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Published: April 1st 2011
Sunday 6 March: Eefje and me arrived at the Transit Centre in Brisbane at 2.25 pm. We packed our backpacks and went to KFC, because we were very hungry. Then we walked to our hostel called Base which was located in the city centre. We checked in, dropped our backpacks and met Merel (the Dutch girl we met at the beach in Surfers Paradise) at our hostel. She studies and lives in Brisbane and showed us around the city. We walked through the main shopping street called Queenstreet, over Victoria Bridge and then she showed us Southbank, a cheap cinema and Westend. Then Eefje and me went back to ate noodles at our hostel and in the evening I went for a walk towards the Valley and New Farm where most bars and nightclubs are.
Monday 7 March: after breakfast I booked for another 3 nights in the same hostel. We went to Wicked to call if we could confirm our trip to Fraser Island on Thursday 10 March, because then we would know if the weather would be good if we would be there. After that I booked my trip, transport and accomodation to the Red Centre (Uluru) between
10 and 14 April at Base Travel in our hostel. Then I went to the State Library to go on the internet and I checked out the opening hours of the Former Treasury Building, the Art Gallery, the Museum and the Gallery of Modern Art for the next day. I walked back to the hostel, ate noodles and went to the cinema to a movie called Conviction.
Tuesday 8 March: Eefje and me went to Woolworths first and then I went to the Former Treasury Building (now a casino), the Art Gallery and the Museum. In the Museum I met two Dutch girls (Sofie and …) and we exchanged numbers and decided to go for a drink in the evening. Then I did a nice walking track (Lonely Planet) starting at the Museum, then to Southbank, Stanley Street Plaza, Botanical Gardens, Parliament House, Old Governments House, Land Administration Building, Regent Theatre, Treasury Building, St. Stephen’s Cathedral, Post Office Square, Anzaq Square, King George Square and the City Hall. After that I met Eefje again in the hostel and we went to Grill’d (see Newcastle) for a nice burger. In the evening the Dutch girls came to my hostel pick
me up to go to a bar next to our hostel called Down Under.
Wednesday 9 March: Eefje and me did some laundry, went to Woolworths to get shampoo and then I went to the Gallery of Modern Art where I did a guided tour. Then I met Eefje in the State Library where we booked our Greyhound Bus to Noosa. I also had to scan some receipts and emailed them to my insurance company. I stayed on the internet to send some emails and came back in the hostel around dinner time. Then Merel asked me if I wanted to go for dinner in a place called the Archives in Westend and so I did. We had fries, schnitzel with mushroom sauce and salad and drank some beers. After dinner we went back to the bar Down Under where we met my German friend Tim and another friend from him from Hamburg and his girlfriend. We ordered a jug of beer and had a great night.
Thursday 10 March: Eefje and me had breakfast first and we had to check out of the hostel before 10 am. Then we went to Wicked to confirm our dates for
Fraser Island. After that we went to the State Library to do some last things on the internet and then we packed our backpacks and walked to the Brisbane Transit Centre to be on time for our Greyhound Bus which left to Noosa at 3 pm. The bus was very late and that is also why we arrived much later than expected in Noosa. The bus from the hostel called Nomads that should pick us didn’t come back for us anymore and we were lucky that a very friendly bus driver was willing to drop us at our hostel. We checked in, got a free meal (pasta carbonara) and went to the IGA supermarket. I met two guys in the hostel (Morten from Denmark and another guy from Scotland). We drank two beers and went to bed, cause Eefje and me had to check out before 10 am next morning and were going on a 4 days/3 nights Bush Camp/canoe trip in Noosa.
Friday 11 March: Eefje and me checked out of the hostel before 10 am. Then we had breakfast and I met Marie and Marlien and they gave us advice for things we could do in Noosa.
Then we met another guy called Barney from the Uk and Eefje, Morten, Barney and me chilled at the swimming pool at the hostel until noon. We took the shuttle bus from the hostel to the Noosa Transit Centre at 12.30 and where picked up by Gagaju at 1 pm. We were with a group of 14 people and there were 3 other Dutchies on this trip: Ilya, Bas and Maikel and we were getting along very well. We drove to Coles first to do buy 3 times breakfast, 2 times lunch and 3 times dinner and after that to the Bottle shop, but Eefje and me bought no alcohol. Then we drove to Gagaju Bush Camp and the driver told us that we were going to sleep in dorms the first night, and the next two nights in tents. We arrived in Gagaju and first we put our food in the fridge, organized our beds and then I made some pictures. It was possible to put your backpacks in a storage room, but the first night I kept the backpack next to my bed. We left our valuables in the office and after dinner we watched Avatar with the
whole group.
