On Wednesday we had to be up early (6am) to start our 2 night camping trip on Fraser Island. There was quite a lot of prep work to be done. To start with we were put into groups (9 in our group), and had to decide what food/drink we would need for the 3 days, 2 nights. 2 people then went shopping for that while the rest of us went to collect our camping stuff and pack the cars. After all this was done we drove over to the boat to take us over to Fraser Island. We had an itinary for Fraser Island, and could only drive during certain times of the day because when the tide was in it was impossible to drive on the beach. On the first day we went to Lake Wabby. After parking up on the beach it was a 45 minute walk to the lake (not an easy walk either). After getting there, and taking a few pictures it was then another 45 minutes back!! We made sandwiches then for lunch and then headed on to Eli Creek. We walked in the creek for a while, which is nice as it's fresh water that feeds into the sea. It's the biggest creek on the island that does this. Just down the beach from Eli Creek then was the Maheno Shipwreck. This was quite amazing to see. By this time it was getting on for 5 o'clock - the time we had to head to camp for the night.
We arrived at camp, and after a talk (don't feed the dingoes and other do's and don'ts) we put up the tents. This wasn't all that easy, but we managed it in the end. Apparently it was a 6 man tent but I have no idea where these 6 people were going to go. There were 3 of us in ours, and we could have got 1 more in. For food on the first night we had a barbie, washed down with plenty of goon to help us sleep!! That first night in the tent wasn't very comfortable, and no-one slept much.
We couldn't leave Base camp until 10:30 on day 2 because of the tide and we then headed towards Indian head. On the way there we saw a seal on the beach. Didn't think much of it until someone told us later on that it was very rare for seals to be on the beach there, and it had been reported. It was a baby one, and had probably got lost. Indian head was a stunning place. The sea was so pretty - loads of different colours of blue. You could see the animals swimming in it, and I was luck enough when I was there to see whales in the background jumping, and then sharks, turtles and fish swimming in the sea from the cliff where I was sitting. After seeing this we had lunch (sarnies again) and then walked for about 45 minutes along the beach towards Champagne Pools. The walk was a lot nicer than the Lake Wabby one, especially as you could walk with your feet in the water the whole way. It was really nice to sit on rocks here with feet dangling in the water. Until one point where I thought I'd knocked Maggie's foot with mine, looked down and saw a huge crab. It had knocked into me and Maggie at the same time. Thankfully it didn't pinch us, but we still moved quite quickly!!
We got back to Base Camp by 5 again that night. For food that night we had pasta with sauce and loads of veg in it. After food we all walked down to the beach, and lay down in the sand looking up at the stars. It was a very clear night and there were loads of stars. We also saw several shooting stars too. We were all shattered though and were in bed before 9!!
Day 3 started really early. We had to be leaving base camp by 6am to miss full tide. That meant getting up and ready, pulling the tents down and packing up the car by 6. 4:45am is probably my earliest morning here yet (though I have had a 5 I think!!). After packing up the car we headed to Lake Birrabeen. It took 2 hours to get there because it's very tough driving off the beach on Fraser Island. (There had been 2 accidents there with the company we were going with in the past 10 days). It was a very bumpy ride and there were times when you were almost flying off the seat (thankfully we had seatbelts - though not a proper one!). We didn't stay long at Lake Birrabeen because we knew we were heading to Lake McKenzie later on, which is in the top 10 of places to visit in the world (apparently Whitehaven beach in the Whitsundays where I was last weekend is in the top 5!). After Lake Birrabeen we headed onto Central Station. This was more a history thing, and had information about Fraser Island. After here we went to Lake McKenzie. It was a really pretty place. It is really nice to swim in freshwater lakes. We stayed there for a while before having lunch and heading back to the boat.
After arriving back in Hervey Bay and sorting the car and stuff out, we decided rather than fight with tons of other people for the showers to go to the pub. We went to an Irish bar and had a pint, only then to go to the hostel for food and a jug of beer for $8. It was Halloween so loads of people had dressed up. After finishing there I phoned Mam, had a shower, and went to bed. It wasn't even 9 so thought I'd read for a while and never thought I'd read coz the pub is right next to my dorm room, but after 2 pages of the book I fell asleep and didn't hear a single thing!! I did wake up this morning with a bad back though (prob a result of bouncing in that car for most of yesterday and sleeping on the floor pretty much for the last 2 nights!).
Fraser Island was a really pretty place, and I saw lots of wildlife (sharks, dolphins, whales, turtles, a seal, dingoes and a baby snake), but there is nothing like a proper bed and a pillow!!!
Friday 31 October 2008
Monday 27 October 2008
Tuesday 28/10/08 - Still in Hervey Bay
Been in Hervey Bay for 5 days now, and not done all that much. We went for a walk down onto the esplanade, and found that there weren't that many shops there. I went on the bus into the local shopping centre, but there actually aren't that many shops there. The woman at reception in our hostel asked if we had a bit of time to spare (strangely enough we did!!) and whether we fancied taking the hostel's puppy for a walk down the beach. There wasn't much else to do so decided that we might as well!!! Dora the puppy was pretty big and very lively. It wasn't so much a walk as a run to start with, and then Sinead took over on the beach and ended up completely covered with sand!!! We did get free internet access at the hostel for our efforts though, which was good.
We booked a whale watching trip while we were here, and went Sunday afternoon. We really hoped we'd see something as it's coming to the end of the season, and the trips are stopping in the next week or 2. But, on the boat they said that they had seen more whales this year than ever before. We saw quite a few, and they were all mothers and babies. They were very interested in the boat though and kept coming up and nosing, and the mothers would show off their babies!! Because it's the end of the season, all the males have already gone for the Summer. Other than that we haven't actually done much here. We bought a box of goon when we arrived and it pretty much lasted us our time in the hostel, I have watched more tv in the last few days, than I have since leaving the UK!! We also had an organised day where I spent ages on the computer sorting out all my future trips, especially for Melbourne and the red centre in January. Doing that though has made me realise how little time I have here and how quick the time is actually going. I've been here 6 weeks today, which is really strange!!!
