Eva 2010

I got to Byron Bay about 4:30pm and called the hostel for them to come and pick me up from the bus stop. Now, most hostels have a van that has the name of the hostel on it. Not this one! This in-descript silver van with a for sale sign pulled up to the curb and some guy got out and started looking for someone…me. Anyway it was kind of strange. So off we go to the hostel with some of the other hostel guests in tow. The check-in process was really strange too. I gave them a credit card number over the phone but I couldn’t pay with the card once I got there. Um..OK. Then they didn’t give me a key for the room or anything. Strange. But they did have free wireless internet!! ... read more

After my rainy week in Brisbane, Seanna, a friend of a friend, offered her place to me for a few days. Seanna totally had the hook-up on the Gold Coast! It was nice to stay in an actual apartment for a change. It was so much more peaceful and relaxing than most of the hostels. And it was clean! It was also nice to be around someone who understands things from back home. At times I feel very isolated here since there aren’t that many American travelers. There are a few Canadians and that is reassuring sometimes. Plus Seanna and I got along really well. It was really great to have someone to pal around with for a few days. It was Friday morning when she picked me up in Brisbane and drove me down the ... read more

After the somewhat dull towns of Hervey Bay (a retirement community) and Rainbow Beach (just small) I was looking forward to getting to a town with more character. It’s somewhat hard to find here in Australia. Probably because the culture here is not that different from that of back home. But I found what I was looking for in Noosa. I arrived in the late afternoon so most of the day was already gone but the hostel was advertising for a cheap evening river cruise so I bought a ticket. The cruise wasn’t for a while and I needed some groceries since mine were either thrown away or stolen when I was on Fraser Island. Bummer. So I booked it over to the supermarket and back. But then I was sweating like crazy so decided to ... read more

I had an amazing two days cruising around the Whitsunday Islands. The Whitsundays are a group of 74 islands that are at the southern tip of the Great Barrier Reef. Since they are islands, the only way to see them is to have your own boat or book a boat tour. There are some day tours but the most popular option is a 2 day/2 night trip; this is exactly what I did! We boarded the boat at about noon on Sunday, Valentine's Day. How romantic it would have been had I not been alone! HA! Anyway, it was a perfect way to spend not celebrating V-Day. When we left land it was looking like it was going to rain, and it had been earlier that day. But as we got away from the mainland the ... read more

Friday morning I left for my 3 day little road trip. I rented an old Toyota Corolla with no A/C…a big sacrifice to make this time of year in the wet tropics. But it was the cheapest option. So I headed out to Babinda Boulders to take a look at the smooth, carved granite of the boulders and to take a dip in the clear rock pools there. It was quite refreshing even at 10 in the morning. After that I headed down to the two-tier Josephine Falls. The waterfalls are quite spectacular this time of year with all the rain. I had another dip there and took a turn sliding down a huge granite boulder. After that there was a small afternoon shower, of course. But I found a campground near another set of waterfalls ... read more