'Stralia Part 3 - Brisbane upwards..

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30/09/09) So I depart Byron Bay and New South Wales and Aussie Sarah (met in Cambodia) drove all the way from Brisbane (2hours ish) to pick me up. It was really nice to see her after more than 6 and a half months. As we entered the state of Queensland, we stopped off on the Gold Coast for a posh bit of lunch which Sarah treated me to. We drove through the not so paradise but named Surfers Paradise and I was please I decided to stay at Byron longer rather than coming to this highrise Benidorm sh*thole… We then headed on to Brisbane to Sarah’s place (where I would be staying for a couple of nights), but by the time we got there we were both feeling quite unwell and concluded that the gourmet chicken burgers we both had were not as good as they tasted as we both had food poisoning. Needless to say nothing fun happened that evening.

(31/08/09) I didn’t have that good a night sleep and Sarah took the day off ill from work…I decided to make the most of the day so got the 20minute train to Brisbane central. It certainly seems like a nice city to live and work, but there’s only so much for a tourist. I strolled down the river and on the south bank, but spent a lot of my day talking to contradicting travel agents regarding my forthcoming trips. After cooking Sarah a lame pasta dish (no idea what went wrong but it was average..), Sarah drove me to Mount Coot-tha which has splendid views of the city, all lit up in the nights sky. We watched the view with a cup of tea, most of which ended spilt on my jeans (at least I wasn’t too cold).

(01/09/09) Today is the first day of Spring down under, which is about 20 days and six months late/early if you ask me. I said goodbye to Sarah and checked into a centrally located hostel which would be handy for my next day bus pick up. I met Alana (travelled with in Vietnam) for breakfast. It was pretty sunny and we headed for quite a posh place. Not sure I have paid so much for a fancy Mcdonalds style breakfast muffin but oh well, nice to catch up all the same…I then spent the next few hours in the pretty botanical gardens listening to my MP3 player as I was sure I had seen whatever sights there were of BrisVegas. I sorted out my forthcoming travels at last and did some admin. In the evening I had a pretty decent night out at the hostel bar with the Belfast girls from my bus. It was ladies night and many guys seemed more than comfortable dressed in frocks and makeup. There were lots of weirdoes around but it was very fun to people watch.

(02/09/09) So after a late night and early start back on the bus I struggled to snooze. We left way too early and stopped too frequently. We were joined on the bus by Charlie, Steph and Katie who were on the original bus that left Sydney. This driver was different to the usual enthusiastic cool drivers we had. He was a lot old for one, and I presume he used to be a long distance lorry driver. We stopped for a few hours in the very nice seaside town of Noosa. Some travellers stay here but its geared towards couples and families. We continued on up the coast and arrived at Rainbow Beach. This is another small town (most seem to be) and mostly used as a base for near by Fraser Island. I had booked my trip to leave the next day and in the afternoon met the people I would be going to the island for 3 days with. In the evening I was very excited to meet with the hilarious Irish Lisa and Patsy who I had a great couple of weeks with in New Zealand. They had just come back from Fraser Island and I would be a few days behind them heading north up the coast.

(03/09/09) I was a up early with the other 11 in my group. Our first task was loading up our 4x4 jeep. The woman running the show gave us advice on how to tie things on the roof making sure nothing would fall out. We were on our way to another World Heritage sight of the uninhabited Fraser Island for our self guided tour. 3 minutes down the road and a sleeping bag went flying off the roof, followed by the fold up table…bloody women! Fraser Island has a length of 123km and is the worlds largest sand island but somehow has a rainforrest in the middle of it. The highest sand dune reaches 240metres and the waters are inhabited by tiger sharks (the most aggressive sharks) and dingoes (wild dogs). Anyhow, after picking up our lost sleeping bag we were on the approach to the vehicle ferry and laughed as we saw another 4x4 already stuck in the sand. Of course seconds later we were all at the back of our own 4x4 pushing ours out of the beach also. We were soon on to the sandy sands of Fraser Island. Due to the tides we could only go certain places at certain times so tried to stick to our given itinerary as much as possible. We cruised down Seventy-Mile Beach and went through many creeks (not like the creeks at my beloved Hayling Island), stopping to see a dead turtle (we didn’t know it was dead when we stopped). We also stopped off at the shipwreck of the Maheno which run aground during a cyclone in 1935 and the rusted skeleton of the boat still remains. We then headed as north as we were advised to go at Indian head, which is a tall, rocky outcrop. From here we watched some whales from afar and manta rays down below as the harsh sea crashed down. We then drove half way back down and pitched our tent on the beach. Spag Bol for dinner and a bit of goon was pretty nice. We were approached by one dingo, which was more of a fox than some kind of lunatic wolf as had been described. Of all the people in my group, I really only liked one guy called Henry (he was no Hoo-ray-Henry, actually quite a normal guy, just with a silly name). One guy thought he was Peter Kay, and even though he was a fat northerner, I did not find him funny. His girlfriend was so negative. Two from Derbyshire said “int it?” after every thing. The remainder of the group were Germans or lazy Austrians, who bizarrely had a posher English accent than anyone else I have ever met.

