We arrived in Sydney on Thursday and caught up with my aunt and uncle that night. We had to break the news to them we would be leaving Australia as soon as we could sell the van. They were quite disappointed because they really wanted us to love Australia as much as they love it, and they wanted us to see as much of it as possible, but they understood how expensive it was to travel there. On Saturday we would be celebrating my uncle’s 50th birthday party and there would be 100 people attending. There were people flying in from all around Australia for the party so we weren’t able to stay with my aunt and uncle but my uncle’s parents were kind enough to take us in. We had a blast staying with them for 5 days. They are in their “golden” years but nothing is slowing them down. They are very entertaining to talk to as it’s wonderful to hear their stories from when they are younger, but they are also very easy to live with. They never made us to feel like we were in the way and made us feel very much at home.
Friday, before the party, we arrived at the banquet hall to help decorate. We blew up at least 500 balloons, but in the end it was worth it because it really changed the way the hall looked. Saturday night was a like a wedding! It was amazing to see so many people come out for my uncle’s birthday. It was a night of great food, speeches and of course dancing. My aunt and uncle love to dance so no one was getting away without bustin’ a move. The next day we all stayed in bed most of the day. It was a very relaxing day at my uncle’s parents house as we didn’t feel the pressure to get out of bed at all as they also stayed in bed or napped on the couch while watching TV.
On Monday we spent the day at King’s Cross trying to sell our car. King’s Cross is where everyone goes to sell their camper vans. The only trick is you can only park for 1 hour before you have to move your car, so every so often you see a whole bunch of vans cruising around looking for a parking spot. You know parking control has come by when everyone all of a sudden gets into their vans and starts moving them around. It’s also easier that way because then you’re really only swapping spots with someone else. The parking control guys are pretty cool as they said as long as we move to another spot, they don’t mind us hanging around there. The business owners are a different story. They hate backpackers and we had them threaten us with getting towed, telling us we’re not allowed to sell our car on the street (not true, all we were doing was parking and hanging out for sale signs on our windows which is not illegal) and even going so far as to take pictures of us, although we’re not sure what that was supposed to achieve. Standing around at King’s Cross felt like a waste of time. Since it was low season, there weren’t that many backpackers looking to buy vans, and those who were, were looking at spending no more than $2000. The only benefit we had was that we had a very nice & clean van and everyone who saw it said we would have no problem selling it. The only problem no one was willing to spend the money!
We moved back in with my aunt and uncle on Tuesday. Our goal was to sell our car as fast as possible and leave Australia as it was costing us a small fortune to stay there. Andrew had made some contacts while we were in Sydney last time and on Wednesday he was back at work. On Thursday I went to Adecco to see if they had any temporary jobs and I was at work on Friday morning. The following week we were still concentrating on selling the car while working. Andrew had posted the car online and although we had a few people interested and make offers, they all ultimately fell through. This was taking a serious toll on Andrew. He was so worried the car wouldn’t sell he wasn’t sleeping at night and then he had to be up early for work. I was actually quite worried about him and tried to calm his fears by telling him I was confident the car would sell, which I was. In the end I was right because the car sold that week and it was like a weight was lifted off our shoulders. We were able to start planning our trip to New Zealand. We booked our flight to Auckland, but right after that the Volcano in South America erupted and the ash cloud had disrupted flights in the southern hemisphere. The day before our flight, we received a call that our flight was cancelled. We started making inquiries and found out Air New Zealand was flying below the ash cloud and were able to book a flight to Auckland for the next day for only $100 more.
That night we said goodbye to my uncle, as he was working the next day and wouldn’t see us before our flight. It was an emotional goodbye as we had grown quite close to them over the 5 months we had spent in Australia. The next day my aunt drove us to the airport and we said goodbye. We know that wasn’t the last time we will see each other. We checked in without any problems, we said goodbye to Australia and we were off to New Zealand to see my friend Tara.
Overall we spent 5 months in Australia and it’s hard to capture everything that happened during that time in along with what we thought of Australia. If I had to summarize our experience in Australia I would say it’s very similar to Canada in the culture as well as some of the scenery. We only saw ¼ of what we wanted to see in Australia, so it’s hard to say we have a complete picture. Of course the beaches are stunning and it would be hard to compare them with any other part of the world, but once we got away from the coast, the scenery really was similar to Canada. We found the public facilities to be very tourist oriented. The free swimming pools/lagoons, free (clean) public toilets, free showers and free BBQ’s are what make the travel experience very easy and enjoyable. Underwater the marine life was stunning. Although we had already seen a lot of the marine life in other parts of the world, the size is what’s really stunning. Because the Great Barrier Reef is a protected marine park, the fish are able to grow to their full size and they are huge. It’s a very surreal experience swimming with such large fish. The main part we struggled with was the cost of everything. Although a lot of the high costs of food were associated with the floods Australia had experienced this summer, other costs were completely unrelated to the floods. It’s easy to justify some of the costs with the fact that Australia is a large island and thus everything that is not made here needs to be imported from very far away, it does make it very difficult to travel on a budget. A quirky “phenomenon” we witnessed was people walking barefoot…EVERYWHERE! One of the grossest was public bathrooms. And in all types of weather. It was hard to watch during the days when it was only 15 degrees Celsius outside and raining, but particularly hard when it was 15 degrees and raining and the person with no shoes on was a 5 year old and her parents were wearing nice warm UGGS. Which brings me to my last point…UGGS are cheaper than in Canada but not cheap enough for me to buy them and lug them around New Zealand, Asia and wherever else we might go. $180 is still a lot to pay for shoes I can get for the same price in the U.S.
I am thrilled to have visited Australia and fulfill my lifelong dream and I know I will be back as there’s still a lot more to see. But more than that, visiting Australia allowed me to meet family I didn’t know that well before, but also to learn a lot about my family history. So I guess you can say I discovered a lot more than just Australia.
Showing posts with label Australia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Australia. Show all posts
Thursday, July 21, 2011
Newcastle & Hunter Valley
Next stop was Newcastle. We had a couple more days before we needed to be back in Sydney and I wanted to stop in Hunter Valley to do some wine tastings. Newcastle was the closest large town to Hunter Valley. We arrived in Newcastle in the evening amongst reports of heavy rains and possible flooding in some areas of NSW. The sea was really rough as once we were already in Newcastle and driving along the beach road, the waves were crashing onto the street. We had dinner at a small Indian takeout restaurant and found a place to sleep in a residential street on a hill in case of any flooding. The next morning we had a very hard time finding a public toilet. Everything was closed and we couldn’t find a McDonald’s and after driving around for 30 minutes we found a shopping mall that was just opening up and we were able to use the toilets there.
We did some shopping for food at Woolies and had breakfast at a park overlooking the water. Newcastle is actually a pretty nice town. It reminds you a little bit of Hamilton as a lot of large cargo ships come in there, but the layout of the town, which is spread over a few hills, combined with some historical architecture give it a very pleasant look and feel. After breakfast we left Newcastle and made our way out to Hunter Valley. Unfortunately we had missed the 11am winery tour of Whyndam Estates so we went to McGuigan Winery, a wine I was introduced to at one of the many dinners we had been to with my aunt and uncle. At McGuigan we found out that wine tastings are free! You can sample up to 6 wines for free! Andrew and I had a great time tasting the wines and we found a wine which we loved. Unfortunately it is only available at the winery itself and you cannot buy it anywhere else nor can you import it. The other unfortunate part is that I can’t remember what it’s called. We ended up buying two bottles but after we drank them once back in Sydney, we didn’t think to write down the name! From McGuigan we went to the Lindemans winery but we found them to be a little snobby. It turns out Lindemans doesn’t actually grow their grapes in Hunter Valley, but in Southern Australia, and the winery we visited is only there for them to have a presence in NSW.
While at McGuigan we found out we had missed their wine tour as we were too late but they had told us Tyrrell’s Winery was having a tour at 1pm we could attend. So we did just that. We found Tyrrell to give the largest samples of wines with full glasses. I was pretty drunk and actually started refusing wine by the time it was tour time. The tour lasted around an hour and it was very interesting to find out how the wine was made and bottled. After touring the winery we decided it was time to head south. We would reach Sydney that night.
We did some shopping for food at Woolies and had breakfast at a park overlooking the water. Newcastle is actually a pretty nice town. It reminds you a little bit of Hamilton as a lot of large cargo ships come in there, but the layout of the town, which is spread over a few hills, combined with some historical architecture give it a very pleasant look and feel. After breakfast we left Newcastle and made our way out to Hunter Valley. Unfortunately we had missed the 11am winery tour of Whyndam Estates so we went to McGuigan Winery, a wine I was introduced to at one of the many dinners we had been to with my aunt and uncle. At McGuigan we found out that wine tastings are free! You can sample up to 6 wines for free! Andrew and I had a great time tasting the wines and we found a wine which we loved. Unfortunately it is only available at the winery itself and you cannot buy it anywhere else nor can you import it. The other unfortunate part is that I can’t remember what it’s called. We ended up buying two bottles but after we drank them once back in Sydney, we didn’t think to write down the name! From McGuigan we went to the Lindemans winery but we found them to be a little snobby. It turns out Lindemans doesn’t actually grow their grapes in Hunter Valley, but in Southern Australia, and the winery we visited is only there for them to have a presence in NSW.
While at McGuigan we found out we had missed their wine tour as we were too late but they had told us Tyrrell’s Winery was having a tour at 1pm we could attend. So we did just that. We found Tyrrell to give the largest samples of wines with full glasses. I was pretty drunk and actually started refusing wine by the time it was tour time. The tour lasted around an hour and it was very interesting to find out how the wine was made and bottled. After touring the winery we decided it was time to head south. We would reach Sydney that night.
Cairns
On the way to Cairns we slept at a couple of free rest stops. Upon our arrival in Cairns we learned of the poor water condition out in the ocean. The weather in Cairns wasn’t the best either but it was much much warmer than it had been in the Whitsundays. Unfortunately it was raining. Cairns itself is a small town, so it didn’t take us very long to explore it. That night we slept in an industrial area in between two trailers. We decided to put off the diving in Cairns and to head up to Port Douglas and wait for the diving conditions to improve. We drove up to Port Douglas and the scenery to get there was beautiful. We were driving right along the water’s edge and the road was curvy, just like Andrew likes it. The scenery is beautiful and there aren’t a lot of people in this area so it feels very remote. Port Douglas is a very small town so there isn’t much to do. We parked the van and walked up and down main street. Since we are on a tight budget we couldn’t really eat in any of the restaurants so we bought some food and made it in our van. We weren’t sure where we were going to sleep that night but we saw a few camper vans parked in a parking lot at the end of main street. We talked to some of the people in the vans if the cops would give us a hard time for camping there and they all said they didn’t know. So we decided to camp there too. If the police would be handing out tickets at least we wouldn’t be alone in receiving one. That night we plugged in the laptop and watched a movie.
The next morning, after eating breakfast and using the free public washrooms, we left to drive further up the coast to Cape Tribulation. This drive proved to be even more beautiful as this area is known as “where the rainforest meets the sea”. The mountains and forests literally come down right to the waters edge. The drive was beautiful with views of the ocean and stunning deserted beaches. We arrived at Cape Tribulation after a few hours of driving, and quickly learned this was barely a town. It’s more like a convenience store and an information booth all in one. And they’re both run by the same lady. She literally sits in between two counters and depending on which door you come through, she swivels in her chair to help you. It was funny for me because when we arrived I didn’t realize it was the same lady who operates both the store and the info booth, so when we walked in to the info booth and spent a few minutes talking to her about what to do in the area, we then asked her if there was a better and bigger store in the area. She said there was one more store up the road but it was the same size as this one. So we left info booth and went around to the entrance to the store. It was only after we walked in that I realized that it was the same lady who owns/runs them.
We found out there was nowhere we could camp for free in the area but we found a park where you could camp for $5 per person, but you had to call ahead to make a reservation. Unfortunately we didn’t have cell phone reception but we were able to use the pay phone at the info booth and make a reservation for that night. Then we went for a walk along the creek. We were looking for crocs! This was definitely croc country but they aren’t as easy to come across as you would think. Of course it’s dangerous to go into water, especially murky water, because there could be a croc there (and as we found out at the Australia Zoo due to the way their scales are located on their backs, crocs don’t make any ripples while swimming underwater). As we were walking around the waters edge looking for a croc, there were a couple of French guys looking for crocs too, but they had actually seen one the day before. After walking and looking in the water (without getting too close to the water as that’s when you’re the most vulnerable) the French guys thought they spotted a croc in the water. Or more accurately, croc eyes peeking out just above the water. Unfortunately there was no way to get close enough to confirm if this was in fact a croc or if it was just a log. Andrew took a picture and then zoomed in and we were fairly certain it was a croc but not 100%. We continued out walking out to the beach where it was low tide but we didn’t come across any more crocs. We headed back to the car and made our way to our camping spot where we had dinner, watched a movie on the laptop and went to sleep.
