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After finally pulling ourselves away from the home comforts of sydney we headed north in to byron bay in search of warmer climes. after spending our first night back in a hostel we felt a bit out of touch especially as everyone around us just wanted to go on the piss, so we spent the next 3 nights under canvas at clarkes beach campsite. the sun came out for us as well and it was nice to spend a few days just hanging out on the beach rather than being togged upto the eyeballs!!There's also a big surf culture here and it was really cool just to watch guys getting trashed in the waves as you walked along the beach. We went a walk around the headland in search of whales and saw lots of dolphins which were at times only maybe 50metres from the cliffs which was cool, then helly said "what was that big splash?" and 30 seconds later out to sea we saw a huge humpback whale breach most of its body of the water and land with a big splash!!! it was amazing and it did it a few more times as well as spurting water out
of its blowhole. It was in fact a mother and calf and we watched them for a good half hour or more before they disapeared from view.
Another treat we found was a very nice doughnut shop that did dark chocolate filled organic doughnuts which were VERY nice and we were lucky that we left when we did!!
After some deliberation we decided to head to sufers paradise which is the party hub of the east coast, and it was amazing how starkly different it was to byron, there wee massive skyscrapers for as far as you could see along the coast which actually looked quite spectacular just because of the sheer scale of it.
We only stayed there for one full day and went to a massive water park called "WET & WILD" and it was awesome, the sun was out but wasn't that strong so we did get quite chilly which unfortunately meant we had to go and keep spending half an hour in the hot spa's :-).
From "suffering parasites" as the bus driver called it we headed further north to Noosa Heads which was a bit quieter . the hostel was quite expensive but they
also hired bodyboards and Kayaks for free so we made use of this and went for a full days paddle around the mangrove forests and further upriver to a large lake which was a national park, not only did we have to paddle upstream but on the way back we had to paddle against the tide coming in so by the time we got back we were pretty trashed but it was good to use some muscles again.
not wanting to miss the opportunity while we had it, we hired bodyboards the next day and had a real laugh getting wiped out in the surf and enjoyin the sun!!!
We'd been looking for info on a walk we'd heard of on fraser island but it's so hard to find anyone who will give you any information on anything other than 4x4 tours. so we headed to Rainbow beach (the souhern jumping point to fraser) in hope of more info, and after a bit of hunting we had all we needed. so after a day of planning and preparing,we'd fitted everything into our main bags and had enough food for 5 ays on the island.
The one problem was getting
to the starting point of the walk without paying the $100 taxi!!!!
So at 8.30 am we set off walking up the road with our thumbs set to work and by 9.30 we had got a ride to the barge jetty,payed nothing for the barge trip and were stood on the very southern tip of the island with very heavy bags and still about 30 km between us and our intended camp for the night.
We walked along the beach for two hours thumbing every 4x4 and tour bus which passed until we were finally picked up by one of the tour groups who kindly went out of his way to drop us at the start of the walk, Yessss stage one complete!!!!!
from then on we felt pretty good and although the bags were heavy we knew the problem part was out of the way so it was just down to leg power now. We trudged into camp at 2.45pm set up the tent and went to sit down by the lake before cooking dinner and being in bed by about 8pm!!
The next days walk was pretty short so we were at lake benaroon by lunchtime and spent the afternoon cooling off in the lake and sunbathing in the beautiful surroundings.It was really nice to get a feel for the island and have the time to take it in a bit.
By the third day our packs felt a lot better and it was to be our longest day so we set off early and took it steady,we even had a nice stop for a few hours at a nice secluded lake for lunch. We finally pulled into camp at 4pm and went down to the shore of the most popular lake (mckenzie) where it was still and quiet.
we took it easy the next day and had a walk around the shores of the lake which turned out to be a lot longer than it looked. All the tour groups turn up during the day so it was suddenly like being at the seaside and a long way away from the still and quiet of last night, however the joy of camping there meant we got it at its best in the mornings and evenings :-)
Our last day on the island we were walking byb 8am in order to get to kingfisher bay for the fastcat to Hervey Bay, we made good time and actually ended up waiting about 3 hs for the boat so we sat eating sausage rolls and playing cards.The boat was meant to cost $55 return but because as one of the staff said "we Would have paid to come over that means the return fares free!!" so we were soon in hervey bay and settled into a nice hostel.
We celebrated our return to civilisation and went for a nice meal last night! which pretty much sees us upto date. We'r now heading upto airlie beach tonight in order to spend some time exploring the great barrier reef!!!
Hope all are well
would be lovely to hear any news from derbyshire!!
love
Paul and helly XXXXXXXXX
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ruth
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Remembering
Hi guys, It was great to read this last blog as it was almost the same places we saw on our second visit to Oz. Hope that you are still enjoying-done any work yet? Ruth