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Hey everyone!!!!!!!
How was everyone's Canada Day? I hope it went swimmingly. Thanks for all the birthday wishes, emails, and facebook messages, and also a big happy birthday (belated) to Marilyne! Well we are now in Hervey Bay, Queensland, after our LAST long bus ride!!!!!! 13 hours and overnight. YUCK. But we are here, and its wonderful and warm! We last left you in Airlie Beach, which we thoroughly enjoyed. We spent that day relaxing by the lagoon, sunning, swimming, and shopping. We both picked up some surf shorts for our surfing adventures coming up. Then we hopped on our bus after listening to some amateur live music which was quite excellent in fact, he did a lot of covers. I promptly knocked myself out with gravol and Dennis needed no help at all!
We woke up shortly before Bundaberg, which is the place where Dennis' new obsession comes from, Bundaberg Ginger Beer. It's quite tasty, and he has fallen in love with its real ginger flavor. Pretty much, its root beer, but better, because its actually brewed like a beer. Yum-MY. Then we got into Hervey Bay, which is good, because I think Kim was about ready to
Roads on Fraser Island
This is tame compared to some of them kill a few people on our bus and their noises. After 13 hours, they get REAL annoying. Dennis kept me calm though. We got a free ride to our hostel which is reall neat. We are in a loft type room in kind of a jungle type area. Then we headed into town to find a phone and we called for bike service! We rented two bikes to go around town on, and just cruised the paths. We saw the ocean at low tide and walked out to the edge. It was a far walk! And we found some cute hermit crabs I put in Dennis' hand and he tricked it into peeking its head out before retreating back into his shell. Then we cruised over to Vernon Point, the edge of Hervey Bay and just watched the waves and dogs. It was a dog park area. I liked the dalmatian best. It was so fun! We also called Mrs. Elaine Strydhorst, who had just gotten home from the boys soccer game. DId they win by the way? Dennis asks if they had fun?
Then we got some groceries for the next couple days, including my favorite new obsession,
Cadbury Dessert bars. Its a chocolate bar... with brownie in the middle. Sooooooooo goooooooodddddd. I am bringing home a bar. We also found 1.5L of iced tea, which we both miss greatly. Then we went home and played some cards before showering and then headed to a fantastic dinner of stir fry.
We woke up bright and early to catch our shuttle to the marina for our day on Fraser Island. We had to be outside at 7:20 AM. Our packed boat left for the island at 8:45 or so. The boat ride was cold and short as the morning forecast changed suddenly from the 24 and sunny to 22 and scattered showers. It was cloudy on the boat ride over. UPon arriving we quickly made our way onto the 4x4 tour buses that would take us around the island. Now Fraser island is the worlds largest sand island and is a World Heritage Sight like the Great Barrier Reef. THese buses were super cool and huge. We quickly got going and made our way to Lake MacKenzie. THe roads are insane!!!! THey are literally sand and very fine sand which means even in a huge bus we were
Creek in the Rainforest
Central Forest Station, the film on the water, is actually the sand bottom, don't get confused constantly sliding around. ANd the roads were steep and windy. It was kind of crazy that vehicles travel these roads. Only 4x4s though, nothing else could make it. After a bit we made our way to the lake. It is a giant fresh water lake with crystal clear waters that have come purely from rain. The sand is packed in with dead vegetation and that is how the water stays there. We went for a brisk swim and the sun even decided to pop out making it quite warm. We then hoped back on the bus and made our way to the rain forest at Central Forestry Station. THey used to harvest trees from the island including clear cutting although in 50 years, everything has grown back. THere are literally trees 1000 years old on the island. We walked around and took in the cool trees. It is phenomenal to see huge rainforests growing on sand.
We then went to Eulong beach for a great buffet lunch. Here is where it started to rain. After lunch we made our way up 75 mile long beach up to the Maheno, an ocean liner used in WWII era that went between
Maheno Shipwreck
THis was only 70 years ago that it crashed... NZ and OZ but was shipwrecked on the shore. THere is so little left of it because of the harsh salt water climate. Really cool. We then went up to Coloured Sand rocks, I think they are called the Pinnacles. There are over 75 different colors of sand although I could definitely not see them all. We then went back down towards Eulong and stopped at Eli Creek where we waded up the creek. It is a really fast flowing creek with crystal clear waters. All of its water is fed from the underwater aquifers fed by the rain the infiltrates through the sand. We then made our way back to our ferry terminal at Kingfisher bay. It was super cool. We met a really cool couple originally from Greece that now lives in AUstralia with two kids and talked the whole ferry ride home. He is in recruiting and told me he could find me a job in no time. No worries, we didn't say yes and I forgot my business cards at home 😉.
Today we woke up and hoped on the bus to Noosa which is where we are now, in the rain, pouring, so much
for the sunshine coast, BUT, we are going surfing in 1.5 hours. YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!
Love you and miss you all
Dennis and KIm
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Mom and Dad in Seattle
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Watch out for the Dingos
Love the pictures, Debbie says hi, would love to be there with you. Esks won over Calgary! Have fun