So in my last blog I lied. I didn't actually leave Sydney in 'two hours' as I said I would, but missed the bus, thanks to the ineptitude of my travel agent who told me the wrong bus stop, and spent a woeful 2 hours in the teeming rain at 11 pm trying to find accommodation. After the string of bad luck since Christmas though, there really was only one thing to do - laugh - which I did in an recklessly lunatical fashion in the taxi on the way to a new hostel, much to the dismay of the taxi driver. Having decided that this was simply ridiculous, I actually then had a lovely time in my last day in Sydders. I met some Swedes, demanded a refund from the travel agent, spent some time in the NSW Art Gallery, ate Starbuck's cake (mmmm :-) ) and hopped on the next bus to Byron Bay.
Byron was beautiful. I very luckily had a one off gorgeous day (after a significant spell of storms causing lots of flooding) and met up with Jane, a friend I made in Ecuador. Jane and I went up to the lighthouse, sauntered round the national park, ate organic deliciousnesses in a hippie cafe while serenaded by a random traveling guitar player and attempted to get into the whole free-lovinf, free-living Byron scene by reading the tea leaves in the bottom of our cups. Don't ask me why this is at all a hippie activity - but it was fun. Next stop on the whistle-stop trip up the coast was Brisbane. Not being a beach town, Brisbane instead was adorned by a lovely artificial lagoon right in the centre of swanky, artsy Southbank ( on the South bank of the river), where I spent an afternoon sipping coffee and getting arted up in the art galleries and museums. In the evening I chillaxed back in my hostel in Chinatown and got into the backpacker spirit with a few bevvies and a pub quiz, from which I won a bottle of wine. Always nice. Although I can't quite understand why Brisbane is epithetically known as Brisvegas, it is a pretty bustling city. I preferred it instantly to Sydney, even though my quick touristy trip around the main sights of the town hall, government buildings and botanical gardens was in yet more drizzling rain. Brisbane has a much more cultural feel than Sydney, plus being in the sub tropics it's a damn site warmer and seeing palm trees scattered along the pavement edges and brightly coloured butterflies decorating the plants was a bit of a novelty for me. But alas, I had to leave Brisvegas after just one short but sweet day, and head on...
Next stop - Noosa. Noosa is very beautiful. Even in the rain. The horrendous downpours of the first day did make me wonder quite why this was called the Sunshine Coast...but hey. I met some great French people in my room, one of whom I convinced to teach me how to surf. Unfortunately we never did get chance for a lesson (darn rain!) but did have a lovely long walk through the national park, oggled a couple of koalas, saw some goanna lizards and got attacked by leeches. Lovely. Two days in Noosa and...Next stop. Hervey Bay, gateway to the world's largest sand island, Fraser Island. After meeting up with Kim and Meiken, some Danish friends from Sydney, for a quick drink in Hervey, I was quickly whisked off to Fraser at the unseemly hour of 6am. The early start was definitely worth it though, as Fraser was amazing. In my group of 11 (4 Norwegians, 5 German, 2 English) we drove around the island in a 4 wheel drive, taking in the sights by day and sitting around campfires by night, drinking goon over traveling tales and bonding over some seriously 'interesting' camp-cooked meals! On the first day we trekked to a little lake in the centre of the island before heading up the beach to our aboriginal camp site. The first night we got to see some aboriginal dances, get our faces dawbed with body art and get a glimpse of the aboriginee culture. It was a lot of fun - perhaps now quite as exhilarating as finding a death adder under our bench and panicking slightly as he instantly struck a strike pose before sulkily skulking into the bush, or dodging spiders the size of our hands on the way to the bathroom - but definitely a good craic. Aside from the spiders we also fended off a fair few dingos who popped into the site to say hello, dodged shored bluebottle jelly fish as we wandered up the beach, and marveled at the different types of lizard and gecko we saw. The second morning, on our way up to Indian Head lookout, we also saw an eagle swoop down into the bush and pick up a stunningly brightly coloured coral snake for his breakfast. Amazing! Aside from the wildlife, however, Fraser is also a natural landscape wonderland. We took a dip in the Champagne pools - rock pools where the tide washes up forming froth and foam - the only place on the island where you could swim in salt water. The rest of the sea is inhabited by jelly fish, fireweed (which can give you third degree burns) and is the mating ground for tiger sharks, which have been known to attack humans. That, added to a deadly rip tide, and I hereby conclude Fraser's sea is not bery hospitable! We could swim in the pure fresh water lakes and streams on the island though. We took a trip up to Lake Allom, where we played with some inquisitive turtles, swam in Lake McKenzie, a gorgeous clear blue lake surrounded by white sand, and trekked over sand dunes to dip into Lake Wabby. And if this doesn't sound exciting enough for you, I also had the additional fun of driving on sand, getting the car stuck, getting everyone to get out and push, and getting so stuck on a couple of occasions that we had to dig ourselves out! Fraser was fun :-)
Having had such a good time in Fraser, returning to Hervey Bay to hear that further up the coast they were victim to cyclones was not exactly the best news. After a day of calling hostels, tour operators and boat companies etc. (and of course, chilling out in front of a few films), it appeared that we had hit proper lucky as the weather took a very sudden turn. Despite the cylcones causing massive floods in Airlie Beach (my next stop) and even destroying a bridge, buses were starting to get through and I was able to head off up to Airlie Beach to meet my Irish friend from Sydney, Marian, and wait for a day in glorious sunshine for our Whitsundays cruise to start. And we have had noting but glorious sunshine for the whole trip. Airlie itself is a stunning little holiday town with a beautiful artificial lagoon (can't swim in the sea because of the stingers), but the Whitsunday islands are even more so. Pristine white sand surrounding lush green islands set in perfect azure sea, deep blue sky above and dazzling sunshine, cruising through the waves on a sun-decked boat listening to music, dipping into the waters of the Great Barrier Reef to spot corals of every shape, size and colour and kiss the tropical, multi-coloured fish, bedding down for the night on deck, watching the most romantic moonlit scene unfold as the stars twinkle into a velvety sky and the southern cross rises above the islands, sipping wine and pondering the wonder of the world.........this was my Whitsunday cruise. Of course, I did a fair amount of chatting, dolphin and turtle spotting, and playing drinking games with a forfeit of downing a snorkel bong (a snorkel with bottle on top contraption devised to supply amusement to onlookers and distinct bewilderment to person having to down goon [Ozzie boxed wine] through said implement) too - but the most part was spent realising that I am obscenely lucky to be here. I have had a fabulous time up the coast so far and I am rapidly revising my ambivalence to Australia as each new place I go to seems to be more pardisical. The only disappointment of the Whitsundays is that I didn't find Nemo on my snorkelling excursions...but as I head further north into the tropics I am sure I will find him somewhere!
I'll leave you with the Whitsundays for now - but tales of Marian and Helen's stunning Queensland trip are in the making as we speak, and I'll will keep you posted on the next marvels and wonders of Oz.
Love for now,
xxx
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