Hi,
Another blog update - twice in two weeks you lucky people! For those of you still keeping track our last blog was from Brisbane when we'd handed back the campervan and were going to sample the delights of long distance bus travel via the Greyhound.
We left Brisbane at ridiculous o'clock to head north to our first stop at Noosa. As we only had one day and night we decided to head straight to the beach, got all set up just in time for the rain to come in for the rest of the day! As with a few of the places we've been, if the sun's not out and you don't fancy (and can't afford) an all day session in the pub there's not much to do!! Our entertainment came from walking around Noosa and laughing at signs pointing us towards Sunshine Beach!!
We jumped on the Greyhound the following day for the 3 hour trip to Rainbow Beach which was to be our base for Fraser Island. We were there for a couple of days prior to leaving for Fraser which also saw Paul say goodbye to his 20's! Rainbow Beach isn't the biggest or busiest of places so we had a very nice pizza in the town's best restaurant (we had a choice of 3 - one of which is a kebab and burger shop!). Alex was even able to find a cake which arrived at the table for dessert!
The next day we set off for our 3 day / 2 night visit to Fraser Island. The weather again wasn't the best, but as we were to be driving 4 x 4's we thought that maybe that wasn't a bad thing (trying to take the positive from the weather) and that it might make it a bit more interesting. We were introduced to our group of 26 and established that we were in fact the only two people with English as their first language and the rest (bar 2 dutch girls) were German! Whilst everyone was very nice, of course this meant that we didn't have a clue what everyone was on about most of the time as both of our German knowledge consists of swear words and counting to ten! We did work out however that those in our car weren't too impressed with the dutch girls' driving or music taste!!
We stayed both nights in tents on an aboriginal site which consisted of a kitchen, loos and not much else (apart from the dingoes)!! Over the course of the 3 days we both had a go at driving on the beach and also mud tracks leading to Lake McKenzie. This was great and the girls in our car even complimented Alex on her driving, they didn't have much to say about Paul's however! We visited Lake McKenzie, the wreck of the Maheno and Indian Heads which were all great. Only slight disappointment was that the sea was all churned up so we couldn't see the sharks and manta rays usually visible from Indian Head.
Our next stop was Agnes Water where we were going to have our very own 'Castaway' experience. This involved being flown across in a 4 seater Cessna (basically a tiny plane!) to a little island with 10 other people and picked up the following day. Lets just say that the trip started off on a high with pilot 'Bruce' showing us his latest stunt moves! Having asked us to all smile nicely at the camera he then proceeded to drop the plane and managed to get a great photo of Alex screaming! It was a great experience if not a little terrifying! Once all of us made it safely to the Island we set up camp, had dinner and sat around a camp fire made with our own bare hands. With drinking games in motion and a box of red goon (cheap boxed wine) to play with, we both ended up a little worse for wear. Goon is evil (as all those who've travelled Australia on a budget will know) and gave us terrible headaches the next day. The thought of getting back onto the crazy plane did not make us feel any better, but thankfully Bruce took it easy.
The following day we chilled out and recovered from our goon experience only to find out that it was party night in our hostel which basically consisted of 18 year olds getting very drunk. So after taking part in a few games, one of which involved eating dry weetabix followed by drinking a raw egg (which Paul won), we left them to it and went to bed - one of us is old now!
Before heading on an overnight bus to Arlie beach we had another go at surfing which was great fun. Paul even managed to stand up a few times and showcase a few rare moves, all of which were caught on camera and can be seen on facebook! There is a great photo with both of us riding a wave however Alex is the only one standing!
We arrived in Airlie Beach at 7am after little sleep from our coach trip and had a quick look round before checking in for our Whitsundays trip aboard the Anaconda. We set sail around 7pm whilst enjoying a glass of champagne (well sparkling wine!). The first night we dropped anchor in a sheltered bay as it was quite windy and a few people were already beginning to feel sea sick. The following day the sun finally came out to say hello and we had an awesome (look at us getting down with the Aussie lingo) day swimming, snorkelling and we even had a go at scuba-diving.
We anchored overnight again in a sheltered bay and had one of the highlights (and most scary moments) of the trip so far. A few of us were watching the marine life swim by a light off the side of the boat when we saw a Box Jellyfish float past. Most of the other fish gave it a wide berth, the reason being that it's the most deadly creature on earth - one sting in the right (or wrong) area will pretty much be the last thing you remember. Fortunately they're quite rare as the crew member with us said it's the first he's seen in 4 years working but we were still glad we'd already swum in this particular bay and we were heading out to the Great Barrier Reef the next day!
We did our second scuba dive at the Great Barrier Reef where we were lucky enough to see a shark (only a smallish, non maneating one fortunately), a turtle and a stingray. The amount and variety of fish we saw was also pretty amazing - really glad we picked a boat which took us out to the reef. Another bonus was the food onboard, which was great, and we were really sad to head back to land and yet more dinners of tuna and pasta!!
From Airlie we took an 11 hour bus journey (Australia's ridiculously big in case you hadn't realised!!) up to Cairns. After a day chilling out by the lagoon (Cairns must be the only place on the east coast without a beach) we headed north into the Daintree Rainforest on an overnight tour to Cape Tribulation. Our accommodation, although described as a backpackers, was more like a resort and included a free cooked breakfast (rare treat as most backpackers free brekkies consist of strictly one Weetabix). It was really peaceful and the hostel was right in the rainforest but only a few yards from the beach so best of both worlds really!
Hopefully you've been able to see some pics which we've stuck on Alex's facebook page and we'll put some more up now for Whitsundays.
Well we can't quite believe we're nearly half way through our travels and have finished the east coast. Next up Uluru (Ayers Rock), Darwin and Kakadu National Park, Perth and Western Australia. You'll hear from us again in a month or so when we'll be at the end of our time in Oz.
Hope this finds everyone well and drop us a line with your news!!
Alex & Paul x