Saturday 12 March: we had to wake up early, because we had a briefing at 8 am and then we took our canoes and went up north on the Noosa River through Everglades National Park. Every canoe had 3 people, except one who had 2. In our canoe we had a 38 year old German guy called Kai in the front, Eefje in the middle and me in the back. The one in the back is the most important, because that person had to do the stearing. The Noosa River went over in a big lake and we arrived at a beach where we had lunch. We walked towards a pub, but didn’t find it. We left the place not later than 3pm otherwise we wouldn’t be back before darkness. When we came back at Gagaju and watched Shallow Hall and the Sixth Sense before dinner with everyone. After dinner (noodles like the day before) we watched Mama Mia and the Texas Chainsaw Massacre and I played pool with Kai.
Sunday 13 March: we woke up around 8 am and we left with our canoes around 9.30 am going south on the Noosa River. We didn’t
have to do a briefing this morning, because at the briefing on Saturday they already explained everything for Sunday aswell. We had the same 3 people in our canoe: again Kai in the front, Eefje in the middle and me in the back. The weather was changing all the time during our canoetrip and where it was sunny at one moment, it started raining heavily another moment. Luckily I brought my rain jacket on both days. After about an hour going south on the Noosa River we arrived at a lake again. The water in the Noosa River is at all places knee height and sometimes even more shallow, so we had to stay in the deeper water. When we arrived at the lake, we went to the shore again and walked towards the beach. We couldn’t find the beach and asked for the way and a friendly guy brought us to the beach with his car. We went for a swim, but didn’t stay to long, because we had to walk all the way back and had to be back in time for darkness again. On our way back, a guy in a car stopped next to us and
told us that were we put our canoes was private property and that we had to “get the fuck out” of his property. We walked to our canoes and then we heard dogs barking and we started to run. We had to pass a swamp and some of us left their flip flops behind. Luckily the dogs we heard were not from this craz guy and we got to our canoes and left. When we came back we had noodles again, watched You don’t mess with Zohan and The book of Eli and I played pool with Kai and Maikel. The toilets and showers were not great, there was no soap, no mirror and they were full of spiders and bugs. Finally I went to bed and Eefje and me were sleeping in a tent for the second night.
Monday 14 March: we woke up at 8 am and we took the bus back to Noosa at 9.30 am. We thought Gagagu Bush Camp was very badly organized. The staff didn’t come with us during our canoetrip and didn’t give us a map so we got lost on both days. The toilets and showers were very dirty and the
dvd’s had scratches on them so we weren’t able to watch the movies to the end. We arrived at Noosa Transit Centre and got picked up by the shuttle bus from Nomads. We checked in for our second night for only 17.50 Australian Dollars (hostelvouchers Wicked) and got a free meal for the evening. We dropped our backpacks and went to the main beach in Noosa with Ilya, Bas (they stayed at Nomads aswell), Maikel (stayed at YHA) and Sean (Canada, we also met him at Bush Camp and stayed at Nomads). After our free meal (rice with loempia’s) Maikel, Sean and me went to the bar in our hostel, where it is happy hour every day between 8-9 pm. We bought a jug of VB and later we went to the Sogo Bar.
Tuesday 15 March: in the morning I went to the reception to extend my stay with another 4 nights, for 25 Aud a night. I paid by creditcard and went back to bed. In the afternoon I went to the main beach with Maikel and Eefje. On the way back we bought 10 hamburgers, tomato, cucumber and hamburger buns at Coles (similar supermarket as Woolworths)
so we could make hamburgers for the next 3 days. We were a bit sick of the noodles that’s why. We also passed a cinema and looked at the prices and the different movies. Then we looked for a new bag for my birthday and went back to the hostel. At 8.30 pm Eefje and me went to the YHA hostel to see Maikel and we could use fast internet there for free. We booked the greyhound to Hervey Bay, looked at the weather forecast for Noosa, Fraser Island and Whitsunday Islands and I finished my travelblog and published it.
