K'Gari

---

So it's 6am and we have just arrived in Cairns, our final stop on the east coast. I normally try and write chronologically but this story is too funny to leave until the end of this blog. At 4am this morning, Mat started shouting "Dad!" in his sleep at quite some volume and he was getting louder and louder. I woke up on the first "Dad!" and was nudging him by the second but my arms were all wrapped up in my sleeping sheet so I couldn't shake him. I knew he was having a nightmare and by the 6th "Dad!" (at this point it was ridiculously loud) Mat woke up. I would just like to add that the bus we were on was full! As soon as he woke up he knew what he'd done and we had the giggles for ages. He was dreaming that he was in his hallway at home with George (Mat's Dad and Linda's cat) and he was biting off Mat's fingers so Mat was calling to his Dad for help. In his dream his fingers were getting bitten off and although he was shouting "Dad" the words weren't coming out. In reality he was gradually waking everyone up on the bus shouting for his dad. Priceless!! 

After leaving Landborough and the Python behind we headed to Noosa. We had a distastrous bus journey thanks to the *bleeeep* of a bus driver, I don't think i've met anyone as miserable! Anywho he didn't tell us where our stop was so we ended up in the middle of nowhere, when I asked if we could get back on the bus because we need to be in Noosa (which I made quite clear) he said "S'pose you better, it's a long walk back". Cheers mate! Sometimes when you are traveling you have journeys that just go wrong. This was one of them! However, all was not lost. Mat had booked us in to 'Noosa Flashpackers' and that it was! It was more like a resort than a backpackers and at last somewhere with free wifi. Again, another thing we took for granted in Asia. Whilst in Noosa we spent a lot of time around our hostel pool, popped to the beach and we also visited the Emundi Market. The Market had been recommended to us and we'd heard lots of good things, I was under the impression that it was home to lots of aboriginal artists and I was hoping I would be able to pick up some aboriginal artwork. We were a bit disappointed; it was a lot more commercial than we had anticipated. After Noosa we headed North to Rainbow Beach.

So, after being at Rainbow Beach for all of 10 minutes we realised there is absolutely nothing to do there apart from jump on a tour and go to Fraser Island. Fraser Island is the largest sand island in the world and backpackers are attracted to the island because the only way to get around is by 4WD. Mat and I had agreed that we shouldn't go to Fraser solely because money was tight but in my head I was still umming and arring, not one to miss out. Half an hour before the travel agent closed I managed to persuade him into it. It was Valentines Day after all! So after a short ferry ride over to Fraser, our monster of a vehicle took to the sand. It was an incredible feeling gliding over the beach dipping in and out of the sea. Fraser stretches 123 kms in length and 22 kms in width, it's a world heritage site and the indigenous Butchulla people who once inhabited the island named it K'Gari, meaning 'Paradise'. We drove along 75 Mile Beach, visited the coloured sands of The Pinnacles, dipped in Eli Creek, admired the Maheno Shipwreck, walked the banks of Wanggoolba Creek and swam in Llake McKenzie (a fresh water lake, so fresh that we could drink the water! And it was surrounded by the whitest sand we'd ever seen). This was definitely a highlight of the trip. We were fascinated with the walk we did along the creek, Fraser Island is the only sub-tropical rainforest in the world to grow entirely from sand. Enabled to do so thanks to the smaller plants on the edges - the dropping of their leaves provides nutrients for the sand. This is a little bit geeky I know but seeing a 2000 year old fern was pretty amazing. Fraser Island looks exactly how it does on the postcards, K'Gari. The perfect way to spend Valentines. The evening was spent getting drunk with our Danish friends we had met on the tour but before this we headed up to 'Carlo Sand Blow' (a huge sand dune) to watch the sunset. Unfortunately it was too cloudy so we ran down the side of the sand dune instead. Lots of fun! Next stop, Airlie Beach.

