Day 1, 4:00am Coffee. Avocado on sourdough. One more coffee. It’s still dark outside and all four of us girls are standing on the side of the road around the boot of the car contemplating how on earth we’re going to fit all of our bags in. The last thing that you could read in the Facebook group inbox was an organised list clearly stating who was going to bring the hair straightener, who was bringing the kettle for on-the-road coffees and who was in charge of the esky. But who are we joking, we’re girls living out of our car for 4 days. We were always going to overpack and now we were attempting to deal with the repercussions.
Day 1, 10:00am So where’s the closest servo? Google maps is a game changer… when you’re not with Vodafone and have reliable reception. Unfortunately we were in the latter category and were too busy picking the next song on the playlist to recognise the faithful fuel light blink on. With our feet resting on all the bags we couldn't fit into the boot and Ysha’s lap covered in all the favourites she had sneaked out of the box throughout the trip we pulled up in Rosedale. I couldn’t tell you where Rosedale is on a map, but I can tell you where the only shop in town was which happened to have fuel - at a very inflated price. We spoke to some council workers who had been sitting in the park for 2 hours on their ‘lunch break’, filled up with the most ridiculously overpriced fuel we would encounter on the trip, swapped drivers and left Rosedale.
Day 1, 6pm Wombats and fun facts If listening to too much of the Wombats was even a thing then we had definitely accomplished this. We could all also probably tell you your favourite rappers birth name and stage name from all of the online forums and Wikipedia pages we had trolled through, because who doesn't love fun facts. As we drove and sang and researched fun facts the sun dimmed over the mountains and fields. Illuminated by the last light of the day we drove on into the night with no clear destination in mind.
Day 2, 11:00am Beach naps We set off with one goal; to get a free driver reviver coffee. Day two delivered the goods and although we were forced to move our car out of a (we will argue it was unmarked) disabled car park we sat on the footpath with our mildly distasteful coffees in hand feeling great. We had succeeded. We stopped in Agnes Waters for a swim and sprawled out on the warm beach sand. We accidentally took a nap here until the lifeguard came over to wake us up. The scenery on the trip had turned into fields upon fields of sugarcane. We stopped near an abandoned house in the middle of a sugarcane field and ran around in the afternoon sun pretending we were in a movie.
Day 2, 4:00pm 10 star jumps before you get in the car When you’ve been driving along the highway for hours, seeing a big mango is quite an exciting occurrence. We quickly crossed lanes and pulled onto the side of the road. We all piled out of the car and ran joyfully towards the Big Mango. We jumped on eachothers shoulders and skipped around the grass, exchanging photos in front of this architectural masterpiece with a couple of foreign girls. We each did 10 star jumps before sitting back in the car.
Day 3, 10:00am Why is this taking so long? We had left two days earlier than the rest of our friends heading to Groovin' the Moo, and somehow we also managed to be the last ones to arrive. We laughed about how long it was taking us and stopped for frequent food breaks, toilet breaks, at op shops and at random roadside parks. We made friends with lifeguards and found cute puppies at our sharehouse Airbnb. This was our journey from Brisbane to Townsville.
Day 4 The Festival This year the Lineup for Groovin' the Moo Festival was out of this world and we danced the day and night away to bands like The Wombats, Milky Chance, Allday, Mallrat, The Jungle Giants and Methyl Ethyl in the 40 degree Townsville heat. Festivals have such a great atmosphere, we now refer to our GTM17 experience as The Love Bubble. If you’ve ever been on a Festival road trip with your 4 best friends you’ll understand why.
Author: Montana Mincher
Images: courtesy of Montana Mincher
