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Published: April 13th 2012
Hello again!
Sorry it's been a while, but wifi costs money in OZ, unlike in Asia... Here are a few of our favourite moments so far from Australia.
- Cape Hillsborough. This place was famous for a huge beach that at dawn and dusk attracts all the wallabies and kangaroos who go to eat sandworms. We didn't see any on the beach but it was our first encounter with a kangaroo. Steph was down at the camp kitchen when she came running back up to the van, I bumped into her and she said there was a kangaroo. We went back down and there, surrounded by kids stroking it was a kangaroo, eating the grass, seemingly oblivious to all the attention. We could stroke it and pose for photos with it, it was an unforgettable first encounter. The beach here was awesome too, absolutely huge, backed by palm trees and virtually empty!
- Hervey Bay. Hervey bay is a coastal town and the main access point to Fraser Island. Here we did a dolphin cruise. We got picked up at 8am by Peter the captain of the Blue Dolphin catamaran, an ex-Sea World dolphin trainer. He took us to the marina and we got on the boat. After about an hour of cruising around we spotted the elusive, rarer Indo-Pacific Humpback dolphins. They were a bit shy and didn't get too close to the boat but we could see them well enough to notice a mother and calf. Then we went off again and after another hour or so spotted the Bottlenose dolphins. They were much more playful and came right under the boat and swam around for ages. It was great to see them in the wild and not in a zoo and we got some great photos!!
- Tin Can Bay. It was Good Friday when we were here so we trundled off to church which started at 8am! We only went because there was a leaflet at the campsite and it looked pretty professional! So we were in for a shock when we walked through the door and saw about 30 eighty year olds and no one else, 2 women singing and one on the guitar, playing some pretty bad old tunes, occassionally looking across at each other to make sure they were on the same hymn sheet, which they clearly weren't!
The next morning we went down to the harbour, queued up, bought a fish in a bucket for $5 and walked over to the beach where you could hand feed the wild dolphins - Mystique and Sharmane - who come in every morning and eat hundreds of fish. It's quite scary when they open their mouths and reveal a nice row of big teeth!
- The Hinterlands. This hilly, rainforest region is inland from the Sunshine Coast. We drove all day trying to find somewhere to stay that wasn't booked up by easter holidaymakers and eventually, at 8 in the evening after driving around in the dark, considering stopping by the side of the road for the night, we came across Ocean View Caravan Park - our saviours. And what a find, cheap, great views of the coast and we got a plot made for a huge van so plenty of space! The next day we went to the Mary Cairncross national park, an undisturbed piece of tropical rainforest in the hills - entry was $1! - which contained rare striped wallabies which we saw 5 of. Steph got lost and I got bitten by a leech.
Then in the afternoon we went to the Kondalilla National Park. A 1km walk though the forest and 158 steps later we were presented with an amazing waterfall and swimming hole. The water took your breath away at first but soon warmed up, and we had an amazing view of the hills at sunset. Definitely one of our top highlights.
- Glen Ines. Where we are now. It is a strange place in the middle of nowhere, famous for the Australian Stonehenge and the 3rd largest Celtic festival in the world, complete with caber toss. Also, it is a popular fossicking region, panning for sapphires in the creek. We went off down a 9km dirt track and arrived at Three Waters Ranch on Red Stone Creek. It was a typical Australian ranch owned by big Steve who looked just like the prospector out of toy story 2. We were just expecting to do a bit of panning in the river but he pulled out these huge pick axes and shovels and said "you'll have muscles in your eyebrows by the end of today!". So he showed us how to dig the right rocks and wash it and sieve all the big rocks out. Then he drove off and left us in the middle of his ranch, digging away. Anyway, eventually we found some nice sapphires which probably won't be worth anything anyway.
The drive back was interrupted by about 15 kangaroos leaping across the grassy plains, infront of the setting sun and purple sky, made a great photo!
We are all loving the driving, apart from when Steph hit that poor Kookaburra, or that snake, oh and there was that frog too... Also there is a growing crack on the windscreen, we phoned up the rental company and they said it was fine to leave it and they'll replace it when we get to Melbourne, it's covered by our bond so they said we wouldn't have to pay - "Too easy mate!"
No photos yet, this was all written on my phone! You'll have to wait a bit longer!
Charlie
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Matthews Uncle John and Aunty margarita
non-member comment
it all sounds so fun ! Those kangaroos are very strong , and big! Keep having the time of your lives ! Much love xxxxx