Hamburger soup and whip cracking

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Its been all go since my last blog! And im trying to be more organised and write it now, as it will take me hours if i leave it any longer!

I decided at about half 12 at night before my last day in Brisbane that i was going to go to Australia zoo. I saw somebodies pictures and though WHY NOT! And im sooo glad i did.It was a brilliant day out. There are loads of demos and shows on all day, i saw a wombat going for a walk on a lead. Fed Elephants! It was jus brill, the keepers r so passionate about their jobs and continual research, conservation and educating others. O it was jus FAB! :-)

Then it was back on the big yellow bus and off to Rainbow Beach, the gateway to Fraser Island! Everyone i met who is going SOuth said that that was their absolute highlight so far so high expectations! :-) And i would say it lived up to it. Nobody tells you about the HUGE flies, and the fact that u camp on a beach with no facilities and dont have a shower but we all enjoyed the whole experience. We had 3 trucks, each with like 10 people on. My group were ace, and there were loads of gappies, iv hardly met anyone else my age. I felt older than them but at the same time it was quite nice to be allowed to be the younger ones at times :-) We were in the companies newest Truck Lynne, they basically want to like rip u of as much money as possible if you do the slightest thing to the truck.
Salt water on car -$1000 minimum fine.
Teeniest ding in panelwork -$211000 MINIMUM! They r so sneaky, they charge u hardly anything for the trip, then u have to pay an extra for park fees, camping permits (we slept on a beach!) and insurance (which covered u for absolutely nothing!) so we werent really sure what we'd paid for but we drove away a tad apprehensive and every bump was taken with great caution.

Team America *(v.loud american girl on truck) got stuck in sand before they even arrived, slightly over zealous driving. Then we lost them the rest of time, which suited us fine tbh, team 1 and 2 stuck together. The fresh water lakes are just beautiful -Like Birribean, Boomajin, Mackenzie and Lake Wabby. LAke Wabby is being engulfed by a big sand dune; we all ran down and jumped in, girls bikinis flying everywhere. bad times! :S Unfortunately we could only see like a quarter of the island as the cyclone completed wiped out the top half. The ship wreck that was one there is now no longer but we still did lots of druiving. GUTTED i couldnt drive, u had to be 21. Dammit. (sorry for the terrible spelling, i hate paying for internet!). We camped up on the beach, thats when we encountered the flies, OMG they were huge! EVeryone got bitten a LOT>! And there are dingoes too, pretty cool. They are just like foxes tbh, but when we were all in our tents because of the rain, i went out and they were like sneaking between our tents. cooooool :-) HAd a brilliant group, we all had such a laugh together, our drivers were good. Eric, our Dutch friend was actualy a very good driver (even though he'd admitted he was crazy). He had issues with trees and round abouts but all very funny.

So we survived fraser.As did the truck HAd a very funny incident with our food tho, We were given big cool boxes and ice to store our food. Our hamburger that we bought for night 2 were packed away safely and left until lunch on day 2. We opened up the eski to find a pink and sick coloured hambuger soup ewwwwwww! The ice had meloted, disintegrating the cardboard and the hamburgers. YUCK! But very funny :-)

Then it was off to 1770, a chill out place. My back packer hostel southern cross was like 5 *, it was brilliant! :-) Totally just chilled out for 24 hours. Apart from spending the afternoon on a motorbike! oMg it was so much fun. I forgot i was a total speed demon! It was just brilliant, saw some kangaroos then watched the sunset with a beer (dont worry, we were allowed 1 standard drink!). FAB! :-)

Then it was off for a night a cattle station, a bonus fr the oz bus. Anybody who knows me knows that i like to spend my sumers knee deep in mud so i was back in my element! :-) Did a horse muster on horse back, just as stubborn as sheep goats are! grrr. HAd a clay pigeon shoot, only 1/5 dammit, not as good as my scotland record! But still good. A quick goat lasooo (how do u spell that!?) and wrestle then it was back to the ranch to eat curried goat (heart and kidney and all) (quite nice 😊 ) and a hearty roast! Yum! Before we did some whip cracking and had a talk from the owner. Bramen cattle that they farm in North Queensland sweat through their skin so they are able to deal with the hot temperatures. Then omg he was good with a whip! The noise is made as it breaks the soudn barrier, that whip is travelling at 330m/s. eeek! We all had a go, relatively successfully, i was too scared about it hitting me! Then it was time for the mechanical bull. Omg. This wasnt a magaluf stylee one, this was hard core rodeo, and it was bloomming hard! I fell off straight off! Not very cool. I had another go and got three, u have to grip with your legs and i got MAJOR cramp! The record is 275 bucks. yikes! Our driver and the ranch boys were using it like a surf board! Show offs! A few more very rude games and then we were off to bed. It was a busy day!

We were up at 6am to leave for the longest bus journey EVER! 700km from Kroombit to Airlie Beach. YIkes! Thankfully our bus was quiet so we could spread out ut jeez it was a long day! But we arrived, Airlie is cool, its a bit like Byron but not as hippyesque. There are some expensive apartments on beach etc, there was none of that in Byron.

Im off on my boat now, the atlantic clipper for 2 nighst. Cant wait! :-)

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