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Published: March 29th 2007
Oz Road Signs
Sill haven't seen any hopping about though Three weeks on since my last blog and I have only just left the one state we have been in, Queensland, which just shows how big this place is as we have been driving down the coast every couple of days! I am currently in Byron Bay in New South Wales, but alas I am leaving here today to venture to the big smoke of Sydney (I can't wait though!).
But lets backtrack a bit and start from when I last left off which I beleive was saying that we were going to a cattle station to ride a mechanical bull.... well that didn't transpire and in the end we made a detour to our next destination of Agnes Water/Town of 1770 (is that not just the strangest name of a town EVER?!?!) via the Bundaberg Rum factory (Australia's most popular rum apparently!) where we got shown round the factory and about how the rum is made and then got given two rather large complimentory drinks at the end our the tour (thanks very much!).
On arriving in Agnes Water we found where we wanted to stay easily and decided as the beach was only just down the
Bundaberg Rum Factory
In Bundaberg funnily enough road we would take a look at it before checking ourselves into the hostel. Unfortunately after spending only 20 minutes at the beach we headed back to the hostel only to find that the Greyhound coach had just dropped a dozen or so people outside of where we wanted to stay and they were now fully booked up! Arse. To cut a very long story short it then took up aprox THREE HOURS to find another place to stay, in the process killing loads of toads which just sat in the middle of the roads and didn't move when we drive towards them (you can feel then under the wheels - Ughhh!).
All turned out well though as we found a lovely place to stay which rather than being called a hostel called itself a 'retreat' which offered bush style accomodation with little wooden shacks to sleep in and a converted barn for chilling out in and cooking etc... perfect for a few day of doing nothing I say, which is what we did except for the odd trip to the beach and then BBQ in the evening.
After a few nights here it was time to move
onto Hervey Bay which is the main launching point for people wanting to go to Fraser Island which is the largest sand island in the world (reputedly having more sand than the Sahara desert) with an interior which plays host to rainforrests, gorges and mineral streams.
Generally people who go to Fraser book up with a company and are then put into groups of up to ten people, given a map and left to get up to your own devices exploring the island for a few days which is exactly what we did.
So a couple of weeks ago on Sunday 18th of March we woke at the early time of 0530 and met for a briefing with all the other people who were joining in on the trip at 0630 where we were given information about the island and then put into our groups which ended up being 4 other Brits and a Sweedish couple.
As the whole package has a kind of 'fend for yoursleves' feel, we were told to collect a stash of money from everyone and then people were randomly picked out to be the alcohol and food shoppers for your group. Unfortunately
Fraser Island
The Fraser gang Kelly and I got landed with the food shoppers task so off we trotted with $160 to the supermarket with the undesirable task of buying three days worth of food for a group of people that you met 5 minutes previous and to make our job that lilttle bit harder the fraulein that drove us to the shop said that we only had 25 minutes to do it in. Well to say I felt like I was on supermarker sweep would be an understatement and I'm sure that Dale Winton would have been very impressed with our skills in the aisles!
That day, once on Fraser Island we started venturing with our pose and ended up going to the beautiful Lake Wabby and having a swim (I swallowed some of the water - I don't advise anyone to go swallowing stale water from a lake - nearly vommited) and thaen back to our base camp to erect our tents for the night.
Luckily for me the guys didn't mind doing the whole 'i'm macho so I will put up the tent' business so I quickly voulnteered to do the cooking on the provision that the only thing that
Fraser Island
Shipwreck on Fraser I would have to do with the tent was sleep in it. The guys quickly agreed to this as I don't think any of them fancied themselves as a Gordon Ramsey in the making so everyone was happy and a mean BBQ was enjoyed by all.
On enterting the camp we were briefed by a crazy ranger called 'Makka' about the area in which were staying who went on to scare most people out of their minds by telling us about the amount of deadly snakes and spiders that live on the island and the fact that he had seen a Thai-pan earlier on in the day but hadn't managed to catch it to put it back in the bush.... and thats not even mentioning the wild dingos which roam around at night - Ha!!!
Needless to say that after dinner when people starting venturing down the beach for a few drinks most people went to bed, but equipped with a head torch and a bag of goon (cheap wine made out of eggs, fish and milk which comes in a bag!) I braved nature with Emily and endured the terribly hard walk (the sand would reach up
Fraser Island
View of the island from Indian Head Point to your knees when you walked which made it so hard) and I am so glad that we did as you could see the Milky Way when you looked up to the sky as there was little light on the island. I have never seen so many stars in my life. It was very cool indeed.
With the first day over, successfully not getting bitten by a deadly creature, the second day started early for me as I couldn't sleep (no pillow!) and I was the first one of the gang up and about. I was actually awake at 4am neeing the loo, but I was too scared to go outside of the tent on my own in the dark (just incase there was a snake there) so I waited THREE hours until it was light and until I couldn't wait no more! The only thing I saw that morning was a few Guannas which are massive lizzard type creature, but they wander around the camp quite harmlessly so I wasn't too disturbed seing a few of them during breakfast.
