The Lap of Aus

November 2022 - November 2023

The trip of a lifetime in a Nissan Pathfinder and a little Toyota Camper 🤝✨ Read more

25footprints
1countries
364days
150photos
28videos
11.8kkilometers
4.7kkilometers
296kilometers
113sea miles
57sea miles
103kilometers
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The Lap of Aus
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- Aug 20, 2023
- ☁️ 19 °C
- Altitude: 28 m
- Australia Victoria Melbourne Clifton Hill -37.787072, 144.99426337°47’13” S 144°59’39” E
Day 290
The trip begins!!
August 20, 2023 in Australia ⋅ ☁️ 19 °C
We picked the van up today!!
The trip is starting to feel real now, but we still have to sell Coco Lasagna!

We had our first viewing today and the couple were nice but they chose to go with another option.

It’s the women’s FIFA World Cup and England are playing Spain! Sadly we lost, but it was a fantastic game and we got to watch it with Adam, Elle and Imogen, long with a large group of thee friends too! It was such a good evening!

We’ll be hanging around Melbourne until we manages to sell the car and we’ll just enjoy the city! We love it here so much.

We chose to sell our car knowing that we’ll be flying out of Cairns to NZ in November, and that it would be easier to sell the car for the asking price here! 🥲

Here’s hoping!Read more
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The Lap of Aus
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- Oct 6, 2023
- 🌬 23 °C
- Altitude: 10 m
- Australia Queensland Fraser Coast Happy Valley -25.342466, 153.20170525°20’33” S 153°12’6” E
Day 337
Day 1 K’gari
October 6, 2023 in Australia ⋅ 🌬 23 °C
7:30am - meeting at the tour shop.
8:00am - set off in the 4WD vehicles for the ferry terminal!
11:00am - settle in at the accommodation and have lunch!
12:15pm - head out to a lake for a swim and boomerang throwing!
I drove 15 minutes along the beach to a spot where we had to get out and walk 45 minutes to the lake!

The water was warm and it was at the bottom of a white sand flat. Apparently the water is the cleanest due to the filtration through the sands!

It was absolutely beautiful.

3/4pm - head back to the camp. Shower and get ready for dinner.

8pm - camp fire and story time.
Our guide told us the Butchalung story of K’gari’s creation which was a great story of the white spirit.
We then went onto the beach and found bioluminescent sand and watched the stars.Read more
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The Lap of Aus
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- Oct 7, 2023
- 🌬 23 °C
- Altitude: 10 m
- Australia Queensland Fraser Coast Orchid Beach Island Village -24.989717, 153.35157824°59’23” S 153°21’6” E
Day 338
K’gari Day 2
October 7, 2023 in Australia ⋅ 🌬 23 °C
6:45 - breakfast (eggs) and get ready for the day ahead!
7:30 - Leaving accommodation for the day!

8:00 - stop off to see the Mahino shipwreck - it was wrecked in an out of season typhoon. Owned by the Japanese, they tried to rescue it to no success. It was then used as a grounded venue and after time it started being robbed and was eventually abandoned.

8:45 - arrive At Champagne pools for a swim about. It was suuuper beautiful here! They are rock pools looking out to sea where the waves crash over the top and cause bubbles like Champagne! And the water was so warm!

11 - Pack up and leave for Eli Creek: a super beautiful fresh water creek that opened up to the sea. We took rubber rings to float down like a lazy river.. and the water has been tested as one of the cleanest waters in the world!
A dingo found us on the beach and was wandering between cars!

We broke down on the way - but figured it out after about 20 minutes 😂

12:15 - stopped at central station for lunch and snacks!

2:15 - spent the afternoon at Eli Creek.

4:15 - head for a walk at another lake - the weather turned so we didn’t swim but the water was actually SO warm!

5:15 - head back for dinner!

6:30 - dinner
7:30 - quiz
8:30 - the drinking games begin… (goon)Read more
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The Lap of Aus
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- Oct 9, 2023, 9:47am
- ⛅ 22 °C
- Altitude: 10 m
- Australia Queensland Gympie Regional Council Tin Can Bay Barnacles Dolphin Center -25.901844, 153.01347425°54’7” S 153°0’49” E
Day 340
Dolphins and breakfast
October 9, 2023 in Australia ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C
An early start to feed the dolphins breakfast after the best sleep ever! 🥹

We bought a coffee and just sat watching the dolphins get fed and then paid $10 each to go up and feed them ourselves!

It was beautiful. 🫶Read more
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The Lap of Aus
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- Oct 11, 2023, 5:08pm
- ☀️ 23 °C
- Altitude: Sea level
- Coral Sea -24.93203, 153.14564524°55’55” S 153°8’44” E
Day 342
Whale Watching
October 11, 2023, Coral Sea ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C
Today we headed out from Harvey Bay to the Northern and Eastern side of K’gari and Platypus Bay to go Whale watching.