(04/09/09)After pitching down our tents, we headed to near by Eli Creek which is the biggest on the island. Here we waded through the water and had our morning baths. It was really nice and the water was very clear. We stumbled across the first toilets of the trip and also our first snake, which must had been a couple of metres long, although we were told was harmless. We drove along some more and then walked for 30 minutes into a bit of forest and some rolling sand dunes to get to Lake Wabby. Our food rashings were poor so we missed lunch. People got very cranky as we off-roaded for more than 30 minutes to our campsite for the night. We prepared a pretty decent barbeque and tried playing some drinking games but I got a bit bored and I think I went to bed a bit after 9pm.

(05/09/09) I woke up this morning dripping wet, wondering if Henry (my co tentee) had wet himself. Luckily it was just the torrential rain pouring through my not so sturdy tent. Despite everyone was awake by 8am, we did little for hours, despite our itinerary recommending we leave between 8-9am. We finally started out 30minute off roading, even more into the damp rainforest. It was a bumpy road but well worth it when we got to the stunning Lake McKenzie, which will go down as one of the best sights I have seen in Australia. It’s a freshwater lake but its hard to believe how clear the water is, reminiscent of a postcard you may have seen from SE Asia. It was beautiful and had a sandy beach to match. The downside was we had to leave after about an hour as Peter Kay wannabe dictated what time we left in the morning as he claimed to be our unofficial leader. I was gutted as could had spent all day there. I did my best to tell our chubby leader that it would take at least 1hr30 to get back to our 2:30pm ferry. He was sure that it would take just 40 minutes and we argued even though I logically pointed out that we had driven 2 lots of 30 minutes off-roading from the beach, which was 30kms from the ferry. Turns out it took us 10 minutes more than my estimation and an hour more than his. We arrived a couple of hours late and were fined in doing so, which I am glad chubby paid for. I did have a nice time, but people I have met have put Fraser Island as a big highlight of the east coast, however my group were not really the kind of people I wanted to be stuck on a deserted island with. Oh well.

(06/09/09)Today I jumped on the bus to the sleepy town of Agnes Water, next to the township of 1770, named after the year Captain James Cook first set foot in Queensland. The town consists of a petrol station and a handful of shops. Charlie, Steph and Katie also hopped off here and I was delighted that Irish Lisa and co were staying at the same chilled out hostel as me. The hostel was similar to the one I stayed in at Byron Bay with all the hammocks and hippy vibe going on. I chilled by the pool for much of the afternoon before strumming the old guitar around the campfire in the evening. I was the only one who could play anything to be fair, although German Thomas gave some Nirvana a decent bash.

(07/09/09) In the morning Katie and I did another surf lesson. The instructor was a lot better and more thorough than the previous one I had. Sadly the waves were a bit crap so after standing up on my first go, I was pretty lame for much of the morning. No one else was on the beach except us, and it really was a nice spot, despite the harmless jellyfish that littered the beach. In the afternoon we did a thing called Scooter Roo, which is basically 20 plus people bombing around the area in scooters that are shaped like Harley Davidsons. As I had ridden before, I was upgraded to a better bike and the colours matched the flames on my helmet and borrowed leather jacket. I felt like the Terminator (without all the robots-taking-over-the-world complications to worry about). Katie fell off at low speed after literally 3 seconds. Turning took a while to get used to but I was pretty comfortable as we shooted around the sights. I went full throttle and scrapped 80km/h (50mph) as we went down hill. We saw some kangaroos around the place and it was ace as the 20 or so of us were in convoy led by Chopper Rod (he had a handlebar moustache and everything!). We topped of the afternoon by sitting on some rocks watching the sun go down, munching on some potato wedges. A real action packed day. In the evening I again strummed some more around the campfire.