This day we drove down the 75 mile beach to a view point called 'Indian Head' where we
saw some sharks swimming in the water bellow (the waters off Fraser are shark infested so you are advised not to swim in the sea) and then onto the 'Champagne Falls' which are a group of pools next to the sea which you are free to swim in to cool off. We were told at our briefing not to drive down a particular stretch of beach as we would have got stuck in the sand so instead we walked which turned out to be a very difficult task as once again, the sand was so soft our legs sank.
The third and final day was spend touring the lakes again (we had to get up and be out, tents packed and all by 0530 due to the tides so I slept in the van at the first lake!). Our final destination, Lake McKenzie has been voted one of the worlds top ten beaches (stange at a lake) but it was beautiful and it made a difference going to the beach and swimming and not getting salt water in your mouth.
Just before heading to the beach we all had lunch at our van and and a dingo made
Australia Zoo
Steve Irwin memorial an apperance so we had to pack up quickly as it would have come after our food, but unfortunately when we went to the beach the dingo got on top of the 4x4 and ripped a hole in the tapaulin trying to get at our cereral. The cheeky blighter.
Having been on the island three days it was time for us to leave so after a final night back in Harvey Bay (aptly nicknamed by us as "cocoon" as it is full of extremly fit elderly people!) we then headed onto our next destination of Noosa which is a very posh area where the well healed share their scene with surfers where we chilled out for a few days and mooched around the shops getting back some energy after our fun packed weekend on Fraser.
From Noosa we had to then hotfoot it down the coast to Brisbane as we realised that we were spending far to long in one place and needed to get cracking with seeing more of the East Coast of Oz!
On the way to Brisbane we stopped at the world famous Australia Zoo, which was home to the late Steve Irwin and
then spent a few days around the city, enjoying our surroundings, as this was the first time we had been in a big city since leaving Asia. On out first day we decided to go in a bus city tour, but once we had walked into town and started seeing all of the shops that plan went out of the window and the day was spend blasting our cards - Ooooo I forgot how much fun shopping is!!!
During our time here we did the usual things that you would do at home which was really nice; shopping, eating out, drinking, movies and as Brisbane isn't next to the sea, they have a man made beach in the middle of the Central Business District so you can have a swim and sunbathe too!
Unfortunately the one thing that I wanted to do before leaving Australia was to take a surfing lesson which is something that I couldn't do in the city, so as our next destination was Surfer's Paradise I thought that it was an ideal opportunity to do what I wanted to do so last Friday I had my first lesson where they guaranteed that they would
have you standing up within two hours!
Well, they didn't lie I guess as I DID stand up (twice as a matter of fact!) but I'm not sure if 1.5 seconds counts does it???? It was great fun anyway and something that I would love to have another go at once I return home (think I will need a wet suit in Blightly though!).
Surfer's Paradise is also the place to go for theme parks and all things adrenaline so we went to a theme park and to sea world one of the days where we saw the usual dolphin shows along with sharks etc...
Now for those of you who come from the Midlands...... do you remember the 'Birmingham Wheel' which was errected in Brindley Place in Birmingham for people to ride and see the sights of the city??? Well, in the Sea life center there was this big wheel which looked vaugley farmiliar to me and when riding it I swore blind that it was the same one which used to be in Brum (it was formerly in Paris before hand) so as I came off I asked one of the attendants if it had
Byron Bay
Wattago beach sunset come from the UK and I was told yes, it used to be in Birmingham..... Just incase any of you had restless nights sleeping wondering where it had gone...... it is now in the Gold Coast of Australia so you can all sleep easy now!!!!
I have now been in the lovely town of Byron Bay for 5 days now and I think that this is my favourite place in Oz so far. It's got a real chilled out feel to the place and the beaches are just stunning.
On Sunday Emily and I got up early as we had booked ourselves onto a dolphin kayaking trip where by you kayak out into the sea and look for dolphins (self explanatory really!). After paddling out for about 20 minutes or so we stopped in the ocean and low and behold the dolphins started to appear! At one point we got quite close to them, but unfortunetly you can't paddle within 50 meters of them, you have to wait for them to swim close to you which they did do.
That day, the sea was quite choppy (an understantement really!) and Emily and I got hit sideways on
to a wave and came belting out of the kayak! Luckily the instructor were close and they were able to hoik us back into the boats.
On the way back to land, we noticed one of the instructors riding the waves back to the beach so we thought that we would give it a go which wasn't the best of ideas as after being up high on the wave and having seawater pelted in your face going extremely fast, we both got thrown out of the kayak and dragged under the sea by our heads (and we wondered why they gave us crash helmets!). It was all good fun though and I wish that we have stayed out in the sea longer to be fair.
That same afternoon we visitied a hippy market which is held the first Sunday of the Month and then out for a meal and an all dayer around town as last weekend was the last one with the girls as I am making my way to Sydney on my own this afternoon before heading off to Christchurch, New Zealand to see my cousin on Thursday.... it's all go eh???
So alas, this
Surfing at Surfers Paradise
...and then fell straight back down! will be my last blog from Australia, but as I am climbing the Sydney Harbour Bridge tomorrow (wish me luck!) I will add some pics of me hopefully completing the climb successfully!
Take care all - see you in NZ for my last leg before home!
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Dave
non-member comment
So Jealous
Sounds amazing, I can't believe your still going, Me and Will are headed to Oz in November and you have got me in the mood, hope the bridge climb goes well and you have a great time for the last part of Australia, NZ will be fantastic. Miss you all.