Advertisement
Published: August 9th 2007
Edit Blog Post
Here's the latest update on the happenings down under. Still living in Sydney and I'm up to the same old things. The insurance sales is going well and still trying to save up a bit of money for some more travel down the road. Things are a bit monotonous at the moment as far as the travelling goes, but at least a visit from the infamous Nairb N Nairbonson...a.k.a. Matt...a.k.a. Jack Black gave me an excuse to do a bit more travel. For anyone who doesn't know him, Nairb is a friend of mine from Canada who took a few weeks of vacation in Australia to see me. I feel privileged to be worth a trip to the other side of the world. I had to work a lot for the early part of the trip leaving Nairb to fend for himself in the big city for the first few weeks. We got to hang out in the evenings and weekends though so i hope he didn't get too lonely. His hostel had satellite television as well which meant I got to watch my first NHL hockey all season with him. Most definitly a treat to watch the Flames get destroyed
The 90km beach at Fraser Island
by Detroit. Yumi and I also introduced him to the wonder's of karaoke box and he rewarded us with his artful versions of such classics as "forgot about dre" and "baby got back." Yumi and Nairb got along as well, despite the fact that she hates honkey crackers like Nairb.
When I finally got away from work we only had about eight days for a quick mission up north. Not the quantity of travelling I would have preferred but the quality destinations made up for that. First stop was Fraser Island which is up in Queensland north of Brisbane. we booked onto a self guided 4WD tour around the island. The island is the largest sand island anywhere in the world and a first rate stop for any traveller. Basically the tour consisted of 8 or 9 backpackers and no guides. They gave us a big truck, some camping equipment and a map for us to explore the island for three days. On the first day of the tour we checked out Lake Mckenzie. Imagine a fresh water lake surrounded by rainforest and a beautiful sandy beach. The water is just as clear
as any bottled water you can
Camping on the Beach
by. Somebody could dive down six metres to the bottom and he could still be clearly visible from the surface. I can't even describe how clean and pure it was. You can literally take a drink while going for a swim with no second thoughts. After a few hours at the lake we drove to the beach to set up camp. What better way to end the day with BBQing, drinks and good company.
The second day was spent driving up and down the beach for a few hours with a few cool stops on the way. Elli Creek was worth mentioning as it was a fresh water stream that you can walk up into the forest next to then float back down to the ocean. The cool, fresh water proved to be the miracle hang over cure everyone is searching for. Also stopped at an old ship wreck from the early 1900's for a cool photo-op. The day was rounded out by a trip to the incredible Lake Wabbi. The pictures just don't do this place justice as it's one of the coolest things any of us had
ever seen. Just imagine a massive sand dune a couple
Nairb driving on the beach
of kilometres big surrounded by dense rainforest and with a tiny little lake/oasis tucked into one corner. As an added bonus: the lake is at the bottom of a huge and steep sand dune to roll down into the water. Way too much fun. The night we went back to the beach for some more of the same. At night time while camping we saw plenty of dingos poking around looking for something to eat. It was lucky that nobody brought any babies with them as there would have been some problems. The next morning we spent at lake Mckenzie before having to catch the barge back to the mainland.
Next up we caught the bus to Byron Bay as Nairb needed to experience the alternative world capital of Nimbin. Won't go into many details here as Nimbin has been described in detail before on a previous entry. Just suffice to say that we very much enjoyed our time and the two days spent there was not nearly enough. That pretty much sums up our travels. We backtracked back up north to Brisbane for
a day and a night before flying back to Sydney. Brisbane was it's usual unremarkable
Lake Wabbi from Altitude
self. We went bowling though which I hadn't done for some time. The night in the hostel was interrupted around 2:30 am as well by some moron drunks spraying a fire extenguisher in a room next to us and causing an evacuation.
After getting back to Sydney I had to say "fare thee well" as Nairb is off to Africa via Canada. I'll miss him for the most part but at least i won't get mocked anymore when I wear a jumper and long pants when it drops to 22 degrees. I didn't realize how much my perception of temperature has changed since enduring the Australian summer. Seriously bro, 22 is freaking cold. You'll understand when you get back from Africa. Thanks for the visit and I had better be seeing you in Japan.
Another quick note. Some of the photos here have been scammed off Nairb's facebook. Please don't sue me.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.156s; Tpl: 0.019s; cc: 16; qc: 72; dbt: 0.1111s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Aunt K
non-member comment
Great pics Brian. I hope the insurance business is not too terribly hum-drum after such a loverly 8 days. The other day it was 15 degrees here and I was out gardening in a sleeveless top and feeling rather warm.