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Published: June 17th 2008
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There is a Buddist saying
It's not the number of breaths we take on this earth but the number of moments that take our breath away. We have been amazed so many times since we've been away that i've lost count. From Bangkok temples to Chaing Mai jungles, from'Full moon parties to Sky dives, bungy jumps, beautiful Milford Sound, huge mountains in NZ to apostles on the great Ocean Road, the list is endless. Amazing...The point I was trying to make is that the last few days on Fraser Island have completly blown me away. Fraser is just off the Coast of Rainbow beach in Queensland, it is a complete phenomenen of nature. It's a massive sand Island which has turqoise fresh water lakes next to pure white sand, green lakes just over dunes, rainforests that back onto the ocean, wild dingos, whales and sharks, vast orange cliff's cascading into the ocean...there are no words to discribe how beautiful this island is, just go!
We spent the last 3 days and 2 nights on Fraser. You basically have 11 Strangers piled into the back of a 4xWD troopie, sent off with the best camping food you have ever seen
(Steaks, stir frys, scramblers) to drive on a sand highway right next to the crashing waves and discover the wonders of the island at your own pace. Holly and I were paranoid that we were going to be with a really boring group but when some of the Canadians cracked open a tinny before 8am we knew we were in for a wild trip! Our group were awesome, they all knew each other from fruit picking up in Bundyburg so had a lot of banter going on already, we laughed so much, drank so much, played so much ukulele and just had the most amazing time.
The only hard thing about meeting all these people from all over the world is that you form such tight friendships for a few days then probably never see them again...
Anyway, to back track a little... Byron Bay, it rained the whole time there and apparently, we were infromed at 6am by a scary ranger, you are not allowed to park campers anywhere in Byron, you have to stay in paid camp sites. One of the adventages of Bella is that you can save on accomodation and paying 30bucks a night
was not really our idea of a good plan so we didn't stay there that long...
Anyway, Hols and I couldn;t come to Australia and not at least try to surf so we had booked a surf lesson in Byron. Now, when you imagine surfing in Oz you picture blue skies, white sand, sun shining, relaxed atmosphere fun fun fun... About the only thing that our surf lesson had out of that was the fun fun fun! It was completlely bucketing it down, the wind was howling, skies grey and our instructor said that it was the worst conditions he had to teach surfign in EVER!! You see we couldn't go to the spot he normally uses with little waves gently pushing you onto the shore and no rips becasue a Bull Shark had been spotted the day before!! That is the type of shark that ate the 14yr old surfer only a few weeks ago!!! yikes!! ANYWAY... Holly and I got up fisrt time on our boards, despite all the conditions, we felt super cool for the few seconds we were actualyl standing up! I realise that standing up on a big floaty board is not really considered
'surfing' by the hard core surfers but everyone has to start somewhere!
Byron was the first place where we encountered other travellers, you couldn't walk 2 meters without bumping into a white, well actualyl pink, english person with a can on lager in their hand, a sight you might think upset us but actually, being with people our own age was a welcome feat. One of the nights in Byron, we were drinking in a backpacker bar and the chance to win a trip to the aforementioned Fraser Island came up, you had to play musical chairs! Luckily Holly had been to a lot of children's parties in her day and proved to be unbeatable!! her skilll and enthusiam, lubed with a little $8-a-jug beer meant that she took home a gefty prize! go HOLLY!!! (I felt as proud of her as I did after the kickboxing!)
From Byron, we made our way up to Surfers Paradise, Stopping for a night in Mermaid beach to see and olf friend and use his washing machine! Now, a lot of people had said that they hated Surfers but we had the first completly blue blue blue skies of the trip
in surfers so we laid on the beach, played in the waves and loved it!
we're now making the long journey further up the coast towards the Whittsundays where we're going Sailing for a wee while... I can't wait!!!
Lots of love to you all
xxxx
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Lauren
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Isn't it amazing?
Hey you, how are you? Looks like you’re still having an awesome time. So glad you got to Fraser Island, it’s beautiful and one of my favourite places over there. Your photos are amazing, familiar sights as well. Did you get to go up on the little plane? The views from the sky are breathtaking! Got my grade back and passed. So relieved! YEAY! Staying at yours and working in a pub down the road keeps me out of trouble! Hehe. Graduating in July and then will probably see you back home for the summer. When are you going to India? Can’t believe you’ve got another country and whole different culture left! Awesome! I look forward to your blog and photos. Miss you, take care xxx