The next day, after we had some breakfast we decided to drive even further north to see how far we could get. We knew we wouldn’t get too far as after a certain point the road turns into a dirt track and you need a 4x4 to keep going. I felt like Kramer from the Sinefeld episode where he goes to test drive a car with the car salesmen and keep driving to see how far they can get until the gas runs out. It’s very anticlimactic. We drove until we got to Emagen. On the map it’s a listed as a town but in reality it’s only a creek that runs across the track and separates the drivable road from the non-drivable road. You arrive there and all you see is the creek and a sign that says you need a 4x4 from this point on. We really only had one option which is to turn right back to where we came from. As I said, very anticlimactic. Before we left however, we had to search for crocs. Andrew had become obsessed with seeing a croc in the wild. There was a large sign advising us to be careful as we were in croc country, which to Andrew translated into “Go into the bush here! You will find what you’re looking for”. We were walking along the “track” until we reached the rocky beach and I was very happy that we didn’t see any crocs. We walked back to the car and headed back to Cape Tribulation. Since we were in a rainforest and 3000km north of Sydney, it was much more humid here. Andrew’s determination knows no bounds so we went for another walk along the creek to see if we could spot a croc. We came across a couple an Aussie girl who was fishing in the creek and she showed us the croc sunning itself on the other side of the creek. Apparently it had been there for a few hours and she had been worried the croc might at anytime cross the creek and attack her. I thought it wasn’t that close that she wouldn’t be able to run away but in reality crocs are extremely fast in water and it was right near the water’s edge so it was somewhat realistic. The good news was that we were able to get a few good photos of the croc and satisfy Andrew’s need to see a croc in the wild.
We started our drive back to Cairns but made a few stops along the way to do a few walking trails. It was extremely humid and as soon as we stepped out of the car we were all sticky. This called for an ice cream stop. There was a small café along the way that made their own ice cream in various flavors. I had chocolate hazelnut while Andrew tried their Guiness flavoured ice cream. I thought beer flavored ice cream would be disgusting but it turned out to be quite good. It wasn’t sweet but it had a nice refreshing taste.
The weather out on the water wasn’t improving very much so we decided to go to the Atherton Tablelands. We had planned to visit that area on the way out of Cairns but we had some time before the weather would improve so we decided to do it right away. The Atherton Tablelands is an area West of Cairns up in the mountains. It’s a very popular spot in the summer as when Cairns get very hot and humid, it’s a great escape as it’s a lot cooler in the mountains. It’s also the case in the winter. While Cairns was warm and pleasant, as we drove higher into the mountains it became cloudier, cooler and rainy. The stunning views made up for the poor weather though. The views were of gentle rolling hills and a lot of greenery. We found a camp area that was a memorial park for WW2 soldiers and you could camp there for free if you made a donation for the upkeep of the park. There were toilets with cold water there so we could brush our teeth but not much else. Also the camp area was nothing fancy as it was just a grassy field, but it was more than sufficient for what we needed. We were able to find a day park, in the camping book we had bought, that had free hot showers. We made use of those showers a few times over the next few days. This is what I really love about Australia! It’s very easy to travel as it’s well prepared for road travelers. It’s quite easy to find free showers and toilets if you know where to look.
We took a few hikes around the area and we also drove around to see some waterfalls by following the waterfall trail. One night while we were getting ready to go to sleep we went to use the toilet. When I came back all the lights in the car were off and I was climbing back into the car, I hit my eye right on the edge of the top bunk in our car. The beds in the car are made from wood and plywood with mattresses on top. We had taken the mattress off the top bunk as we didn’t use it and this way we didn’t have the mattress slipping around while we were driving. It hurt like hell because I was not expecting anything to come right at my face in the dark so I hit it with all my force. I also hit my myself right in my eye so at first I was scared I had done something to my eye. I called out to Andrew, who was coming back at this point, that I hit myself. He wasn’t too concerned as I tend to hit myself quite frequently but I started crying and told him “No, I really hit myself”. He came right over but I wouldn’t take my hand off my eye because I was too scared. After he finally pried it off we were able to determine my eye ball was still intact but there was some damage right by my eye and there could potentially be some swelling. We didn’t have anything cold because we didn’t have a fridge in the car so the only thing we could think of was to drive to McDonald’s 20km away to get some ice. Unfortunately since it was already midnight and we were in a very small town, McDonald’s was already closed. So the next best thing was to go to a bar and ask for some ice. I don’t know how Andrew got out of that bar without having to explain himself further after he told the bartender he needed some ice because his wife had hurt herself. A little suspicious. I spent the next hour with freezing ice on my face but at least we were able to tone down the swelling. The next morning my eye was a little swollen but it wasn’t that noticeable. Luckily my eye didn’t turn blue so I didn’t have to walk around in sunglasses but I did have a scratch right in the corner of my eye.
After a few days spent in the Atherton Tablelands we went back to Cairns. Finally the weather had improved out on the water so we booked our dive trip. Andrew hadn’t cut his hair since we had left Canada so we decided it was time for a cut. We found a hair school that was willing to cut Andrew’s hair $10. We asked them to cut his hair into a “fauxhawk” which we thought would be an easy enough request. 2 hours and 4 hairdressers later we were done. It was a very intense experience. Andrew felt so bad for the girls he left them a $10 tip. That night we went to the Casino and I won $5! It doesn’t sound like much (and it’s even less in Australia) but it paid for a cup of coffee the next day.
The next day we went diving on the Great Barrier Reef. We completed 3 dives each. Even though it was hot in the city, once we got out onto the water the wind was quite chilly. The winds were around 12 knots, which is not very much, but it was interesting to see the amount of people who were getting sea sick. During one of our dives we were able to swim with a turtle. It was a highlight because this turtle was not shy at all and he would swim right up to us. Another highlight of the dive trip was the helicopter rescue we watched from a dive boat next to us. While we were putting our gear on we heard the chopper approaching. At first you’re not sure what you’re hearing because you’re in the middle of the ocean, but then we saw the chopper appear. It was crazy to watch 2 guys descend down a line onto the boat. Apparently it’s a very dangerous procedure. We thought it might have been a diver that was getting rescued but later we found out it was a staff member suffering from appendicitis who needed to be rescued. We had such a great time diving we decided to do it again the next day. We really liked the company we had gone diving with, mainly because we didn’t feel like we were treated like children whose hands needed to be held. We didn’t want to go diving in the same spot again so we decided to drive back to Port Douglas and dive the Agincourt reef, which is also part of the Great Barrier Reef. We drove up the night before and slept in the parking lot again. We met a couple of British guys at the marina who were fishing for shark. It was entertaining watching them because they didn’t even have fishing poles. All they had was a thick fishing line and they were hoping to pull out a small shark with it. I gave up on watching them and went to sleep but Andrew stayed with them for a while longer. The next day we went diving and again had a great time, although nothing as exciting as the chopper rescue occurred.
We decided it was time to head back to Sydney and ultimately leave Australia. It was a hard decision as we had only seen ¼ of the country, but we had spent all the money we had made over a period of 2 months in less than a month. In addition, my uncle’s 50th birthday was coming up on June 4th and he was having a large party and we definitely wanted to be there. We had about a week to drive back to Sydney, and on the way we wanted to stop in Gold Coast again as our friend Kasia from Canada was visiting a friend there. Before we got to Gold Coast we drove through Mackay. We definitely couldn’t stay overnight as we had to get to the Gold Coast by a certain day. However we did stop in Mackay to buy some wine (we found the best prices of alcohol in Mackay) and we decided to give my aunt’s husband, Chris, a call to see if he was perhaps in Mackay on business. We gave him a call and it turned out he had just landed in Mackay. The three of us went out for a nice Thai dinner but too soon we had to get going. We wanted to reach the Gold Coast the next day. We didn’t reach Gold Coast until a couple days later but we were thrilled to see Kasia. It had been around 6 or 7 years since we had seen each other so we had a lot of catching up to do. Life had gotten in the way of staying in touch so it was great that we were thousands of kilometers away from home and we could meet.
The next morning, after eating breakfast and using the free public washrooms, we left to drive further up the coast to Cape Tribulation. This drive proved to be even more beautiful as this area is known as “where the rainforest meets the sea”. The mountains and forests literally come down right to the waters edge. The drive was beautiful with views of the ocean and stunning deserted beaches. We arrived at Cape Tribulation after a few hours of driving, and quickly learned this was barely a town. It’s more like a convenience store and an information booth all in one. And they’re both run by the same lady. She literally sits in between two counters and depending on which door you come through, she swivels in her chair to help you. It was funny for me because when we arrived I didn’t realize it was the same lady who operates both the store and the info booth, so when we walked in to the info booth and spent a few minutes talking to her about what to do in the area, we then asked her if there was a better and bigger store in the area. She said there was one more store up the road but it was the same size as this one. So we left info booth and went around to the entrance to the store. It was only after we walked in that I realized that it was the same lady who owns/runs them.
We found out there was nowhere we could camp for free in the area but we found a park where you could camp for $5 per person, but you had to call ahead to make a reservation. Unfortunately we didn’t have cell phone reception but we were able to use the pay phone at the info booth and make a reservation for that night. Then we went for a walk along the creek. We were looking for crocs! This was definitely croc country but they aren’t as easy to come across as you would think. Of course it’s dangerous to go into water, especially murky water, because there could be a croc there (and as we found out at the Australia Zoo due to the way their scales are located on their backs, crocs don’t make any ripples while swimming underwater). As we were walking around the waters edge looking for a croc, there were a couple of French guys looking for crocs too, but they had actually seen one the day before. After walking and looking in the water (without getting too close to the water as that’s when you’re the most vulnerable) the French guys thought they spotted a croc in the water. Or more accurately, croc eyes peeking out just above the water. Unfortunately there was no way to get close enough to confirm if this was in fact a croc or if it was just a log. Andrew took a picture and then zoomed in and we were fairly certain it was a croc but not 100%. We continued out walking out to the beach where it was low tide but we didn’t come across any more crocs. We headed back to the car and made our way to our camping spot where we had dinner, watched a movie on the laptop and went to sleep.
The next day, after we had some breakfast we decided to drive even further north to see how far we could get. We knew we wouldn’t get too far as after a certain point the road turns into a dirt track and you need a 4x4 to keep going. I felt like Kramer from the Sinefeld episode where he goes to test drive a car with the car salesmen and keep driving to see how far they can get until the gas runs out. It’s very anticlimactic. We drove until we got to Emagen. On the map it’s a listed as a town but in reality it’s only a creek that runs across the track and separates the drivable road from the non-drivable road. You arrive there and all you see is the creek and a sign that says you need a 4x4 from this point on. We really only had one option which is to turn right back to where we came from. As I said, very anticlimactic. Before we left however, we had to search for crocs. Andrew had become obsessed with seeing a croc in the wild. There was a large sign advising us to be careful as we were in croc country, which to Andrew translated into “Go into the bush here! You will find what you’re looking for”. We were walking along the “track” until we reached the rocky beach and I was very happy that we didn’t see any crocs. We walked back to the car and headed back to Cape Tribulation. Since we were in a rainforest and 3000km north of Sydney, it was much more humid here. Andrew’s determination knows no bounds so we went for another walk along the creek to see if we could spot a croc. We came across a couple an Aussie girl who was fishing in the creek and she showed us the croc sunning itself on the other side of the creek. Apparently it had been there for a few hours and she had been worried the croc might at anytime cross the creek and attack her. I thought it wasn’t that close that she wouldn’t be able to run away but in reality crocs are extremely fast in water and it was right near the water’s edge so it was somewhat realistic. The good news was that we were able to get a few good photos of the croc and satisfy Andrew’s need to see a croc in the wild.
We started our drive back to Cairns but made a few stops along the way to do a few walking trails. It was extremely humid and as soon as we stepped out of the car we were all sticky. This called for an ice cream stop. There was a small café along the way that made their own ice cream in various flavors. I had chocolate hazelnut while Andrew tried their Guiness flavoured ice cream. I thought beer flavored ice cream would be disgusting but it turned out to be quite good. It wasn’t sweet but it had a nice refreshing taste.
The weather out on the water wasn’t improving very much so we decided to go to the Atherton Tablelands. We had planned to visit that area on the way out of Cairns but we had some time before the weather would improve so we decided to do it right away. The Atherton Tablelands is an area West of Cairns up in the mountains. It’s a very popular spot in the summer as when Cairns get very hot and humid, it’s a great escape as it’s a lot cooler in the mountains. It’s also the case in the winter. While Cairns was warm and pleasant, as we drove higher into the mountains it became cloudier, cooler and rainy. The stunning views made up for the poor weather though. The views were of gentle rolling hills and a lot of greenery. We found a camp area that was a memorial park for WW2 soldiers and you could camp there for free if you made a donation for the upkeep of the park. There were toilets with cold water there so we could brush our teeth but not much else. Also the camp area was nothing fancy as it was just a grassy field, but it was more than sufficient for what we needed. We were able to find a day park, in the camping book we had bought, that had free hot showers. We made use of those showers a few times over the next few days. This is what I really love about Australia! It’s very easy to travel as it’s well prepared for road travelers. It’s quite easy to find free showers and toilets if you know where to look.
We took a few hikes around the area and we also drove around to see some waterfalls by following the waterfall trail. One night while we were getting ready to go to sleep we went to use the toilet. When I came back all the lights in the car were off and I was climbing back into the car, I hit my eye right on the edge of the top bunk in our car. The beds in the car are made from wood and plywood with mattresses on top. We had taken the mattress off the top bunk as we didn’t use it and this way we didn’t have the mattress slipping around while we were driving. It hurt like hell because I was not expecting anything to come right at my face in the dark so I hit it with all my force. I also hit my myself right in my eye so at first I was scared I had done something to my eye. I called out to Andrew, who was coming back at this point, that I hit myself. He wasn’t too concerned as I tend to hit myself quite frequently but I started crying and told him “No, I really hit myself”. He came right over but I wouldn’t take my hand off my eye because I was too scared. After he finally pried it off we were able to determine my eye ball was still intact but there was some damage right by my eye and there could potentially be some swelling. We didn’t have anything cold because we didn’t have a fridge in the car so the only thing we could think of was to drive to McDonald’s 20km away to get some ice. Unfortunately since it was already midnight and we were in a very small town, McDonald’s was already closed. So the next best thing was to go to a bar and ask for some ice. I don’t know how Andrew got out of that bar without having to explain himself further after he told the bartender he needed some ice because his wife had hurt herself. A little suspicious. I spent the next hour with freezing ice on my face but at least we were able to tone down the swelling. The next morning my eye was a little swollen but it wasn’t that noticeable. Luckily my eye didn’t turn blue so I didn’t have to walk around in sunglasses but I did have a scratch right in the corner of my eye.
After a few days spent in the Atherton Tablelands we went back to Cairns. Finally the weather had improved out on the water so we booked our dive trip. Andrew hadn’t cut his hair since we had left Canada so we decided it was time for a cut. We found a hair school that was willing to cut Andrew’s hair $10. We asked them to cut his hair into a “fauxhawk” which we thought would be an easy enough request. 2 hours and 4 hairdressers later we were done. It was a very intense experience. Andrew felt so bad for the girls he left them a $10 tip. That night we went to the Casino and I won $5! It doesn’t sound like much (and it’s even less in Australia) but it paid for a cup of coffee the next day.
The next day we went diving on the Great Barrier Reef. We completed 3 dives each. Even though it was hot in the city, once we got out onto the water the wind was quite chilly. The winds were around 12 knots, which is not very much, but it was interesting to see the amount of people who were getting sea sick. During one of our dives we were able to swim with a turtle. It was a highlight because this turtle was not shy at all and he would swim right up to us. Another highlight of the dive trip was the helicopter rescue we watched from a dive boat next to us. While we were putting our gear on we heard the chopper approaching. At first you’re not sure what you’re hearing because you’re in the middle of the ocean, but then we saw the chopper appear. It was crazy to watch 2 guys descend down a line onto the boat. Apparently it’s a very dangerous procedure. We thought it might have been a diver that was getting rescued but later we found out it was a staff member suffering from appendicitis who needed to be rescued. We had such a great time diving we decided to do it again the next day. We really liked the company we had gone diving with, mainly because we didn’t feel like we were treated like children whose hands needed to be held. We didn’t want to go diving in the same spot again so we decided to drive back to Port Douglas and dive the Agincourt reef, which is also part of the Great Barrier Reef. We drove up the night before and slept in the parking lot again. We met a couple of British guys at the marina who were fishing for shark. It was entertaining watching them because they didn’t even have fishing poles. All they had was a thick fishing line and they were hoping to pull out a small shark with it. I gave up on watching them and went to sleep but Andrew stayed with them for a while longer. The next day we went diving and again had a great time, although nothing as exciting as the chopper rescue occurred.
We decided it was time to head back to Sydney and ultimately leave Australia. It was a hard decision as we had only seen ¼ of the country, but we had spent all the money we had made over a period of 2 months in less than a month. In addition, my uncle’s 50th birthday was coming up on June 4th and he was having a large party and we definitely wanted to be there. We had about a week to drive back to Sydney, and on the way we wanted to stop in Gold Coast again as our friend Kasia from Canada was visiting a friend there. Before we got to Gold Coast we drove through Mackay. We definitely couldn’t stay overnight as we had to get to the Gold Coast by a certain day. However we did stop in Mackay to buy some wine (we found the best prices of alcohol in Mackay) and we decided to give my aunt’s husband, Chris, a call to see if he was perhaps in Mackay on business. We gave him a call and it turned out he had just landed in Mackay. The three of us went out for a nice Thai dinner but too soon we had to get going. We wanted to reach the Gold Coast the next day. We didn’t reach Gold Coast until a couple days later but we were thrilled to see Kasia. It had been around 6 or 7 years since we had seen each other so we had a lot of catching up to do. Life had gotten in the way of staying in touch so it was great that we were thousands of kilometers away from home and we could meet.
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Mackay, QLD
After leaving Agnes Water we were heading towards Mackay. Since we had left late we knew we wouldn’t make it that day so we took our time and slept at a rest stop on the highway. At the rest stop we turned on our laptop, plugged in the portable speakers we had bought in Thailand and watched a movie.
My family owns a condo building in Mackay where they rent out the units. We called my aunt’s husband, who owns the building, and asked if there was any way we could stay there. He made a call to the people managing the building and even though the building was fully rented out he was able to get us an apartment for the night. The catch was the apartment was under renovations so it wasn’t 100% finished. We weren’t too worried since we had been sleeping in a car for the past few weeks.
We arrived in Mackay around mid-day but since the apartment was under renovations we couldn’t check in right away. We walked around the town a bit and did some grocery shopping for the evening. While we were walking around a park near the building, a man approached us and said he was with the local newspaper. He wanted to know if could take some photos of us using the exercise equipment in the park for a story. We said sure and gave him our names. While Andrew was posing with the various equipment I was cheering him on. He told us we would be in the next day’s edition of the Daily Mercury. And that is how we made it into an Australian newspaper. When we were able to check in we were stunned. We would be staying in a two storey penthouse apartment with a hot tub on the top deck. With the exception of the two spare bedrooms the apartment was mostly finished. Unfortunately the hot tub was not yet in working order. It didn’t faze us. We had stunning views, a large kitchen we could cook in and a TV! This was luxury. We spent the night cooking and watching TV. Oh how we missed “normal” life! The next day we checked out and were again on the move north, but not before purchasing a copy of the Daily Mercury.
Here's a link to the article:
http://www.dailymercury.com.au/story/2011/05/12/new-look-caneland-park-opens/
Castaway (somewhere in Australia)
We had heard the plane had broken down a couple of days prior to our arrival and a lot of the trips to castaway were cancelled, but when we arrived at Tribal Travel the next day we found out ours had not been cancelled as the plane had been fixed. Anne was trying to get in on Castaway at the last minute, and for a bit it looked hopeful as one girl was not feeling well and wanted to cancel, but in the end she felt better and decided to go so Anne wasn’t able to join us.
Unfortunately we found out Andrew and I were booked on separate flights. He would be going on the 2pm flight while I was to go on the 2:30pm flight. At 1:30pm the wife of the pilot came to pick him and 3 other people up, and I had to wait for my turn. As I was sitting there friends from Fraser Island, Melissa and Fabian, were coming back from their surf lesson so I killed some time by chatting with them. The freaky part was, as I was talking to them, I saw Phil, the guys we had met at the rest stop before going to the Australia Zoo, walk by. He was looking straight at me and I’m sure it was just a coincidence but it completely creeped me out. He was looking at me like he knew me (which of course he did) but since Andrew wasn’t there with me I think he wasn’t sure if it was me or not.
Two other guys were scheduled to be on my flight, but when the wife of the pilot showed up to pick us up, they were nowhere to be seen. They arrived a half hour late but finally we were on our way to the airport. We arrived at a very small airport and I was surprised the landing strip was not asphalt but grass. Bruce, the pilot, greeted us and we drew straws for who would be flying in the front. I didn’t draw well and was not able to sit at the front. The plane we would be flying is a small 4 seat-er. It would be the 3 of us and the pilot. Bruce seemed like a nice guy and I just hoped he knew what he was doing. We boarded the plane, me right behind Bruce, and were taxing to get ready for takeoff. I was a little nervous because the plane was shaking since it was driving on grass. Then in minutes we were off.
The flight itself takes around 20 minutes to get to the island, however what an exhilarating 20 minutes it was. The views were unbelievable. We flew over the ocean and were able to see the breathtaking views of where the ocean meets the east coast of Australia and the various rivers that join the Ocean. The most thrilling part of the flight was the acrobatics Bruce performed. He would climb the plane vertically up and then drop it at the last second, telling the guy next to me to take a picture of me when he says go. When the plane would drop, it would feel like you are falling on a very steep rollercoaster and I was screaming at the top of my lungs. The first time especially because I didn’t realize what he was going to do. Then he asked if I wanted to hold his hand, to which of course I replied “No! You have to fly the plane!” but he made me hold his hand. As soon as I took his hand in mine, he swerved the plane to the right. Again, I was screaming like a little girl. He is obviously a guy who likes to have fun. Unfortunately I never obtained the photos of me in the plane from those guys.
We arrived at the island 20 minutes later and landed right on the beach. It was a beautiful view and the island was stunning. I got off the plane and Andrew greeted me with “How did you like the plane ride?” and a knowing grin spread across his face. There were a total of 12 people on the island already. Since Andrew had arrived earlier he had already selected the tent we would be sleeping in. That afternoon I hung out “reading” my audio book I copied from Anne on to my ipod while Andrew was fishing. During his fishing he actually saw a small shark close to the shore. Luckily he was small but Andrew made sure to see if its “mommy” was anywhere nearby. Bruce came back with the last 3 people an hour later, which brought the total number of people staying on the island that night to 15.
Included in the price of the trip is dinner which Bruce and his wife provide. It’s just a basic stew but it’s a huge pot. He brought it with him on his last flight and provided us with instructions on how to cook it. The two Italian guys were put in charge of the stew but I ended up looking after it to make sure it didn’t burn. While dinner was on the stove, the “men” went to look for firewood for the night. Once they collected enough wood and the food was ready we sat down to eat. Since this is a deserted island and there isn’t much to do since there is no electricity except for a few solar powered lamps, we just sat around chatting around the fire pit. The solar lights and lack of electricity might scare some people from coming on this trip, but what should really scare them is the toilet facilities. Or the lack of toilet facilities since our toilet was actually a hole in the ground. Not just an outhouse, but a hole with a toilet seat on top of it, with no walls. So if anyone was walking on the beach, they could see the top of your head and wave to you and you could wave back. We had to be really careful not to just walk in on anyone. At night it was easier since everyone had a flashlight with them. Also, the girls always went together at night so it was harder for anyone to just walk in on us.
Of course Andrew and I were the oldest ones and it made me feel really old once a guy said something along the lines of “I remember when I was 16 and how stupid I was back then”. Of course I asked him how old he was now (wondering how many years of wisdom had already passed by) and his reply shocked me…19! It was such a ridiculous statement that I didn’t even know what to say. I didn’t want to tell him my age when he asked me.
For 16 – 21 year olds sitting around the fire for the night (especially when it gets dark at 6pm…remember it’s winter here people) isn’t very exciting, so of course they came up with a brilliant game. Let’s roll down the sand dune in the tractor tubes provided for swimming in the ocean. As stupid as it was, I have to say it was entertaining to watch. Andrew tried to take some photos of this but it being night combined with them being drunk didn’t allow him to take the best photos. Later on Andrew and I took a walk along the beach and it was surprising how high the tide was. We ended up going to sleep fairly early since there wasn’t much to do that night.
