For the last three days we’ve been at the Treehouse hostel, in Mission Beach. Its one of our favourite memories from last time we travelled around the world, as we spent a blissful week relaxing and just enjoying the views of rainforest from the decking. Days were spent walking on rainforest trails and the evenings were spent playing Risk and Pictionary with fellow travellers. It is always dangerous to go back to a place that you have special memories of, because often you’ll find something completely different awaiting you, but this time we found the Treehouse almost completely untouched. We abandoned our campervan for a night, to spend the night in a room in the house, and enjoyed the freedom of movement (a real, big kitchen; not having to cook/wash up/sleep/dress in the same 2.5m x 2m x 1.5m space etc).

The hostel also has a pool, an outside deck to eat on, a lounge full of comfy chairs and bean bags, and hammocks hanging from every beam that overlooks the pool. All in all it’s still a magical place, and we’d recommend it as a stop on the trip up the coast. Mission Beach itself is a laid-back, slightly hippy, town in the middle of lush rainforest – a real shock to the system after hundreds of miles of dry semi-arid landscape.

The only thing that was different about the Treehouse was the other hostellers – when we were here last time there were half a dozen of us sharing it, but this time the hostel was packed out – all the beds were full, and there were half a dozen tents belonging to 12 backpackers in the garden, and 6 backpackers sleeping in their vans & cars in the car park. It made it quite frantic at meal times, to get space in the kitchen and dining room. The other change was that it was now a definitive ‘hippy’ hostel, with lots of tie dye and braids in evidence. Many of those staying were here long term – 12 weeks or more – which meant that definite cliques had grown up. It was a relaxed place unless you wanted your own CD on instead of the one chosen by the German hippie. In all the hostels we’ve stayed in, and the places we’ve visited, it’s the one that’s reminded us most of the community in “The Beach” (it even had a few Leondardo to Caprio look-a-little-alikes). No doubt one of the tents in the garden had a Swedish backpacker in it recovering from a shark bite…