Wednesday 16 March: in the morning I made some calls to confirm our dates for the Whitsunday Islands and to book our hostel in Hervey Bay (from there you go to Fraser Island). Then I took the shuttle bus from Nomads at 12 pm to Noosa National Park. The busdriver was from England. He is a very nice guy and he adviced me to check out Little Cove (beach) one of the next days. When I arrived at the National Park I first went to the information centre and the guy there recommended some nice walking tracks.I started with
the coastal track where I saw Laguna Bay, Boiling Pot, Tea Tree Bay, Dolphin Point, Granite Bay, Hells Gates, Alexandria Bay, Devils Kitchen and Sunshine Beach. The other tracks I did were the Tanglewood track (isolated inland track through rainforest, open eucalypt woodlands and closed woodlands), the Alexandria Bay track (through open woodlands and heathlands to Alexandria Bay) and the Noosa Hill track (to the top of Noosa Hill). When I came to Sunshine Beach I walked on to Mc Analy Drive where I saw some beautiful villas. I found out that Noosa is the most beautiful place I have seen in Australia and I understood why it is the most expensive place to live on the east coast of Australia. I made plenty of pictures during the day and when we came home Eefje and me did some laundry. We ate hamburgers again and at 8.30 pm a live band started playing in the bar in our hostel. Maikel, Sean and me thought the band was really good. They played rock music all night but unfortunately the bar in our hostel closed at midnight (like every day). Maikel, Sean and me decided to go to a club called the
Rollin’ Rock in Hastings Street near the beach. It was not really busy there so we came home at 2 am and went to bed.
Thursday 17 March: it was St. Patrick’s day. I went to a travel agency across the road called Peter Pan and booked the Australia Zoo for Friday for 46 Aud. Because I booked it with them I could go on the internet for half an hour. Then I walked to the main beach, picked Eefje up and we walked to a nice small beach called Little Cove. I listened to my ipod, swam in the sea and went for a run.
When we came back in the hostel I worked on my travelblog, we ate hamburgers and enjoyed a free bbq at our hostel. It was packed at our hostel, everybody was drinking and eating outside and there was a band playing. Maikel came at 8.30 pm and we joined the party.
Friday 18 March: I woke up at 7 am, because I had to take the shuttle bus from Nomads at 8 am to Noosa Transit Centre where I got picked up by a bus at 8.30 which took us to the
Australia Zoo (build by Steve Irwin). At Noosa Transit Centre I already met three Dutchies (Erik, Keshia and Heleen) that were also going to the Australia Zoo and in the bus we already got to know each other better. We saw croc’s, american alligators, kangaroos, wallabies, emus, koalas, wombats, snakes, elephants, tigers, alpacas, cassowaries, komodo dragons, echidnas, binturongs, red pandas,tortoises, kookaburras and many other birds. We also fed the elephants, saw a Wildlife Warriors Show in the Crocoseum, made pictures of us with a koala and echidna and saw a croc show. When I came back in the hostel I took a short nap of 1,5 hour and after eating hamburgers I met Maikel and Heleen in the bar in the hostel at 8.30 pm for happy hour. Just before 10 pm Maikel and me went to a bottle shop to buy goon (Australian wine) and because we were not allowed to drink it in our or Maikel’s hostel (YHA) we went to a park where we chilled and talked until late.
Saturday 19 March: Eefje and me had to check out of Nomads before 10 am. As always we had to bring our cutlery and key back (both
a deposit of 10 Aud) and also had to bring our bedsheets and pillowcase to the reception. Then we left our backpacks in a special storage room until we took the shuttle bus from Nomads to Noosa Transit Centre where our Greyhound Bus left at 1pm and arrived at 5.30 pm. We had to be at Nomads Hervey Bay not later then 6.30 pm, because at that time we had a briefing for Fraser Island. Eefje and me enjoyed a free meal (pasta carbonara) which was included in our hostel voucher (Wicked Travel) and after that we went to the briefing where we were divided in 4 groups (A, B, C, D) of 8 people. Eefje and me decided to join group A (Halvor and Ruben from Norway, Sofia, Emmy and Daniela from Sweden and Eefje and me from Holland), which meant that nobody in that group wanted to drive. The tourguide was driving our car. During this briefing we had to fill in lists for the food we wanted to take to Fraser Island and we picked it up after the briefing at Foodworks and Eefje and me also bought goon (4 liter for 11 Aud). When we came
back we went back to the hostel, where I met a guy called Mike from Canada and after taking a shower we decided to check out the bar at the hostel. There I met two Dutchies who where working behing the reception and they asked me to join them to a nightclub next to Nomads calles the Viper. Because I went with them I came in for free and we had a great time. I didn’t stay that long, because I had to be at a briefing again next morning at 6.45 am for Fraser Island.
Sunday 20 March: At 6.45 am our tourguide gave us some information in the briefing about how 4-wheel driving on sand (Fraser Island) works, what the plans where for the next three days and some information about the nature and animal life. After the briefing we brought our backpacks to a storage room. We were only allowed to bring a small rugsack for three days, because otherwise we didn’t have enough space for everyone in the car. We hired a mat for 5 Aud and put our food in coolboxes in the car. We left our valuables at the reception at Nomads. At
9.30 am we left and drove to the ferry which took us to Fraser Island. Fraser Island is unique and World Heritage listed, because it is the biggest sand island in the world and it is the only place where you find rainforest in sand. It is also a breeding ground for tiger sharks and the only place in the world where you find natural bread dingos.When we arrived at Fraser Island we drove to a lake called Lake Wabby where we went for a swim and to Lake Wabby lookout where we made some pictures. We also fed some small turtles and one of them actually bit my finger. Then we drove to ou camping place for the night where we put our mats and sleeping bags in the tent. We started cooking pasta the first night and played the card game 21 after and two other card games the Swedish girls taught us. Then we sat in front of a caravan with the whole group (28 people) where a guy was playing guitar and sang. Every night we would see dingos (wild dogs) that came to look for our food. They can be dangerous if you run away,
because they will hunt you and bite you, but if you stand still with your arms crossed they will eventually go away. It was a great first day at Fraser Island.
