Will Ashford & Jo Curtis
This blog captures the story of Jo and Wills adventure around AustraliaWillandJo
Travel Blog Posts
May 21st 2012
We woke up at 7.30 to make use of the free breakfast at the hostel and also took a couple of slices of bread to make some lunch later. The forecast for the day was rain showers but the sun was shining first thing so we decided to do the coastal walk through the national park. We walked from our hostel 10minutes down to Sunshine Beach, where there were a few surfers making the most of the waves. We walked along the beach until we reached paradise caves where we had to climb 215 steps to get up to the top of the cliffs. The vegetation has changed from the tropical palms that we had seen further North, to the bushes and trees that we had been used to seeing around Sydney. We walked through the ... read more
May 20th 2012
We woke with fuzzy heads this morning from a few drinks celebrating Wills birthday the night before. We packed a bag with some snacks for the day and grabbed a rushed free breakfast before catching the shuttle bus to Main Beach where we then caught the Australia Zoo coach to the zoo. We took a walk around the crocs first, spotting all the famous names that we had seen on TV like Aggro and Casper. There were a few brave Herons in the croc enclosures who didn't seem to be worried about swimming and wandering around the crocs - I'm not sure I'd be that brave. We also saw dingoes at the zoo but they looked much better fed than those we had been camping with on Fraser! The weirdest animal that we saw was the ... read more
May 19th 2012
Having caught up with our sleep we woke up with the birds this morning. After packing up our luggage we walked down to the shops to grab breakfast and snacks for our coach journey. Our journey to Noosa was broken up with an Australian movie called The Castle which kept us entertained whilst enjoying muffins and iced mochas. As today was Wills birthday Jo had been in touch with the hostel, so Will was quiet surprised to find a decorated room with champagne and birthday cake when we checked in at Flashpackers just after lunch. Jo had also treated Will to a six pack of his favourite James Squire beer so the majority of the afternoon was spent catching up with bloggs over a couple of cold beers and champagne before we Skyped his parents to ... read more
May 18th 2012
Still bemused from the sight of Santa and his drinking games the night before we woke up with the birds dawn chorus for our breakfast, although we were both still stuffed from dinner and turned down eggs and bacon for the healthier alternative of muesli and yoghurt; don't panic though, Will wasn't ill and it took a lot of deliberating to come to that decision! A short drive south along the beach was an area called The Pinnacles. Very similar to our experience on the West Coast this area involved sand, although these were sand dunes with somewhere in the region of 72 variations in colour. The second stop of the morning agenda was Eli Creek, although as we approached our attention was fixed on a four wheel drive partly submerged in the sand and the ... read more
May 17th 2012
Having arrived at our hostel in the middle of the night it wasn't long before we were waking up again to go to the safety briefing of our tag along tour of Fraser Island. After a couple of quick instructions one of our fellow travellers asked about driving on the Island and we were informed that the previous tour group had blown up the engine on the 2nd vehicle, and unfortunately all seven of us would consequently have to do the tour in the single lead vehicle. This wasn't the ideal start to the tour, but having only been awake a short while we just went with the flow and loaded up the 4x4 before heading to catch the first ferry of the day from Hervey Bay. Once we were sitting in the passenger area of ... read more
May 16th 2012
Today we were leaving our little bit of paradise on Heron Island, so we packed up our suitcases and went to the restaurant to enjoy our last buffet breakfast. After breakfast we checked out and headed to the pool deck where Will used the time productively to sort out the hundreds of photos that we had taken in the last few days and Jo spent a few hours soaking up the sun and watching the crabs fighting on the rocks along the shoreline. Before we knew it it was lunch time but neither of us were really hungry after all the food in the last couple of days and so made a poor effort at the buffet. After lunch we made our way over to the jetty to catch the ferry back to the mainland. As ... read more
May 15th 2012
Still optimistic of spotting more turtles we were up walking along the beach at sunrise although the only thing we found was old tracks in the sand, so we headed for an early breakfast. With it being our final day on the island we decided to indulge ourselves in the sunshine and relax for a couple of hours. Unfortunately time passed by far too quickly and it was soon time to join the tour of the research station situated next door to the holiday resort, although they still keep their clocks set to mainland time for working purposes. Set up in 1950 as a hut and a research tank the University of Queensland run site can now accommodate up to 180 guests, including large high school trips. With various tanks and laboratories two key advantages of ... read more
Heron Island - Day 2 - Finding Turtles
Published: May 19th 2012Oceania » Australia » Queensland » Heron Island
May 14th 2012
We woke up early to walk down to the beach and watch sun rise. We walked along north beach and found a few people camping under the stars on the beach. We settled down to watch the sunrise on the beach and the group who had been camping out on the beach called us over to a nest of green turtles hatching. The sand was alive with baby turtles as 50 or so baby turtles hatched out of their eggs and scrambled over the sand and into high tide. We had to be careful not to tread on them as there were so many and we were doing our best to protect them from the hungry birds on the journey into sea. But a few were picked off from the sea once the sea gulls realised ... read more
May 13th 2012
After our relatively comfortable trip on the Greyhound we arrived at the Gladstone bus stop a couple of hours before we needed to checkin on our ferry, so decided to walk the 2km to the terminal which turned out to be relatively straight forward. Once we were checked in it wasn't long before our ferry transfer to Heron Island departed in the bright sunshine, and as there were 20 guests aboard there was loads of space. During the two hour cruise we got to see a couple of infommercials on the island telling us all about the wildlife and the islands luxurious facilities that includes private secluded island you can glamp (posh camping) on for $1000 a night with your own chief. When we arrived at the Island the first thing you come to is the ... read more
May 12th 2012
We didn't have to give the Moke back til 9am this morning so we got up early and made the most of having transport, making our way over to the IGA at Nelly bay to pick up a couple of provisions and stopping at the Harbour to take a few photos. Will also thought he would re-live his mini racing days and put the little Moke to the test up the hills and around the bends whilst Jo held on so as not to be thrown out the side of the car. It was then time to fill up with petrol and head back to our hostel in Nelly Bay to hand in the keys. With the Moke safely returned we made breakfast in the camp kitchen - a treat of bacon and egg sandwiches. We ... read more
Tot: 0.098s; Tpl: 0.005s; cc: 10; qc: 67; dbt: 0.0626s; 1; s:notus w:www (50.28.60.10); sld: 1; ; mem: 1.5mb
