On The Road Again | Driving to Yeppoon
What a day! Woke up in the Airbnb and relaxed for a few until I had to get ready for my 10am check out. I was literally out the door at 10 and took off on my next road trip. This time it’s about 7 hours till I reach my next beach town, Yeppoon.
I don’t know why I thought the drive would be more scenic but it really wasn’t. It was further inland than I imagined. But beautiful nonetheless! Lots of rolling hills at times and a lot of farm land. It’s only a 2 lane highway so it sucked when I got behind someone not Serge speed limit. Argh. Nothing makes me crazier. Every 5km or so would be an opportunity to pass (a third lane would appear for several hundred meters). And boy did I pass! I was feeling much more comfortable driving at this point although I still hung to the right of the road a lot 🤷🏼♀️ The speed limit was mostly 100kmh but I haven’t looked up what that translates to in miles. At times it would lower like when I went through small towns and construction. Small towns indeed! I stopped for lunch at this place along the highway about 2.5 hours into my trip that was mentioned in my Lonely Planet book-Mollydockers. It’s a Canadian cafe in Australia. I was tempted to try poutine because I’ve never had it and that’s what they are famous for but it just wasn’t appealing. Had the fried chicken sliders with fries instead of the sliders were weird. The chicken was in the shape of a log and each one was in a mini hotdog like bun. It wasn’t horrible. Didn’t like the fries though. First time in Australia I had bad fries. I wish they would just use oil and salt. These were like twice baked. Ugh. Never my thing.
While at the restaurant I got an email saying the Kuranda Forest railway is down for maintenance the entire time (2 days) I’m in Cairns. Super bummed as it’s supposed to be epic 1.5 hour trip up the mountain into the rainforest. I was planning on taking the train up the mountain and the skyway down. Instead I’m doing the skyway round trip. For the ride up, I opted for a gondola/skyway to have a glass bottom!
So after sorting out Kuranda, getting a bite to eat and most importantly going to the bathroom, I hit the road again. I had about 4.5/5 hours to go. Thankfully I got to catch up on Howard! Amen for my Sirius app working from here! It was relatively a quiet rest of the trip. The scenery was a lot of woods. Passed on some scary bridges over rivers and gulches. The problem with the 2 lane highway is there are a lot of 18 wheelers coming the opposite way and the car shakes because everyone is going so fast. Not my favorite part. But after all that (and not 1 traffic cop to be found!) I arrived in Yeppoon around 5:45pm. The place I’m staying in is a holiday apartment rental building. It’s right across from the beach. And my room overlooks the ocean! It’s actually a 2 bedroom and quite big. It’s not as nice as the Airbnbs have been but it’s fine. It’s clean. Only 2 nights.
Oh! The second snorkeling tour I booked (the first one got canceled because the operator has shingles) was also canceled. Supposedly the weather in the afternoon wasn’t going to be ideal so they canceled and offered to take me out on Sunday but I have to leave then so it’s a no. I checked ChatGPT and the weather is supposed to be fine. The waves may be a little high coming back from the island is all it said. So I booked a round trip ferry ride instead. I’m determined to get to this island. It’s supposed to be beautiful. Very small. There are only 2 restaurants. And the beaches are supposed to be supreme. It’s a 30 minute ferry ride so let’s pray all the sea sickness medicine will work!
Had a nice dinner at The Alley which is around the corner from the apartment. I had a peanut chicken rice noodle bowl. I didn’t linger as I have to get up early and need to get all my stuff together. Until tomorrow!
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