THE "Sunshine State" of Queensland, in north east Australia, is the region to which every young traveller, whether from Europe, the Americas, or beyond, inevitably gravitates on a working holiday to Australia.
The Bruce Highway, which starts in Sydney, runs up the east coast of Australia, through such adventure story place names as Mission Beach, Magnetic Island, the Whitsundays and Surfers' Paradise.
Young travellers move up and down it in buses, camper vans, four wheel drive vehicles and cars.
Wandering half intentionally, half fortuitously, they move from diving courses on the Great Barrier Reef to white water rafting escapades in the rain forest gorges of the Tully river from four wheel drive adventure trips on Fraser Island to sea kayaking trips across Trinity Bay.
Getting lost somewhere in the outback of your mind, all the while knowing that in less than a year it will all be memories, is part of the experience. On the other side of the world, it's you and yourself and anyone you might transiently meet. Every moment is to be lived.
Coming from Ireland, the vast distances are difficult to comprehend. A bus ride from Brisbane, in the south of Queensland, to Cairns in the north, is a 26 hour pilgrimage. En route from Cairns to Townsville, one would have time for a nine hour sleep on a bus.
On the Bruce Highway, one can drive for hours on end, on a straight road where all that might interrupt the white line extending before the windscreen would be a stray sheep or a kangaroo.
It's winter there now and the busiest time for Queensland tourism. The extreme heat and the stifling humidity of summer have given way to warm, sunny days. The bush flies, the sand flies and the mosquitoes quit.
From the rain forests in the far north, to the Great Barrier Reef of the north, and the dusty desert of the middle Fraser Coast, the extremity of Queensland's natural resources compels an infectious zeal for "getting out there" and grabbing a piece of "life at the limit". The "go out and get it while you're here" atmosphere becomes more concentratedly frenetic as one goes north to Townsville and Cairns.
The coastal city of Cairns, the mecca for people travelling up north, is the jump off point for many tours, diving courses, bungee jumping and such mandatory delights. It is the "capital" of north Queensland - modern, vibrant and teaming with young travellers.
By contrast, Townsville is a sprawling place, devoid of personality, through which people pass on their way to the Gold Coast and on towards Cairns. It is a transit centre with a major bus station and many hostels. Seen largely as a stopping off point by travellers, it is a busy working city with a major armed forces base and the site of, the James Cook University. In the spirit perhaps of its namesake, Robert Towns, who financed its founding in 1864, much money has been put into attracting visitors. They are, however, still keeping their distance.