One of the things Bruce also provided us with was a map of the island, albeit one that was open to interpretation since the markings of trails were really general and you had to assume the trail you were on was the right one. The island itself isn’t that big but it would take you a good part of a whole day to get all the way around it.
When we woke up in the morning we had a quick breakfast of bread and Nutella and decided to go for a hike. Actually, Andrew dragged me for a hike because all I really wanted to do was to sit on the beach and relax. We walked down the beach, about a kilometer, towards the end of the island. At the end of the island there was a hill which we would have to climb to get over to the other side, but before we got there we needed to get over the rocks. It was high tide so we weren’t able to walk along the beach near the end and we had to walk on the rocks. We made our way uphill to the peninsula and we were treated to a beautiful view of ocean. We kept on walking and made our way down to the other side of the island. According to the map there was supposed to be a path that led back to our camp. The map was very general as it was an aerial shot of the island with some lines drawn through it to show the paths. On the side we were on, there were a lot of small bays and beaches and it was hard for us to distinguish which bay/beach we should be taking the path from. None of the beaches are named and the path is not clearly marked on land as “they” would prefer for the island to be left in its natural state. After a good 30 minutes of searching, and even asking a random family that was picnicking on one of the beaches, we could not find the path that would lead us back to our camp. We were getting a little worried because we knew the plane would be coming to pick us up in the next couple of hours and it took us a good hour and a half to get this way. We had two options; head back the way we came and face another hour and a half walk, or cut through the bush across the island and hopefully make it out the other side.
Normal people would have turned back around the way they came, but not us. We decided, in order to save time, to cut across the island. I think our main reason was we were hoping to find the path and save some time. We started walking through the bush and initially it wasn’t too difficult as the bush wasn’t too thick. Gradually it became thicker and it became harder to cross. We were only wearing shorts, t-shirt and running shoes and we were completely unprepared for this crossing (a machete would have been nice to cut through the thick bush). We did our best to avoid the thickest parts by walking around them and we were trying to keep to a general direction hoping we were going the right way. Soon we could no longer hear the waves breaking on the beaches. Besides the thick bush, there were giant spider webs. I was worried about coming across any large spiders as well as stepping on some snakes. The ground was littered with dead leaves and branches, so at any time you could step on something unseen. Finally, after about a half hour of cutting through the bush we could hear the ocean again. I was ready to be out of the bush and I was trying to hurry to get out of there. In our rush Andrew almost walked into a giant spider web with a large spider on it. We made sure to be more careful after that. After another 10 minutes we came out on the other side, at the end of the beach, near the rocks where we had started our hike. Except for some scratches, we had made it out unscathed out of the Australian bush.
We walked back to our camp and a few minutes after that the plane landed to drop off its first people of the day and to pick up its first passengers. The first people off the plane were our friends Melissa and Fabian. They had made it to the island after all. We spent the rest of the day on the beach hanging out and talking, until it was time for Andrew to take his flight back. While waiting for my flight I just relaxed by taking a nap on the beach. I thought our hike was the end of the excitement of the day, and I completely forgot how exciting our flight in was, hence I was completely unprepared for the theatrics of our pilot again. In addition to doing some engine stalling like before, this time he placed a few cameras on the dashboard of the plane and created a 0 gravity atmosphere (by climbing the plane and letting it fall) and we watch the cameras float around the cabin.
Once we got back to the hostel and had a chance to shower, Bruce (the pilot) came back to pick us up and take us to his house for some beers. It turned out he brews his own beer at home! He wanted to download our photos for his facebook site. While Andrew and Bruce were downloading the pictures, I talked to Bruce’s wife and played with their dog. It turns out the dog has somewhat of a “condition”. When people come over and scratch the floor, the dog becomes convinced there is something in the floor and paces back and forth looking and listening to it. It’s funny to watch because he actually tippy toes around being extremely careful not to make a sound. He lifts his paws high off the ground and slowly walks around the room listening for any sound “in” the floor. Andrew thought it was hilarious and kept driving him crazy by scratching the floor randomly sending the dog searching for the source of the sound. It would have been sad if it wouldn’t have been so funny. Bruce dropped us back off at the hostel and we spent the remainder of the night watching T.V.
Unfortunately we found out Andrew and I were booked on separate flights. He would be going on the 2pm flight while I was to go on the 2:30pm flight. At 1:30pm the wife of the pilot came to pick him and 3 other people up, and I had to wait for my turn. As I was sitting there friends from Fraser Island, Melissa and Fabian, were coming back from their surf lesson so I killed some time by chatting with them. The freaky part was, as I was talking to them, I saw Phil, the guys we had met at the rest stop before going to the Australia Zoo, walk by. He was looking straight at me and I’m sure it was just a coincidence but it completely creeped me out. He was looking at me like he knew me (which of course he did) but since Andrew wasn’t there with me I think he wasn’t sure if it was me or not.
Two other guys were scheduled to be on my flight, but when the wife of the pilot showed up to pick us up, they were nowhere to be seen. They arrived a half hour late but finally we were on our way to the airport. We arrived at a very small airport and I was surprised the landing strip was not asphalt but grass. Bruce, the pilot, greeted us and we drew straws for who would be flying in the front. I didn’t draw well and was not able to sit at the front. The plane we would be flying is a small 4 seat-er. It would be the 3 of us and the pilot. Bruce seemed like a nice guy and I just hoped he knew what he was doing. We boarded the plane, me right behind Bruce, and were taxing to get ready for takeoff. I was a little nervous because the plane was shaking since it was driving on grass. Then in minutes we were off.
The flight itself takes around 20 minutes to get to the island, however what an exhilarating 20 minutes it was. The views were unbelievable. We flew over the ocean and were able to see the breathtaking views of where the ocean meets the east coast of Australia and the various rivers that join the Ocean. The most thrilling part of the flight was the acrobatics Bruce performed. He would climb the plane vertically up and then drop it at the last second, telling the guy next to me to take a picture of me when he says go. When the plane would drop, it would feel like you are falling on a very steep rollercoaster and I was screaming at the top of my lungs. The first time especially because I didn’t realize what he was going to do. Then he asked if I wanted to hold his hand, to which of course I replied “No! You have to fly the plane!” but he made me hold his hand. As soon as I took his hand in mine, he swerved the plane to the right. Again, I was screaming like a little girl. He is obviously a guy who likes to have fun. Unfortunately I never obtained the photos of me in the plane from those guys.
We arrived at the island 20 minutes later and landed right on the beach. It was a beautiful view and the island was stunning. I got off the plane and Andrew greeted me with “How did you like the plane ride?” and a knowing grin spread across his face. There were a total of 12 people on the island already. Since Andrew had arrived earlier he had already selected the tent we would be sleeping in. That afternoon I hung out “reading” my audio book I copied from Anne on to my ipod while Andrew was fishing. During his fishing he actually saw a small shark close to the shore. Luckily he was small but Andrew made sure to see if its “mommy” was anywhere nearby. Bruce came back with the last 3 people an hour later, which brought the total number of people staying on the island that night to 15.
Included in the price of the trip is dinner which Bruce and his wife provide. It’s just a basic stew but it’s a huge pot. He brought it with him on his last flight and provided us with instructions on how to cook it. The two Italian guys were put in charge of the stew but I ended up looking after it to make sure it didn’t burn. While dinner was on the stove, the “men” went to look for firewood for the night. Once they collected enough wood and the food was ready we sat down to eat. Since this is a deserted island and there isn’t much to do since there is no electricity except for a few solar powered lamps, we just sat around chatting around the fire pit. The solar lights and lack of electricity might scare some people from coming on this trip, but what should really scare them is the toilet facilities. Or the lack of toilet facilities since our toilet was actually a hole in the ground. Not just an outhouse, but a hole with a toilet seat on top of it, with no walls. So if anyone was walking on the beach, they could see the top of your head and wave to you and you could wave back. We had to be really careful not to just walk in on anyone. At night it was easier since everyone had a flashlight with them. Also, the girls always went together at night so it was harder for anyone to just walk in on us.
Of course Andrew and I were the oldest ones and it made me feel really old once a guy said something along the lines of “I remember when I was 16 and how stupid I was back then”. Of course I asked him how old he was now (wondering how many years of wisdom had already passed by) and his reply shocked me…19! It was such a ridiculous statement that I didn’t even know what to say. I didn’t want to tell him my age when he asked me.
For 16 – 21 year olds sitting around the fire for the night (especially when it gets dark at 6pm…remember it’s winter here people) isn’t very exciting, so of course they came up with a brilliant game. Let’s roll down the sand dune in the tractor tubes provided for swimming in the ocean. As stupid as it was, I have to say it was entertaining to watch. Andrew tried to take some photos of this but it being night combined with them being drunk didn’t allow him to take the best photos. Later on Andrew and I took a walk along the beach and it was surprising how high the tide was. We ended up going to sleep fairly early since there wasn’t much to do that night.
One of the things Bruce also provided us with was a map of the island, albeit one that was open to interpretation since the markings of trails were really general and you had to assume the trail you were on was the right one. The island itself isn’t that big but it would take you a good part of a whole day to get all the way around it.
When we woke up in the morning we had a quick breakfast of bread and Nutella and decided to go for a hike. Actually, Andrew dragged me for a hike because all I really wanted to do was to sit on the beach and relax. We walked down the beach, about a kilometer, towards the end of the island. At the end of the island there was a hill which we would have to climb to get over to the other side, but before we got there we needed to get over the rocks. It was high tide so we weren’t able to walk along the beach near the end and we had to walk on the rocks. We made our way uphill to the peninsula and we were treated to a beautiful view of ocean. We kept on walking and made our way down to the other side of the island. According to the map there was supposed to be a path that led back to our camp. The map was very general as it was an aerial shot of the island with some lines drawn through it to show the paths. On the side we were on, there were a lot of small bays and beaches and it was hard for us to distinguish which bay/beach we should be taking the path from. None of the beaches are named and the path is not clearly marked on land as “they” would prefer for the island to be left in its natural state. After a good 30 minutes of searching, and even asking a random family that was picnicking on one of the beaches, we could not find the path that would lead us back to our camp. We were getting a little worried because we knew the plane would be coming to pick us up in the next couple of hours and it took us a good hour and a half to get this way. We had two options; head back the way we came and face another hour and a half walk, or cut through the bush across the island and hopefully make it out the other side.
Normal people would have turned back around the way they came, but not us. We decided, in order to save time, to cut across the island. I think our main reason was we were hoping to find the path and save some time. We started walking through the bush and initially it wasn’t too difficult as the bush wasn’t too thick. Gradually it became thicker and it became harder to cross. We were only wearing shorts, t-shirt and running shoes and we were completely unprepared for this crossing (a machete would have been nice to cut through the thick bush). We did our best to avoid the thickest parts by walking around them and we were trying to keep to a general direction hoping we were going the right way. Soon we could no longer hear the waves breaking on the beaches. Besides the thick bush, there were giant spider webs. I was worried about coming across any large spiders as well as stepping on some snakes. The ground was littered with dead leaves and branches, so at any time you could step on something unseen. Finally, after about a half hour of cutting through the bush we could hear the ocean again. I was ready to be out of the bush and I was trying to hurry to get out of there. In our rush Andrew almost walked into a giant spider web with a large spider on it. We made sure to be more careful after that. After another 10 minutes we came out on the other side, at the end of the beach, near the rocks where we had started our hike. Except for some scratches, we had made it out unscathed out of the Australian bush.
We walked back to our camp and a few minutes after that the plane landed to drop off its first people of the day and to pick up its first passengers. The first people off the plane were our friends Melissa and Fabian. They had made it to the island after all. We spent the rest of the day on the beach hanging out and talking, until it was time for Andrew to take his flight back. While waiting for my flight I just relaxed by taking a nap on the beach. I thought our hike was the end of the excitement of the day, and I completely forgot how exciting our flight in was, hence I was completely unprepared for the theatrics of our pilot again. In addition to doing some engine stalling like before, this time he placed a few cameras on the dashboard of the plane and created a 0 gravity atmosphere (by climbing the plane and letting it fall) and we watch the cameras float around the cabin.