We have changed hostels today to the beaches hostel, because we get 2 free nights with our Fraser Island camping package. We are off tomorrow morning on the 3 day 2 night trip. It's gonna be an experience!!! After that the plan is to head to Rainbow Beach on Saturday for the night, and then down to Brisbane on Sunday where I plan to stay for 2 or 3 weeks.
We booked a whale watching trip while we were here, and went Sunday afternoon. We really hoped we'd see something as it's coming to the end of the season, and the trips are stopping in the next week or 2. But, on the boat they said that they had seen more whales this year than ever before. We saw quite a few, and they were all mothers and babies. They were very interested in the boat though and kept coming up and nosing, and the mothers would show off their babies!! Because it's the end of the season, all the males have already gone for the Summer. Other than that we haven't actually done much here. We bought a box of goon when we arrived and it pretty much lasted us our time in the hostel, I have watched more tv in the last few days, than I have since leaving the UK!! We also had an organised day where I spent ages on the computer sorting out all my future trips, especially for Melbourne and the red centre in January. Doing that though has made me realise how little time I have here and how quick the time is actually going. I've been here 6 weeks today, which is really strange!!!
We have changed hostels today to the beaches hostel, because we get 2 free nights with our Fraser Island camping package. We are off tomorrow morning on the 3 day 2 night trip. It's gonna be an experience!!! After that the plan is to head to Rainbow Beach on Saturday for the night, and then down to Brisbane on Sunday where I plan to stay for 2 or 3 weeks.
Thursday 23 October 2008
Friday 24th October - arrived at Hervey Bay
Went out for the drinks Monday night with the people from the boat trip, and a lot of the original ozintro group came out aswell so it ended up being a very good (and drunk!!) night. Most of the following day was wasted with me not moving far from the hostel to McDonalds and back again!! Wednesday morning I had to get up early (5:45am) to catch the OzExperience bus down to Hervey Bay. It would take 2 days to get there as we were stopping at a cattle ranch overnight. We got to the cattle ranch at around 6pm, had a beer and waited for food. For food we had soup to start followed by a roast dinner. It was really nice. After food we learnt how to crack a whip (I managed it!!), and then saw how long we could stay on a mechanical bull (I didn't manage that 2 well!!). Then had a couple more beers and went to bed. This was the scary part. There were bugs and cobwebs everywhere on the cattle ranch, and the gap at the bottom of the door was massive. The were also huge gaps in the wall (a ghecko got in and was wondering around). The toilets were outside, so tried to make sure I didn't need to go in the middle of the night!! Didn't manage that!!! One of the girls in the next room had a mouse in her bag that night, and another one the next morning!!
Needless to say I didn't sleep too well that night, and was awake from about 4am listening to the birds. We then had our alarm call at 6am. This was a man standing outside our room shouting that it was 6am, check out was open, breakfast was ready, and we all needed to be on the bus by 7am. He then fired 3 shots from his gun up into the air. I've got to admit it wasn't the best way to be woken up!! Some people had chosen to go horse riding and clay pigeon shooting. I didn't want to do these so assumed I could sit at the cattle ranch or on the bus and read/sleep. I was wrong. We all had to go and take part in activities such as wrestling with goats and standing in a circle and being shocked with a cattle prod. We were all holding hands so the current went around the whole circle. At 7am I don't really find this fun, so needless to say wasn't impressed!!!
After all this the people going horse riding and the people not were split into 2 groups. The group not horse riding were basically told to walk to the top of a hill. It would take 20 mins, but we had 2 hours to get back to the bus. After about 10-15 mins of walking, 2 of us had enough, made our way back to the cattle ranch where we bought chocolate, sat, ate and complained!!! 2 hours later we had to catch the bus. We then had 6 hours to sit on a bus to get to our final destination. We weren't in the best of moods when we arrived at Hervey Bay, and had no idea how to get to our hostel. 2 of us went for a cheaper hostel than everyone else to save a bit of money, but we were stuck at a shopping centre with our bags, while the other hostels had minibuses to collect people, we didn't. We asked the OzExperience bus driver how to get there and he said that he knew where it was but didn't know how we were going to get there. He wasn't the most helpful of people!!! We got the phone number of the hostel from the lonely planet guide, phoned them up and they sent a car to collect us. At this point we were thinking that this place would be a dump after the last 2 days, and because it was cheaper than everywhere else, so were just waiting to see where we would be sleeping for the next 2 nights.
We were pleasantly surprised. The hostel was lovely. It was very homely, had plants and incense sticks, etc in the room, had a huge common room with kitchen, tv room, etc. and it was small so not many people staying there. There were also magazines in the room for us to read. On the way over to the hostel we had stopped at a bottle shop to buy goon ($13 for 4 litres - that about 6 quid), and sat in the hostel room, drinking goon out of plastic cups - very classy. After cooking food we had an early night. We haven't done much today. We went to the supermarket and found out that a saying about Hervey Bay was very true. One book has said that it is God's Waiting Room, because people come here to die basically. We walked into the supermarket and the average age was about 80!!! We then passed a sign on the street for meals on wheels!!! Despite this though, Hervey Bay is a nice place to chill for a few days, before doing Fraser Island trip next week.
