Tuesday 19 March 2013

Travel Blog: Australia

18th March - Rainbow Beach/Fraser Island

So I got back from Fraser Island yesterday, and it was so incredible I don't even know where to start.

First off I'll rewind back to Noosa, which is a gorgeous little town.  With a great long beach and a huge coastal National Park to walk in, 2 days wasn't really long enough.  The National Park is home to wild koalas but no matter how hard I looked, I just couldn't see any.  That was Noosa's only disappointment though - we even caught a surf competition which was really fun to watch.  They make it look so easy!  From there we travelled North to Rainbow Beach, ready for our own surfing lesson.  This is the tiniest Australian town we have seen yet, we don't even get phone signal.  But it has a high turnover of tourists and backpackers, as it is the gateway to Fraser Island.  Back to our surfing lesson...our first attempt wasn't exactly the sense of accomplishment one imagines it as.  We did the whole boot camp training on the sand, which was fun and I got the technique perfect straight away.  However, applying it in the water is a whole other story.  I aquired injuries just trying to stand up, it really is SO much harder than it looks.  By the time I began to catch the waves,  on my belly or knees -because you can feel it when you're on the top of one - the lesson was over. It was still good fun, but now I want to go to proper surf camp because I am determined to stand up! For more than 1 second...

The next day we were up bright and early for our trip to World Heritage listed Fraser Island; the largest sand island in the world.  We were on a 4-Wheel-Drive tag along tour, and it was so much fun, cruising down the beach, 80k/h with 8 people squished up and bouncing around in the jeep.  The beach looked like it went on for eternity, (around 75 miles) and it was so deserted and untouched.  No buildings lined the beach at all, and you passed very few people, just the odd fisherman in the sea or a tour bus driving past in the opposite direction.  




The summary of our 3 day trip goes a little something like this:
Swimming in a beautiful lake in a rainforest with cute turtle inhabitants, 'flooring it' down the beach, driving past a real shipwreck from 1935, naming our jeeps Matilda and Sheila, stargazing on the beach with dingo sticks, catching snakes in our camp, starting the party at our campsite club Winky's, floating down a refreshing freshwater creek, climbing a gigantic sand blow then running down it into a clear lake to cool off, driving 'SCHNELLLLLLLL' and almost crashing into a tree, and climbing Indian Head, a spectacular cliff with an even more spectacular view, where we tried to spot tiger sharks down below.  It was the best trip ever, the weather was kind to us and we met some really cool people.  Our car, Matilda, was the best; 2 Mancs, 2 Cockneys, 2 Germans and a Dutchie.  The good thing is most of them are going up the coast to the exact same destinations so our paths will cross again.



Sunday 17 March 2013

Travel Blog: Australia

11th March - Mooloolaba

So we are finally out of Brisbane!! Hoorah.
We worked for what felt like eternity, lived in a skanky hostel, and I didn't post for a while because there was absolutely nothing interesting to write about.  We made friends and had lots of fun, but it was no different to working in a bar and having a few good nights out back in the UK.  So we scraped our money together and now here we are on the infamous Aussie backpacker route known as the East Coast.  We have a mini stop off here in Mooloolaba (good luck saying that first time round) just to go to Steve Irwin's Australia Zoo.  It was a brilliant day, I almost forgot how much of a legend he was and all that he did for wildlife education.  His family still take a lead role in the running of the zoo, and there was a live show where the keepers enticed the crocodiles out of the water to attack, just like Steve did on his T.V. programme Crocodile Hunter.  I also got my koala fix haha!  Not to mention the once in a lifetime opportunity to hold a baby alligator and a not-so-baby python.  It was a great day, and it just feels so nice to be out of the city.  We have already adapted rather easily to the beach bum lifestyle!