(08/09/09) This morning I was rudely awoken by the heaviest rain downpour I had seen for some time. I had been pretty lucky with the weather in this trip of Australia so wasn’t too bothered. I strummed the guitar some more. The evening was another one spent round the campfire.

(09/09/09) Oh nine, oh nine, oh nine…..This morning I boarded my bus again. I only knew Katie from previous journeys. The rest were all but one, female. They all seemed pleasant enough however one girl reminded me of a young version of Little Britain’s Bubbles d’Vere. She looked how I imagine Bubbles would had looked at 23 and had similar mannerisms. Our driver was called Bunny and seemed nice enough. We had a bit of a drive inland this morning and got to Kroombit for lunchtime. Here we were to stay at a real live cattle station. Quite a cool place. In the afternoon we all went goat mustering (herding) on horseback. The thought of me on a horse is a strange one as I dislike horses a lot, and I dislike people that like horses even more! My only previous experience was being walked around on a pony on a school trip 15 years ago (sounds odd saying “15 years ago”). My horse was suitably called Nikko and I jump on her and was showed the controls and was away. First impressions was how easy it was to drive these things - pull its head in the direction you want to go and pull the reins up to stop. I can be Clint Eastwood! There were maybe 10 of us riding and had 2 guides but we were very much in control of our own horse. We trotted a long the way, ducking under the odd tree that Nikko thought I could fit under. We were then in a big hilly field and our job was to find the goats and muster them to the other side of it to peg them in. Things started well until I stalled my horse. She really didn’t want to start up again. Was trying to kickstart the old girl but she wasn’t having any of it and my face was becoming as long as the beast I was sitting on. We finally started to move after a few kind words whispered to Nikko. I herded a few goats the right way (it was hard for the horse not to step on the baby ones) as well as us being herded by the goats at one time. It was quite cool that all but a handful of the 250 goats in this field were now being penned together. Quite a good sense of achievement, despite my trusted camera breaking in the process. I should have been more annoyed as it was my second camera of my trip, but then again I have taken thousands more pictures than I would have at home so remained pretty calm. After riding Nikko back to her stable we then watched some others shoot some clay pigeons. I had done it before so I spent my time trying to master the lasso (that is the correct spelling by the way). Took a while to get as I throw like a girl (no offence to girls, but you just can’t throw very well can you?), but I looped a few in a practice go. We then had a real goat rodeo competition where we would take turns being in the pen full of about 20 goats. We were assigned our goat and given one minute to chase and lasso them. I came close so many but sadly after the minute I had to throw my rope down in disgust. The winner managed to lasso her chosen goat after only about 10 seconds. They got to chose the next team game which was called Ring of Fire. I was hoping this might involve singing some Johnny Cash songs but alas I was wrong. Basically about 10 of us had to hold hands in a circle before Jonathan the cowboy span a bottle in the middle. Whoever the bottle stopped between he would get his cattle prodder out and give those two people a shock. The idea is if every one holds then the shock will be spread about and be not so bad. The first bottle was spun and of course it landed on me. The ring got smaller and smaller as people chickened out and the shocks got bigger and bigger until there was just three of us left. Now this shock is 11,000 volts….ELEVEN THOUSNAD VOLTS!!!! Bare in mind how many 11,000 is of anything, and that a plug on the wall is a mere 240volts. I was the last one standing and took the whole lot…pretty funny actually. I never did understand the whole Volts and Amps when at school but as there were no amps, we were not really in any danger. Good fun though. We got back to our digs (stables that had barely been converted) and had a good beef roast dinner and also ate some goat (which tasted a bit like lamb and is in fact the most widely eaten meat as no religion is against it did you know?). In the evening they like to do a theme and face paint came out and we had to paint our selves as what we wanted to do when we gre up. I don’t think thie concept really worked with face paint but I had a David Bowie style lightning on my face, perhaps also to recognise the many volts that have past through me during the day. I missed the opportunity to participate in the limbo competition but was forced to get involved with everyone else in the talent competition, Now, I don’t really have a talent. Some people did cartwheels, put their legs in weird positions and one girl sang More Than Words in a cheesy X-Factor style. The only thing I could think of was do the old removing-thumb-trick that perhaps an elderly relative might had done for you when you were younger. We were then shown how to crack a whip and then gave it a go ourselves. I tried but was pretty lame. Next up was riding the mechanical bull. I was pretty tired and way more sober than everyone else and couldn’t be arsed to wait around so tried to get an early night instead. Was a fun old day though.