Needless to say I didn't sleep too well that night, and was awake from about 4am listening to the birds. We then had our alarm call at 6am. This was a man standing outside our room shouting that it was 6am, check out was open, breakfast was ready, and we all needed to be on the bus by 7am. He then fired 3 shots from his gun up into the air. I've got to admit it wasn't the best way to be woken up!! Some people had chosen to go horse riding and clay pigeon shooting. I didn't want to do these so assumed I could sit at the cattle ranch or on the bus and read/sleep. I was wrong. We all had to go and take part in activities such as wrestling with goats and standing in a circle and being shocked with a cattle prod. We were all holding hands so the current went around the whole circle. At 7am I don't really find this fun, so needless to say wasn't impressed!!!
After all this the people going horse riding and the people not were split into 2 groups. The group not horse riding were basically told to walk to the top of a hill. It would take 20 mins, but we had 2 hours to get back to the bus. After about 10-15 mins of walking, 2 of us had enough, made our way back to the cattle ranch where we bought chocolate, sat, ate and complained!!! 2 hours later we had to catch the bus. We then had 6 hours to sit on a bus to get to our final destination. We weren't in the best of moods when we arrived at Hervey Bay, and had no idea how to get to our hostel. 2 of us went for a cheaper hostel than everyone else to save a bit of money, but we were stuck at a shopping centre with our bags, while the other hostels had minibuses to collect people, we didn't. We asked the OzExperience bus driver how to get there and he said that he knew where it was but didn't know how we were going to get there. He wasn't the most helpful of people!!! We got the phone number of the hostel from the lonely planet guide, phoned them up and they sent a car to collect us. At this point we were thinking that this place would be a dump after the last 2 days, and because it was cheaper than everywhere else, so were just waiting to see where we would be sleeping for the next 2 nights.
We were pleasantly surprised. The hostel was lovely. It was very homely, had plants and incense sticks, etc in the room, had a huge common room with kitchen, tv room, etc. and it was small so not many people staying there. There were also magazines in the room for us to read. On the way over to the hostel we had stopped at a bottle shop to buy goon ($13 for 4 litres - that about 6 quid), and sat in the hostel room, drinking goon out of plastic cups - very classy. After cooking food we had an early night. We haven't done much today. We went to the supermarket and found out that a saying about Hervey Bay was very true. One book has said that it is God's Waiting Room, because people come here to die basically. We walked into the supermarket and the average age was about 80!!! We then passed a sign on the street for meals on wheels!!! Despite this though, Hervey Bay is a nice place to chill for a few days, before doing Fraser Island trip next week.
Sunday 19 October 2008
Monday October 20th - Whitsunday Island Trip
I got back today from my sailing trip around the Whitsunday Islands. It was fantastic. The Whitsundays are a group of 74 islands, to the east of Australia, that's surrounded by the Great Barrier Reef. We left on Saturday at lunchtime, then sailed for a few hours to get out to the Whitsundays. The name of our boat was Powerplay. It was pretty rough on the way out, and half the boat were feeling ill!! We eventually arrived though, and got ready to go out into the water. This was at a bay called Luncheon bay. I went snorkelling here. I did try scuba diving, but it's not for me!!! I'm sticking to the snorkelling. It was a fantastic. We saw loads of fish and coral. It was like swimming in a tropical fish tank. Some of the fish were pretty big, and would just swim up to you.
After that we headed back on the boat for a snack of cheese and crackers, and then settled for the night. We all took alcohol on with us so we could drink that, and had barbequed chicken and salad for food. After getting on the boat, they started showing people to their room. Me and Sinead were 2 of the last ones to be shown, and when they came to us in the saloon (the lounge of the boat) they basically said you are sleeping here. We asked where and they said the table. We both looked at each other and laughed thinking that they were joking, but they were serious. They could lower the table, put a mattress on it and that was a queen size bed for me and Sinead to share for the night. There were 2 tables in the saloon, and 2 crew members were sleeping on the other one!! There were also 4 girls sleeping above us on top of the back of the chairs. Sleeping where we were though meant that we had no shelter because you walked right out from the room onto the deck. We just kept laughing at this, but it turned out that we had a much better deak than everyone else. They all had tiny rooms, that were just a bed basically. It was so stuffy downstairs, that everyone woke up the next morning feeling pretty rough. I had a pretty ok night sleep considering it got really blustery during the night and the boat was really rocking.
The next morning the skipper started moving around at 5:30 getting things ready to move on. She actually thought it was 6:30, and the rest of the crew weren't amused. It meant though that we got moving earlier so could fit more into the day. We went snorkelling again at another bay that morning after breakfast, which was really good again, though it did start raining, got quite blustery and cold!! After that we travelled down to tongue bay, and Whitehaven beach, which is stunning. Whitehaven beach has got the softest sand - 98% Silica. Apparently it is the most photographed beach in Australia. It really was stunning. We stayed around on the beach for a while taking silly photos of us posing and of the views, and then headed back to the boat ready to sail to our sleep destination fo the night. After getting back, we had food, a few drinks and a really good laugh. There happened to be 5 Irish people onboard, and we all laughed so much!! The crew were taking photos of the trip, and every evening we watched a slideshow of the photos. That night I had a really good night sleep. It apparently rained hard during the night, everyone downstairs heard it but me and Sinead were quite happy upstairs and didn't hear a thing. We were pretty much outside and didn't hear anything. Woke up at 6am then ready to go for a walk on another beach that morning. We left the boat at 6:30 to go for a short 1km walk that took us from one beach to another. The walk reminded me of Autumn at home because it was a narrow track and it was covered with brown, orange and yellow leaves that had fallen off the trees.