Monday 21 March: we had to wake up early around 7 am, because we didn’t want to leave later than 8.30 am to get most out of our day. We drove like the day before over beaches, through rainforest and stopped at champagne pools where we went for a swim. During these three days our excellent guide told us stories about the history of Fraser Island, how we should behave around animals and how to threat the nature. We had lunch at the beach and then went to see kirrar sandblow. At this place sand you can find all different coulours of sand: yellow, blue, red and brown. We went to a beautiful cliff edge where you can normally spot tiger sharks, bul sharks, white sharks, humpback whales, turtles and dolphins. We enjoyed the beautiful view and saw a stingray jumping out of the water. We also saw a Northweaver spider, which is huge, but not dangerous luckily. Then we went to a shipwreck and finally made our
way back to camp. We prepared a bbq and played a card game called ring of fire. We went to bed early, because we had to wake up ealry next day at 6.30 am.
Tuesday 22 March: Halvor, Ruben, Sofia, Emmy, Daniela, Eefje and me woke up early and everybody took care of something else. One of us brought the mats to our guide, one made breakfast, one swept the tent and one counted the amount of forks, knifes, plates and so on (8 of everything). We left the camp site around 8 am and went to place where we went for coffee and sticky buns. Then we went to Lake Birrabeen to go for a swim and Halvor, Ruben and me played frisbee. After that we went to the most famous lake at Fraser Island called Lake Hanson where we had lunch first and made a picture of our group. Finally that we drove back to the ferry and came back in Hervey Bay. There we had to bring the cars to a mechanic to check if the cars where still ok. Luckily our car was still ok, because our tourguide was driving and we got the 60
Aud refundable bond that we had to pay before we left back. At 6.30 pm there was another free meal arranged for our group of 30 people and we ate nachos. We were exhausted from our 3 days Fraser Island trip and after dinner we had a shower and went to bed early.
Wednesday 23 March: We had to check out again at 10 am and unfortunately we had some trouble the day before with booking the Greyhound Bus to Airlie Beach (I booked the last spot and there was no more place for Eefje).That is why Eefje got up early to take the shuttle bus from the hostel towards the Greyhound office to see if they could still put her on the nightbus to Airlie Beach (which would depart at 8.55 pm and arrive at 9 am in the morning). Unfortunately this was not the case, so we had to book a bus that left at 1.10 pm and arrive at Airlie Beach at 2.25 am. But because of this we also had to call the hostel in Airlie Beach to ask them if they had 24 hour reception or otherwise if we could still get in the
hostel in the middle of the night. Luckily this was possible. Halvor also told us that we needed to do a medical before we could start our diving course at Magnetic Island and Wicked Travel didn’t inform us about this fact.We called Magnetic Island and found out this was the case. We called Wicked again to ask why they didn’t inform us about the medical and told them it would cost us an extra 49,50 Aud and it would also give us a delay of 3 day, because the diving course only starts on Monday, Thursday and Saturday. After cheching out of the hostel, I made some last pictures of the hostel and worked on my travelblog. Finally we took the shuttle bus from Nomads at 12.30 pm and took the Greyhound Bus at 1.10 pm towards Airlie Beach.
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Lottie
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magnifique
Hi Bram, Wat een verhaal weer en wat een prachtige foto's. Je hebt weer heel wat meegemaakt en ik kan me ook wel voorstellen dat de noodles je af en toe de neus uitkomen;-) Ik weet dat nog wel van Joris, die dat ook vaak at in Australië om geld uit te sparen. Je reist heel wat af en zult dus een hele hoop zien. Ik denk dat dat ook de bedoeling was van deze reis. Je maakt het meer dan waar en we kunnen zo allemaal een beetje meegenieten van je avonturen. Je hebt wel een trouwe metgezel in Eefje hè? Is ook wel leuker als je niet helemaal alleen hoeft te reizen. Lieve Bram, alsnog van harte proficiat, had ik al gedaan en ik wens je nog een hele fijne tijd daar. Veel liefs van (tante) Lot