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Published: March 14th 2011
Downtown Brisbane
And the crazy new bridge!Well, my departure from Fiji was uneventful, which is always nice. I forgot to mention on my last Fiji blog that I've had the first causualty of the trip. After many years with me and traveling to many countries, my watch has died. The band broke and the alarm stopped working so I am not armed with a new watch that I got for a pretty good price. Now, I can tell time and wake up for all the activities in Australia!
My flight landed in Brisbane at 10:30 PM. Through a friend of mine, I had connected with a friend of his and ended up with a place to stay and tour guide of Brisbane. I hopped in a taxi and had a very nice 30 min drive or so to Jason's (the friend of the friend) house. I was talking rugby with the driver almost the whole time. It was fun! Upon arriving at Jason's house, I walked into the back and ran into him and his girlfriend on the outdoor couches. Immediately, it was like I was one of the group. I settled in and had some very nice conversation with them. Turns out they have done
The sun reflecting off the old post office
Its now a casino. They don't have craps, therefore I did not go in to play anything. quite a bit of traveling around as well and were more than welcome to offer a place for me to crash for a few nights. After a bit, Jason showed me to my bed and I turned in. I realized that this could be the last time I will sleep in a room by myself for the next 7 weeks. Wow! I didn't waste any time getting off to sleep and slept rather hard.
In the morning, I woke up a bit early. Brisbane is 2 hrs behind Fiji so I think it was a time adjustment thing. I casually read my book and waited for Jason to get up. I was in no real hurry to do anything...I mean, techinically, I'm still on Fiji time. By 10 am, Jason and I were off to explore Brisbane on foot for the day. Our first stop was the post office. I needed to ship home all the items I received as gifts in Fiji. There were quite a few and they were heavy and I didn't want to damage any of them. So, after getting that all sorted out, we were off. It was about a 40 min walk into
the city center. He lives in an area called Paddington. I'd say its a neighborhood of the Brisbane area. The center of Paddington was one street with all sorts of boutique and mom/pop owned shops and restaurants and cafes and bars. It was a really cool little area. The most surprising thing of the morning was how hilly the city was! I didn't expect that at all. I quickly realized that this was going to be a bit of a workout for me. We strolled through another area of the city which had a whole strip of bars. This area is close to the rugby stadium and Jason said its a ton of fun to be in the bars when a game is going on. Unfortunately, I was not in town for a game. The stadium was large and looked similar from the outside as the US football stadiums. I'm hoping to get to a rugby game at some point while I'm in the country. From here we were pretty close to the city and Jason said that he'd give me his version of the walking tour of Brisbane. But before we got started, I was hungry so we stopped
in for lunch. He asked if I had a taste for anything. I said, just no curry. I later explained why :-) We ate a one of the bars he likes and I had my first Aussie pint. It was good. I also ordered a breaded chicken breast with chips (french fries). That was fabulous! I think the food in Oz is going to treat my tummy a little better than it did in Fiji. And thank goodness too, all my pants are falling off. From here we made our way into downtown. Or as they say here, the city. Its a small but large city, if that makes sense. Maybe a little be smaller than the size of Seattle. The buildings are for the most part modern or modernish. Meaning, very few buildings look as if they were built in the 1800 or early 1900 hundreds. The more we walked, we finally came across of few of them, but for the most part, its a modern place. The city sits on a large river that bends and turns its way around. The city is in a deep V section of it and it proves to give an interesting layout
to the city and surrounding neighborhoods. We walk across the new bridge that was recently opened, its all self supporting and looks more like a crazy art piece than a bridge, and make our way to the south shore. On this side of the river there is the arts area of town and a wonderful walkway and park that runs a good distance along the river. For the most part, the city faired well in the recent floods in Queensland. However, the river did flood and damaged areas of the park. Jason was all upset because one of his favorite things, the pools that are man made, but really pretty, are currently under renovation. So, what would have been a really nice walk was a little distracting due to the construction, but hey, these things happen. I was not upset and really enjoyed the views of downtown as we walked. There are also several bridges across the river that were cool. The best part of the walk was the vines. The walkway has an art structure of mental arms that start at the ground and go up into a 1/2 arch on each side. They have a Tim Burton feel
to them (think Nightmare Before Xmas). Then, they have vines with purple flowers growing all over them. It creates this beautiful walkway that is essentially shaded and quite a joy to walk through. Pools or no pools, this part was fantastic! Across another bridge and back on the city side, we head towards the Unviersity area and then into the botanical gardens. All along the walk Jason is giving me info about the city. He's really a Canadian, but moved to Bris several years back for college and is about to leave in a few months. I was impressed with his info. I've lived in a couple of different cities in the US and I'm not sure I can give a good of a tour as he did. The botanical gardens were beautiful, but again, there were some areas that were closed off or being updated due to the floods. We did see an Aussie Ibis though and Jason said that they are a nusance and annoying. I said, like the seagul and he said yes. It makes so much sense why this bird is the UM mascot now!