After the walk and breakfast, we headed back to Airlie Beach, which was the end of our trip!! It was a fantastic few days. Don't think I've laughed that much in ages!! And saw some fantastic and stunning sights. Everyone from the boat is meeting up for drinks and a bit of food tonight, so that'll be good.
After that we headed back on the boat for a snack of cheese and crackers, and then settled for the night. We all took alcohol on with us so we could drink that, and had barbequed chicken and salad for food. After getting on the boat, they started showing people to their room. Me and Sinead were 2 of the last ones to be shown, and when they came to us in the saloon (the lounge of the boat) they basically said you are sleeping here. We asked where and they said the table. We both looked at each other and laughed thinking that they were joking, but they were serious. They could lower the table, put a mattress on it and that was a queen size bed for me and Sinead to share for the night. There were 2 tables in the saloon, and 2 crew members were sleeping on the other one!! There were also 4 girls sleeping above us on top of the back of the chairs. Sleeping where we were though meant that we had no shelter because you walked right out from the room onto the deck. We just kept laughing at this, but it turned out that we had a much better deak than everyone else. They all had tiny rooms, that were just a bed basically. It was so stuffy downstairs, that everyone woke up the next morning feeling pretty rough. I had a pretty ok night sleep considering it got really blustery during the night and the boat was really rocking.
The next morning the skipper started moving around at 5:30 getting things ready to move on. She actually thought it was 6:30, and the rest of the crew weren't amused. It meant though that we got moving earlier so could fit more into the day. We went snorkelling again at another bay that morning after breakfast, which was really good again, though it did start raining, got quite blustery and cold!! After that we travelled down to tongue bay, and Whitehaven beach, which is stunning. Whitehaven beach has got the softest sand - 98% Silica. Apparently it is the most photographed beach in Australia. It really was stunning. We stayed around on the beach for a while taking silly photos of us posing and of the views, and then headed back to the boat ready to sail to our sleep destination fo the night. After getting back, we had food, a few drinks and a really good laugh. There happened to be 5 Irish people onboard, and we all laughed so much!! The crew were taking photos of the trip, and every evening we watched a slideshow of the photos. That night I had a really good night sleep. It apparently rained hard during the night, everyone downstairs heard it but me and Sinead were quite happy upstairs and didn't hear a thing. We were pretty much outside and didn't hear anything. Woke up at 6am then ready to go for a walk on another beach that morning. We left the boat at 6:30 to go for a short 1km walk that took us from one beach to another. The walk reminded me of Autumn at home because it was a narrow track and it was covered with brown, orange and yellow leaves that had fallen off the trees.
After the walk and breakfast, we headed back to Airlie Beach, which was the end of our trip!! It was a fantastic few days. Don't think I've laughed that much in ages!! And saw some fantastic and stunning sights. Everyone from the boat is meeting up for drinks and a bit of food tonight, so that'll be good.
Thursday 16 October 2008
Friday 17th October - Maggie Island to Airlie Beach
After spending the day in the car on Monday, me and Sinead caught the boat over to Townsville on Tuesday to do a bit of shopping. The centre of Townsville to be honest wasn't that great. There was just a handfull of shops, and that was it. Went to a tourist information point to see what else there was to do and we were told that there were other shopping centres. Managed to catch a but and head out to one of these shopping centres, and to be honest it was much better than Townsville centre. We spent a few hours there, before heading back to the centre. In the centre we met up with Bethan and Elin, and had a chat with them before heading back over to Maggie Island on the boat, for an evening of drinking and eating.
Didn't leave the hostel on Wednesday at all. Spent my time on the internet booking flights to Melbourne for December (managed to get a return for 78 quid), and looking at hostels. Also spent time on the beach that's pretty much attached to the hostel just chilling and watching the divers do their course. Maggie and Chris are 2 of these divers. It was a bit worrying though, there was a croc that had made it's way into one of the bays on Maggie Island. It was just round the corner from where we were staying. It was quite big news in the area, and there were people keeping an eye on it, making sure it didn't get any closer into the bay. If it did that they were going to attempt to push it back out into the sea. The croc hadn't moved by the time that me and Sinead left, but Maggie sent me a message earlier saying her diving course had to be stopped on Thursday because the croc had moved into where they were diving, which was the bay I had been staying in.
We had to check out of base on Thursday, catch the boat over to Townsville, ready to catch the Oz Experience bus to take us to Airlie Beach. The bus journey took about 4 hours. I'm not looking forward to the next one though, it takes around 10 hours!! We checked into the Beaches hostel at Airlie Beach, and it's got a pretty good bar underneath. Me and Sinead and a few other we'd met went down for a few drinks, but then had quite an early night. So far today we haven't done too much. We got a bus out to the supermarket to stock up on some food, and that's about it. There doesn't seem to be much to do on Airlie Beach, so we will probably be moving on pretty quickly after the 2 day boat trip that we are doing Saturday til Monday.
Didn't leave the hostel on Wednesday at all. Spent my time on the internet booking flights to Melbourne for December (managed to get a return for 78 quid), and looking at hostels. Also spent time on the beach that's pretty much attached to the hostel just chilling and watching the divers do their course. Maggie and Chris are 2 of these divers. It was a bit worrying though, there was a croc that had made it's way into one of the bays on Maggie Island. It was just round the corner from where we were staying. It was quite big news in the area, and there were people keeping an eye on it, making sure it didn't get any closer into the bay. If it did that they were going to attempt to push it back out into the sea. The croc hadn't moved by the time that me and Sinead left, but Maggie sent me a message earlier saying her diving course had to be stopped on Thursday because the croc had moved into where they were diving, which was the bay I had been staying in.
