Advertisement
Published: October 19th 2007
Edit Blog Post
We arrived in Hervey Bay late afternoon and booked our space on a tour to Fraser Island the following day. We had the option of joining a tour or hiring our own 4x4 but that would mean having 2 cars out on hire at once and plus, we're not made of money.
We wanted to be on good form for the trip, so we found a nice hostel called 'Next' and requested a private twin room to ensure we got some decent sleep and know there wouldnt be any trashed travellers falling around the dorm during the early hours. As it turns out, the majority of backpackers there were doing the same as us and using the hostel as a stepping stone onto Fraser Island.
Following a good nights rest and recouperation, we made our pick up at the port the next morning at 07:30. As we expected, it was a mixed demographic of tourists (50:50 split between backpackers and pensioners) on the bus and we were glad we'd signed up for the 1 day whistlestop instead of the longer and more expensive options available. Our host was a fellow who looked and sounded remarkably like Lou Carpenter from Neighbours which we found novel and laughed when he tried to pass himself off as 'Mike'.
Lou turned out to be quite a laugh and made what could well have been a pretty boring trip around the island into quite a hoot.
The island itself was a bit different to visit as it's the largest sand island in the world. With this to consider, the authorities there only allow access to 4WD vehicles as regular cars wouldnt be able to drive around the roads which are basically deep and at times trecherous, sandy tracks. Our tour bus was about the same dimensions as a regular bus but was well equiped with big muckle big 4WD wheels and it was some ride in it. A couple of times we got stuck in the sand but Lou knew what he was doing and managed to keep us going.
Not only is Fraser Island the largest sand island in the world, it's also named after a Scotsman! More interestingly, the Scot was the captain of the ship HMS Stirling Castle which ran aground there in 1836. Apparently, he was beaten to death and cannabalised but his wife Eliza made it out
to tell the tale.
I shouldnt neglect to mention how pretty a mound of sand Fraser Island really is. You were right Mel! It's a very special place with an almost surreal sence of calm and tranquility both within the rainforests in the middle of the island and along the endless white sandy beaches. The jewel in the crown for us though was the beautiful Lake McKenzie - it shimmered with colour, the water was super pure and the sand on the lake bed dazzled and shined through the water.
From Fraser Island, we returned to the hostel in Hervey Bay for the night and the following day, we drove the short distance into Brisbane. HERE is a city! The first place I've said to Trung: "I could live her a while, mate."
Before arriving, we researched some hostels so we were prepared for arriving in our first major metropolitan area in Oz and we landed perfectly on our feet by rocking up to a hostel called 'Bunk' in the cities wild and trendy Fortitude Valley district. The Australian's seem to do a lot of things well and a good example of this is in their hostels.
They're not far off hotels for travellers and the majority of them appear to have a had a good deal of thought go into them. Bunk was ace and we shared a six bed mixed dorm with a bunch of long term residents (Brits working in Oz) and a couple of other backpacking nomads.
We spent 3 nights in Brisbane and had a lot of fun there. On the 21st, we celebrated my 28th birthday! No more passing myself off as 'mid-twenties' anymore... We went for for an awesome Chinese for lunch, walked around the city and the gorgeous Southbank area and then Trung shouted me a slap-up Steak for dinner in a nice restaurant in The Valley. Yum, yum - ta mate! It was the time spent walking around the city that really impressed me with Brisbane. My old flatmate, an ex-colleague and also Britta's flatmate are folk I know from this city and I really got to wondering why they could leave such a nice place. It's clean, green, lots of shops, beaches pretty close and lots of sculpted, lush parkland and countless vibrant bars, cafe's and restaurants. Wonderful. I'll be back Brissy!
When we left
Brisbane for The Gold Coast, we took a diversion to a fascinating wee nook in the countryside called Nimbin, a bohemian retreat from the 60's and 70's where hippie culture is the code and marijuana is sold on streets by people ranging from down an' out tramps to smartly dressed tupperware-like-saleswomen. All very bizarre and definitely worth the spin off the beaten track.
Our next stop was Surfer's Paradise on The Gold Coast where we spent a couple of nights. It was actually quite dissapointing for us. I think we were just in the wrong town at the wrong time, having been socialising a lot in Brisabane. Or maybe, at 28, we're starting to moderate our socialising, i'm not sure. When we arrived, it was the University Olympics of Australia which meant the hostel and the streets were teeming with squads of drunken 17 and 18 year olds out of their faces on Jager Bombs, a potent mix of Jagermeister and Victoria Bitter, or VB. To top things off, we had the humiliation of watching Scotland getting drubbed by the All Blacks in the rugby World Cup with the company of a couple of Kiwi's. Thing's went from bad
to worse when a table of Ozzies started arguing with the Kiwi's and when they called them 'sheepshaggers', the caps came of and jewelry was placed on the tables. Things settled in the end but by then, we realised that Surfer's Paradise just wasnt clicking for us on too many levels. The city is also Australia's beach resort destination which didnt really impress us too much either and once we drove out of the city and along the coast, we found many alternatives that would have suited us better. Sorry Surfer's Paradise - not this time.
From Surfer's Paradise, we continued South to Byron Bay, a little trepidly in case it turned out to be Surfer's Paradise MkII; however, it didnt. It was much more of a town and we found a good hostel with some good dormmates who we wen't clubbing with to Cheeky Monkey's.
Next up... Sydney and Melbourne and catching up with Camilla and Mark from Scotland to see how expat life is treating them down under...
Advertisement
Tot: 0.073s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 12; qc: 27; dbt: 0.0339s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb