Well we've been very busy traveling the east coast the past while. We had our own internet connection up until Brisbane, so from now on the blog updates won't be as frequent... I know I know you're very upset about that. Ok so our first stop after Brisbane was Australia Zoo where just myself and Marie went for the day. We said our goodbyes to Gillian for 2 weeks and caught the early bus. It's very impressive I must say, though I don't think I'd call it a zoo. It's the Steve Irwin zoo, but it's more wildlife than anything. There were tons of Koalas, and Crocodiles in particular. They also had a section dedicted to South East Asia where they housed 3 Tigers and 3 Elephants. There are numerous shows on through-out the day. Well not really shows, more you can just watch them feeding them and they'll tell you more about that particular animal etc. It's a very well run place, and all animals are there for their own good lets say, not just so they're on show to the public. They're really treated well I must say, we both agreed that. So we went to a koala show thing and saw some of the elephant feeding/washing. But the main show was the Crocodile one in the Crocoseum :) It was class, it was more him telling us the dangers of croc's rather than a show. And he fed him too, getting him to come out of the water for the meat. Oh "him" being Norman, the 25-year-old croc. Very nice chap ;-) haha yeh right! Then the highlight of the day of course was us getting to cuddle a koala and have our photo taken. Haha my life is complete!! I've always wanted to hold one of them! =D
Anyway, so we got the afternoon bus then to Noosa, which Emma had gotten so we met up with her again. Because the bus had been delayed a bit, by the time we arrived in Noosa it was already dark. First impressions though were that it's definitely a surfer town! The amount of people walking back from the beach with their surf boards was crazy. The hostel we were staying in seemed a little but out of town, so we just stayed in. It was our only night here, but sure we didn't mind staying in at all. There are 3 parts to Noosa - Noosa Heads, Noosaville and Noosa Beach. We were staying in Noosaville which is more residential and right beside the river. Next morning, we got up early, checked out and went to check out the town before we had to get our bus up to Rainbow Beach. It's a nice little town, similar enough to Byron in that it's so relaxed, but it's not as hippy as Byron. Most people come here either to surf, or to do the everglades, which is a kind of canoe safari type thing down the river. We didn't really have time to fit it in so said we'd pass. So we got to check out the main street and the beach before grabbing our bus.
Next stop was Rainbow Beach, the gateway to Fraser Island. When we arrived we met the group we'd be traveling the island with, and had our induction etc etc. There were two groups going from our hostel. In our group there were 10 - 9 Irish and 1 Canadian!! What are the odds like!! And the Irish guy was from Waterford too!! Then the other group had 7 - 3 Germans, 2 Austrians and 2 Swedes. So we had 2 4-wheel-drives between us and pretty much stayed together the whole time. We set off on Thursday morning and headed to the ferry over to the Island. There are two ways of getting to the island, either from Rainbow Beach or from Hervey Bay, but since Rainbow was first for us, we went from here. We were only on the ferry about 10 minutes and we were there. We drove on the "road" for about half an hour before reaching the beach. I use the word Road lightly, as it's the bumpiest more ridiculous road you'll ever see. It's just bump after bump the whole way. Then when you hit the beach it's kind of like a beach highway. You'll pass other campers/4-wheel-drives along the beach. Based on when the high-tides were, we had made an itinerary before leaving our hostel. So on day one, once we reached the beach we went to Lake Wabby. To get there, we had to park the cars, and walk about 40 mins over crazy sand to reach the lake. What a lake though, it was all green, but a kind of dark green, amazing to see. We swam here for a while before heading back to the car and onto our campsite. Because of the tides, we couldn't drive on the beach until about 1.30, and since it gets dark at around 5.30 we had to get camped up before the sun went down. So we chose our site to camp, along with the other group and set up for the night. It was class, pitch black, all you can hear besides yourselves is the ocean. After dinner, drinking, drinking games, and a few hours sleep, we were back up again. Like the day before you can only drive on the beach at certain times so you're restricted really. Our first stop of the day was Lake McKensie, the most fabulous lake you'll ever see. It's completely clear water, with sand surrounding it, paradise!! We stayed here a good few hours, total relaxation. After lunch I bumped into a girl I knew from home, it's crazy, it really is a small world. Once we packed up, it was a long bumpy drive back to the beach highway. Lake McKensie is inland so you're traveling on crazy dirt tracks all the way. On our way back to the beach we nearly had the car topple over at one stage, very scary I can tell you!! Apparently it's so common that cars topple over because you've so much weight on the top (tents, food, drink, bags etc etc) And a few weeks ago someone was even killed. But we survived to tell the tale :)
Next stop was the Maheno ship wreck further up on 75 mile beach. Ah it's just a really old ship that was washed up there years and years ago. Afterwards we headed to Eli Creek. It's a creek were you let the current bring you down-stream. But apparently the water is spring water so you can literally drink it! Then it was time to find our campsite for the night. This time we weren't in the middle of nowhere, we were staying in an Aboriginal land. The guy running the place, Daniel, claimed to be an Irish-Aboriginal haha! Ah he was great. Once we had finished dinner and started on the drinks he came down and taught us all how to play the digereedoo, and told us of some Aboriginal history, including some history from his own tribe.
Our last day on Fraser we had to get up seriously early, so that we could have time to drive to the top of the beach to see Indian Head and then drive all the way back to the ferry before the next high-tide. So we were up before light! We saw sunrise along the way, and then reached Indian Head. It's meant to be a great spot to see some Whales and Sharks, but unfortunately we didn't spot anything.
All in all, Fraser was so class. But I can't believe no-one had ever told us how bad it is to drive on, and how bumpy etc. So my advice to anyone reading this, if you do Fraser, be warned!!!! But you'll love it! :)
Just waiting now for the bus up to Airlie Beach. The messed up our itinerary when we were booking, so now we'll arrive at 7am tomorrow morning (an overnight bus) and we've to be on the boat for the Whitsundays by 9!!
So until next time...
Cathy x x
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