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Published: January 8th 2009
Bro's boat at Sandhills
Moored at Sandhills, Moreton IslandHappy New Year! Hope everyone had a great Christmas and all the best for 2009. We believe you are all experiencing a rather cool snap and see temperature figures are usually preceeded with a 'minus'. We are quite the opposite here. We have had a fairly warm Christmas with temperates generally around the 30 mark and even a few days where the mercury has tipped 37 - oh by the way that is celcius not fahrenheit and to boot we have had very little rain.
Throughout the Christmas Period we have had our friends Chris and Jill visiting from the UK, so we have been 'tripping' here, there and everywhere in a desperate attempt to show them the vast area of South East Queensland.
Not allowing them time for Jetlag to kick in, and on the arrival day itself, I escorted them to the top of Mount Cootha to show them the elevated views of the City and Moreton Bay and Islands beyond. We then all caught a 'City Cat' into Brisbane and had a one stop tour of South Bank and Eagle Street, before a couple of 'cheeky beers' and a return City Cat trip back to our place. Dinner
The Bomb
It was boringly reliable! was then served on the balcony and of course, it had to be, a BBQ.
Once again, in a desperate effort to prevent our overseas visitors suffering the dreaded jetlag, I whisked them to Manley and we boarded John's ( my bro's ) boat and powered out to Sandhills and Tangalooma where my promises of seeing Turtles, Rays and Dolphins came to fruition.
Golf was next on the cards - a day at Bribie Isand, Pacific Harbour Resort, with Jill pretending to be Stirling Moss in the buggy car and Chris securing his first win on Australian soil.
Saturday was the guests first dull start to an Australian day.....the weather I mean! We drove from Brisbane to Noosa and spent the morning and early afternoon having a stroll round Hastings Street and a swim in the Ocean. We then drove on to Hervey Bay and spent the night at Hervey Bay Boat Club and Marina, over-indulging in food and alchohol.
On the Sunday morning I headed into Hervey Bay to collect our 4WD. I had pre-booked a Landrover Defender....flying the British flag, but on arrival was informed that some hippie backpacker, probably spaced out on some illegal substance or other,
Lake Birabeen
Caz tests the water temp out before we all swim! had indeed totalled our Landrover the day before and it was not fit to drive. So I was somewhat dissappointed when I was handed the keys for a Toyota Hilux Kingcab with trayback - a 'tradies' ute in Oz! It actually proved to be boringly reliable and did not let us down once!
On arriving back at the accommodation in Hervey Bay, to capture the faces of my suprised guests, and Carolyn, would have won 1st prize in any 'startled look' competition. As I was, they too were expecting a Landrover Defender, but did not have the privalegde of first being explained to that we were instead to be given a 'bomb' to drive. The just clapped eyes on it! Once again though, our 'bomb' was a bloody relaible one!
So we made the short journey to the barge landing and crossed onto Fraser Island at lunch time and commenced our slow journey to the centre of the island and onwards to Lake Birabeen. For those who have not heard of Fraser Island, it is the worlds largest sand island. It is about 120km long and 20/30km wide and as previously mentioned, it is sand! It is covered in pristine
Lake Birabeen - Fraser Island
One of Fraser's most picturesque lakes. rain forests and has a number of fabulous 'hanging' or 'perched' lakes. These are freshwater lakes and it is basically leaf litter that forms the non-permeable base of the lake to retain the water. There are no roads on the island, only sand tracks and these are very few and far between, tend to be single tracks and are unbelievably hard to drive on with an average speed of less than 10kph being achievable. The beach on the Eastern shore is the best and quickest way to travel where you can drive at speeds of up to 80kph but only 2 hours either side of low tide and you have to watch for planes taking off and landing on the beach in front of you!
We visited Central Station, Pile Valley, Lake Birabeen, Lake Wabby and Lake McKenzie all of which were hard to get to areas within the interior of the Island. By hard to get to, you can't imagine how bad these sand tracks are. We saw 4WD's stuck fast, we saw 4WD's almost tip over and we saw 4WD's with broken drive shafts and other mechanical failures too complicated to go into. All the time, our bomb
Boggy driving conditions!