After the gardens, we criss crossed back into the city
The big trees in Fraser Island
this was on our walk thru the rain forest
area and up and down a few more streets. We ended up on a promanade area that had a bunch of shops and businesses and restuarants and bars and cafes...you name it, it was here. It also has a Burger King, but in Oz they're called Hungry Jacks. That's so funny to me! Jason works part-time at a men's club - don't think of this in a dirty way. Its a restaurant club thing for business men. Its an old school type of thing. Anyway, he gets a discount at this open bar, the pig and whistle, that sits in the middle of the promanade. We settle in and I decide to try to Blonde lager on tap. It was really good! I realize that I will have to do a lot of beer sampling while in Oz. We settle into some stools, watch some rugby, chat and watch the people go by. My second beer is called a Fat Yak. I got it cause the name was too funny and boy was I happy with my choice! Jason got a call from his girlfriend, she was going to come pick us up, but we had to kill another 30
min. With a pleasant little buzz, we decide to walk a bit more before meeting her. We head up to the casino building which is one of the older buildings, if not oldest, in the city. It was originally a govt building or something. At this point I have a buzz and so does Jason, so infor is limited. I did snap a cool pic of it though with the sun setting. The casino does not offer craps, so obviously, I did not go in to play anything. From here we headed over to the current govt building which was also quite impressive. It has a large clock tower on it and sites in a very pretty square. Our walking tour was now over and I was very happy with the day. We got picked up and headed for the grocery store. Jason was going to cook dinner and we decided to have kangaroo skewers. Ok, now before you get all upset like I did, here's the deal. Kangaroo in Oz are like deer in the US. They are everywhere and most people consider them to be annoying. Then, on top of that, the meat is really good for you.
And eating it is good for the envirnoment...it said so on the packaging. So, when in Rome...
Once home, Jason made up the skewers with the kangaroo, pumpkin, peppers and onion. I have to say, I can't belive I ate it, but it was SOOOO good! I will be having it again for sure. And besides, I ate far stranger things on my tirp to Cape Town. It actually tastes sort of like venison and with a couple of Jason's home brewed beers (I tried the maple flavored ones) it was a fantastic dinner. After dinner, they took me, via car, up to the look out area. Bris is quite hilly and on the one side, they have a bit of a mountain. The view of the city at night was awesome! And, it was a really clear night so I also got to see the stars. They were quite pretty. I was quite tired from the day of walking and ended up turning in for bed pretty early. I mean, after all my relaxing in Fiji, this was a huge day for me!
The next morning (Wednesday) I slept in a bit and didn't get up till
8:30 or so. The next greatest thing about Jason's place, hot water in the shower! While in Fiji, the cold water showers didn't bother me so much. I mean it was hot and usually felt really good. Bris is still having its summer and during the day its hot but in the evenings it cools off. When I woke up, I was a bit chilled and didn't think about the shower. As soon as the hot water hit me, I was a happy, happy girl! For today, Jason and I decided that heading to Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary was the best thing to do. This sanctuary is like a zoo but better. They have been operating for a long time and started by rescuing koalas and helping to repopulate them. As the coastal area of Oz has been develped, most of the koala habitat as been destroyed. So this organization is helping with that. The sanctuary has turned into a zoo of sorts that has most of the indigenious Oz animals. And, by the end of the day, it became my favorite zoo of all time! When you walk in, you immediately know its different. Most of the animals are
in broad open spaces and you can get up close and personal with them. Many of the birds are flying around. And we quickly made our way to one of the main attractions, the kangaroo field. You go through a double gate and are in a huge field with rolling hills and tons of kangaroos. And, you can pet them! I was in heaven. I have never seen anything like this. I was up and around like a little kid petting all the Roos. They were bigger and smaller than I thought they'd be. I know that doesn't really make sense, but its that they were just so interesting. Their tails are amazing. Solid muscle. And their back feet are so funny looking with the long toes. For the most part, they were not that active, but we did get to watch them move around and hop some. It was really fun. Then we moved on to the Wallibies. These are so small! Much smaller than I anticapated. And they are very dispaporate. Their arms are really really short and their heads are super small but then the bottom part of their bodies is huge. Kind of like a bell,
