Epic Round The World Trip Adventures! Stunning Photos & Articles - A fascinating gap year travel journal covering every stop of their journey.

Town of 1770 - East Australia
Round The World Trip Journal

(21st April) Town Of 1770 - Yes that's the town name!
After Airlie Beach we did the big drive south, driving 700km down through Mackay, Marlborough, Rockhampton and Gladstone. The landscape slowly changed from trees into open pasture – this is cattle country. We ended up on the Capricorn Coast – so called because this is where we crossed the Tropic of Capricorn. We spent the night at a small resort town called Town of 1770. What a great name for a place. Apparently this was the second place that Lieutenant James Cook landed in Australia (in 1770 no less!) and the first in Queensland, hence the town is referred to as the birthplace of Queensland. The sun was setting here as we pulled up and we watched it set over the inlet just as a bright pink amphibious vehicle drove out of the water and onto the sand flats! We had a frightening encounter with a gigantic spider this night. We were just about to make the bed up when Mike shouted at me to get out of the van – so I did. As I looked back in, there was a hand sized hairy spider up on the ceiling above where I’d been sat! Gruesome! Mike whacked it with his shoe and disposed of it. It was then that we discovered that the netting over our ceiling air vent had a hole in it. The spider must have fallen off the tree above us and climbed in! Needless to say we quickly taped up the vent! The next morning we drove around the area to get a better feel for it and discovered the neighbouring town of Agnes Water. This is apparently the northernmost surfing beach on this coast and there were a few out. A pretty beach that reminded us of Devon with the rocks around it.