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Published: January 22nd 2008
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The day after my football day I met up again with Donkey who ended up in the same dorm room as me. We walked round Brisbane and I showed him the general layout of Brisbane. On the night we celebrated our meeting up by going to a backpackers bar and having a few drinks. It was a good night and we started off a massive debate about who is better, Bear Grylls or Ray Mears.
The next day it rained a lot and I did very little while nursing a hangover mixed with my cold that I've had for two weeks. Donkey and I went to watch American Gangster on the night, which was a really good film.
I had to get up early in the morning to catch my 6:45am ride to Moreton Island. Getting up this early was made easy by a German guy who's snoring is like having a pneumatic drill in the room, to give you a visual he also looks like the guy with dark hair from the hairy bikers. As a tour group we took up two 4wd jeeps and headed to the port of Brisbane where we would get the ferry to
Moreton Island. Moreton Island is the second biggest sand island in Australia behind Fraser Island. It was ace when the ferry pretty much docked on the beach opens up and we flew out on to the beach. It was like Saving Private Ryan without the war or Tom Hanks. The island on first impression is amazing, there is a circle of crystal clear blue waters around the island and the beach stretches almost round the entire island. The middle of the island is covered mainly in trees and we veered off the beach and down one of the many sand tracks on the island to our first stop at a place called the desert.
As soon as we arrived at the desert everyone just gawped and said wow. The trees cleared and there was a big expanse of bright sand dunes. The reason we were in the desert was sandboarding, which is essentially flying down a big sand dune while lying on a very thin piece of wood. Apparently it is not unknown to get to speeds of 60 kmph where we were doing it. At the top the dune looked very steep and the few that went before
The desert
The picture does not show the true steepness of the dune me looked very fast. It was safe to say I was bricking it a bit. My tour guide waxed my board and I laid down at looked down the steep dune. Initially it feels really fast and you have no control but then it just feels like an awesome ride and you end up sliding quite a ways when you hit the flat sand. It was funny watching one asian woman who literally screamed the whole way down but she had one more go than me so she must of loved it. The only downside was walking back up the dune, if there was some sort of ski lift type thing I would have done it all day.
Our next stop was to the big freshwater lake in the middle of the island. Here we got to have a swim and do a bit of snorkelling. The water felt brilliant after being in the baking sun and was really clear. Snorkelling was pretty pointless as there was nothing to see. After lunch we got back onto the beach and sped down the sand trying to time it so we missed the water of the high tide. At the end
of the beach there is the only rock hill on the island. On the top there is a lighthouse, which we climbed up to. By the lighthouse there is a lookout point which gives an amazing view of the island. We also looked out into the sea and saw a group of dolphins and a couple of turtles.
After the lighthouse we had to wait while the tide went back out and we could get through back to the ferry. On our way back a jeep stopped us and our tour guide had to guide it to the only ambulance on the island. A baby had been burnt by a cup of tea but they were lucky the ambulance was there as it only goes onto the island during the summer holidays. Fortunately we saw the baby on the ferry back and it seemed calm and happy despite having blisters all over its shoulder. While we were guiding the jeep to the ambulance we also had to help get another jeep unstuck from the sand to clear the path. When we got back to the ferry we had enough time to look at over the shipwrecks just off the
shore of the island. There used to be a whaling station near the island and when it was finally outlawed they purposely wrecked the whaling ships and left them near the shore. We then took the ferry back and I slept having had by far the best day yet in Australia.
On my last day in Brisbane I went round the XXXX brewery again but this time with Donkey. I didnt mind as I got to have their excellent beer again. I then just crashed out for the day feeling really tired and fluey.
The next day we got a midday bus to Byron Bay. On the way we drove through Surfers Paradise, which I am glad we didn't stop at. It looked just like a Spanish seaside resort with big tower blocks of holiday apartments. Byron Bay gave a much nicer first impression. It is a relatively small place but is fairly laid back. On arrival we made straight for the hostels happy hour at the bar and then moved onto watch the cricket and drink in a bar in town. On our first full day in Byron, Donkey did a surfing lesson while I sat for
three hours trying to resolve my desperate dirty laundry situation. It takes a long time when there is a lot of people and only 2 machines and 1 dryer. On the afternoon, Donkey and I went on the walk up to the most easterly point in Australia and to the lighthouse at the end of the beach. I found the walk really tiring with my cold but still quite enjoyable. The most easterly point in Australia felt strangely like the rest of Australia but it had amazing views none the less. The walk also takes you through a little section of rainforest where there are loads of bush turkeys, lizards and spiders running about.
On the Sunday morning we boarded the Happy Coach to go on a tour of the village of Nimbin. Our tour guide, Fred, looked like Shane Warne with dreadlocks and he constantly reeled out poor one line jokes all day. Our first stop was to a waterfall for a quick photo stop. We also stopped to have a look at a Koala. Fred told us that koalas are so stupid that if you tap them on their head they will climb downwards. We then drove
into Nimbin around lunchtime, it is essentially a hippy town. In 1973 they held the aquarius festival there and to this day the hippies havent left. The village consists of one street full of brightly coloured shops and hippies selling various herbs and cookies that you are not likely to find in your local bakery. On sundays they hold a small market selling mostly sarongs and old books. It was a seriously weird but amazing place but not somewhere you need to spend more than half a day.
We then spent our last day in Byron by going on the beach and then seeing the film Cloverfield (poor). We then took a night bus to Sydney which is where I am now before I fly out to New Zealand tomorrow morning. Australia has been good on parts but overall its been disappointing and in my opinion does not come close to South East Asia for budget travelling. I am really looking forward to New Zealand and a change of scene. I am also starting to feel like my trip is nearing completion but I still have a month to get the most out of it.
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