in terms of proporation. It was strange. They were also very sweet and let us pet them for a long time. Then we moved on to the Emu. This looks like an ostrich but again, you could get right up next to it. I was a little afraid to do this. I mean, its head and my head were almost on the same level...its too early in the trip to loose an eye! But, sure enough, I was able to stand next to it and pet its feathers. It was like straw but greasy. Not my favorite thing. From here we left the open area and went over to the wombats area and waited for the talk that would explain these. I had no idea what a wombat was and am still not sure I can summarize. Its did become a new favorite animal of mine! Its an animal that burrows and digs amazing tunnels. There are 3 kinds and they're only found in Oz. They are small but very powerful. Think guinee pig but much larger. They are super cut and kind of waddle about. However, they get run really fast, like 40 km/hr or something. I loved hearing
the zoo keepers talk about the wombat. I was all ears and took lots of photos. From here we headed over for the main show, the koalas! The koalas are in these short trees behind a short wall with no glass or cage of any kind. For the most part, they just sit or sleep. They sleep like 17 hours a day. But we did see quite a bit of activity as well. In fact, on jumped from one tree to another. It was amazing to watch them move on the trees too. We listened to the lecture about the animals and learned a few interesting things. Then we got to pet one! The cutest thing ever was this little girl, maybe 3, as she watched her mom pet the koala she rested up and patted it twice on its bum. Then she giggled....I thought it was too cute! I was in awe as I pet the koala. Its fur is so soft! From here we headed up to see the platapus and let me tell you...it was interesting and yet so odd. Its part beaver, part duck, part speed boat. This thing was swimming so fast it was increadible!
Lake Wabby
This is the right way to spell it :-) Look how green it is! I don't think I've ever seen one of these before and it was fun. Seemed like quite a playful creature. We also saw a lot of birds including the cook-a-burrow (sp?) which sang for us. We also saw up close and personal the flying fox bat. These are really cute! They have this furry face and body like a fox and then the bat wings. I got some amazing pictures of them (I've also seen them out flying at night in Fiji and Brisbane). We also saw some really big lizards and monitors. Very cool! Then we saw the dingos - essentially wild dogs. They came from India and are related to the wolf, I think. We also saw the tasmanian devil. Ok...these literally looked like the rodents of usual size - from the Princess Bride. I'm sure we all know this reference. They are U-G-L-Y! I didn't like them at all. And I'm planning to go to Taz so I'm hoping I don't encounter any of them in the wild. After some roaming around and seeing all the animals, we headed back to the koala area for one last treat. For free, you can cuddle a koala. This was so special! They place the koala in your hands and then it literally hugs you and grips onto your shoulders. I was nose to nose with the little, but very heavy guy! I was in heaven! We couldn't take photos of this, but I'll never forget it! After this, I was pretty sure the day couldn't get any better. Then Jason says that we can feed the kangaroos. So, $1 later, I'm back in the big field and feeding the Roos. This one large one was eating right out of my hand. He was huge! This front feet were slightly smaller than my hands. Yet he was so calm. We also saw a mommy Roo with a baby Roo out of and then in her pouch. This was also really neat to see! I couldn't believe how the baby curled up to fit inside the mother and the mother ROo was not that big. Jason and I were both a bit disturbed by a small boy that kept grabbing at the baby once it was in the pouch and his mother did nothing to stop him. I was partly hoping the mother Roo would scratch him. I'm a little evil, I know, but the boy's mother should have pulled him away. Instead, she just kept taking pics. After the feeding, we left. It was a great day/afternoon at the Park and I suggest this as a must do for anyone going to Brisbane.