Once we got back to the hostel and had a chance to shower, Bruce (the pilot) came back to pick us up and take us to his house for some beers. It turned out he brews his own beer at home! He wanted to download our photos for his facebook site. While Andrew and Bruce were downloading the pictures, I talked to Bruce’s wife and played with their dog. It turns out the dog has somewhat of a “condition”. When people come over and scratch the floor, the dog becomes convinced there is something in the floor and paces back and forth looking and listening to it. It’s funny to watch because he actually tippy toes around being extremely careful not to make a sound. He lifts his paws high off the ground and slowly walks around the room listening for any sound “in” the floor. Andrew thought it was hilarious and kept driving him crazy by scratching the floor randomly sending the dog searching for the source of the sound. It would have been sad if it wouldn’t have been so funny. Bruce dropped us back off at the hostel and we spent the remainder of the night watching T.V.
Agnes Water/1770
We left Pippies and Rainbow Beach around noon the next day. It was hard to get up in the morning but we somehow managed it. We said goodbye to everyone and exchange contact info with Anne. She was also driving up to 1770 but would be trying to get a job around Bundaberg. The drive was pretty uneventful, we were both tired so we took it easy. We arrived in Agnes Water in the evening and checked in to the hostel Cool Bananas where you could sleep in your can for a cheaper price but still use all their facilities. As soon as we got there Anne called and said she was in Agnes Water too so we told her to join us in Cool Bananas.
Agnes Water & 1770 are two towns right next to each other. I couldn’t get a clear answer if they were two separate towns or if they were the same town. Depending on which local you talked to, they gave you a different answer. On the map they appear as two separate towns, but because they are both tiny and right next to each other, they get bundled together as one. The name 1770 is used a lot more mainly because it’s a number, which is unusual for the name of a town. You may have guessed based on my previous posts, this town was named after Captain Cook passed through here in 1770.
We came here mainly because we learned from Tribal Travel that you can do a castaway trip to a deserted island from here. The cool part was you would be flown out there on a small plane and left on the island for 1 night, for only $85. This was exciting because you got a 20 minute flight there and a 20 minute flight back. If you would have liked to book a 1 hour flight anywhere else just to see Australia from the air, you would have to spend at least $200 - $300, so the $85 was worth it.
That night we spent a quiet night at the hostel watching tv. The past week at Pippies and Fraser Island had exhausted us. We were booked for Castaway the next day.
Agnes Water & 1770 are two towns right next to each other. I couldn’t get a clear answer if they were two separate towns or if they were the same town. Depending on which local you talked to, they gave you a different answer. On the map they appear as two separate towns, but because they are both tiny and right next to each other, they get bundled together as one. The name 1770 is used a lot more mainly because it’s a number, which is unusual for the name of a town. You may have guessed based on my previous posts, this town was named after Captain Cook passed through here in 1770.
We came here mainly because we learned from Tribal Travel that you can do a castaway trip to a deserted island from here. The cool part was you would be flown out there on a small plane and left on the island for 1 night, for only $85. This was exciting because you got a 20 minute flight there and a 20 minute flight back. If you would have liked to book a 1 hour flight anywhere else just to see Australia from the air, you would have to spend at least $200 - $300, so the $85 was worth it.
That night we spent a quiet night at the hostel watching tv. The past week at Pippies and Fraser Island had exhausted us. We were booked for Castaway the next day.
Saturday, June 11, 2011
Fraser Island, QLD
Fraser Island is a 120km long island just off the coast of Eastern Australia. It is an island made up entirely of sand and is the largest sand island in the world. We left Pippies guest house around 10am to the barge that would take us to the island. I wasn’t too stressed out about the crossing because I knew it would only take 15 minutes or so. Amit was the first to drive the old Land Rover 4x4 we would be driving in over the next few days. Both Amit and Trace had just finished their 3 year military training in Israel (read: dessert) so we weren’t too concerned about their abilities to drive the car in the sand. It didn’t take long to reach the barge and in less than 15 minutes we had reached the south end of Fraser Island.
You can only drive on the west side beach of Fraser Island (named 75 mile beach because of its length) because the east side, they claim, is too dangerous. The tides are the main area of concern as when the tide is high, in some areas, it’s impossible to drive. When the tide is in, the beach becomes a lot more narrow as the water can reach all the way to the sand dunes. When we arrived the tide was just going down and although the water wasn’t at its highest point, there were a couple of spots where we had to actually drive through the water. This isn’t necessarily dangerous on its own, but if you do stop in the water, the water will washout the sand from under your wheels and your car will be stuck and worst case scenario swept away. Not to mention the salt water is not good for the car as it can cause corrosion and rust. I’m happy to say Amit handled it all smoothly.
We drove on the beach for around 30 minutes when all of a sudden we pulled over seemingly in the middle of nowhere. Travelling from Pippies there were a total of 3 cars. The first car is driven by the guide who shows us around the island, the second car had 8 people in it and we were the third. The place where we stopped turned out to be a place where we can collect clams in the sand, or specifically Pippies, as these clams are names. Apparently the guest house we were staying at was named after these clams. Our guide, Tony, showed us you can tell there is a clam in the sand by the raised sand in the shape of a circle. With your finger you dig around the circle, dig in and pull up the clam. With everyone walking up and down the beach looking for the clams we dug up around 100 clams. We had to be careful while walking on the beach, as it’s actually a highway with a speed limit of 80km/h and when driving you have to follow all the highway traffic laws. So while we were walking around the beach, other cars were swooshing past us. It’s a little bit annoying but the beach isn’t really meant for swimming due to the high currents and rip tides so it’s unlikely you would actually spend a lot of time on the beach.
Our next stop was Lake Mackenzie, and Trace delivered us there safely. . When we arrived we ate the lunch we had made that morning, and during lunch I found a small leech on my foot. I caught it quickly enough so that it didn’t have time to attach itself. Of course I screamed like a little girl and made Andrew deal with it. He did, but he then found he couldn’t get it off of himself. Eventually he did without any further bloodsucking incident.
Lake Mackenzie is a fresh water lake on Fraser but what differentiates is that it has beautiful white silica sand so it makes it look as blue as the ocean and not the murky water we’re used to in Canada. It was quite warm outside in the sunshine so I waded into the water but wasn’t brave enough to dip myself in fully. It wasn’t that warm when you were wet and the cool wind was blowing on your skin. Andrew didn’t have these issues and had no problems jumping in. Some of the guys from the other car, namely Rasmus, Joah and Linus, also didn’t have any problems jumping in or even pushing, launching, throwing, flinging and hurling themselves into the water. They would even dive head first into the water from the shore. There were more than a few (and what looked like painful) belly flops. Rasmus, Joah and Linus were from Sweden and were already drunk on goon, and it turned out would not sober up for the rest of the trip. I honestly thought they were crazy. Since we were the last car and they were in front of us, we would get mooned by them multiple times. I felt sorry for the other people in their car, since the goon was flowing nonstop in their car.
I need to make a side note here about goon. Goon is something I was introduced to on this trip and I have to say it’s not too bad. Goon is basically the cheap boxed or bagged wine. It costs $12 for 4.5L so for that reason alone it’s very popular amongst the backpackers. I say it’s not too bad because to me it tastes like grape juice with some “spirytus” in it (90% proof alcohol). It’s very strong so you get a lot of kick for your buck, but the hangover (as I witnessed that trip) is a killer. You can be knocked off ass for up to a full day afterwards, obviously depending on how much you drank the night before.
So Rasmus, Joah and Linus were all very drunk on goon before we even arrived at our first stop at Lake Mackenzie and even more drunk by the time we arrived at our second stop at Eli Creek. The sun would start setting shortly when we arrived at Eli Creek but apparently, according to Tony our guide, we all had to get in and get wet even though we were freezing. Apparently it was “tradition”. Eli Creek is kind of like a lazy river. It winds down slowly from the forest and if the weather was warmer I would have enjoyed it a lot more. After everyone made their way down the river, we all just hung around on the beach trying to soak in the late afternoon sun and warm up. Some people posed for a photo and Andrew got a good pic with Rasmus flashing the camera. The funny thing was no one noticed except Andrew, even though Tony was also taking a picture.
After Eli Creek we headed to camp, where we picked out tents. When it was time to start making dinner Trace and Amit took over and made a delicious rice and chicken for us in a sweet and sour sauce, so the rest of us were on dishwashing duty. Part of spending time on Fraser Island is getting to see the various animals that live on the island. One of those animals is the Dingo and as we found out they like to hang around camp hoping for any food scraps to fall their way. Dingoes are kind of like a mix between a wolf and a dog. They look like a dog but behave like wolves. They are not domesticated at all and are known to attack people. Joggers especially have been known to have their calves bit into by the dingo’s while (or whilst, as they say here in Australia) small children have been known to be killed by them. So it was a little disconcerting having them circle our camp and watch us while we were washing dishes. The fact it was mating season and therefore the dingoes were more aggressive made me even more nervous. Tony, our guide, told us to make sure we were always walking in pairs when going to the toilet. No one was really paranoid but everyone kept an eye on the dingo’s as they kept their eyes on us.
We all had a beer during dinner and it seemed that was all anyone from our group would have. Everyone except Andrew. Of the 30 beers we had, Andrew drank 9 that night by himself. That is when I knew the 30 beers would not be enough for this trip. But how much Andrew drank that night does not compare to how much Rasmus and friends drank that night. In addition to our camp, next to us was another camp from another hostel, Nomads. We were told we were welcome to go over there but if we got asked to leave by one of the guides, we would need to leave. While the people from our car were busy playing cards, Rasmus and (most of) the people from his car were throwing themselves off the tables. I sat by the fire amused by the contrast as well as awaiting when one of them would get seriously hurt. Linus sat beside me completely passed out. He had drank so much goon in the car throughout the day that he just passed out and we could not wake him up. Later someone found him in their tent and had to throw him out. Not sure where he ended up sleeping. The fire started going out and I decided to head off to bed, but Rasmus and his friends decided to go to the other camp, and Andrew accompanied them. Within an hour Tony was bringing them all back because of complaints from the guide of the other camp. Apparently one of them took a metal pipe and was swinging it around, while Rasmus threw himself into the fire and some other guy (apparently not Rasmus, Joah or Linus) tried to grab a girl and nearly broke her wrist.
If the first night was interesting, the morning after was even more interesting as we all had to get up at 7am. Having gone to bed at 2am completely inebriated some of the people who rolled out of the tents were almost unrecognizable. It was amusing to watch because you could tell they were all worn out and I thought perhaps partied out. We made breakfast and headed off to the northern part of the island to see the champagne pools. This was a beach and part of it was surrounded by rocks, kind of like a lagoon, so it was calm enough to swim, but the waves breaking over the rocks and then rolling into the lagoon caused the water to foam and made it look bubbly like champagne. The sun was shining and we were protected from the wind by the surrounding hills so it was warm enough to swim.
We spent a couple of hours there and then headed off to our next stop, which wasn’t too far away. We hiked to the top of a hill and were rewarded with a beautiful view of the island and the ocean. Jonah, one of the Swedes, did not even attempt to make it to the top. We left him behind by the car to puke his guts out. I think that was at least the 3rd time that day. After we had lunch we went to see the Tea Tree Lake. Tony said we probably wouldn’t swim in it because most people chicken out when they get there. Sure enough, the lake looked menacing. The water was completely black, coloured by the tea tree oil. There was no hope of seeing the bottom. There were some stairs that led right into the lake and a whole bunch of turtles swam up to us. There were at least 5 or 6 small turtles. As soon as I saw the colour of the lake I didn’t want to go in anymore. Up until that point I was confident I would be going in. “Are there snakes in there?” I asked. “Of course” Tony replied, “They were also in Lake Mackenzie yesterday and you weren’t afraid of swimming there”. Yeah, but the water was crystal clear there so I knew if there would have been a snake I would have seen it. I knew I wouldn’t see one here until it attacked me. Ok, I knew that was an exaggeration and a snake probably wouldn’t attack me, but you never know. Tony started talking about how good tea tree oil is for your skin and how it helps heal any cuts, scrapes or bruises, and some people started going in, their skin looking orange underwater because of the tea tree oil. I figured, if they can do it, so can I. I went it and it wasn’t so scary but the water was freezing. The top layer had been warm, warmed by the day’s sun, but we had stirred the water up so much with our swimming it was all cold now. We had swam out into the lake and the water was even colder and the water was pitch black around us. Andrew joined us and was also surprised by how cold the water us. The sun would be setting soon and it was low in the sky so it wasn’t providing too much warmth anymore. After a few minutes we all climbed out. There was one older lady (I say older because she was in her 50’s…not to say that’s old but if definitely threw the average age off) from Hamilton Ontario and she decided to go for a swim too. She went in the water but her swimming looked more like drowning and we weren’t sure if we should jump in and save her. We snickered behind her back, which wasn’t nice, but it was really funny to watch her swim.
