Our days left road-tripping in the van were numbered. We started by exploring a little of the Gold Coast. It was busy, built up and breezy. We didn't really stay too long in the end, mostly due to the ridiculous lack of parking, and when we did manage to squeeze ourselves into a space, we couldn't be there for long. The beach was probably lovely but as the wind pelted beach-goers with sand and the waves spat swimmers right back out again, we kept ourselves to the safety of the walkways. We took lovely photos of a seemingly random building block and a hotel by the waterfront, as they were the closest we could get to pretending we'd seen the I'm a Celeb set. Perhaps we'll go back another time, but I doubt it.
We spent the rest of the day driving up stupidly steep roads (we seem to have a habit of this) to reach Mount Tamborine and it's majestic views of the coastline, north and south. I'd read that the Skywalk was an enjoyable visit. It was mostly average in my opinion: I didn't see a platypus unlike other visitors and its bouncy bridge gave nice views but was fairly uncomfortable to walk on.
Arriving back to the familiarity of Brisbane was nice. We spent a fair few days sorting our s**t out. Having all of Stanley's guts in the van was great but we needed to get rid of it before we handed the van back into the depot and the wonders of Gumtree and Facebook marketplace came into their own. Within a few days, we'd found homes for everything we'd brought with us. It was sad, though: it felt like we'd sold Stanley's soul.
We still had time left with the rental though. Rather than waste it, we headed north. The furthest we let ourselves get to was Agnes Water and 1770. After the torrential downpours for the entire journey, it became noticeably more humid as we pulled into the info centre to find out what we could do there (not a lot really). We didn't stay long before making a u-turn and heading the way we came.
Along the way, we had the chance to pass through Bundaberg. I must admit, I wasn't sure about visiting Bundaberg- I'd read and heard a lot of negative stories of backpacker's fruit picking experiences and sort of decided I didn't like the sound of it. I'm glad we went though as we had a cracking day visiting the Bundaberg Rum Factory. We couldn't take photos on the tour, something to do with a hugely high level of alcohol fumes in the air and the potential for battery operated items to create fire? We were taken to the enormous pools of molasses that smelt a lot nicer than it tasted, around the huge fermentation tanks and eventually lead into the shop where we were allowed to taste some of the rums and liqueurs. It's a shame the liqueurs aren't sold outside of the factory, I'd have gladly left the entire contents of my backpack in Oz and replaced it with 20kg of the stuff.
We returned back to Brisbane, returned the van after being completely drowned in a storm and accepted that our roadtrip had finally come to an end. In some ways, it was liberating- no more having to deal with the long trips; a*****e truck drivers; sleeping in cramped spaces; worrying about all things mechanical; fearing the enormous spider that may or may not have still been living in the engine bay. But mostly, it came with a sense of achievement. One way or another, we'd travelled a huge distance around Australia without running out of fuel; ending up on our roof; blowing a tyre; dying of thirst; burning to a crisp; hitting a roo; getting lost in the outback; and without receiving any fines. It may have taken 3 vehicles; a million visits to a garage; a lot of money; days spent worrying; and having to say bye to Stan, but we did what we'd set out to do: explore Oz.
While it seems a million miles away now, we had a great NYE 2017 in Brisbane with friends we'd made in Victoria, Louise and Rob, upon our return from Bali. There's nothing quite like standing on a man-made beach in the middle of a city, where alcohol is prohibited and trying to work out when to count down from 10 as you realise that unlike yourself, your phone did not quite make it to 12. It was rather wonderful.
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