We headed into the city for a late lunch which was a meat pie! There are going to be so many of these in my future and I'm oh so happy about it! Then back to Jason's. I caught up on email and did some reading. Later on Jason cooked again, Kangaroo skewers. We had some left over. I actually felt a little bad eating it again, but it does taste really good! Then we headed into the city to meet up with his friends. They have a standing night of cocktails on Wed. We went to this open air bar called Beach Bar and listened to live music for a bit. There were about 12 people there. It was quite fun. Many of them were Canadians, one Swed, one Aussie, good times! I fit right in and we had a lot of laughs. From this bar we moved to a club like place that is hopping on Wed night. Its big with the backpacker crowd. This place reminded me of a spring break/college bar. But, they did have these small pitcher things for $4, so really when you're traveling on a budget, you can't beat it. I decided that since the place felt like college I would act like college and told the bartender I didn't need the glass to go along with my pitcher. I mean, the place was crowded and I didn't want two things in my hands. So really, I was being very sensible. We stayed here until the morning hours talking/laughing/dancing and singing to the DJ. They play Bon Jovi everywhere! I think we got back to Jason's around 2 am. Not too bad actually. Although I had to get up early for the train the next morning.
In the morning, I had a bit of a headache, but overall felt pretty good. I gathered all of my stuff together and set out from Jason's house for the train. I took the city bus into the main terminal and then headed over to the train tracks. I was on the 11 am train to Hervey Bay. Little did I know that even though the ticket said to be at the station one hour prior, that was not he case. I could have walked in at 10:45. As a bit of a hangover set in, I was a little upset about this. I got out my book and read a bit while I waited on the train. The train pulled in and was very nice. Reminded me of the trains in Europe, but nicer. Once settled in my seat, they had TVs, free earphones and radio stations to listen to. I was pretty happy about all of this. And, its cheaper and faster than the bus. Sweet! The ride was very nice. As we pulled out of Brisbane, we rode through some of the surrounding neighborhoods and then we got into the country side. There were a lot of rolling hills and in the distance, you can see a mountain range. There was a lot of greenery and after my zoo visit, I was on the lookout for koalas. I didn't see any. I really enjoyed watching the towns roll by with the scenary in the background. At one point we came upon these huge rock formation. They were in different shapes and sizes. I have no idea what they were, but they were almost free standing. It was really cool. We finally pulled into Maryborough West station and I was happy to be getting off the train. The rocking of the ride was not agreeing with my hangover :-) Per my Lonely Planet, there are buses at the station that take you into Hervey Bay. Um, not really. There is one bus and you're supposed to pre-book it. I talk to the driver and he's got plenty of room so he let's me on. The drive into Hervey Bay is nice and quiet. Its as if we're going from cattle land to the coast. Once into Hervey Bay, we stop at the main bus depot. The driver tells me to stay on the bus that he can get me much closer to my hostel. There are about 7 of us left on the bus. Several of them are older, retirees, Aussie folk. As we get into the costal area of the town, I realize how pretty the town is. But I also realize that its a two part kind of town. Its one part holiday area. This is the beach/area that Aussies probably vacation at and possible own a second home. The second part, its retirementville. Or the Naples of Australia! (That comments for you Mom and Dad! hahahahaha). No seriously, I saw several older people on these moterized scooter chair things with a sign and flag. They are all over the city and some of the hotels rent them to the guests. These are the same hotels that have Keno. I was trying to stifle all my giggles. I finally end up at my hostel and the driver who was so nice does not charge me for the ride. I thank him several times and I'm on my way. Check in is a breeze and the staff is just as nice in person as they were over email helping me book my excursion to Fraser Island. Since I wanted to get in and out of Hervey Bay in a limited time, I actually booked something before I got there. I usually never do this. I settle into my room and head out to see part of the town. I walk up and down the main street that is shops and restuarants and cafes on one side and the park and beach and ocean on the other. I went in an out of a few places and enjoyed just walking around a bit. The people were all very friendly. I decided on fish and chips take-away for dinner and headed back to the hostel. I was tired from my lack of sleep the night before so I ate, then watched a movie in the free movie room (The Hangover) and went to bed.