We had to check out of base on Thursday, catch the boat over to Townsville, ready to catch the Oz Experience bus to take us to Airlie Beach. The bus journey took about 4 hours. I'm not looking forward to the next one though, it takes around 10 hours!! We checked into the Beaches hostel at Airlie Beach, and it's got a pretty good bar underneath. Me and Sinead and a few other we'd met went down for a few drinks, but then had quite an early night. So far today we haven't done too much. We got a bus out to the supermarket to stock up on some food, and that's about it. There doesn't seem to be much to do on Airlie Beach, so we will probably be moving on pretty quickly after the 2 day boat trip that we are doing Saturday til Monday.
Sunday 12 October 2008
Monday 13th October - Mission beach to Maggie Island
Caught the water taxi over to Dunk Island last Thursday - it only took about 10 mins to get over there. Once we'd arrived we found somewhere to have some food, and then just chilled for a few hours. I found a deckchair but the sea, read, listened to my ipod, and then swam in the sea when it got too hot!! After catching the water taxi back we decided to get ready and head into Mission Beach that was about 6kms away because there was a pool night in one of the local pubs and it was promising to be a good night. It wasn't. It ended up being pretty boring, only 2 pubs open and no bottle-shop so couldn't even get some booze and head down to the beach.
We had to check out of Scotty's on Friday because we were catching the Oz Experience bus down to Magnetic Island. The bus picked us up about 1pm, and then slowly headed down to Townsville, where we caught the ferry over to Magnetic (Maggie) Island. There was a full moon at our hostel Friday night. These were supposed to be really good parties, so we were all looking forward to that. We got to our hostel, changed, had food and then waited for the party to start. It wasn't as busy as we thought it would be, it wasn't a full moon, we weren't allowed on the beach, and the music was rubbish. We all got pretty drunk and enjoyed though. It finished at around 5:30am, and because it was starting to get light a few of us decided to watch the sunrise over the sea. Unfortunately it was cloudy so all we saw was the sky getting lighter!!!
Saturday didn't really happen for most of us - it was a day spent sleeping. I did manage to get up by about 10:30 though, have a cooked breakfast, and then head back to bed. The next thing that I knew it was 4pm. A few of us got up then and headed out for more food, before having an early night!!
Sunday was a bit more energetic! We headed to a koala sanctuary. That was really good. I got to hold a koala, a snake, a baby croc, a big bird and a blue tongued skink. It was a really good afternoon. After that we stayed around there and had food (pizza!) and a few drinks.
Got up quite early today (Monday) and caught the bus to take us to a car rental place. I hired a pink tropical topless car with furry steering wheel cover and everything!! We then spent the day travelling around the island (that worked out to be pretty small). We saw some rock wallabies on our travels though, which was fun.
We had to check out of Scotty's on Friday because we were catching the Oz Experience bus down to Magnetic Island. The bus picked us up about 1pm, and then slowly headed down to Townsville, where we caught the ferry over to Magnetic (Maggie) Island. There was a full moon at our hostel Friday night. These were supposed to be really good parties, so we were all looking forward to that. We got to our hostel, changed, had food and then waited for the party to start. It wasn't as busy as we thought it would be, it wasn't a full moon, we weren't allowed on the beach, and the music was rubbish. We all got pretty drunk and enjoyed though. It finished at around 5:30am, and because it was starting to get light a few of us decided to watch the sunrise over the sea. Unfortunately it was cloudy so all we saw was the sky getting lighter!!!
Saturday didn't really happen for most of us - it was a day spent sleeping. I did manage to get up by about 10:30 though, have a cooked breakfast, and then head back to bed. The next thing that I knew it was 4pm. A few of us got up then and headed out for more food, before having an early night!!
Sunday was a bit more energetic! We headed to a koala sanctuary. That was really good. I got to hold a koala, a snake, a baby croc, a big bird and a blue tongued skink. It was a really good afternoon. After that we stayed around there and had food (pizza!) and a few drinks.
Got up quite early today (Monday) and caught the bus to take us to a car rental place. I hired a pink tropical topless car with furry steering wheel cover and everything!! We then spent the day travelling around the island (that worked out to be pretty small). We saw some rock wallabies on our travels though, which was fun.
Wednesday 8 October 2008
Thursday October 9th
We all had the barbie Monday night, that Annie cooked. After that it was a few drinks and then bed! On Tuesday a lot of the group went sky diving. The first 3 went at 7 in the morning. I planned to go and watch them land on the beach, but they got back before I was ready!! They were quicker than I thought. And they actually landed on the next beach up and not the one outside the hostel. They next 3 went at about 1. The driver told them that they would be landing on the next beach up so a few of us managed to get a lift over to watch them. We waited for ages, and one group landed but none of our friends, and then another plane went up and they landed, but again still no-one from our group. We went and asked one of the instructors where they were, and they said they had requested to land on the beach outside the hostel and had phoned up to let us know, because they didn't know that we would have got a lift to the next beach. So we managed to miss them aswell!!
After that I went and posted a box of clothes back home, stuff that I haven't been wearing -thought it would make my bag lighter to carry! After that me and Maggie had a walk around Mission Beach, but there was only a handful of shops there, and it was so hot. We got back to the hostel, and jumped in the pool!! The bar next to the hostel has free wine (well goon!) between 5:30 and 6:30 so we made sure we were there for that, and afterwards we stayed for food. I ate kangaroo. They will only cook it rare or medium rare, because any more than that makes the kangaroo tough, so I ate it medium rare. I managed to eat most of it, but the rest seemed to disappear into other people's mouths!! The kangaroo was pretty good though. After a few more drinks, we went to the tv room to watch people's sky dive dvd's. They were really funny, seeing their faces as they were sitting on the plane waiting and when they first jumped out!!