(10/09/09) An early start was followed by a long day on the road as we continued north. We got the DVD player working and I was forced to sit though some crappy Disney cartoon as well as the classic Shaweshank Redemption. Whilst Bunny the driver sorted out a flat tire, we stopped to play lawn bowls. The people on my bus really were not interested but I had a good time chucking my balls down on the green. As we crossed the Tropic of Capricorn it was easy to notice the temperature getting a lot hotter. We arrived at our next destination of Airlie Beach in the evening. This place is the closest mainland town to the 74 Whitsunday Islands which I would be cruising round in a few days time. I went for some drinks with the bus people in the evening but it was a lame night, the highlight of which was me winning the pub quiz. I actually won 3 days on one of the islands but would not have time to actually go on it…always nice to win though. I knew my knowledge that Koalas carried Chlamydia would be useful one day...

(11/09/09) I woke up really early for some reason. I had a few errands to run such as buying another camera (another $250 gone), laundry (my white t-shirt ended up pink) and sorting out my sailing boat for the next day around the Whitsunday’s. I strolled around the lagoon which was pretty cool, helped by the cloudless weather and in the afternoon met up briefly with Irish Lisa who had just come back and enjoyed her few days away at sea. In the evening I went to the hostel where the girls on my bus were staying and was cooked a meal. Might sound weird but the fact they had an oven was amazing - didn’t think I would had missed jacket potatoes quite as much? We drank some goon and I met a few people in the hostel who would be on the same boat as me which was nice. Both called Tom (one from Swindon, one from Clapham) and I liked them both but one of them was such a bullshitter it was unreal. He was only 21 but had been a dive instructor, captain of a ship, travel agent of the year etc… It reminded me from my youth when a guy I knew told me they had looked after Michael Jackson’s chimp Bubbles in the Hayes Town Sainsburys whilst the King of Pop got his weekly shop…God, I love that story… Anyhow I had to wait some time for the girls to get ready as about 40 layers of makeup were applied... We got to the first bar and literally within seconds, I had accidentally spilt my pint over one of them…not good start. We went to a busy bar and a guy knocked another one of my drinks off the table onto another one of the girls…not good either. We ended up in an even busier Irish bar and I was pleased to say I had a cracking night, perhaps the best in the whole of Australia so far. Certainly the most drunkard. Finally.

(12/09/09) As expected I woke up a tad worse for wear, but I had little to complain about as had a lot of fun. I hadn’t packed the night before so had to cram everything into my bag as the checkout time quickly approached. I met Irish Lisa for a really great breakfast. We sat there for hours chatting away. The conversation was varied and some of it got pretty deep on life and the world, however every time that happened the waiter came over with a dirty joke. He was really funny but he couldn’t had timed it any worse to be honest. I said goodbye to Lisa and headed to the harbour as my boat was due to leave shortly to sail around the Whitsunday’s. The other 25 ish passengers on the boat (named Boomerang) kept themselves to them selves at first as we all boarded the 83ft maxi yacht which was world champion in 1988 and had been converted into a tourist boat about three years ago. We were introduced to our captain (Ricky - was only 23!), Erin the hostess and Lachy the deck hand who pretty much did everything. He was very informative and was everywhere all the time. On the boat I met Tom from Swindon’s friend Sarah and I made almost an identical mistake to one I made in New Zealand.

Me: So where you from?
Sarah: Swindon
Me: Oh right (makes sense, as Tim was from there), I’ve never been there, but I’ve been to Reading and other places in that neck of the woods.
Sarah: Where’s Reading?
Me: Oh you must have heard of Reading. It’s a massive town, not far from Swindon on the M4.
Sarah: Erh, I’m from Sweden…

Oh god, not again...I must listen more… Thought I would have learned from Sheila the Australian/Austrian in NZ.

Anyhow…the weather was pretty perfect and after chugging on our engine out of the harbour we all hung our legs over one side, pulled the sails up and were away. There were lots of boats to chose from and although plenty have sails, most of them just go around on there engine, which kind of defeats the object in my eyes. I had been sailing before but never on a boat like this. We were constantly at a 45 degree angle and going beneath deck was such a mission in its self. We all helped rigging up the sails which involved eight of us spinning round 4 rigs which was tough work. We did plenty of tacking (going zig zag) so had to often cling on to the opposite side of the boat as we turned, very nearly going overboard. We dropped anchor in the evening at Blue Pearl Bay on Hayman Island and were treated with an excellent barbeque (the first one I have seen in Australia that isn’t just a massive frying pan) and all stayed on deck until late drinking and chatting away. Normally with a size this group I can easily find people I dislike but I chatted to most people and everyone seemed really nice, even the loud drunk Irish were actually very nice guys. I slept like a log in my bunk even though it lacked space.