Sadly we didn’t get a chance to swim with them because there were too many Cows and Calf’s.. but it was an incredible experience regardless!

We were out from 9:30 until 4pm on the boat and there were very few of us so it was almost like a private charter.

We met some lovely couples from here in Aus and two Danish girls who were here for their studies!Read more
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The Lap of Aus
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- Oct 12, 2023, 2:49pm
- ☀️ 25 °C
- Altitude: 12 m
- Australia Queensland Bundaberg Bundaberg East -24.85321, 152.36712724°51’12” S 152°22’2” E
Day 343
Bundaberg Rum Distillery
October 12, 2023 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C
Jack was really excited for this and it was actually pretty cool!

We got to learn about the role Rum has made to the history post colonisation of Australia and how it is made!

Some rum tasting at the end too which was fun!!

$30 each..Read more
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The Lap of Aus
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- Oct 13, 2023, 7:00am
- ☀️ 21 °C
- Altitude: 40 m
- Australia Queensland Gladstone Agnes Water -24.206842, 151.8802824°12’25” S 151°52’49” E
Day 344
The Perfect Spot
October 13, 2023 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 21 °C
Last night was grandads funeral.
I wanted to make this a special occasion, as it’s the only time I will get to experience this.

We picked up fish and chips from Agnes Water, found a beautiful camping spot and watched the sunset. The last meal we shared with my grandad was fish and chips and it meant so much to me that we did this.

It’s a sad evening, but a beautiful way to send him off ✨

Jack woke me up at 4:30 to the stunning sunrise that only matched the sunset, and I lay awake watching it for a while before falling back asleep. Grandad would’ve loved that I got to do this.

At 7am we went to watch the kangaroos be fed, and got a lovely shower.

Today is for being kind to myself 🫶Read more
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The Lap of Aus
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- Oct 14, 2023, 11:50am
- ☀️ 30 °C
- Altitude: 16 m
- Australia Queensland Rockhampton -23.377608, 150.51435823°22’39” S 150°30’52” E
Day 345
The perfect brunch spot 😍
October 14, 2023 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C
After our longest run yesterday, we woke up today pretty tired and hungry! It’s been fantastic getting back into some regular exercise, but it’s also a learning curve for recovery..

We set off on the next week long stint of driving and stopped of a Rockhampton to have a look around as goto the gallery there.

It was a very beautiful area with colonial style building and lots of beautiful modern houses along the water front!

Jack found this tea room for a morning coffee and when we looked at the menu we caved! … but it was the best decision for today!!

The food was unbelievable!
I’ve never enjoyed a brunch this much in my life and I would travel back here just for the mushrooms on toast 😍

And we continued onto the next destination for the day!Read more
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The Lap of Aus
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- Oct 14, 2023, 8:06pm
- 🌙 22 °C
- Altitude: 13 m
- Australia Queensland Rockhampton Taranganba Fig Tree Creek -23.135117, 150.75026623°8’6” S 150°45’1” E
Day 345
A free infinity pool
October 14, 2023 in Australia ⋅ 🌙 22 °C
Every time we get further up the coast, we get out of the van and the area is more tropical and hotter 🥹

We’re getting sweated out of the van earlier everyday and needing to find swim spots just as frequently!

Sadly we can no longer swim in the sea because of the risks of salt water crocodiles and sharks 🥲😂 so there seems to be more free public swimming spots.. and todays was extra cool!

It was a full on infinity pool looking out to sea with hot public showers and it was just beautiful 🥰

So now we’re cooking up in the van and we’ll find somewhere so sleep for the evening!Read more
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The Lap of Aus
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- Oct 15, 2023, 6:00pm
- ☀️ 23 °C
- Altitude: 55 m
- Australia Queensland Mackay The Leap -21.069473, 149.01547221°4’10” S 149°0’56” E
Day 346
Travel Days to Airlie 🤙🚐
October 15, 2023 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C
Today we spent the day mostly driving!

We got up in the morning for the last run of the week which was exceptionally hard in 31*c. There were tears 😂 it was quite a special run for me because I was pushing through it. I now have two mantras for moments just like these: “I can do hard things!” And “say yes because one day you’ll have to say no!”.

After the run we went for a dip back in Yepoon Lagoon and had a shower before heading off on our journey!

One thing we constantly learn is that tropical Queensland is insanely tropical! There’s so much biodiversity that we expected but we didn’t ✨expect✨ if you know what I mean!
Like this insane cricket that we later saw a few more of when we arrived at our rest stop for the night 😂

On our drive we also passes SOOO many sugar cane fields and some intentional crop burning!

The sky was incredible in burnt orange smokey haze 😍 it was unreal.

We later found a place called The Leap Pub which offers free camping with toilets and showers if you go in and buy a few drinks or a meal.. we love these places! You often meet the friendliest people! We got chatting the the barman and he we were talking about our travels etc!

Another stint of driving tomorrow 🫶Read more
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