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It's been a long time since an update and i've quite a bit to tell as ever! It's been a really busy week with large portions spent in locations nowhere near the web!
The power boat trip took up Monday and it was another activity worth every penny. Shooting along in a small group of 10 on a high powered boat on choppy seas, the driver gave us all a wake up with a negotiated strike into a wave which got us all soaked to start the day but the sun was beaming so we weren't concerned! The Whitsunday isles as i said before are a collection of 70 odd islands, most of which are uninhabited, we stopped off at one early in the morning to do some snorkling. Having never really been interested before i was a bit unsure and i thought my reservations had been proved correct when the first 5 meters demonstrated only cloudy seas. Then the coral reef and all the associated life erupted in front of me and i was proved very wrong, i've used it before and i'm sure i'll use it again this trip but it was just incredible. The exotic fish swimming along side you with the variety of the living reef to view has given me the bug, so i'm seriously considering if the price is right having a dabble at scuba diving somewhere along this trip. The boat then took us to Whitsunday beach on one of the larger islands which was just the best beach you'll ever see. We were told the sand was so pure that you could buff jewellery with it but it was so white and pretty much deserted that other beaches will struggle to compare in future. Here we stayed for lunch and some relaxation before we headed back to Airlie Beach to call it a day. This didn't prove to be the end of the fun, as i headed out with a couple of lads from my dorm and bumped into some girls who had been on the boat (see pictures) and had a really good night. Tuesday proved to be a quiet day with some chilling in the sun thrown in with giving my big sis a slightly belated 21st birthday call which made my day! Wednesday brought about another early morning hop onto the Oz bus with the destination being Kroombit, a cattle station on the edge of the outback. After a couple of hours drive we stopped off to play some bare foot bowls with a beer in the baking sun. The sport wasn't completely to my liking but the other two factors guaranteed it was good fun. In the course of the next few hours of the drive the driver kindly put on the film 'Wolf Creek,' a horror about a crazy aussie killing english people in the outback, and pointed out a location where the film had been made a mere five minutes from the cattle station, very nice of him indeed. We were all the more comforted when we arrived and were led to our dorms which were a perfect Stephen King location. After being given a severely beef orientated 3 course meal (what else could we have expected) the locals tried to teach us how to crack a whip which i was spectacularly unsuccesful at, much to the amusement of a couple of drunk cowgirls (the ranch bar doubled up as the 'local' for the surrounding 20 km). The rest of the night disapeared into goes on a mechanical rodeo bull (i managed 13 seconds, but unfortunately my appointed cameraman failed to record it) and a few more alcoholic beverages! The next morning we were roused bright and early for a muster of, not cattle, but goats. Having been on a horse maybe 5 times in my life, i was thrown onto a stubborn mare named lambert and sent on my way and after a tentative first kilometre, we were having to co-ordinate in order to ensure all the goats were driven in the direction of the farm and taking on terrain that you wouldn't expect of a beginner. Once all the goats had been guided into the pens we held a goat rodeo. A single goat was put in a pen with 3 of us, 1 had to catch the goat, the second tip it over, and the third pretend to brand it. I was appointed catcher and although the picture is a little dark basically the goat had the upperhand and saw me on the floor early on but i got him in the end! It was back in the Oz bus again and we arrived in Hervey bay late afternoon. Hervey bay is the gateway to Frazer island which is a giant sand belt and i was to spend the next 3 days (Friday-Sunday) on a 4 X 4 safari on the island. I met the people i was to spend the next 3 days with on friday morning, a swedish lad and 8 girls, and surprisingly enough i was fairly happy with that! After an initial briefing i went to grab some breakfast with a couple of the girls (2 of our 3 drivers as you had to be 21). One of the girls proceeded to eat a small amount of kiwi in a mixed fruit salad and being severely allergic, her tongue had swollen within minutes and she went to hospital with her friend soon after (she was fine but missed the trip). This left us 27 minutes in, down to 8 in our truck with only one person allowed to drive (incidentally the Swedish lad who had never driven on the left hand side of the road before, who became known as the Superdriver, a fantastic lad). We got the ferry with the truck over to the island and spent the first day visiting a few inland freshwater lakes. Seen as the women were in the majority, bad navigation ensued which sent us travelling in a massive circle and meant that we only just arrived at a beach camp site just before it got dark. This led to tent pitching and cooking by torch light but before this we were gifted to a pretty incredible sight of a couple of whales diving above the waves maybe a mile off the beach but the splashes could be seen for miles and all the campers were stood out on the beach in awe. It got dark really early at about 4ish, rain soon followed and we were all huddled up with drinks inside the truck,trying to avoid the earliest night any of us would have had for a long time. I think i was the first to hit the sack, braving the torrential rain to dive into my, thankfully, dry tent, at 8. I woke 5ish having slept as much as i'd needed and decided it'd be a great idea to go for a bare foot run down the beach, with the sun rising surprisingly enough it was enjoyable and as such i decided to ignore the pains in my feet as i turned to head back after 25 minutes, over the next 20 mins on the return i proceeded to destroy my feet with blisters that are still causing me to hobble now! In the course of the day we zoomed along the beach and headed upto indian head, a cliff from which if you were lucky you could spot any number of creatures. I saw a few dolphins diving with the waves and was again privileged enough to see the whales and the monumental splashes they were making in the distance. On the second night we managed to camp a bit earlier and do the cooking in the light, which enabled us to see the three dingo's who were circling the camp in anticipation of leftovers! The rest of saturday and sunday again saw rain on the island and by yesterday afternoon i was very ready to leave which is slightly disapointing seen as it had been my most expensive activity to date! It's midday monday for me now and i'm going to head off for some lunch before getting the Oz bus onto rainbow beach late afternoon. Quite a bit of travelling in the next few days will see me arrive in Sydney by Friday with the flight to NZ a couple of days later. See ya soon!
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