. Tomorrow we will head up the great dividing range, back into the bush and into far cooler temperatures. We are planning to spend a few weeks on Em's family's bush block near Armidale. It is 600 acres of bush with no power, rain water only and makes for the perfect place to hang out and ready ourselves for returning to Sydney and the real world.