I was up early on Friday morning in order to meet the Fraser Island bus for the tour connection. I was getting picked up at 7:25 am. I also had to re-organize my bags. I only took my small backpack with me and left my big pack in the storage room at the hostel. At 7:25 exactly, the bus pulled up and I hopped on. We made several stops through town to pick up other folks also heading to the island. The company runs two day/one night and one day tours. I was on the two day/one night tour. We drove out of Hervey Bay and down south a ways to get to the ferry. This is where we made our connection with the other tour guides for the trip. The ferry was really interesting. It was a flat bottom with a huge hatch like thing that opened and the cars drove on it. There was seating for passengers upstairs and in the back only. So it was pretty much an open air kind of thing. I have never seen anything like it and watching the cars go on/off was pretty fun. I sat up top and enjoyed the 30 min ride over to the island. The island is not that far off shore, but the ferry did not move that fast. Now, a bit of background on Fraser Island. Its a World Heritage Site and an island that is almost entirely made of sand. Its something like 18km wide and 160+km long. So its huge! And, there are mountains, sort of. They are mountains of sand. It was a site to see. I expected to be pulling into something that would resemble a desert but in reality, the whole island for as far as you could see was green. We departed onto the island and met up again with our guides. I had heard there were no paved roads on the island and knowing my motion sickness issues, I headed straight off to talk to our guide to see if I could sit towards the front of the rig. Sure enough, he was hoping for someone to ask for that seat! Shane was a ball to have as a guide. He kept giving us all the info we weren't supposed to have and telling some pretty funny jokes. I asked him at one point how he got into this job and he said because its better than working for a living. I was so amused! Our group turned out to be very small. Only 11 of us total and we had quite a bit of fun. 3 young guys from Denmark gave us youthful boy entertainment for 2 days. A couple of Switzerland that were an absolute riot. A couple from Belgium that were actually quite quiet. An older guy from England (Richard), a young guy from Italy (Marco) and Patricia from Spain. It made for quite the mix of languages as well. I picked up pretty well on the Italian and Spanish, but I was lost with the others. Even some of the words Richard said I was like, Huh! We had a few laughs with it for sure. Anyway, back to the island...the island has massive amounts of forest on it. There are types of plants, a fern, that dates back to the dinasour era. Meaning, they fern has not changed genetically for 300 million years. Where else do you find things like that! The island was logged for many years so the one type of tree that got up to 4 meters wide is all but gone now. At one point we did see one that was 2 meters wide and I was quite impressed. As we drove into the island the landscape changed from one type of forest to a rain forest. It was incredible to see the migration from one to the next. I've been in all types of forests at this point, but have never seen two right next to one another. Our first stop was at Central Station to take a walk thru the rainforest. Along the way, we saw a monitor lizard. It was a baby one, but still really cool. Since I was sitting in the front with Shane, I was the designated wildlife spotter. I took my job very seriously. While on the walk through the rainforest we followed along a small creek. The island is only fed water from rain and then with all the sand the water is somehow really clean. Shane kept saying that you could drink the water from the creeks. We also saw an eel in the creek...I'm thinking that seeing the eel in the creek means that drinking water from it is not something I want to so. The walk was gorgeous! Thick woods. Deep greens and shades of yellows in the trees. Huge trees with vines and other sorts of vegetation growing on or around them. Its just impressive. The rainforest is always a delight to walk thru. After about 40 min, we made it out to the other side and met up with Shane. The weather was cloudy and was raining on and off. As a whole, this area of Aus is usually very sunny. However, right now, they are experiencing more rain than they have in 12 yrs. So, using the rain and clouds as a guide, Shane was picking our stops on the island accordingly. From the rainforest we headed over to the main buildings for a quick lunch. It was buffet style and pretty good. I was just happy to have so many options and get to eat some salad! I also took an extra apple for a snack later. This was good eating for a backpacker :-) After lunch we hit the beach. The beach stretched for miles and miles and along it we flew. As we rode, we had to swerve to miss the water coming in during high tide. Also, the sand had spots that would dip and dive. It was amazing to me how rough the ride could be. Our first stop on the beach was the ship wreck. Long story short, its been on shore since the early 1900s sometime. I think in the 30s. Its half covered in sand and at this point really starting to fall apart. Some of it you can see, other parts you can't. The tide was high so at low tide we probably would have seen more but oh well. At least for the moment it was sunny! I took several photos and at one point, as I was trying to get in close for a shot, the waves came in and I was too late getting back out of the way...it soaked my backside. I was laughing as was the Swiss