Brisbane brings back British backpackers before beautiful beaches beckon

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01.03.06
After a good nights sleep we awoke, still unsure of our next move, whether it's to go to another farm or to start our trip oop north. So to keep our options open we emailed a farm that we fancied, so this morning we went on the internet and did a bit of food shopping while waiting for a reply.
The lady never got back, so we made the decision of heading north, so it was another trip to the train station to get a train a couple of hours away to a coastal town called Noosa, that we had been told was really pretty.
After an 1 1/2 hour wait at the trainstation, followed by a couple of trains and a bus we finally arrived in Noosa with the intention of going to our booked hostel, but as soon as we hit the hill that was between the bus station and our new home, our little legs refused to go any further so we checked into the last 2 beds in the YHA.
That day finished off with tea, a couple of phone calls to Gwilym (to give him an address so we could have our post sent up, including the book that Melissa had won) and to Melissa's dad. Before bed we had a walk along the beach, which is always nice with the sound of the waves crashing up onto the beach.

02.03.06
Today as the weather was a little unsettled we set off for a walk to the national park. We picked our route, then set off on the coastal track, this was nice but the rain started so we joined another track and headed off into the middle where we knew we would get a bit of cover from the trees.
As we were walking we were constantly looking in the trees for Koalas aka Drop Bears! This was proving to be unsuccessful until eagle eyed Andy spotted a WILD KOALA!! this was great and we spent ages looking at him looking at us, before finishing our walk and proudly boasting to the rangers hut.
After a couple of hours we were soaking wet so we headed back and had a nice hot shower and a bowl of soup (out of our ration pack that we brought with us in september) and porridge from the free food shelf.
We then relaxed as it was raining, then headed to the supermarket for supplies, then finished our day watching tv in the busy hostel's lounge area.

03.03.06
STILL RAINING!!
So we had a little lay in then watched a little tv.
We found another farm that we were interested in (a FROG farm that also looked after orphaned animals) as with this rain we were feeling unsettled.
After a boring day (which was spiced up a little by the owner of the hostel telling Melissa that a new surfwear company in Noosa called Shortstraw who were looking for models the next day and that they were paying $100 for the hard work) in the afternoon we headed to Noosa junction with a group of Swiss and Irish people to the cinema to watch a good movie called Derailed with Jennifer Aniston, who was actually good in a movie for a change.
Had our tea, a usual walk and left a message with the farm we were looking at. We also were looking at Fraser Island tours as well.

04.03.06
After checking out the various tours to Fraser Island and the Everglades we got back to the hostel for Melissa's modelling session at 2:00pm.
Whilst Melissa started her induction Andy and another guy called Richard came to watch and got asked themselves, so we were both going to be professional models for the afternoon.
It started downstairs on the balcony of the hostel, we were given different shorts and teashirts to wear whilst posing and trying to look as if we were chatting, playing cards, looking at things etc. We then headed off upstairs for more posing etc, we were loving it, David and Victoria Beckham would have been quaking in their boots, after posing down on the riverbank we headed off to the beach for more of the same.
After 3 long hard exhausting hours of posing and looking pretty amazing our modelling session ended.
The guys paid Melissa her salary of $100, and told me and Richard that we were not in the original budget, but we had done so well they would come back to the bar later that night to pay us our dosh. Needless to say we were there to meet them prompt!
Oh and get this! We went to a shop, browsing at bracelets, Melissa found one she liked for $5, she proceeded to the counter with her new buy, to be meeted by the cashier who told us she could have it for free!! WICKED
Later that night we had a long walk to check out another hostel in the neighbouring Noosaville that we heard was nice and maybe we may get a double room for only $2 more than that we were paying at the YHA. We then had an amazingly long walk to Noosa Junction (all the places here start with Noosa!, there is also a Noosa Sound and Noosa Heads, where the YHA is) for a well earnt chinese meal and some drinks in an Irish bar (we had a nice night).

05.03.06
Today we checked out of the YHA and into a double room at the Noosa Backpackers resort, which is nice.
We got settled in, then got the bus to the neighbouring town of Tewantin to check out the market on the harbour which was nice.
After a long walk back and a courtesy bus from the hostel, we had a 241 icecream and 20 minutes on the beach before it rained!
After a walk round the shops, we had a nice tea, rung home and a couple of beers.

06.03.06
THE SUN IS SHINING!!!!!AND WE HAVE BOOKED OUR FRASER ISLAND TOUR. Things are looking up.
We have booked a guided tour with a firm called Trailblazers that we have heard lots of good things about. We have also booked a tour to the everglades in the Cooloola national park and only 1 of 2 everglades in the world (the other is in the USA) so we have lots of good things coming up. We got a combined deal with Travelbugs after shopping about at a couple of tour offices (the other called Peter Pan). For the fraser tour it was costing $279 and the everglades was costing $107 (compared with $139 at Peter pan) plus we got a free night at a bush camp in the national park, a discounted night at our hostel and 20 hours of internet free, so we think we did ok.(with the backpacking scene everthing is not as it seems, because we are travelling everyone assumes you have got money so it is a case of trying to get ripped off as least as possible)
After booking our tour we went for a walk round the shops and bought a new travel journel as you may well be aware we are keeping a good record of our travels.
We then spent another 20 minutes on the beach before it rained, where Andy built himself a boat made out of sand (trying to relive his youth). After it was complete, an Australian family came along and their two children found the boat great fun KICKING IT IN!! All my hard work down the swanny.But it was nice to see their little faces light up whilst in the process.
On our way to Woolworths (it is a supermarket here) we saw the photographer who gave us a cd of our modelling day.

07.03.06
As we were waiting for our tours to start we spend most of the time chilling out and looking in the shops (women eh!) So we apologise if the blogs are boring.
So today we went to the beach via the clothes shops where Melissa bought a new dress and a couple of vest tops with her christmas money.
On the beach the annual surf festival had kicked off so we hung about and watched a new style of dancing called "Surf dancing" on the beach and even managed to get ourselves up to the free bbq for a nice bit of tucker.

Can I (Andy) tell you something that really annoys me about travelling? EVERYONE TALKS ABOUT TRAVELLING!! it is so boring. When you are sat around anywhere around travellers you can predict what anyone says in their conversation and I am going to tell you what these are.

*How long have you been travelling ?
*How long have you got left ?
*Where do you go next ?
*Where have you been so far ?
*Are you going up the coast ?
*Are you going down the coast ?
*Have you done Fraser Island ?
*Are you going to Fraser Island ?
*Have you done the Whitsundays ?
*Are you going to the Whitsundays ?

BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH !! I hope you catch my drift, so if anyone out there who reads this can tell me something interesting from back home so I can pass this on to fellow travellers maybe they might be able to talk about something interesting for a change.

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Photos

David and Victoria Beckham
Ah ah ah Fooled you all!!Its Andy and Mel silly.

The multi talented Andy
Now trying his hand at boat building

FINISHED !
Off to Fraser Island we go.

Pelican
It went from one side of the river to the other so I guess it was A PELICAN CROSSING ah ah ah ah

Comments

[richard]

fellow model
just looking at noosa for a future a trip and i see a picture of myself! great blog! i think about what i say in the future.