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Published: August 16th 2005
Had a few stops on the way up to Fraser Island courtesy of my trusty Greyhound Bus Pass. I decided to see if I could catch some waves in Newcastle. However, the dude in the hostel that was going to teach me to surf felt that it was just a little too strong for a first timer and after a good walk along the front I was glad as I don't think I would have made it out of the water alive - leave those waves for the professionals!! Instead I made the most of some beautiful weather and went for a very short run off a very long pier!!
Next stop, Sleepy Port MacQuarie. Although I only had an overnight stay here it was really quite sweet. One of the girls from the hostel and I took a walk (and a few blisters from wearing flip flops again) to the Koala Bear Sanctuary. It was set in the grounds of a lovely house and was run by volunteers. We arrived just in time for feeding. One of them was blind and had to be hand fed by a syringe. After their afternoon tea they promptly fell asleep again -
what a life!! Later that night a few of us went out for a few beers in the local Irish bar. We all ended up in a dodgy night club with some Irish Guys entertaining the locals with our dancing and chat. The following day a guy, (from Aberdeen!!) that I had met on the Greyhound the day before, and I went for a good walk around the waterfront at Port MacQuarie. It was like a wild life spotting exercise. Si was amazed to see a couple of pods of wild dolphins without being on an organised tour.
Next stop Byron Bay - not much to say about this place. It is supposed to be a surfers paradise but it just didn't stop raining while I was there. Pretty touristy here so I decided to move on quickly in an effort to catch some sun and surf.
I had a couple of nights to spend in Brisbane. The hostel that had been booked for me by a travel company was a little out of town so I walked all over the place. In between the rain, I went to a few galleries here and the botannical gardens. Overall
Koala Bear
Port MacQuarie, Koala Bear Sanctuaryit was just really another city - not much else to say...
Onto Noosa!!! At some points it was hard to remember what day it was as I was pretty much changing venue every other day and this was another one night stop. The hostel here wasn't the best - complete with cockroaches however the people in it were great fun. Despite the rain I decided to go for a surfing lesson that afternoon. As it turned out the sun came out and the surf was apparently perfect!! There were seven of us in the group and by the end of it we all managed to stand up on our boards (they were big boards!!). I was certainly using muscles that I hadn't used for a while as well as well as acquiring a few bruises. I helped the guy that took the lessons clear up his stand at the end of the day as he was dropping me off at the hostel and after carrying several of the boards up the beach him and his wife asked me back for dinner - I think they felt sorry for me staying in the dodgy hostel. I politely declined, although
Pelicans
Waterfront, Port MacQuairie I was desperate to accept!!
Onto Fraser Island. I had to stay overnight in Rainbow Beach to get a pep talk before taking off in the four by four. We were all put into groups of nine and I was pretty apprehensive as I had been told that if you you end up in a bad group it could really spoil your whole trip. I couldn't have been luckier. There were three English (Kelly, Paul and Matt), one Irish girl(Sabrina), two South Koreans (I couldn't say their names far less write them down), two Swedes (same applies to their names) and me. The whole group got a pretty scary pre trip chat about what could go wrong with the car and what to do and what not to do and then we were asked to meet up the following morning to pack the car up. On first sight Paul in particular was not too impressed with the car. I guess they were never going to give a group of backpackers a top of the range 4x4 BMW though. The drivers (Kelly, the Swedes and me) got a very quick talk on how to drive in sand etc and we
were then handed the keys!! It was all scary stuff. Got the ferry over to the island that was much greener than I had imagined and we were off. We had a group picnic near and I think at that stage it was all a bit like a reality TV show getting to know one another. We must have taken a wrong turn somewhere as it took us quite some time to reach Lake MacKenzie over some pretty rough ground. Once we made it most of had had a quick swim before playing volleyball in the water. The poor people that had come to this beautiful, quiet spot. I then decided to brave it and suggested that I could take a turn at driving. I loved it!! Drove along the main beach for some time before finding a suitable camping spot. I got the car bogged in soft sand but with a little determination and a little digging by the others I successfully got the car moving again - I don't actually think that holding my breath helped though. The girls were quite happy to do the dinner while the guys put up the three tents - great team work.
Sat up having a few beers and learned some international drinking games. A couple of us took my star map and quickly it was clear that we had no idea which way was north etc so trying to name some of the many bright stars was an impossible task. Retired to bed all a little apprehensive after our numerous dingo warnings!!
The following morning we got up a little later than our prearranged sunrise on the beach watch. We headed up the beach and stopped to look at the wreck of the Moheno on the beach. On the way further up the island I spotted a whale in the distance and we stopped the car to watch it breaching out of the water - amazing!! We stopped off to do a couple of recommended walks but were dissappointed to find that the recommended swimming creek was only good enough for a paddle!! Drove up as far as we were allowed with the car - Indian Head Point. There was a lovely board walk along the coast that led us to the Champagne Pools. They were rock pools right on the edge of the water and the waves crashed over
Team International
Ready for our trip to Fraser Island them - it was quite something to swim there (as I eventually found out when I went in). A few of us wandered long the beach and climbed up to Indian Head as the sun was going down. We were lucky enough again to spot some whales in the distance but no sign of dolphins or turtles. As a group we had decided to stay at a campsite that night in order to have our BBQ steak. We were under strict instructions that there was to be absolutely no noise after 9pm!! After our meal, a couple of fishernmen came up and gave us some huge fish that they had just caught and thankfully gutted. The plan was to save them for a late lunch on returning back to the hostel. We all headed down to the beach at 8.55 !! and joined with another group. A couple of us agained tried to sort the fantastic stars out but were again unsuccessful (we could only make out the Southern Cross). We were however amazed at the number of shooting stars that night. About 11pm people had told us that we could see the moonrise. Although I was a little sceptical
Lake MacKenzie
A favourite beach volleyball site as I didn't know that this actually existed - it does and it was quite spectacular - and on time!! It ended up being a pretty late night and took us all a while to get going the following day. After the success of the volleyball we returned to Lake MacKenzie. Much banter was had about the height of the imaginery net as well as the fact that out team (Kelly, South Korea and I) wouldn't win - we did!! What a laugh - I think I have found my new sport!! It was a long way home and after driving through some salt water the car was pretty quiet. We all wished that we could have had a few more days there as it has been so good and there was still so much else to see. I was pretty lucky with the group I was in and hope to keep in touch with their travel news. It was hard to leave that night as they were all staying on for another night but the Greyhound was calling for my overnight to Airlie Beach....
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