Yesterday (Wednesday) I had to get up pretty early because I was going whitewater rafting with Maggie and Chris. We had a fantastic day, stopped for a barbie at lunch time, and spent the rest of the time rafting. There were 9 boats all together, and the rest all seemed to sit down in the boat to go through the rapids, but our instructor made sure that we worked through them by paddling, saying that we were properly rafting, and not just on a disneyland ride!! It was great fun. Got a couple of bruises for my efforts, but that's about it. There was one point where he said that he was going to make us purposefully fall into the water, that was fun. Every boat did that, but later on we stayed back behind the other groups, and he told us that he was going to tip the boat with us in it. We were the only group to do this, but again it was a really good laugh. We were all completely shattered afterwards, but still managed a couple of beers, before making our way to the pub next door for the free wine. There was a pool competition on there and between 8:30 and 9:30 all the ladies had free champagne. All you can drink - made the most of that 2!! All night I had bought one glass of wine that was $4 so about 2 quid. Probably one of the cheapest nights out I've had for a while!! We ate at the pub again, and I had lamb t-bones this time. But, there were cooked rare. I managed to eat about half of them. But once again, my leftovers were cleared up!!!
Managed to have a little lie-in this morning, and then having a lazy morning, before going over to Dunk Island @ 12:30. Looking forward to that, and getting there on a water taxi.
After that I went and posted a box of clothes back home, stuff that I haven't been wearing -thought it would make my bag lighter to carry! After that me and Maggie had a walk around Mission Beach, but there was only a handful of shops there, and it was so hot. We got back to the hostel, and jumped in the pool!! The bar next to the hostel has free wine (well goon!) between 5:30 and 6:30 so we made sure we were there for that, and afterwards we stayed for food. I ate kangaroo. They will only cook it rare or medium rare, because any more than that makes the kangaroo tough, so I ate it medium rare. I managed to eat most of it, but the rest seemed to disappear into other people's mouths!! The kangaroo was pretty good though. After a few more drinks, we went to the tv room to watch people's sky dive dvd's. They were really funny, seeing their faces as they were sitting on the plane waiting and when they first jumped out!!
Yesterday (Wednesday) I had to get up pretty early because I was going whitewater rafting with Maggie and Chris. We had a fantastic day, stopped for a barbie at lunch time, and spent the rest of the time rafting. There were 9 boats all together, and the rest all seemed to sit down in the boat to go through the rapids, but our instructor made sure that we worked through them by paddling, saying that we were properly rafting, and not just on a disneyland ride!! It was great fun. Got a couple of bruises for my efforts, but that's about it. There was one point where he said that he was going to make us purposefully fall into the water, that was fun. Every boat did that, but later on we stayed back behind the other groups, and he told us that he was going to tip the boat with us in it. We were the only group to do this, but again it was a really good laugh. We were all completely shattered afterwards, but still managed a couple of beers, before making our way to the pub next door for the free wine. There was a pool competition on there and between 8:30 and 9:30 all the ladies had free champagne. All you can drink - made the most of that 2!! All night I had bought one glass of wine that was $4 so about 2 quid. Probably one of the cheapest nights out I've had for a while!! We ate at the pub again, and I had lamb t-bones this time. But, there were cooked rare. I managed to eat about half of them. But once again, my leftovers were cleared up!!!
Managed to have a little lie-in this morning, and then having a lazy morning, before going over to Dunk Island @ 12:30. Looking forward to that, and getting there on a water taxi.
Monday 6 October 2008
Mon 6/10/08 - Crocs, Roos and Mission Beach
I went to watch the rugby @ Shennanigans pub yesterday afternoon, where Manly beat Melbourne in style. After getting back, it was my turn to cook, so made pasta bolognaise. Then after a shower went to bed.
Alarm then went off @ 6am this morning. Not good. But got my stuff sorted and walked over to meet the Oz Experience bus. We were on the bus for a couple of hours before stopping for breakfast in a town called Innisfail. After brekkie we got back on the bus and headed for a crocodile farm. It was pretty amazing there. There were loads of crocs, emus, kangaroos, dingos, peacocks and 2 cassowaries.
The kangaroos were running free and would just come straight up 2 us and we fed them. One kangaroo had a joey in its pouch, so cute!! We then saw someone feeding the crocs. He was mad. He would walk into the cage with just a stick and a dead piece of meat and would make the crocs come out of the water and snap a few times before giving them the meat. The dingos were cute aswell, and I managed to hold a baby one.
After the croc park we got back on the bus to travel the rest of the way to Mission Beach. I've got no mobile signal at all here. Whilst here I'm planning to go white water rafting, and get a boat over to Dunk Island. We're having a barbie 2nite. I can't believe how hot it is here. This is the hottest place I've been to so far, about 37 degrees c 2day. I thought it would b a bit cooler than Cairns that was around 30 degrees, because we're further south.
Alarm then went off @ 6am this morning. Not good. But got my stuff sorted and walked over to meet the Oz Experience bus. We were on the bus for a couple of hours before stopping for breakfast in a town called Innisfail. After brekkie we got back on the bus and headed for a crocodile farm. It was pretty amazing there. There were loads of crocs, emus, kangaroos, dingos, peacocks and 2 cassowaries.
The kangaroos were running free and would just come straight up 2 us and we fed them. One kangaroo had a joey in its pouch, so cute!! We then saw someone feeding the crocs. He was mad. He would walk into the cage with just a stick and a dead piece of meat and would make the crocs come out of the water and snap a few times before giving them the meat. The dingos were cute aswell, and I managed to hold a baby one.
