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Currently chilling in Woolshed backpackers Hervey Bay in a very different sort of environment I have come used to. In some ways its very nice, in others its not. This hostel was apparently voted the 9th best in Australia last year and there are obvious reasons why that is the case. For one, it is quieter than most, away from a town centre area which also attracts the kind of people who you wouldn't expect to act like idiots. The hostel, like the town has a very small, community feel to it. But by far the main interesting thing is how different everything looks. The buildings are all made out of wood and in some ways the accommodation is like lodge living. The downside to this is we feel as though we are almost in the wild, and this is pushed to the extreme at night when you hear bats and bird screeching loudly during the early hours, as well as all sorts of mysterious and strange creatures scratching on the roof above you. Add the possum who spends dusk invading the kitchen and you aren't far away from the Will Smith scene in I am Legend. The noise can sometimes actually be that bad.
Despite this, as I say it is a lot more peaceful than living in the city. Of course that is also the downside to Hervey Bay. The only real tourist attraction round the area is a harbour where trips can be taken to the iconic Fraser Island. Unfortunately for us this harbour stretches a good 5 miles from where we are staying meaning the only posisbility we have of seeing the worlds biggest sand Island is by day trip in which a shuttle bus would be provided for picukp from our accommodation. having already spent a huge amount on trips to the rainforest in Cairns and recently the Great barrier reef we decided to give Fraser a miss and therefore will not be in excess of $300 out of pocket.
It is a shame really, we have done pretty much everything else we have set out to do so far but I suppose you can't ever see everything. We took a trip to the great barrier reef a few days ago, which of course was a great experience. I would advise, however, to anyone who has never been and who is planning on going to take a diving trip (as expensive as they are) rather than simply snorkel. Part of our trip was to snorkel and we saw absolutely nothing. Granted, we stayed fairly close to the boat, but the water was pretty choppy, making going out to the coral area very hard. If you dive, as some people did, you would go a lot further down and I'm assuming see a lot lot more. We were able, however to see the wonders of the reef through glass, in an underwater area on a boat which took us around the reef for half an hour. This was quite easily the best part of the trip and was worth paying the money for just to see that.
So after our trip out to one of the worlds 7 natural wonders and our final few days in Airlie beach we moved up here to Hervey. As I previously stated, this is an extremely quite, peaceful place with very little to do. In some ways it has been nice to plod down to a remote beach, hire bikes to cycle to the marina and lay in hammocks to enjoy the sunshine. But at the same time, we are in Austrlaia to see and do things. Travelling to Brisbane tomorrow should enable us to do this once again.
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