Brisbane, Noosa, Hervey Bay - Fraser Island

---

Streuth its been 2 weeks in Oz already! Here's what we did on our second week;

Firstly we spent two days in Brisbane. On our first day we had a look around the central city then headed across the river for a walk through the beautiful gardens of the South bank. Brisbane is situated inland from the coast and so in true Aussie form they built a beach in the centre of the South bank. Known as "Streets Beach" there was a lagoon for swimming and a beach for catching some rays. We also took a riverside walk with a nice view over at the CBD. We then visited an Australia Cultural Museum before strolling through the Brisbane Botanical Gardens and finding a "GreenFest" Concert and plenty of hippies. Later in the evening Nik enjoyed wondering around yet another weekend market! On our second day in Brisbane we headed 1 hour north by train to Steve Irwin's Australia Zoo. The zoo itself was smaller than expected but was interactively brilliant. The highlights were the show in the crocozium and being able to hand feed Kangaroos and Wallabies. Back in the evening we tried to go to an Aussie rules match in Brisbane but they had ran out of cheaper tickets!

On to Noosa. With only 3 weeks in OZ we only spent a day here. We enjoyed a nice picnic on one of Noosa's smaller beaches and spotted an eagle grab a fish from the sea. We then walked along the paths of Noosa National Park where we spotted a Koala awake and energetically shifting itself around its Eucalyptus tree. Then we headed to Dolphin point where we chilled for a while and watched a few Bottle Nose dolphins pass us which only improved an already stunning view. There is such an abundance of wildlife in Oz! We stayed at Koala Backpackers which wasn't too bad. I spent the evening with our room mates from Brazil and France at the Koala's night club which was pretty terrible. I struggled to escape it because my shoes stuck to the beer splattered floor. Other than that because it was a national holiday everything was closed and there was nothing else to do!

After Noosa we headed to Hervey Bay. The scenery on our Greyhound coach is gradually changing to a more Savannah landscape and would be suitable in parts of the Lion King. Hervey Bay was our base camp to do a 4x4 camping trip to Fraser Island. In Hervey bay we stayed at Palace Backpackers in very house like accommodation. We spoke to a roudy bunch of backpackers who had just come back from there trip and they absolutely loved it. This only wet our appetite more for our Fraser Island trip. The next day we had a group briefing and joined into a group of nine with 4 other English, 2 French and a German. We packed our camping gear to our 4x4 nicknamed "Bruce" by Nik. Then we hit Woolworths to get some group grub for the 3 days on Fraser. Fraser Island is the largest sand island in the world and perfect to thrash a 4x4 around. It also has some mind blowingly beautiful lakes and long sandy beaches. We took the barge across to the Island and then drove on some very rough jungle terrain to visit a clear freshwater creek. Here I used some amazing geographical knowledge to impress an uninterested group.. We also visited a lookout to "lake Wabby" which is set adjacent to some amazing dunes heading towards the beach. I then took control of of our 4x4 - Bruce which was great fun in the softer sand nearer the beach. We set up camp at the beach and had a BBQ before watching a nice moon rise and having some "Goon" (Boxed Wine) with the other "Palace" groups whilst the shadows of Dingoes stalked around our tents in search of food. On the second day we trekked across the vast dune expanse to swim in Lake Wabby. It was simple stunning. We then drove along the eastern beach to visit "Champagne Pools" Which were a sublime rock pool area perfect for a cold paddle or swim, I then drove to a place called India Head which had great views along the beach dunes and then continued along the beach to visit a ship wreck. At some stages it was pretty bumpy and the French girl's we were with screamed at any small lump. "Putan" or F$ck in French was used a number of times during the journey. The next evening's moon rise was more stunning than the last with its large orangey glow reflecting across the sea. We went to bed quite early because it was simply too cold to stay out.! Little evidence of Dingoes the second night. The 3rd day was the cherry on top. I took the wheels again and struggled to get over the forest roots scattered along the sandy roads. We headed to lake McKenzie, a picture perfect clear watered lake with a white sandy shore and lush green surrounding scenery. One word. Amazing: After a few hours we headed back to Hervey bay. Hervey Bay itself is the world capital for whale watching and although it wasn't quite whale breading season, we ended our Fraser island trip with a close up view of 2 humpback whales swimming curiously close. They were enormous and it really made our day to see them, particularly as they shot water from there blow whole! We ended an absolutely brilliant trip with a new group of mates and plenty of Pizza! Fraser island is a must.

We spent one more day in Hervey bay which was far more chilled than our 3 day Fraser tour. There wasn't much to do at Hervey bay so we just chilled on a beach watching numerous birds fly past, one of which was a Pelican who swam near us catching some food.

Next up Airlie Beach, Whitsunday's Sailing tour, Magnetic Island and Cairns.. Cant wait.

---