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Published: September 14th 2008
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Fraser Island Vehicle
This was to breakdown 18 hrs later - Carolyn hanging off the side was not a contributing factor Another couple of coach journeys with grumpy drivers and even worse videos brings us up the coast from Surfer's Paradise to Hervey Bay where we join fellow travellers, although much younger, to take a 2 night camping trip over to the largest sand island in the world - Fraser Island. The key part to this trip is the ability to drive yourself in a 4x4 along the beaches, to group cook at the campsite and to see Dingos. The 9 in our group contributed A$20 to the food kitty and then let a 20 year old go shopping (her first ever effort!). Probably not the best of ideas as she really did not cater for the 2 vegetarians that we had on our group, although the mixture of condiments that she bought was exceptional. Not to worry we were not going to let food issues spoil the trip - we would leave the rainy weather on the second day to do that. The tents leaked and the vehicle broke down.
Although it sounds pretty negative we had a great time, our group of Brits, Germans, Canadians, Irish and a Yank, split into 2 vehicles, made the most of the whole thing.
Our 4x4 group did the walk to Lake Wabby when it was sunny(ish) when the other declined to do the 45 min trip. They missed out. We got a brilliant sight of sand dunes meeting an azure lake and mental images of a mad German body boarding down the dune into the lake.
On the second day, after seeing a Dingo sitting on the beach, the vehicle broke down - the radiator hose blew off and the engine overheated. It was all looking very grim - the thought of being stuck in the rain and miles from anywhere was a bit depressing, but very fortunately our group was entertained by a bunch of Aussie fishermen who supplied copious amounts of beer, wine, and food over a 5 hour period. The hospitality and generosity of these guys cannot be overestimated - good on yer. Oh, the use of a phone was also very helpful, to call the mechanic.
Gary was the designated driver and did not drink and also had to stand outside in the rain keeping the mechanic company. Once completed, with great relief, everything was OK we got back to the campsite to find all tents and sleeping bags
Dingo sunning itself.
This was another hazard on the beach. It did not react to "here boy". wet - lovely. Not to worry we still had a enjoyable evening drying out things over the gas burners. The wine and beer flowed until the enforced curfew of 2100hrs, when the lights go out, and we all go to a damp tent.
The final day was great packing damp things up and the main aim of getting the vehicle back to the mainland with no additional charges. Gary was sweating a bit as he had secured the vehicle with his credit card.But all turned out ok in the end. Phew!
We moved from Hervey bay to Airlie Beach on another mammoth overnight coach journey and when we arrived the weather was beautiful and warm. After a couple of hours of sorting ourselves out, we had a half day of sea kayaking. This is something we would not normally do but as it was complimentary and the weather was good we thought we would give it a go. Previous kayaking trips on lakes have ended with Gary being upside down most of the time, but he felt confident that this would not happen this time(Caz also hoped so as we were in a 2 man kayak!) He managed to stay
Airlie Beach
The walk to the sailing boat was very pleasant. upright. These double kayaks were really stable and Carolyn could even steer with a rudder. Very pleasant trip, but the 8 km paddle made the shoulders and arms ache.
The main reason for coming to Airlie beach was to pick up 2 night tour around the Whitsunday islands. This was to be a sailing trip on a live aboard boat. It was a budget trip and you could tell this when they were prising the 27 guests into the smallest spaces in history. Fortunately for us we managed to get a twin bedded cabin but others had very little space to move. We were encouraged to bring alcohol along for personal consumption. We were very conservative on this and took 12 cans of beer and 2 litre box of wine for the 2 nights, knowing that if it gets choppy you don't want to be feeling as rough as a badgers bottom. Others didn't think like this and it was quite outrageous the amount of cans and wine that was being loaded. (We were the oldest by 15 years and it showed in our ability to drink). The boat had barely left the harbour before the first can was popped
and that was the theme for the next 48hrs.
When we left it was beautiful sunshine and the cruise out to the main Islands was really pleasant, bright sunshine, light winds and no roll. We "parked" up off Whitehaven Beach for the night and the majority of guests continued the drinking theme whilst we retired early.
We woke early for our visit to the beach. Whitehaven beach has exceptional quality sand - over 99% pure silica and is very white and soft to touch. In fact the sand was used to make the lens for the Hubble space telescope. The up side is that you can polish jewelery with it, the down side is that it can destroy cameras and other electronic equipment if it comes into contact. Stepping on to the beach produced 2 effects - A squeakiness around your feet when you walk on the sand and the a huge formation clouds that provided a significant amount of rain. Although we were only staying for 3 hours there is not a great deal to do apart from sunbathing and swimming (wearing a stinger suit for jellyfish protection) so this was not really the best time. The rain stopped
Taking the plunge
Gary starting his epic 54 minute dive on the Great Barrier Reef. when we got back on to the boat.
From Whitehaven Beach we moved around a number of islands to find good snorkeling sites which was to be great fun as the areas were teaming with fish and coral. The final night on the sailboat produced the most amount of drinking from the "youngsters" and lead to a number of people not feeling totally chipper, for the long sail home to Airlie Beach. We were both fine as we had retired to our miniscule cabin relatively early in the evening/morning. The trip back was mainly in rainy and cool weather, but by the time we got back to Airlie Beach the sun was out and temperatures were hotting up.
The next day was another big coach journey to Cairns to pick up our live aboard boat to take us diving and snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef. Our optimism of good weather was quickly extinguished when we arrived as the rain was hammering down and this was the theme for the next 24 hrs. The live aboard boat was great though and it was not a party boat as people were there for diving and made a pleasant change.
Overall the
diving was slightly disappointing as the overcast conditions made the reef dull and although there were lots of fish, sharks, turtles etc the visibility was not good and snorkeling on the surface was itself difficult with the rough conditions. When the sun finally broke through on day 2 you could start to appreciate the colours of the coral and the beauty of the area, but this was in relative short supply.
We returned to Cairns for our last night in Queensland then flew back to Sydney for our last night in Oz - finally the sun came out, maybe they know that we are leaving to go to Thailand!!
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