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Published: November 3rd 2008
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We thought the sun had forsaken us when we flew into Brisbane, Queensland (the sunshine state) as we arrived just as a storm started. The storm closed the ground side of the airport and prevented our luggage being taken to the baggage hall. Two hours later, we (and our luggage) were on our way, driving up into the heart of the Sunshine Coast - hurrah the sun was back!!
With temperatures slightly less than we had become accustomed to after Fiji, only 29-32 degrees rather than 35+, we arrived in Hervey Bay apparently known as the whale watching capital of the world.
Before meeting the whales, we spent a day on Fraser Island, which as with most parts of Australia, was discovered by Capt James Cook. Fraser is the world’s largest sand island with no roads as such; therefore our trip was extremely bumpy all the way and thank goodness for 4WD! Fraser is a protected world heritage site due to its natural beauty and provided us with plenty of rainforests to walk through, beautiful stretches of beach, the rusting Maheno shipwreck and allegedly 300+ native animals. I say allegedly as we didn’t really see many animals - only
a few fish and birds as the majority are nocturnal and the dingo’s (all 150+ of them) were noticeable by their absence!
Thankfully the animals were not so shy and did not disappoint during other parts of our trip. Hervey Bay’s reputation is intact, as we were treated to an absolutely fantastic outing to see humpback whales. These whales are migrating with their calves towards Antarctica. They are majestic animals and luckily for us I think they like to show off, as the calves seemed particularly keen to demonstrate their flips and acrobatic style to us. I am not sure who was more curious - us about them or the whales about us.
No tour to the sunshine coast would be complete without visiting the Australian Zoo founded by the late Steve Irwin. With phrases of ‘Crikey’ and ‘You beauty’ ringing in our ears, we patted and stroked kangaroos and a koala, fed the elephants, avoided the snakes, snarled at the dingo (from behind a fence) and watched (from a safe distance) the crocodiles launching themselves out of the water’s edge and their jaws literally sounding ‘snap’ to ensure they caught their food (yes, the jaws really sounded
like that - way too scary for me!).
Onwards down to the Gold Coast and Surfers Paradise - I would describe this as a little like an upmarket or glorified Blackpool with sunshine. Fortunately we are staying outside the centre of Surfers Paradise at Broadbeach - a more cosmopolitan type. The beaches are stunning and the Pacific Ocean felt a little cooler here than in Fiji but the waves are much bigger and more fun to jump around in - hence why it’s known as mecca for surfers.
After England beat Papua New Guinea in the Rugby League World Cup being hosted here in Australia, Alan was pleasantly surprised when their team (who stayed in our hotel) were happy to exchange friendly greetings with an Englishman - much more gracious losers than Alan would be I think if the situation was reversed! Unfortunately NPG also lost against New Zealand so their short stay at the Gold Coast was not so much fun as ours, albeit that England were also soundly thrashed by Australia last night so no cheers here either.
We were treated to dramatic views at Mount Tambourine - mountains and rainforests only a short
drive from the coastline. Next at Burleigh Heads, on our stroll across the headland, we saw many water dragons sunning themselves on the rocks. Here, virtually every corner and batch of waves held at least a few surfers trying to catch that ‘wipe out’ wave. Watching them made surfing look quite easy, which of course it isn’t.
After a long 5+ weeks together though Alan and I decided that we’d spent enough time to together and it was time to go our separate ways - aah. Alan stayed in Queensland and I went to New South Wales. Ok, ok it’s not quite like that. We did separate but only for about 2 minutes and a couple of metres as we visited the Captain Cook memorial at Point Danger that marks the border divide and allows you stand in both states at the same time.
Our next journey is to Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef - prepare yourselves for more talk about sunshine, hot weather etc . Oh sorry, didn’t mean to rub it in as I understand that the UK is going through a cold snap - wrap up warm everyone!
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