These are all the turtles that would swim up to us. They were all quite small.
This is Anne, not the funny swimming older lady. I loved how orange the skin looked in the water due to the tea tree oil.
Our next destination was a lookout over a very large sand dune which ran across the whole island. We learned these dunes are created naturally; as the wind from the ocean blows, it blows the sand across. Grain by grain a large sand dune is formed and eventually it cuts across the whole island. This isn’t necessarily good as it buries whole trees. Apparently the small bushes we saw sticking out from the sand were actually the tops of trees which had been buried by the sand.
We headed back to camp and prepared dinner. It was an interesting moment when we sat down for dinner and everyone in our group discovered there were only 5 beers left for the 6 of us. Andrew looked a little sheepish knowing he contributed greatly to the lack of beer. This meant we wouldn’t have anything to drink for the rest of the night. Obviously 30 beers had not been enough for 6 people. This night a second group had joined us from Pippies. This was their first night and our second, and last night. The groups kept to separate sides all throughout and after dinner. The second group was playing a drinking game (Zumi Zumi…anyone ever heard of this?) and at one point one of the guys got up on the table and took his shirt off and was swinging it around. On that side of the room they were all cheering, and Andrew said to me “I bet you Rasmus is not going to let this go…he’s going to take his pants off for us. Let’s go see this”. Our side of the room were also playing a drinking game. This one didn’t have a name but basically everyone had to come up with an animal and have a sign for that animal as well as a sound. You were assigned a sign and a sound and whoever called out your sign/sound you had to get up, do your animal sign/sound and then call out someone else’s sign/sound. If you didn’t do it in that order, you had to drink. This was probably the funniest drinking game I had ever seen and I wasn’t even drinking (because Andrew had drank all our beer the night before). Watching everyone get up and do various sound was hilarious because the animals were sharks, snakes, dogs, cows and even a Tasmanian devil. It didn’t take long for Rasmus to make Andrew’s prediction come true. He got up on the table, screamed “What time is it?” and we all yelled back “It’s party time!!”. He had been walking around yelling this out over the past 2 days. Even when he would just wake up we would ask him, “Rasmus, what time is it?” and he would mutter “It’s party time”. Sometimes he would add “But I’m all partied out”. This time he was yelling at the top of his lungs and so were we. As he was standing on the table yelling, Linus ran up behind him and pulled his pants down. He wasn’t wearing any undies so he was fully on display for everyone to see. At first he was a little surprised but then he just went with it and was swinging it around. That was not the only time his Johnson made an appearance that night. It would be on display many times that evening. The other group were almost stunned into silence. Later on I was talking to one of the guys in our group, Greg, and he said after the shirt swinging incident in the other group, Rasmus came up to Greg and said “We have to party harder”. He stayed true to his word. By the end of the evening our group was going wild and a lot of people were dancing on the tables, while the other group went to sleep. Greg was so drunk we somehow convinced him to drink some spilled goon from the table. He one upped us and snorted it too. It was so disgusting I actually gagged. I was just sorry that I was sober because I would have totally joined in on the party…but not the goon snorting.
Andrew, Melissa, Fabian and I went for a walk to the beach as we were the only sober ones. The night was pitch black and there was no moon so it was very dark. The sky looked amazing with all the stars. But it was also very eerie because we couldn’t really see anything and even when our flashlights were on the dark just swallowed the light right up. I was also worried there were Dingoes watching us just at the edges of the light, where we couldn’t quite see them. That night the dingoes were a lot more aggressive with each other. They were stilling circling the camp but would get into quite aggressive scuffles with each other. I was worried they would take that aggression out on us. Luckily we didn’t run into any dingoes and headed off to bed even though some people were still partying. Tony told us we had to be up at 6am the next day to beat the high tides.
The tides had been very high the past few nights and Tony was worried we wouldn’t be able to make it off the island in time for the next high rise. I don’t know how but Tony actually managed to get everyone out of bed by 6:30am. I was talking to Greg the next morning and he didn’t even remember goon snorting incident. He was disgusted with himself but laughed about it too. There was only one place left to visit. It was about a 45min hike to another, smaller, sand dune and it had a clear freshwater lake at the bottom of it. When we got there we could see huge catfish swimming in it. That morning was fairly quiet as everyone was still recuperating from the night before. We hung out there for a couple of hours, had lunch in town and then headed back to mainland.
When we arrived back at Pippies guest house I was just happy to see a normal bathroom again with a shower. Even though it had only been a couple of days I felt filthy. We made dinner and spent some time chatting with Anne, a girl who had been on the Fraser trip with us. We would end up hanging around with her all the way to the Whitsundays. That night everyone headed over to the bar next door, Fraser’s, for karaoke night. After the bar shut down we headed back to the hostel where some of the people who were working there for accommodation (2 Canadians!) had gone dumpster diving and came back with a load of bread that had been thrown out. The bread was still good and we pigged out on it before going to bed.
The next day Andrew and I went to the beach. The past few days had exhausted us so we just chilled out. That night some new people had arrived at Pippies and were getting to go on their Fraser trip the next day. We all ended up drinking that night. It was a tough morning the next day but we knew we had to get up early as we were heading to 1770.
You can only drive on the west side beach of Fraser Island (named 75 mile beach because of its length) because the east side, they claim, is too dangerous. The tides are the main area of concern as when the tide is high, in some areas, it’s impossible to drive. When the tide is in, the beach becomes a lot more narrow as the water can reach all the way to the sand dunes. When we arrived the tide was just going down and although the water wasn’t at its highest point, there were a couple of spots where we had to actually drive through the water. This isn’t necessarily dangerous on its own, but if you do stop in the water, the water will washout the sand from under your wheels and your car will be stuck and worst case scenario swept away. Not to mention the salt water is not good for the car as it can cause corrosion and rust. I’m happy to say Amit handled it all smoothly.
We drove on the beach for around 30 minutes when all of a sudden we pulled over seemingly in the middle of nowhere. Travelling from Pippies there were a total of 3 cars. The first car is driven by the guide who shows us around the island, the second car had 8 people in it and we were the third. The place where we stopped turned out to be a place where we can collect clams in the sand, or specifically Pippies, as these clams are names. Apparently the guest house we were staying at was named after these clams. Our guide, Tony, showed us you can tell there is a clam in the sand by the raised sand in the shape of a circle. With your finger you dig around the circle, dig in and pull up the clam. With everyone walking up and down the beach looking for the clams we dug up around 100 clams. We had to be careful while walking on the beach, as it’s actually a highway with a speed limit of 80km/h and when driving you have to follow all the highway traffic laws. So while we were walking around the beach, other cars were swooshing past us. It’s a little bit annoying but the beach isn’t really meant for swimming due to the high currents and rip tides so it’s unlikely you would actually spend a lot of time on the beach.
Our next stop was Lake Mackenzie, and Trace delivered us there safely. . When we arrived we ate the lunch we had made that morning, and during lunch I found a small leech on my foot. I caught it quickly enough so that it didn’t have time to attach itself. Of course I screamed like a little girl and made Andrew deal with it. He did, but he then found he couldn’t get it off of himself. Eventually he did without any further bloodsucking incident.
Lake Mackenzie is a fresh water lake on Fraser but what differentiates is that it has beautiful white silica sand so it makes it look as blue as the ocean and not the murky water we’re used to in Canada. It was quite warm outside in the sunshine so I waded into the water but wasn’t brave enough to dip myself in fully. It wasn’t that warm when you were wet and the cool wind was blowing on your skin. Andrew didn’t have these issues and had no problems jumping in. Some of the guys from the other car, namely Rasmus, Joah and Linus, also didn’t have any problems jumping in or even pushing, launching, throwing, flinging and hurling themselves into the water. They would even dive head first into the water from the shore. There were more than a few (and what looked like painful) belly flops. Rasmus, Joah and Linus were from Sweden and were already drunk on goon, and it turned out would not sober up for the rest of the trip. I honestly thought they were crazy. Since we were the last car and they were in front of us, we would get mooned by them multiple times. I felt sorry for the other people in their car, since the goon was flowing nonstop in their car.
I need to make a side note here about goon. Goon is something I was introduced to on this trip and I have to say it’s not too bad. Goon is basically the cheap boxed or bagged wine. It costs $12 for 4.5L so for that reason alone it’s very popular amongst the backpackers. I say it’s not too bad because to me it tastes like grape juice with some “spirytus” in it (90% proof alcohol). It’s very strong so you get a lot of kick for your buck, but the hangover (as I witnessed that trip) is a killer. You can be knocked off ass for up to a full day afterwards, obviously depending on how much you drank the night before.
So Rasmus, Joah and Linus were all very drunk on goon before we even arrived at our first stop at Lake Mackenzie and even more drunk by the time we arrived at our second stop at Eli Creek. The sun would start setting shortly when we arrived at Eli Creek but apparently, according to Tony our guide, we all had to get in and get wet even though we were freezing. Apparently it was “tradition”. Eli Creek is kind of like a lazy river. It winds down slowly from the forest and if the weather was warmer I would have enjoyed it a lot more. After everyone made their way down the river, we all just hung around on the beach trying to soak in the late afternoon sun and warm up. Some people posed for a photo and Andrew got a good pic with Rasmus flashing the camera. The funny thing was no one noticed except Andrew, even though Tony was also taking a picture.
After Eli Creek we headed to camp, where we picked out tents. When it was time to start making dinner Trace and Amit took over and made a delicious rice and chicken for us in a sweet and sour sauce, so the rest of us were on dishwashing duty. Part of spending time on Fraser Island is getting to see the various animals that live on the island. One of those animals is the Dingo and as we found out they like to hang around camp hoping for any food scraps to fall their way. Dingoes are kind of like a mix between a wolf and a dog. They look like a dog but behave like wolves. They are not domesticated at all and are known to attack people. Joggers especially have been known to have their calves bit into by the dingo’s while (or whilst, as they say here in Australia) small children have been known to be killed by them. So it was a little disconcerting having them circle our camp and watch us while we were washing dishes. The fact it was mating season and therefore the dingoes were more aggressive made me even more nervous. Tony, our guide, told us to make sure we were always walking in pairs when going to the toilet. No one was really paranoid but everyone kept an eye on the dingo’s as they kept their eyes on us.
We all had a beer during dinner and it seemed that was all anyone from our group would have. Everyone except Andrew. Of the 30 beers we had, Andrew drank 9 that night by himself. That is when I knew the 30 beers would not be enough for this trip. But how much Andrew drank that night does not compare to how much Rasmus and friends drank that night. In addition to our camp, next to us was another camp from another hostel, Nomads. We were told we were welcome to go over there but if we got asked to leave by one of the guides, we would need to leave. While the people from our car were busy playing cards, Rasmus and (most of) the people from his car were throwing themselves off the tables. I sat by the fire amused by the contrast as well as awaiting when one of them would get seriously hurt. Linus sat beside me completely passed out. He had drank so much goon in the car throughout the day that he just passed out and we could not wake him up. Later someone found him in their tent and had to throw him out. Not sure where he ended up sleeping. The fire started going out and I decided to head off to bed, but Rasmus and his friends decided to go to the other camp, and Andrew accompanied them. Within an hour Tony was bringing them all back because of complaints from the guide of the other camp. Apparently one of them took a metal pipe and was swinging it around, while Rasmus threw himself into the fire and some other guy (apparently not Rasmus, Joah or Linus) tried to grab a girl and nearly broke her wrist.
If the first night was interesting, the morning after was even more interesting as we all had to get up at 7am. Having gone to bed at 2am completely inebriated some of the people who rolled out of the tents were almost unrecognizable. It was amusing to watch because you could tell they were all worn out and I thought perhaps partied out. We made breakfast and headed off to the northern part of the island to see the champagne pools. This was a beach and part of it was surrounded by rocks, kind of like a lagoon, so it was calm enough to swim, but the waves breaking over the rocks and then rolling into the lagoon caused the water to foam and made it look bubbly like champagne. The sun was shining and we were protected from the wind by the surrounding hills so it was warm enough to swim.