couple. They had gottan caught too! We loaded back into the rig and kept going on up the beach. The scenery was magnificant. The ocean (the pacific) was raging with all the storms going on. I love the sound of the waves crashing into the island. On the other side you had a big sand ridge, maybe 10 to 12 ft high on average and then greenery would start. In some ways it reminded me of the look of 90 mile beach in New Zealand, but in others it didn't. I loved it all the same. Sitting in the very front of the rig I got a birds eye view of everything. A few times we had to head off the beach and onto a track through the sand of the island in order to make it around a few points. like I said, the island is mostly sand but it does have a small percentage of volcanic rock. One other type of rock is called coffee rock. Its black and looks amazing against the white sand. After rocking and rolling some through the inland part of the island, we landed back on the beach and continued on our way. We headed up to these pools that were a bit of a hike to get to. These sat in the volcanic rock and the ocean would crash up over the walls and fill the area. These walls where quite high too. Since it was high tide, I could quite tell how high, but significant. Lots of other people were swimming in the pools. I choose to just wade around and check out the area. The black rock was covered or rather imbedded with several types of sea shells. It was also a very jagged rock. Most rock that is constantly hit with water becomes smooth. This is the exact opposite. There were also little fish that would get thrown up into the pools that were fun to see. I did snap a photo of my feet in the pools :-) From here, we headed back down to the beach and back up to Indian Head. This is another rock area and was a hell of a hike. The tour says that you don't need to bring any other shoes with you exect flip flops. By this point, my ankle and feet in general are quite sore from all the walking and hiking on uneven sand and rock all day. But this cliff was something that I didn't want to miss. So, off I went. Patricia was also in flops and her and I slide our way up and down trying not to fall. I'd like to report, although we moved slower than the rest of the group, neither of us fell :-) The views from the top were completely worth the struggle! The view from the top was breathtaking! I tried to nab a couple of photos, one in particular came out pretty good, but I'm not sure I can put it into words. You're looking out over the open Pacific ocean with the waves crashing in and just roaring and the wind is blowing straight into your face with quite a bit of might and then there is the calm of the sand and island behind you. It was really cool. The edge was a steep and dangerous cliff. I decided given my tendencities to fall down that staying back from the edge was wise. A couple of girls in a different group did not heed the warning signs and walked really far out on to the point. I was nervous just watching them. Thank goodness they were ok. I took some time to just sit on the rocks and soak in the pleasentness of it all. The walk back down was a bit easier than the walk up, but Patricia and I still moved really slow. I'm happy to report that once again, we made it without getting hurt. Back in the truck and were on our way down the beach again. This time, I spotted a dingo! I was doing pretty good as the wildlife spotter. By the end of the two days I had spotted 4 dingos, several lizards and a turtle. The dingo was quite cute and we rolled slowly past to check him out. From here we moved on to the colored sand dunes. The sand on the island is several different colors and at this one particular spot, you can see about 4 of them. And they are arranged in layers. It was really cool and as it turns out, my favorite part of the whole trip. I've never seen the sand like this before. The other thing to note, all over the island, the sand was the softest I've ever felt. It was also really fine. The bottom of my feet are so soft now from walking in it for 2 days! From here we moved on back down the beach and headed back towards the main building to settle in for the night. I was booked in a 4 bed shared room. With our group being so small, it ended up just being Patricia and I in the room. We were both so excited about this! I'm thinking she's a bit older than I am and we both have been sleeping in 10 bed rooms. So to have a room for just the two of us was heaven! And the shower was great! Big bonus. We spread out and cleaned up and then headed over to the restaurant for dinner. It was mexican night and everything was spicey. Didn't I just leave this food party? I ended up not eating too much but still enjoyed the meal. I talked with Marco and he was telling me all the reasons I have to visit Naples. I'm completely convinced! Mom/Elizabeth, we'll have to make a stop here on our trip :-) After dinner Patricia, Marco, Richard and I headed over to the bar for a beer. It was raining really hard and at this point we had all heard of the earthquake in Japan. Also, there were differing reports as to whether or not a tsunami would come to Australia. Patricia was freaking out because she was in NZ for the quake, Bali for the bombings (yrs ago), and a couple of other things. She listed like 5 of them. I'm thinking to myself, how do I end up bunking with these people?!?!?! And our room is on the first floor. After some reasonable thinking, I realize that we're on an immediate incline and in my head its high enough that if the wave gets to us, we'll be fine. Well, that and the fact that I'm exhausted and slept so hard through the night that I don't think twice about it.