(13/09/09) After breakfast we went snorkelling even though the weather was a tad overcast. It was the first sight of the Great Barrier Reef, so we saw plenty of coral as you can imagine. We saw a massive turtle and a fish that was about 3 and a bit foot long and about 18inches tall. We then winched the sails up (more than 100ft high by the way) and started another sail cruising at about 11knots. This one I did not enjoy as much. Admittedly I was a tad hungover, but the waves were choppy and hanging on was difficult. A few of us felt like this and I really battled with the seasickness. I missed out the chance to snorkel once more, this time at Cataran Bay on Border Island. We sailed some more to Tongue Bay on Whitsunday Island (by the way it was named after the day Captain Cook arrived here in 1770). We took a mini bush walk and thought it would be a fun idea to high-five everyone that walked past us. We came to the lookout of the stunning Whitehaven Beach, regarded as one of the best in the world. Another one worth Googling as it is 98% silica making it the purest on the planet. The sand is so white and fine it can be used to exfoliate skin and cleans jewellery. Some of the sand was somehow used to clean the Hubble Telescope I am told. We got on the beach and I enjoyed every screech beneath my feet. We set up a 5 a side beach footy match with the Irish lads and I enjoyed it very much despite being out of breathe and quite lame. We got on the boat and rather than sailing we used the engine for an hour or so to get to our place for the night at Hooks Passage. We had a decent bit of grub (all the food has been so so good) and I was more than happy just having a cup of tea and chatting away. English, Northern Irish and Europeans made up the passengers, but mostly were English speaking. I attempted to sleep but I imagine there would be more room in a coffin than my bunk and I was so hot. Added to this I think I was getting bitten by bedbugs which took me back to the hell of living with bedbugs in Ealing and the insomnia it gave me for a year. I even went on the deck for a while to cool off but I think I perhaps only managed 30 minutes sleep that night. Was a tricky day as I felt quite unwell for most of the day yet I was in a beautiful part of the world and enjoying the company of everyone.

(14/09/09) Up early for our final sail back home. I was feeling a lot better despite being so tired and the sea was calmer. Me and a couple of others were allowed to steer the boat and there’s a cracking picture of me doing so wearing a camp captains hat. It wasn’t just the case of heading straight forward as the boat veered to the left a lot. I said goodbye to my shipmates and enjoyed a breakfast that sadly was not interrupted by a funny waiter. When getting up I felt very dizzy and confused and it took me about 5 attempts to cross the road. I was chatting to people in my hostel and twice swayed into the wall and apparently I walked down the corridor of my hostel past 4 of the Irish blokes from the boat and I was smashing into the sides and didn’t notice them at all. Can’t explain the feeling exactly but it’s been put down to land sickness of all things. I was desperate to get some sleep but I felt myself swaying from side to side. I did little for the rest of the day until I started to feel a tad better and went out for shark and chips with the two Toms. Everyone from the boat was meeting up for a big night out so I went along and although initially I started to feel much better, I was soon swaying again and the slightly blurred vision was not what I am used to after only half a beer so I took myself home. Very weird indeed. Despite feeling unwell for much of my time, I thoroughly enjoyed my sail around the Whitsundays and will put it up with one of my favourite places in Australia. Although I did not see all of the 74 beautiful islands, with their lush green forests and turquoise blue water, I saw more than enough to enjoy it and I recommend you to go. And the fact we had an adventure and got the chance to get involved sailing added to the fun. The dizziness was well worth it.

(15/09/09) Thankfully I had a decent sleep and the weird dizziness was pretty much all gone. I spent much of the morning catching up with my blogs. In the afternoon I met up with a few people from the boat trip and chilled by the lagoon. It’s weird how Airlie Beach doesn’t really have a beach, but rather a manmade lagoon? Bit of a nothing day really.

I'm still heading up t'north to Cairns...Oz ain't over, 'til its over...

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Photos

Sailing the Whitsundays
Proper saling I tell thee....

Campfire fun
I added to my song list of 2..