After the croc park we got back on the bus to travel the rest of the way to Mission Beach. I've got no mobile signal at all here. Whilst here I'm planning to go white water rafting, and get a boat over to Dunk Island. We're having a barbie 2nite. I can't believe how hot it is here. This is the hottest place I've been to so far, about 37 degrees c 2day. I thought it would b a bit cooler than Cairns that was around 30 degrees, because we're further south.
Saturday 4 October 2008
Sunday 5th October - back in Cairns
Got up early yesterday morning to go horseriding at 8am. The horse I was given was called Billy. We went horseriding through the rain forest, and then down onto the beach. We were supposed to canter on the beach but Billy decided he didn't fancy it so we didn't do more than trot. There were other people on the beach and he was pretty wary of them. After having photos taken we started to walk off the beach when a branch fell down from the coconut tree, which spooked a few of the horses, including Billy. Billy didn't really like walking through the puddles on the ground (it had been raining heavily the night before), so would avoid them which usually meant walking through the bushes and me getting soaked!
We then had another opportunity to canter, and he managed it that time. We stopped off for juice and crackers at one point during the morning, and then got back to the hostel by lunch time. After having lunch we had about 4 hours to wait for the bus to collect us to take us back to Cairns. We just sat in the bar, had a drink and played card games. The bus back took almost 3 hours, but thankfully I slept for most of it!! After getting back into Cairns, and eventually checking into our hostel (they'd made a mistake and booked us in for 2 nights starting on the day we're leaving!), we showered, had a pizza, a couple of drinks and then went to the Woolshed, which is an infamous club in Cairns. The tables are used for dancing, and you can drink Sex on the Beach slush puppies! Sinead and Annie joined the rest of us for that.
Got up about 9 2day coz we had 2 check out by 10, to check back in at 12. That's one annoying thing about hostels, u sometimes have to change rooms after a night or so and that involves checking out, storing your luggage, and then checking back in a couple of hours later. After checking out I wondered over to the shopping centre, and just browsed around the shops. Thinking this afternoon is going to be quite lazy again, coz we've got to catch a bus at 7 am tomorrow. Will prob go to the pub later though coz there's a rugby league final game on. It's the Manly Sea Eagles versus Melbourne Storm.
We then had another opportunity to canter, and he managed it that time. We stopped off for juice and crackers at one point during the morning, and then got back to the hostel by lunch time. After having lunch we had about 4 hours to wait for the bus to collect us to take us back to Cairns. We just sat in the bar, had a drink and played card games. The bus back took almost 3 hours, but thankfully I slept for most of it!! After getting back into Cairns, and eventually checking into our hostel (they'd made a mistake and booked us in for 2 nights starting on the day we're leaving!), we showered, had a pizza, a couple of drinks and then went to the Woolshed, which is an infamous club in Cairns. The tables are used for dancing, and you can drink Sex on the Beach slush puppies! Sinead and Annie joined the rest of us for that.
Got up about 9 2day coz we had 2 check out by 10, to check back in at 12. That's one annoying thing about hostels, u sometimes have to change rooms after a night or so and that involves checking out, storing your luggage, and then checking back in a couple of hours later. After checking out I wondered over to the shopping centre, and just browsed around the shops. Thinking this afternoon is going to be quite lazy again, coz we've got to catch a bus at 7 am tomorrow. Will prob go to the pub later though coz there's a rugby league final game on. It's the Manly Sea Eagles versus Melbourne Storm.
Thursday 2 October 2008
Cape Tribulation
We all got up at 6am to get ready to catch the bus 2 go to Cape Tribulation yesterday (Thursday), and found out that we had almost an extra hour coz we read the time wrong. We still ended up rushing round though!! We stopped several times on the way 2 Cape Tribulation, to start with at Mossman Gorge, that was freezing with water running straight from the mountains. We the stopped off to go on a boat on the Daintree River to look for crocs and stuff. We saw a bird, one snake and 2 baby crocs. We then crossed the Daintree River on a ferry, and stopped again at an icecream place that makes exotic fruit flavoured ice cream. It was ok but I don't think it was anything special.
We arrived at PK's (where we are staying for 2 nights at Cape Trib), and most of us ended up in different rooms (Me and Sam are together, Chris and Simon, and then Maggie is by herself). Outside Maggie's room is the biggest spider ever!! It's bigger than your hand and it is a golden orb. She doesn't move much though, and her name is Penny. I'm so pleased she's not outside my room though!! The rooms are basically empty sheds here with beds in them. Me and Sam are pretty nervous coz of what bugs there could be around, and we found a good way 2 help us sleep - we went straight to the bar when we got here bout half 4, and stayed there til pretty much closing time!! I ended up sleeping ok!!
There was a pool competition here last night, and Chris decided to enter. When it came to his turn he ended up playing against a child. The child only looked about 10, but he was a really good pool player!! Chris won by 1 ball. I went jungle surfing this morning, and it was better than I expected. I'm not great with heights so I was a bit worried about it. There were 2 really little kids doing it though, so I decided if they could then so could I. There were 5 different parts, and all the platforms were at different heights from the trees. I would do it again though, coz it was amazing to see the rainforest, and the sea all at once. It poured down with rain though at one stage so I got soaked. On the way back then on the bus I whacked my head, and have now got a nice bumb!! Very clever!! After getting back from jungle surfing we had lunch, and then I had a glass of wine (it had to be done really!!).
We all then decided to go for a walk down to the beach. It is apparently the only beach where the rainforest meets the sea, and the reef. On the way down there we passed loads of small bright red crabs. I went into the sea, and it was pretty warm. After that we decided to try and get a coconut down from the tree. Chris tried many times to get it down, but unfortunately didn't quite manage it. As we were sitting on the sand, the sun came out and it was pretty warm, then literally a couple of minutes later it poured down. We got so soaked. We tried to shelter under the trees, but it didn't help much. Luckily we were only a couple of minutes walk away from where we were staying, so made it back and then jumped straight in the shower!!
