Queensland

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Hi All,

Since we last wrote we have been to Surfers Paradise and Noosa but only spent a couple of days in each place, but we have just returned from camping on Fraser Island which the majority of the photos we will upload will be from there!

Surfers Paradise was a bit too commercial for our liking and a bit of a shock after the relaxing atmosphere of Byron Bay so we only spent one night there and then caught the greyhound up to Noosa and stayed in a lovely little Backpackers right on the river for a couple of days.

We departed for Hervey Bay - a gateway to Fraser on Sunday and had a meeting at the hostel, formed a group of 11 between ourselves and then set off at 7 the next morning! It was a self drive package so we didn't have a guide - just a 4x4 to hold the 11 of us and anyone with a drivers licence over 21 could drive the vehicle and we were just given an itinerary which we were supposed to follow.

In order to preserve the Island which is full of hundreds of tourists each day nothing has really been modified, for example there are no roads, just sand tracks (hence the large 4x4!), very few toilets, washing in the freshwater lakes and we didn't even camp in a campsite - just on the beach! It was back to basics for 3 days but that was part of the fun of it.

Over the three days we visited Basin Lake and Lake Wabby, Eli Creek, the Maheno shipwreck, Indian Head, the champagne pool and the famous Lake McKenzie. The highlights were (all of it) but especially Indian head where we saw Sharks, turtles and stingrays swimming in the shallows. The lakes were so clear and fresh that you could supposedly drink them. In the evenings we set up camp on the beach, cooked and enjoyed a few too many glasses of Goon (white wine - although it is so cheap it has actually never seen a grape and is made from fish and eggs, tasty!)

Hope you like the pics we put on the blog, we're now in Airlie beach - took a 14hr overnight bus as soon as we got back from camping so we're both a little tired! We go sailing round the Whitsunday Islands over the next three days so more camping and great photos to come! We're also going to try Scuba diving in the Great Barrier Reef so it should be an exciting few days,

Love Phil and Kathy xxx

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Comments

[Camilla]

GREAT JOB!!!
Hahah it works...can see all the photos..:) Cheers for a fun trip..hope we all keep in touch..