Night buses in Asia were a luxury in comparison to the Greyhound buses here. Night buses in Vietnam came with beds (granted, Mat couldn't fit in them but I could), a blanket and a bottle of water. You pay ten times the price, quite literally if not more, in Australia and receive a reclining chair, if you're lucky! Safe to say it wasn't the best trip up to Airlie!

We had a lovely time in Airlie, it's been about 37 degrees (so we've spent three days sunbathing and three evenings with sunstroke!) Auntie Tess, Katie and Nati will remember the time I burnt my bum in Montpellier, I never learn! When you get further up the east coast you can't swim in the sea during summer months, unless you have a death wish, box jellyfish migrate this way and are real stingers. Apprently if they sting you get whip like burns and fall unconscious, a sting from one of those bad boys would kill those more vunerable. Safe to say it didn't even cross our minds to go in the sea, we spent most of our time around the fresh water lagoon (we even got to try our hand at scuba diving there as they were offering free lessons.) Again, we were umming and arring about whether to go on a tour around the Whitsunday Islands but you can't come to this part of the world and not snorkel on the Great Barrier Reef. We had booked to go on a sailing boat, Ragamuffin, around the 74 islands but we thought spending 3/4 of the day on a boat may be a bit boring so we re-booked with a different company, OceanRafting. We had the most amazing day! The boats they use are decomissioned Royal Marine rescue boats and they are quick, or in Mat's words 'f*cking machines'! The fastest we went was 35 knots which is 42 miles per hour. Hitting waves at that speed was so much fun, everyone was holding on for dear life and screaming at the top of their lungs. We visited the Hill Inlet where you can lookout onto the swirling sands and the infamous Whitehaven Beach. Unfortunately, the tide was unusually high so most of it was underwater, but it was still beautiful nonetheless. Whilst eating our buffet lunch on the beach we spotted a stingray and a few baby sharks. They were cute and all, but surely when there are baby sharks the parents can't be too far off. And seeing as though a bloke was eaten by two great whites a few days ago I was a little anxious! Mat laughed at me when I put my sexy lycra stinger suit on, I have not come this far to be done over by a jellyfish! When we snorkelled we saw beautiful tropical fish and lots of stunning coral formation. We also sait's Maori Wrasse fish - it was about four foot, absolutely mahussive. When I was in the sea Will.I.Am (our tour guide) threw fish feed around us so all the tropical fish were jumping around me. It was incredible and I was trying to get a good photo of the Wrasse from a distance, and it came so close I nearly shat myself! Oh and when we were cruising around Mat spotted a whale. Not bad in a days work. What an incredible day!

We have seen some funny kitchen activity in the last week. Two lazy (but quite entertaining) boys who, for dinner, simply opened a can of ham baked beans put it directly on the hob and then ate from the can. Yum! And two other blokes who couldn't work out how to use the microwave so they fryed their microwave lasangna in a frying pan! People look at us in amazement when we start chopping vegetables and garlic for our dinner.  

We are just getting ready to go out and have a browse around Cairns, we might even treat ourselves to a coffee! There's so much to do and see in Cairns but with it being close to the end of our Australian adventure the budget has been blown! Might see if we can find a cheap half day snorkel on the Great Barrier (again) courtesy of Natwest. Tomorrow we head to our final Wwoof host who lives five miles from the centre of town. We fly to Perth on the 26th.

Lots of love,

Amber and Mat xXx     

---

Photos

Hill Inlet
Overlooking Whitehaven Beach

The Pinnacles
Coloured sands

Valentines at Carlo Sandblow
With Kasper (who was missing his girlfriend)

Sand dune eating the bush
Sand dunes eat one metre of bush every year

Palm trees surrounding our hostel
Airlie Beach

Golden Orb Spider
She has the strongest web in the world

Comments

[rena]

adventures
oh how i wish i was 21 again...i read your blogs and all the exciting things and think i wish!!! funny as always what fantastic memories you will both have, i love it! made me laugh when you wrote aboutt he fish food i remembered Kelsi in the caribbean in the water when they did the same thing and teh screams thrugh her snorkel could be heard for miles!!! happy travelling stay safe, love you's xxxx