The rest of the day so far has been pretty lazy. I played pool with Maggie (I won - just!! It was down to the black ball!!), and that's about as energetic as it got really!!
We arrived at PK's (where we are staying for 2 nights at Cape Trib), and most of us ended up in different rooms (Me and Sam are together, Chris and Simon, and then Maggie is by herself). Outside Maggie's room is the biggest spider ever!! It's bigger than your hand and it is a golden orb. She doesn't move much though, and her name is Penny. I'm so pleased she's not outside my room though!! The rooms are basically empty sheds here with beds in them. Me and Sam are pretty nervous coz of what bugs there could be around, and we found a good way 2 help us sleep - we went straight to the bar when we got here bout half 4, and stayed there til pretty much closing time!! I ended up sleeping ok!!
There was a pool competition here last night, and Chris decided to enter. When it came to his turn he ended up playing against a child. The child only looked about 10, but he was a really good pool player!! Chris won by 1 ball. I went jungle surfing this morning, and it was better than I expected. I'm not great with heights so I was a bit worried about it. There were 2 really little kids doing it though, so I decided if they could then so could I. There were 5 different parts, and all the platforms were at different heights from the trees. I would do it again though, coz it was amazing to see the rainforest, and the sea all at once. It poured down with rain though at one stage so I got soaked. On the way back then on the bus I whacked my head, and have now got a nice bumb!! Very clever!! After getting back from jungle surfing we had lunch, and then I had a glass of wine (it had to be done really!!).
We all then decided to go for a walk down to the beach. It is apparently the only beach where the rainforest meets the sea, and the reef. On the way down there we passed loads of small bright red crabs. I went into the sea, and it was pretty warm. After that we decided to try and get a coconut down from the tree. Chris tried many times to get it down, but unfortunately didn't quite manage it. As we were sitting on the sand, the sun came out and it was pretty warm, then literally a couple of minutes later it poured down. We got so soaked. We tried to shelter under the trees, but it didn't help much. Luckily we were only a couple of minutes walk away from where we were staying, so made it back and then jumped straight in the shower!!
The rest of the day so far has been pretty lazy. I played pool with Maggie (I won - just!! It was down to the black ball!!), and that's about as energetic as it got really!!
Wednesday 1 October 2008
Wednesday Oct 1st 2008
I spent yesterday doing very little!! I went 4 a wonder around the shopping centre, had breakfast out, and then chilled all afternoon with Simon and Chris, and then had a $5 bbq at the hostel followed by a couple of beers. I had 2 b in bed pretty early thuogh coz was getting up at 6am 2day 2 go snorkelling on the Great Barrier Reef.
I managed 2 get up on time, and sort my bags out (we were changing rooms at the hostel so had to check out of one, and then check into the other after getting back from the snorkelling). After sorting all that out I made my way 2 the marina 2 catch the boat that was taking us snorkelling. The boat journey took not far off 3 hours, but once we arrived we could pretty much get straight in the water. This was the first time I'd ever been snorkelling so I started off with one of the instructors. It was amazing - it was so chilled and peaceful under the water, and the fish were swimming so close 2 u. I saw tons of different fish, not that I could name half of them!! I did find Nemo though!! ;-)
After a while snorkelling, we all had lunch, which was salad, pasta, potatoes, and meat. Once we'd finished our lunch we could get back in the sea again. This time I was brave and did it myself!! I really enjoyed it and fancy doing it again. On the boat on the way back I did notice one problem though - I'd burnt the back of my legs. Ouch!! They're pretty painful at the moment, especially when I sit, which is quite a lot of the time!!!
After the nice, long, bumpy boat journey back (which included a glass of wine, cheese and fruit), I managed to get back to the hostel and check in2 my new room. I'm sleeping in a top bunk for the first time so that will be an experience. Hopefully I won't fall out - there are bars at the sides so it's a bit like a cot I suppose!! It's prob gonna b another early night tonight as off 2 Cape Tribulation tomorrow for 2 nights, where I'm gonna b jungle surfing and horse riding on the beach. Sleeping in the jungle is scary though - there are loads of bugs about. Here goes..........
I managed 2 get up on time, and sort my bags out (we were changing rooms at the hostel so had to check out of one, and then check into the other after getting back from the snorkelling). After sorting all that out I made my way 2 the marina 2 catch the boat that was taking us snorkelling. The boat journey took not far off 3 hours, but once we arrived we could pretty much get straight in the water. This was the first time I'd ever been snorkelling so I started off with one of the instructors. It was amazing - it was so chilled and peaceful under the water, and the fish were swimming so close 2 u. I saw tons of different fish, not that I could name half of them!! I did find Nemo though!! ;-)
After a while snorkelling, we all had lunch, which was salad, pasta, potatoes, and meat. Once we'd finished our lunch we could get back in the sea again. This time I was brave and did it myself!! I really enjoyed it and fancy doing it again. On the boat on the way back I did notice one problem though - I'd burnt the back of my legs. Ouch!! They're pretty painful at the moment, especially when I sit, which is quite a lot of the time!!!
After the nice, long, bumpy boat journey back (which included a glass of wine, cheese and fruit), I managed to get back to the hostel and check in2 my new room. I'm sleeping in a top bunk for the first time so that will be an experience. Hopefully I won't fall out - there are bars at the sides so it's a bit like a cot I suppose!! It's prob gonna b another early night tonight as off 2 Cape Tribulation tomorrow for 2 nights, where I'm gonna b jungle surfing and horse riding on the beach. Sleeping in the jungle is scary though - there are loads of bugs about. Here goes..........
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