We spent a couple of hours there and then headed off to our next stop, which wasn’t too far away. We hiked to the top of a hill and were rewarded with a beautiful view of the island and the ocean. Jonah, one of the Swedes, did not even attempt to make it to the top. We left him behind by the car to puke his guts out. I think that was at least the 3rd time that day. After we had lunch we went to see the Tea Tree Lake. Tony said we probably wouldn’t swim in it because most people chicken out when they get there. Sure enough, the lake looked menacing. The water was completely black, coloured by the tea tree oil. There was no hope of seeing the bottom. There were some stairs that led right into the lake and a whole bunch of turtles swam up to us. There were at least 5 or 6 small turtles. As soon as I saw the colour of the lake I didn’t want to go in anymore. Up until that point I was confident I would be going in. “Are there snakes in there?” I asked. “Of course” Tony replied, “They were also in Lake Mackenzie yesterday and you weren’t afraid of swimming there”. Yeah, but the water was crystal clear there so I knew if there would have been a snake I would have seen it. I knew I wouldn’t see one here until it attacked me. Ok, I knew that was an exaggeration and a snake probably wouldn’t attack me, but you never know. Tony started talking about how good tea tree oil is for your skin and how it helps heal any cuts, scrapes or bruises, and some people started going in, their skin looking orange underwater because of the tea tree oil. I figured, if they can do it, so can I. I went it and it wasn’t so scary but the water was freezing. The top layer had been warm, warmed by the day’s sun, but we had stirred the water up so much with our swimming it was all cold now. We had swam out into the lake and the water was even colder and the water was pitch black around us. Andrew joined us and was also surprised by how cold the water us. The sun would be setting soon and it was low in the sky so it wasn’t providing too much warmth anymore. After a few minutes we all climbed out. There was one older lady (I say older because she was in her 50’s…not to say that’s old but if definitely threw the average age off) from Hamilton Ontario and she decided to go for a swim too. She went in the water but her swimming looked more like drowning and we weren’t sure if we should jump in and save her. We snickered behind her back, which wasn’t nice, but it was really funny to watch her swim.
These are all the turtles that would swim up to us. They were all quite small.
This is Anne, not the funny swimming older lady. I loved how orange the skin looked in the water due to the tea tree oil.
Our next destination was a lookout over a very large sand dune which ran across the whole island. We learned these dunes are created naturally; as the wind from the ocean blows, it blows the sand across. Grain by grain a large sand dune is formed and eventually it cuts across the whole island. This isn’t necessarily good as it buries whole trees. Apparently the small bushes we saw sticking out from the sand were actually the tops of trees which had been buried by the sand.
We headed back to camp and prepared dinner. It was an interesting moment when we sat down for dinner and everyone in our group discovered there were only 5 beers left for the 6 of us. Andrew looked a little sheepish knowing he contributed greatly to the lack of beer. This meant we wouldn’t have anything to drink for the rest of the night. Obviously 30 beers had not been enough for 6 people. This night a second group had joined us from Pippies. This was their first night and our second, and last night. The groups kept to separate sides all throughout and after dinner. The second group was playing a drinking game (Zumi Zumi…anyone ever heard of this?) and at one point one of the guys got up on the table and took his shirt off and was swinging it around. On that side of the room they were all cheering, and Andrew said to me “I bet you Rasmus is not going to let this go…he’s going to take his pants off for us. Let’s go see this”. Our side of the room were also playing a drinking game. This one didn’t have a name but basically everyone had to come up with an animal and have a sign for that animal as well as a sound. You were assigned a sign and a sound and whoever called out your sign/sound you had to get up, do your animal sign/sound and then call out someone else’s sign/sound. If you didn’t do it in that order, you had to drink. This was probably the funniest drinking game I had ever seen and I wasn’t even drinking (because Andrew had drank all our beer the night before). Watching everyone get up and do various sound was hilarious because the animals were sharks, snakes, dogs, cows and even a Tasmanian devil. It didn’t take long for Rasmus to make Andrew’s prediction come true. He got up on the table, screamed “What time is it?” and we all yelled back “It’s party time!!”. He had been walking around yelling this out over the past 2 days. Even when he would just wake up we would ask him, “Rasmus, what time is it?” and he would mutter “It’s party time”. Sometimes he would add “But I’m all partied out”. This time he was yelling at the top of his lungs and so were we. As he was standing on the table yelling, Linus ran up behind him and pulled his pants down. He wasn’t wearing any undies so he was fully on display for everyone to see. At first he was a little surprised but then he just went with it and was swinging it around. That was not the only time his Johnson made an appearance that night. It would be on display many times that evening. The other group were almost stunned into silence. Later on I was talking to one of the guys in our group, Greg, and he said after the shirt swinging incident in the other group, Rasmus came up to Greg and said “We have to party harder”. He stayed true to his word. By the end of the evening our group was going wild and a lot of people were dancing on the tables, while the other group went to sleep. Greg was so drunk we somehow convinced him to drink some spilled goon from the table. He one upped us and snorted it too. It was so disgusting I actually gagged. I was just sorry that I was sober because I would have totally joined in on the party…but not the goon snorting.
Andrew, Melissa, Fabian and I went for a walk to the beach as we were the only sober ones. The night was pitch black and there was no moon so it was very dark. The sky looked amazing with all the stars. But it was also very eerie because we couldn’t really see anything and even when our flashlights were on the dark just swallowed the light right up. I was also worried there were Dingoes watching us just at the edges of the light, where we couldn’t quite see them. That night the dingoes were a lot more aggressive with each other. They were stilling circling the camp but would get into quite aggressive scuffles with each other. I was worried they would take that aggression out on us. Luckily we didn’t run into any dingoes and headed off to bed even though some people were still partying. Tony told us we had to be up at 6am the next day to beat the high tides.
The tides had been very high the past few nights and Tony was worried we wouldn’t be able to make it off the island in time for the next high rise. I don’t know how but Tony actually managed to get everyone out of bed by 6:30am. I was talking to Greg the next morning and he didn’t even remember goon snorting incident. He was disgusted with himself but laughed about it too. There was only one place left to visit. It was about a 45min hike to another, smaller, sand dune and it had a clear freshwater lake at the bottom of it. When we got there we could see huge catfish swimming in it. That morning was fairly quiet as everyone was still recuperating from the night before. We hung out there for a couple of hours, had lunch in town and then headed back to mainland.
When we arrived back at Pippies guest house I was just happy to see a normal bathroom again with a shower. Even though it had only been a couple of days I felt filthy. We made dinner and spent some time chatting with Anne, a girl who had been on the Fraser trip with us. We would end up hanging around with her all the way to the Whitsundays. That night everyone headed over to the bar next door, Fraser’s, for karaoke night. After the bar shut down we headed back to the hostel where some of the people who were working there for accommodation (2 Canadians!) had gone dumpster diving and came back with a load of bread that had been thrown out. The bread was still good and we pigged out on it before going to bed.
The next day Andrew and I went to the beach. The past few days had exhausted us so we just chilled out. That night some new people had arrived at Pippies and were getting to go on their Fraser trip the next day. We all ended up drinking that night. It was a tough morning the next day but we knew we had to get up early as we were heading to 1770.
Rainbow Beach, QLD
Once we left Tin Can Bay it was a short drive to Rainbow Beach. Rainbow Beach is one of two gateways to Fraser Island, the largest sand island in the world. We weren’t sure if we should book a trip to Fraser Island from here or from Hervey Bay, which was the other gateway to Fraser. I wanted to book from Rainbow Beach because the ferry crossing was only 15 minutes and around an hour from Hervey Bay.
The town of Rainbow Beach is quite small with only a handful of stores, but it has a very beautiful beach and large exquisite sand dunes. Unfortunately the water was quite rough and the wind quite cold so we couldn’t really go swimming. We walked around the town and tried to find the best deal for Fraser. We ended up booking with Tribal travel which included 3 nights at Pippies Hostel. We would be leaving to Fraser Island first thing tomorrow morning so we decided to spend our first night at Pippies that night (and shower ) and then use the remaining two free nights after we came back from Fraser Island.
That afternoon we attended the orientation session and met the people who would be in our cars. We had 6 people in our car, which was smaller than the usual 8. We thought this was nice since we would have more room in our car but it turned out we had more trunk space, not room for passengers. The people in our group consisted of me and Andrew, Melissa and Fabian from Switzerland and Trace & Amit from Israel. In addition to driving in the same car and taking turns driving, we would also be cooking together which meant we needed to go shopping together.
It was an interesting experience trying to shop for food for 3 days for 6 people who didn’t know each other. Not only because we were all strangers but because dietary concerns were also brought into the mix. Andrew and I eat pretty much anything, but Melissa is a vegetarian and Amit and Trace keep Kosher. We spent a lot of time at the grocery store trying to figure out all the meals for 3 days but somehow we did it. We bought a lot of cheese for Melissa for her lunch sandwiches, turkey breast for the Israeli guys and sausage for everyone else. Dinner was much simpler as we made rice with veggies and chicken, but we cooked the chicken separately so Melissa could eat with us. On day 2 we had vegetarian pasta. The most interesting part was the alcohol. Melissa and I let the guys decide on the alcohol and I found it interesting that they only came out with 30 beers for the 3 days. I asked Andrew if he was sure this was enough and he said the other guys claimed they didn’t drink a lot. I knew 30 beers was nothing between 6 people but I also didn’t know if Andrew and I just drank a lot compared to the other people or if they really didn’t drink that much. I guessed we would find out. That evening we went to bed early as we had to get up quite early to get ready to leave. Fraser Island would turn out to be one of the more interesting experiences we would have in Australia.
The town of Rainbow Beach is quite small with only a handful of stores, but it has a very beautiful beach and large exquisite sand dunes. Unfortunately the water was quite rough and the wind quite cold so we couldn’t really go swimming. We walked around the town and tried to find the best deal for Fraser. We ended up booking with Tribal travel which included 3 nights at Pippies Hostel. We would be leaving to Fraser Island first thing tomorrow morning so we decided to spend our first night at Pippies that night (and shower ) and then use the remaining two free nights after we came back from Fraser Island.
That afternoon we attended the orientation session and met the people who would be in our cars. We had 6 people in our car, which was smaller than the usual 8. We thought this was nice since we would have more room in our car but it turned out we had more trunk space, not room for passengers. The people in our group consisted of me and Andrew, Melissa and Fabian from Switzerland and Trace & Amit from Israel. In addition to driving in the same car and taking turns driving, we would also be cooking together which meant we needed to go shopping together.
It was an interesting experience trying to shop for food for 3 days for 6 people who didn’t know each other. Not only because we were all strangers but because dietary concerns were also brought into the mix. Andrew and I eat pretty much anything, but Melissa is a vegetarian and Amit and Trace keep Kosher. We spent a lot of time at the grocery store trying to figure out all the meals for 3 days but somehow we did it. We bought a lot of cheese for Melissa for her lunch sandwiches, turkey breast for the Israeli guys and sausage for everyone else. Dinner was much simpler as we made rice with veggies and chicken, but we cooked the chicken separately so Melissa could eat with us. On day 2 we had vegetarian pasta. The most interesting part was the alcohol. Melissa and I let the guys decide on the alcohol and I found it interesting that they only came out with 30 beers for the 3 days. I asked Andrew if he was sure this was enough and he said the other guys claimed they didn’t drink a lot. I knew 30 beers was nothing between 6 people but I also didn’t know if Andrew and I just drank a lot compared to the other people or if they really didn’t drink that much. I guessed we would find out. That evening we went to bed early as we had to get up quite early to get ready to leave. Fraser Island would turn out to be one of the more interesting experiences we would have in Australia.
Beerwah
Beerwah was really just a free rest stop for us. We went there just to spend the night, make some food and then head to the Australia Zoo. We were excited as this was the first free rest stop we were staying at which we had found in our new book. We stayed there overnight and while getting ready to make something to eat we met a guy named Phil and started chatting with him. It turned out Phil is in the Australian Navy and was on a 2 week leave for a vacation. He was very friendly and even marked all the places we had to see all over Australia in our camping book. While talking with him we made breakfast and by the time we were done it was already 11:30am so we knew we had to get going to the zoo. We exchanged contact info with Phil and said goodbye.
We arrived at the Australia Zoo near noon. We were worried we wouldn’t have time to see everything we wanted to see but the ticket agent said we would need at least 4 hours to see everything, and since we’re quick tourists we knew we would have plenty of time to see everything. The entry tickets were $59 each, which we thought were quite expensive but we really wanted to visit the zoo. In addition we paid another $2 each to visit the animal hospital the zoo had set up.
The Australia Zoo was started by Steve Irwin’s (Crocodile Hunter) parents. Steve Irwin met his wife while they were both working there and then took over running the zoo later on. After Steve died his wife took over running the zoo. This is very much a family place and it’s especially evident in the letters, pictures and awards which are on display in Steve’s memory. I also found it to be a very personal place for Steve as you can see how involved with the zoo he really was. Everywhere you look there is a story from Steve’s perspective about each animal or from someone else’s perspective on how Steve was involved with that animal. An example of that are the crocodiles. Each croc has a plaque that says how it was saved or captured by Steve or his father. You can read about each adventure of how each animal arrived at the zoo. On display there are also items with stories behind them. For example, Steve’s boot with scratches on it from a croc bite where he explains how the bite happened. I loved reading all the firsthand accounts. Of course there is also a lot of information about Steve and his death and the letters the zoo received from his fans after he died.