On Saturday morning I walk up around 5:30 am. I was hoping to catch the sunrise but its very cloudy so I go back to sleep. Had the tsunami hit it would have been to us by 3 am. I'm pretty happy to still be in my bed and sleep till 8 am. Breakfast is good and I decide to try out the vegemit. THis is a spread that Aussies eat all the time. Shane, our guide raves about the stuff. So, I put a little on my toast and my first inclination is to spit it out. But instead I make a horrible face, a few gagging noises and finish it off. The others at the table are laughing as soon as they realize what I've eaten. All of them are like, oh that stuff is horrible. We laughed quite a bit and when we get back in the rig I tell Shane that I tried it out and its the worst thing I've ever eaten. I'd rather go back to eating the curry in Fiji! He gets a pretty good laugh out of the whole thing and says that when you're brought up on the stuff you like. Fair enough. The day is pretty cloudy but its our day to hit the lakes on the island. We start at lake McKenzie. This is a completely rain fed lake and its beautiful. Even without the sun shining on it. I can't imagine how beautiful it must be with the sun shining down! It has a high ph level and is supposed to feel really good on your skin and hair and even though its not that warm, we all decided to dive in. Its cold, but feels so good! I actually did quite a bit of swimming. I also took a nice walk along the shore. Due to all the recent rain, the water level is really high but the sand is still white as can be and really soft. It felt so nice to walk on. The lake itself is several shades of blue. I loved it! When we got back on the bus, we went back through the forest and to the main buildings for lunch. The lunch was the same as the day before but still tasted really good. We then loaded up into the rig and headed out for lake Wabbly (i think thats how you spell it). This lake required a 2.5 km hike from the beach thru the forest and then onto these amazing sand dunes. Another spectacular spot on the island. It looked like a sand glacier. It was awesome! The really cool thing was that the sand is packed down pretty hard so walking on it is easy. Its not like on a normal beach where your foot sinks into it. We finished up our hike at the top of a sand peak and looked down at the lake. In contrast to McKenzie, this lake is all shades of green. Again, just breathtaking. We made our way down the hill and again, into the water. This time most stayed on shore, but I braved it and was happy I did. This lake was actually a bit warmer. It felt nice to take a second swim. Just in general, it felt good to get a little exercising in. From here we did a 2.5 km hike back through the forest to the beach. Both hikes were really pretty. I was asking questions about snakes. I now know what to do if I get bitten by a snake while here. I note to myself to buy an ace bandage. From here our tour is over. We climb back into the rig and make our way back to the main buildings. We have time to grab a snack before heading back to meet the ferry. For an area I was not planning on going to, I'm so happy I did! The ride back thru the island is so nice. AGain we see the forest change from rain to regular. And then back at the ferry you get a sense of how many people were actually on the island for the weekend. Yet we didn't see many of them. Which was nice. The rain is starting again so I grab a sit in the limited interior area of the ferry for the 30 min ride back to the mainland. Once on the transfer bus and on our way back to the hostels we spot a bunch of kangaroos in an open field. They really are like deer...just chilling and eating. It was cool. I know that while I'm here, the site of them will not get old!
I get back to my hostel and immediately have to work on my next day logisitics. As it turns out, there is more flooding in northern Queensland, near Cairns and continued rain in the forecast. I was heading to Cairns on Sunday to swim the Great Barrier Reef on Tues and fly to Alice Springs on Wed. I never plan like this when I travel, but for these few things, I thought I should. Instead, I had to reverse. The train rebooked me back to Brisbane and then I canceled my AS flight and booked a new flight to Melbourne. So, on Sunday AM I got on the train south to Brisbane. But they were only going so far due to track maintenance. Of course. So then we got on buses and rode the last hour or so into Brisbane. I actually fell asleep. From there I was at the main train station and had to figure out which train I needed to get out to the airport. In the process, I run into Jason. Hilarious! We catch up and then are off again. I'm back on the train and heading out to the airport. I've spent all of my free time in the last 20 hours reading in my Australia book. I had not read anything about Melbourne yet and so now I'm trying to come up with a plan. I flew on Virgin Blue and it was a great flight. Sat next to a really nice guy who gave me a few tips. I took the bus into the main terminal and my only snag was that taxi drivers kept telling me they didn't know where my hostel was. A local helped me and finally a nice taxi driver pulls up. He and I chat, and as it turns out, he says the others didn't want to take me beacuase its considered a short far. I thank him several times and settle into my hostel for the night. Its midnight and I'm ready to crash!
So, to keep a tallie...so far, one week in Oz, two states (Queensland and Victoria) and two airports seen!
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Jenny
non-member comment
Kangaroo and Vegemite!?
I love the adventures-- I had no idea that kangaroos are so common! (Now I kinda want to try it!) Next time you come to Seattle, we'll go to the Kangaroo & Kiwi bar, where you can get a vegemite toastie. Ew. Miss you!