Ryan Down Under

The drive from Rainbow Beach to Airlie Beach (the jump off point for the Whitsundays) is about 12 hours I think. Fortuneately, I met a Paul on the Fraser Island trip and he agreed to take me and 2 others in his car for the trip north. This is by far the way to travel. You can see and do heaps more when you aren't on a bus that needs to keep a schedule. Another fantastic thing the state of Queensland has started is the Driver Reviver stations placed about 2 hours apart on the highway. There is not much along these highways so people become fatigued and these stations, run by local volunteer groups, offer free coffee and biscuits in order to encourage people to stop and take a break. I think we hit up about 4 of these on our way. They are the closest thing to a Tim Hortons stop that Australia has.
We read about a place called the Town of 1770 which is about an hour off the main highway and decided to make our way there for the first night. It was supposed to be an up and coming holiday town, but it was pretty much dead and the local restaurant/pub closed at about 930pm. After my success of sleeping on the beach on Fraser Island, we found a beach to sleep on there. And 30 minutes later it started raining, and my new 20$ sleeping bag didn't hold up well. 3 of them setup a tent and I ended up sleeping in the car which sucked, but was cheap I guess.
The next day we passed through the Tropic of Capricorn in the town of Rockhampton: beef capital of Australia. And what better thing to do in the beef capital than to have beef! We headed straight for the local McDonalds and downed a Big Mac to celebrate!
We ended up in Mackay that night and planned on sleeping out by the river or something. First we found the one bar in the whole town that was showing the England soccer game so we took that in on a patio first. Then we went to a caravan park and used their shower and bathroom facilities (awesome idea, noone there would ever know you don't belong there), and camped out on the other side of the street in a field beside a church. And it started raining again so I was back in the car while the others slept in the tent that ended up having a small river running through it. Again, it sucked, but it was cheap.
We arrived in Airlie Beach the next morning at 930am. Total cost was 35$ for my share of the gas plus 10$ for granola bars and apples and another 20$ for other food stops. It sure beats the 120$ bus ticket plus we got to take in a few more towns and have a few more laughs.
The east coast of Australia is an awesome place to get rides like this since chances are every traveller you run into is heading either north to Cairns or south to Sydney and it is quite common to run into people who have bought cars or camper vans and who are circling all of Australia. It's just a matter of getting out to the pub and making conversation.