Surfers up to 1770

Oceania » Australia » Queensland
May 29th 2009

Published: May 29th 2009

Hey Guys,

So when we left you last we were about to jump on the bus to surfers! We said our goodbyes to Brittany, Nikki and Ashley and hopped on the bus for a couple of hours- In the pouring rain!! When we arrioved at surfers we got a room wityh Helen and Liz, a couple of girls from surf camp and sorted ourselves out. In the night there was a severe weather warning and 4 people died in the storms, lucky we escaped unharmed 😊

The next day we decided to explore the town and had a mooch around the shops and bought some pressies. Surfers paradise is built to take yoiur money so it's not well suited to travellers. It's like LA or Miami in as in high rise buildings right next to the beach and lots of bars and casino's, and rich people!! In the evening the two of us went for a drink at the Avenue. Grace got chatted up by an older dude and he bought us both a drink- weird but score!!

The next day we spent on the beach sunbathing becasue the weather decided to cheer up. We had a walk on the beach which was covered in weird wobbly foam created by the rough sea due to the storms. We Then hopped on the bus up to Brisbane and then collapsed in bed when we arrived in our sardine can room! Grace made sophie trek to Coles (like Tesco) to buy dinner because the 7/11 cost too much. We also met a group of girls who were staying in our room who were hillarious. We had a very strange dude who we named Ozzy Who spent the entire day walking around with sunglasses on and then mooching in and out of the bathroom every half hour for 15 minutes- hmmm?

We got up the next day and went to the travel agent to book the rest of our trip up the coast, we ended up spending $900 but got all our accom for 3 weeks, A self drive trip on Fraser Island, a trip to the whitsundays, white water rafting and a trip on the Great Barrier Reef as well as a few other bits and bobs. Not bad really! In the afternoon we had lunch out and organised our lives and in the evening we went out. First to a Bar with bour roomates where we met our surf camp group. We then moved on to a club in the centre which turned out to be really good and we ended up staying there till the early hours.

Errgh bit of a rough hangover! Didn't make it out of bed till 1pm! Whoops. We decided to explore the city a little bit more today so we took a walk across the bridge to South BAnk. Here they have the Brisbane Eye- a rip off of the London Eye, surprisngly it was only $15 a ride but we decided to skip it. we also walked round some gardens by the uni and had a coffee in an outdoor cafe.

Early the next morning we packed up our Bags and left for Rainbow beach. On the way we stopped twice. First at the glass house mountains, 5 Volcanic plugs that apprently captain cook beleived looked like his glass house at home when he sailed past- don't know what he was ojn they were just big rocks! We also stopped at Noosa, a swanky sea side resort where we had lunch. we got some chyips and soaked up some sun before jumping on the bus for the last stretch to rainbow.

When we arrived in Rainbow we sat and watched a safety video for our 4WD self drive tour of Fraser Island (which was designed to terrify us- Jellyfish, Dingo's, Sharks and not to mention horrific car accidents resulting in fatalities!!) and we were then separated into groups. In our groups we were sent off to go and get the shopping we needed for the next few days- so stressful with people on different budgets but we got there in the end and everyone wqas really nice so we were glad to get a good group. In the evening we packed up our bags and got ready for our early start in the morning.

We got up bright and early and met the group so we could pack up the van with all our equipment. most of our 4x4 was taken up with goon which i don't think has been explained before. Goon Is what they call cheap wine in a box here- $12 for 4.5 litres- proper travellers style! We wanted to have a go at driving but you have to be 21 so we sat it out, probably for the best really as fraser island is a sand island so the roads are the beach and the inland tracks are rainforest- bumpy. We finished packing and jumped on the ferry which took us to the island in 10mins. We drove firstly to our campsite which gave us our first tasted of off road driving- not for the fainthearted. We set up the tents and then headed out again for a rainforest walk and a game of frisbee on the beach accompanied by some goon. When we got back we were losing light so we started on dinner. We had burgers and potato which were yummy. Just as we finished it began to rain so we all jumped in the 4x4 and the goon drinking continued. It was great fun apart from crazy Irish lady who started out annoying and ended up vicious. First;y she wanted us all to "Sing a song that daddy taught you!"-yer right. Then she got abusive and started swearing at everyone- and touching the boys groins for whatever reason- did i explain she's 34! We called it a night and just as we were dozing off we heard a strange noiise. When we looked out of the tent she had thrown all the food out of the van in the crate and 6 Possoms were busy under the van eating it all. We were just a bit pissed off considering A. she hadn't paid her share of the food bill and B. leaving food out for animals is punishable by up to $3000 fines because it encourages dingo's and messes with the natural eco system.

In the morning she decided to hitchhike back- probably embaressed at her behaviour- we were worried she would get eaten by dingo's- well not really but still we offered her a lift but she wouldn't take it. We packed up and went to lake Mckenzie, an amazing lake full of clear water. We chilled and swam and took some pics- the weather was gorgeous. The group took some pictures of us all doing handstands and trying to make a pyramid, the whole beach was staring at us. we then went to move on up to Indian Heads where you can spot sharks, turtles and dolphins etc but on the way we heard a strange noise on a car and stopped at Eli Creek, where we were planning to stop anyway. We realised that one of the wheels was completely wonky and when we Jacked it up it was wobbling around like mad. we had to borrow a phone to call the mechanic who turned up 10mins later in a truck with fishing rods on the front and basically told us we were screwed- ihn fact we were lucky to be alive!! He called the mainland to get us a new car which wouldn't arrive til the next morning so he towed us up to a camping ground on the beach near the Maheno Wreck. Luckily for us this was one of our intended stops so we walked up there and had a look around the shipwreck. We bumped into Freya and Lauren who we met in Thailand which was bizzare and we agreed to meet up. After we wandered back to our rather beautiful camping spot where we were all alone- with no toilets, just a spade and no water! We made spaghetti bolognese and spent another night on the goon! We got to sit outside and the sky was soo clear we could see all the stars and the milky way.

In the morning at 6.30 we were woken by someone coming to collect our 4x4. We got up and had breakfast and sunbathed iun the gorgeous weather untill the next car arrived, which was dropped off by the manager of the company who was very appologetic because it was there fault for not tightening the wheel bearing properly. we went up to Eli Creek to have a swim and cool off and bumped into Jonny and Rob from surf camp. When the tide went back out and we could drive on the beach we made our way back towards the Ferry, stopping for a sunbathe on the way. We dropped the car back and to our surprise had the mechanic tell us we were 50/50 liable for the damage because we hadn't stopped earlier (despite us not knowing there was anything wrong) and he asked us to make him an offer of whet we would be prepared to pay. We told him nothing. after debating for a while we went back to the hostel where they informed us there would be no charge. In the evening we had a lovely warm shower and went for a gourmet burger all together which was a nice finish to the trip.

This morning we travelled to 1770, a small seaside town. We sunbathed on the baech and stayed to watch the sunset. We walked along the beach before coming back and doing the boring stuff.

That's all for now- sorry about the pics guys who new the internet and computers here were so awful!!

We hope your all okay, we miss you loads.

Lots of love and kisses, Soph and Gracie xx

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