Because we had spent so much time talking with Phil, we missed the “big croc feed” at 11am. That’s the big show the zoo puts on “Crocodile Hunter Style”. We were able to see the elephant show where they get washed and fed. Background information is provided about how the animals arrived at the zoo and how they are kept entertained. Apparently an Elephant’s mind is like that of a human 7 year old, but as the elephant keepers said “You don’t want a 2 ton 7 year old getting bored as they can cause a lot of havoc”. They keep them entertained by creating walking tracks for them by spreading peanut butter on the grass, or they go swimming in their pool, or they teach them commands to help with the grooming process. Basically they need to keep their minds stimulated so they don’t start getting bored.
We liked this zoo a lot more than the Featherdale Zoo we had visited while in Sydney because the grounds were much better maintained and you could tell the animals were well cared for. In Featherdale zoo the kangaroo’s had a small space where they could walk around whereas here they had acres. Also, here the staff walked around with some animals so as you were walking from one exhibition to the next, you could stop and pat a wombat (officially my new favourite animal), or you could pet and partially hold a baby crocodile. You could also tell all the trainers loved their job and were very dedicated to what they do. The tiger handlers get right into the tiger area and wrestle with the tigers. It takes years to build up a relationship like that with them. It was amazing to watch.
We then attended a croc feeding show. This was not as large as the one at 11am but we still were able to learn a little about how crocs hunt and watch the handlers feed them.
After the croc feeding we walked around the rest of the zoo and at the end we visited the animal hospital. It was great to see because the procedure/operation rooms are all behind soundproof glass and you are able to see as the vets work on animals and you can see right into the area where animals are recovering. While we were there the vets were working on a brown snake (one of the top 10 venomous snakes in the world) and another vet was walking around with a baby koala in her arms. The koala was sleeping but it had various tags attached to it which meant it was recovering from something. The koala was super cute and he looked like a little baby in the vet’s arms.
Once we left the zoo we started driving north once again. Since it’s winter here in Australia it gets dark fairly early. So when we arrived in Noosa around 7pm it was already very dark. We didn’t know very much about Noosa but had been told by some people it was worth a visit. The town looked nice enough. A very typical beach town. We parked at the beach and discovered they had free showers. I was very excited since we hadn’t showered in a couple of day. Living in the car is not that difficult except for the lack of certain amenities. Namely the toilet and the shower. The toilet situation we can typically figure out, but free showers are harder to come across. That’s why we were excited. And it looked like we weren’t the only backpackers with the same idea. There was only one shower stall and I had to wait for it to free up…and then there was a girl waiting after me. There was also a guy sitting right at the entrance with a laptop on his lap. I guess he needed to charge up his battery and this was the only plug he could find. The life of a backpacker…sitting around in shitty public bathrooms.
After we had both showered we drove around Noosa for a bit but it was a small town. The homes in the area seemed to suggest it wasn’t a poor town either. We didn’t plan on staying there mostly because we were heading towards Tin Can Bay to see some wild Dolphins.
We arrived in Tin Can bay around 10pm and decided to spend the night in the marina parking lot. Tin Can Bay is a tiny town which normally doesn’t make it on any tourist map. The main reason people come here (like us) is to see some wild dolphins. I guess the term “wild” is open to interpretation but basically these are dolphins that live in the wild but every morning come to the marina for a feeding.
We spent the night at the marina parking lot which wasn’t too bad because it was also right next to a public pool and therefore access to free bathrooms. Unfortunately they didn’t have showers but the running water where we could brush our teeth was nice. We woke up early in the morning and made our way over to the spot where the dolphins come. It’s near a café and I swear it’s almost like the café planned it this way. It was Sunday morning, 7am, and there were already at least 50 people there. I’m sure a lot of them had bought their breakfast there this morning. More importantly, the dolphins were already there was well.
The two dolphins were just hanging around in the water by the beach with one of the volunteers standing in between them. We could all get in the water with them and touch them if they would let us. Which they didn’t. There were too many excited kids splashing around for them to approach anyone too closely. The volunteer said our chances of the dolphins letting us touch them would increase if we would hold still. He also explained how this feeding started taking place. Apparently in the 1950’s a hurt dolphin was found in the marina by some fisherman and over a 2 month period they nursed him back to health. Once he was well he swam away and they thought that was the end of him in the marina. However the next morning he showed up again and that is how the morning feedings started. Over time he would bring his “girlfriends” and his kids. Once he died his oldest child, in this case a female, took over and she started bringing her family to feed. Once she passed away her son took over and now he brings his family to feed every morning. He apparently has 5 girlfriends but only 1 of them accompanies him to the feedings along with his son. The volunteers think his son will take over once this dominant male dies. This morning it was only the dominant male and one of his girlfriends. His son did not come in. At first I thought it wasn’t a good thing to keep feeding the dolphins because then they don’t learn how to hunt for themselves but apparently they only feed them 25% of their daily required food intake. They still have to hunt for the remaining 75% alone. In addition, the dominant male must hunt for food for all of his girlfriends.
I loved learning about the dolphins and their “lifestyle”. Around 8am we could feed the dolphins if we wanted to by purchasing a $5 bucked that contained 1 fish. We could then take the bucket, walk into the water and hand feed the dolphin the 1 fish. It was more like throwing it to him. Andrew and I chose not to participate. It wasn’t worth the money and we had at least gotten to see the dolphins whether we fed them or not. The surprising thing to me was how many people did want to participate in the feeding. There were at least 100 people lined up to purchase the buckets. And that’s not counting the buckets they were also buying for their kids. This café must make a killing on these fish.
We arrived at the Australia Zoo near noon. We were worried we wouldn’t have time to see everything we wanted to see but the ticket agent said we would need at least 4 hours to see everything, and since we’re quick tourists we knew we would have plenty of time to see everything. The entry tickets were $59 each, which we thought were quite expensive but we really wanted to visit the zoo. In addition we paid another $2 each to visit the animal hospital the zoo had set up.
The Australia Zoo was started by Steve Irwin’s (Crocodile Hunter) parents. Steve Irwin met his wife while they were both working there and then took over running the zoo later on. After Steve died his wife took over running the zoo. This is very much a family place and it’s especially evident in the letters, pictures and awards which are on display in Steve’s memory. I also found it to be a very personal place for Steve as you can see how involved with the zoo he really was. Everywhere you look there is a story from Steve’s perspective about each animal or from someone else’s perspective on how Steve was involved with that animal. An example of that are the crocodiles. Each croc has a plaque that says how it was saved or captured by Steve or his father. You can read about each adventure of how each animal arrived at the zoo. On display there are also items with stories behind them. For example, Steve’s boot with scratches on it from a croc bite where he explains how the bite happened. I loved reading all the firsthand accounts. Of course there is also a lot of information about Steve and his death and the letters the zoo received from his fans after he died.
Because we had spent so much time talking with Phil, we missed the “big croc feed” at 11am. That’s the big show the zoo puts on “Crocodile Hunter Style”. We were able to see the elephant show where they get washed and fed. Background information is provided about how the animals arrived at the zoo and how they are kept entertained. Apparently an Elephant’s mind is like that of a human 7 year old, but as the elephant keepers said “You don’t want a 2 ton 7 year old getting bored as they can cause a lot of havoc”. They keep them entertained by creating walking tracks for them by spreading peanut butter on the grass, or they go swimming in their pool, or they teach them commands to help with the grooming process. Basically they need to keep their minds stimulated so they don’t start getting bored.
We liked this zoo a lot more than the Featherdale Zoo we had visited while in Sydney because the grounds were much better maintained and you could tell the animals were well cared for. In Featherdale zoo the kangaroo’s had a small space where they could walk around whereas here they had acres. Also, here the staff walked around with some animals so as you were walking from one exhibition to the next, you could stop and pat a wombat (officially my new favourite animal), or you could pet and partially hold a baby crocodile. You could also tell all the trainers loved their job and were very dedicated to what they do. The tiger handlers get right into the tiger area and wrestle with the tigers. It takes years to build up a relationship like that with them. It was amazing to watch.
We then attended a croc feeding show. This was not as large as the one at 11am but we still were able to learn a little about how crocs hunt and watch the handlers feed them.
After the croc feeding we walked around the rest of the zoo and at the end we visited the animal hospital. It was great to see because the procedure/operation rooms are all behind soundproof glass and you are able to see as the vets work on animals and you can see right into the area where animals are recovering. While we were there the vets were working on a brown snake (one of the top 10 venomous snakes in the world) and another vet was walking around with a baby koala in her arms. The koala was sleeping but it had various tags attached to it which meant it was recovering from something. The koala was super cute and he looked like a little baby in the vet’s arms.
Once we left the zoo we started driving north once again. Since it’s winter here in Australia it gets dark fairly early. So when we arrived in Noosa around 7pm it was already very dark. We didn’t know very much about Noosa but had been told by some people it was worth a visit. The town looked nice enough. A very typical beach town. We parked at the beach and discovered they had free showers. I was very excited since we hadn’t showered in a couple of day. Living in the car is not that difficult except for the lack of certain amenities. Namely the toilet and the shower. The toilet situation we can typically figure out, but free showers are harder to come across. That’s why we were excited. And it looked like we weren’t the only backpackers with the same idea. There was only one shower stall and I had to wait for it to free up…and then there was a girl waiting after me. There was also a guy sitting right at the entrance with a laptop on his lap. I guess he needed to charge up his battery and this was the only plug he could find. The life of a backpacker…sitting around in shitty public bathrooms.
After we had both showered we drove around Noosa for a bit but it was a small town. The homes in the area seemed to suggest it wasn’t a poor town either. We didn’t plan on staying there mostly because we were heading towards Tin Can Bay to see some wild Dolphins.
We arrived in Tin Can bay around 10pm and decided to spend the night in the marina parking lot. Tin Can Bay is a tiny town which normally doesn’t make it on any tourist map. The main reason people come here (like us) is to see some wild dolphins. I guess the term “wild” is open to interpretation but basically these are dolphins that live in the wild but every morning come to the marina for a feeding.
We spent the night at the marina parking lot which wasn’t too bad because it was also right next to a public pool and therefore access to free bathrooms. Unfortunately they didn’t have showers but the running water where we could brush our teeth was nice. We woke up early in the morning and made our way over to the spot where the dolphins come. It’s near a café and I swear it’s almost like the café planned it this way. It was Sunday morning, 7am, and there were already at least 50 people there. I’m sure a lot of them had bought their breakfast there this morning. More importantly, the dolphins were already there was well.
The two dolphins were just hanging around in the water by the beach with one of the volunteers standing in between them. We could all get in the water with them and touch them if they would let us. Which they didn’t. There were too many excited kids splashing around for them to approach anyone too closely. The volunteer said our chances of the dolphins letting us touch them would increase if we would hold still. He also explained how this feeding started taking place. Apparently in the 1950’s a hurt dolphin was found in the marina by some fisherman and over a 2 month period they nursed him back to health. Once he was well he swam away and they thought that was the end of him in the marina. However the next morning he showed up again and that is how the morning feedings started. Over time he would bring his “girlfriends” and his kids. Once he died his oldest child, in this case a female, took over and she started bringing her family to feed. Once she passed away her son took over and now he brings his family to feed every morning. He apparently has 5 girlfriends but only 1 of them accompanies him to the feedings along with his son. The volunteers think his son will take over once this dominant male dies. This morning it was only the dominant male and one of his girlfriends. His son did not come in. At first I thought it wasn’t a good thing to keep feeding the dolphins because then they don’t learn how to hunt for themselves but apparently they only feed them 25% of their daily required food intake. They still have to hunt for the remaining 75% alone. In addition, the dominant male must hunt for food for all of his girlfriends.
I loved learning about the dolphins and their “lifestyle”. Around 8am we could feed the dolphins if we wanted to by purchasing a $5 bucked that contained 1 fish. We could then take the bucket, walk into the water and hand feed the dolphin the 1 fish. It was more like throwing it to him. Andrew and I chose not to participate. It wasn’t worth the money and we had at least gotten to see the dolphins whether we fed them or not. The surprising thing to me was how many people did want to participate in the feeding. There were at least 100 people lined up to purchase the buckets. And that’s not counting the buckets they were also buying for their kids. This café must make a killing on these fish.
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