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Published: September 25th 2007
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It's been a busy time since the last blog, we split from our travelling companions (it wasn't a bad break up though!), and headed North to Hervey Bay, the gateway to Fraser Island.
As soon as we arrived at our hostel in Hervey Bay, we were straight into meetings about the trip, and this was pretty hectic, especially the group shopping trip, it was a bit like the weekly shopping list they do on big brother! I guess we should have read into the fact that there we only 5 out of 9 people who took alcohol with them that it wasnt going to be party central!
Anyway, the next day we were up at half six for more briefings, and to pack the van. At 9.30 we finally left with me taking the wheel, and headed to the port to get the ferry over.
Once we were on the island, we had to switch to 4x4 mode and drive through sandy tracks in the forest, which was an experience in itself, as to say these tracks were bumpy doesnt really do them justice. The day passed without any dramas, and we saw some beautiful lakes, crystal clear
waters and white sand, before we headed to the beach to drive up past the shipwreck to our campsite.
After setting up camp, it was time to cook, and spaghetti was on the menu. However our 1.5kg of mince was still frozen solid, so it was up to me to hack it up into little peices so that we'd be able to eat that evening! At this point a few beers were cracked open, and a while later we had dinner, then it was stargazing as the evening activity, as there is no light pollution at all on Fraser, the stars were pretty awesome. Come 8.15 though, things took a turn for the worse, with Team germany going for the record of earliest pass out ever, and soon after everyone else followed, me and Chris were the last up, and we went to bed very bored at 10!
The next day was pretty much the same thing, drive along the beach, watch planes land infront of you, see some nice lakes etc. Until Chris decided he needed to keep his record of damaging every vehicle we go in. To be fair the road was ridiculous, and the damage
was done when we approached a 2 foot drop in the sand track. For about 20 metres afterwards, we thought we'd got away with it, but there was a hissing noise, and as you can see from the pics, we dented the rim!
We got to the campsite and got the jack out, and the boys went ot work changing the wheel, and the job was done before it got dark.
Tonight the meals was an aussie BBQ, with potatoes. Team Germany in action again decided that the potatoes needed to be cooked in seawater (yes you are reading that correctly!), as we were short on water (we had at least 20 litres of water). Anyway, about an hour late and they were cooked, they looked disgusting, and has horrible sea foam on the top of the pan, it may shock you all to know that they tasted very salty as well, and were thrown away!
Tonight the bar shut at 9pm, with us sat with a box of goon and nowhere to go! The rest of the trip went without drama, and we had a long stop at Lake Mackensie, which is the largest lake on the
island, and really is beautiful.
We returned to the hostel with sand in everything we owned and a bill to pay or the wheel. Luckily Chris went to negotiate with the Boss, as they sent us down an unsuitable road and he only made us pay half the cost. After this it was time for a shower and then out for a meal that didnt involve sand!
The next destination was the toen of 1770/Agnes Waters (theyre 2 tiny places right next to eachother). We did a tour of the area with the local tour guide, and in the afternoon we became Scooteroo's.
The scooteroo trip is a two and a half hour trip around the area on mini chopper bikes, and was really good fun. Fortunately Chris didnt crash this vehicle, but did manage to melt a hole in his trouseres on the exhaust! During the ride we got to see lots of Kanagaroos and wallabies, and then headed down to the beach to watch the sunset.
After 1770, we headed up to Airlie Beach, spending a night in the town before heading down to the marina to board our yacht, Hammer.
Hammer is
a maxi yacht, and has competed in races like the Sydney to Hobart race, and has a top speed of around 28 knots. Unfortunately we would only get to around 10, but it was pretty good fun when the boat was leaning over at a 40 degree angle!
We got to see turtles, dolphins and whales on this trip, and we went snorklling on a couple of reefs, which was amazing, we saw so many fish, including a massive Wrass, which looked a little evil, but was pretty harmless and kept swimming around us. After this snorkelling, we're really looking forward to going diving in Cairns.
The group we were in was mainly made up of Americans, and we were definitey the party boat! A lot of goon was drunk and on the second night, the skipper brought out a funnel attached to a snorkel for us to chug goon through. Sadly Chris failed and managed to get goon allover his shorts, but I flew the flag for our binge drinking culture, and was the only girl to get involved (Mum and Dad, you know I've made you proud!)
After that, there were some funny games played, and
a good old american sing song with some very un-pc lyrics.
We returned from the trip this morning, and are now going to continue north and have a few things planned for our last week in Aus.
Please check the funny product names, we've added a couple.
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