Blogs from Queensland, Australia, Oceania - page 1271

We left Townsville and went to Airlie Beach. From Airlie beach we planned to go sailing to the Whitsunday Islands. These are a group of 74 islands. Seven have resorts, the others are uninhabited. We arrived in Airlie Beach on Monday night - intending to go sailing on Tuesday. However we ended up waiting until Thursday to leave. Most of the boats go on three day trips, so you sometimes have to wait a few days to get a place on the boat you want. While waiting we went swimming in the lagoon in Airlie Beach (since there are Stingers in the Ocean). Airlie was a nice, pretty place. We saw a lot of colorful birds and also some bats. The sailing trip was excellent. We left on Thursday morning and returned on Saturday afternoon. We ... read more

Bright & early we were picked up by Nathan for our On the Wallaby Tour, we drove around Cairns picking up other day trippers & headed off down the Bruce Highway. At a petrol station Nathan saw one of friends who works for a radio station, so we ended up with a crate of Eggnog to drink, 'Hmmmm Eggy'. Our first real stop was at a creek where we were assured no saltwater crocs were lurking but we did see a few snakes swimming around. On the other side of the creek someone had assembled a rope swing & carved steps into the tree. A perfect excuse for the lads in the group to hurl themselves off it with a variety of painful landings. It was then back into the bus & off into the Atherton ... read more

I arrived in Noosa with all my washing from Fraser Island to do, so I duly went for a swim in the hostel pool, watched the wild kangaroos hopping about and decided to leave any domestic chores until the next day. Noosa Heads is a great waterside town in which to chill on the beach and hang out in the trendy restaurants/cafes (not that I went into those, given my unwashed state) or have some fun in the water. Having done quite a lot of the first already, I thought that some water-based activity might be more up my street, so I embarked on a little trip up the Everglades. Perhaps it was one campsite or National Park too many in quick succession, but I didn't enjoy this as much as the other trips I had ... read more

Hi there! Kristen and I returned from a 2 night camping trip the other day at Fraser Island, and it was absolutely amazing! When I last wrote, we were in Noosa. Nothing terribly exciting to report there. We stayed just 2 nights, it was raining on and off and pretty overcast. We spent one day walking along trails in National Park and other day on Sunshine Beach. Then we went to Hervey Bay to commence our Fraser Island tour. We spent one night at a hostel in Hervey Bay, where we met the other people we'd be camping with. Everyone was split into 5 groups of about 10. Our group consisted of myself and Kristen, Katie--a 26 year old parole officer from Germany, Anneka-- a 20 year old german girl who just finished highschool and is ... read more

Back on the road. Stuck around Cairns for quite a while (almost 2 weeks in the area), but have finally prised myself away, and flew down to Brisbane just over a week ago, intending to use the city as a base for visiting the nearby by natural features of The Great Sandy National Park, namely the everglades around Noosa and Fraser Island, the worlds largest sand island. As the name implies, there is indeed more sand than you could possibly imagine in one place, Fraser Island itself allegedly containing more than the Sahara Desert. It manages to get everywhere; vehicles, clothes, food, bodily crevaces, nothing is left free of sand. I spent 3 days on Fraser Island, a very beautiful place that i wish i had a few more days to enjoy. Along with 9 others, ... read more