It took 30 minutes for this car to be freed, then they almost managed to side swipe us as they passed on the narrow track. The car behind then became stuck too! proved reliable as ever.
The easiest driving by far was the 60km drive from Eurong to Indian Heads, but even this took an hour and a half along the Eastern Beach. Returning from Indian Heads we took in the highlights of The Maheno Wreck and Eli Creek. Of course there are other highlights to see such as Dingo's which here on Fraser Island are Australia's purest breed as there are no dogs on the island, large spiders, lizards of all kinds and snakes but unfortunately or should I say fortunately, none of the latter were spotted.
Our time on Fraser ( 3 days ) was short lived but bloody good fun. We returned to Brisbane for Christmas.
Christmas Day was spent at our neighbours. We had a roast turkey and ham lunch followed by 3kg of prawns, 3kg of Moreton Bay bugs ( kind of a cross between a lobster and a cockroach!) and 3 dozen oysters. Oh, and heaps of wine and beer, so much so that all I can say is that we had a fabulous day and a rather quiet day on boxing day!
With a whole heap of other things to do and see we managed
The Highway!
The beach road is so much easier to drive on - driving rules apply with an 80kph speed limit but watch out for the planes! to cram in lots between the Christmas and the New Year. As Chris and Jill loves boats we went on my friends Trimaran sailing out on the bay for a day and sailed to Peel Island....a very enjoyable sail. We visited the Sunshine Coast again to go sea kayaking in the Pummicestone Passage and to have a free BBQ - a special request by Jill. ( by free BBQ, you have to bring your own food and drink, but most of the parks and beaches in Oz have electric or gas BBQ's that are free to use and cleaned daily )
We all visited Sirromet, our local winery and cellar door. Jill and Chris enjoyed wine tasting there and don't remember much else, but we found them some Kangeroos wandering amongst the vines and that went down rather well, along with the wine!
We headed down to the Gold Coast where Chris and Jill took a helicopter flight over Surfers Paradise and we spent the afternoon on the beach before heading down to Byron Bay. Byron is in New South Wales and is one hour ahead of Queensland so that is quite strange.....usually a time zone involves a flight! Byron
Domestic Airport Terminal
One of the many airport terminals on the main beach - security is very strict! is the most Easterly Point of the Australian Mainland. If there is anywhere raining on the East coast it is usually here as any moisture in the air from the ocean surface usually falls where the winds first reach land. Not on New Years Eve though. 37C and not a cloud in the sky, so much time was spent swimming as well as a walk to Cape Byron to experience a pretty special view.
We drove back to Brisbane for a dinner party on New Years Eve and once again, New Years day was a little slow, however Chris and I played golf again in the afternoon and the series was drawn by my win. This of course created another problem! Chris could not go back to the UK until we held a decider! This was held on the only rainy day that they have experienced. Still the rain stopped after the first few holes and it was still 26 degrees. A great game that came down to the last put on the last hole. Sink it to win or miss it to lose! I missed!!!
Chris and Jill are at present experiencing the delights of Sydney before flying back
Pile Valley!
Chris admiring the awesome Satinwood trees in Pile Valley. Comparing the car size to the trees gives an idea of how tall these trees are. to Brisbane today, having a lazy day tomorrow and flying back to the Uk on Friday. We are going to the Brisbane Internation Tennis Tournament tomorrow night, mens quarter finals and womens doubles semi finals so that should be great, then it is well and truely back to work and settle into the New Year.
Carolyn starts her new job on Monday, same place but now PA to the assistant director. I start more exams and assignments next week to qualify to sell Superannuation and Pensions. We are going to the Gold Coast next weekend, where Carolyn is spending the weekend with her friend Jackie while I compete in the 'surf to city' race. A yacht race from the Gold Coast to Brisbane. I think you can follow it online and we are boat No12 - 'Troika' and hope to do it in 12 hours. All the best to everyone for 2009! Matt & Caz
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