We didn't hang about long after our Whitsundays adventure. After leaving the boat around 4, we had dinner, collected the bags we'd left at the hostel and boarded the Greyhound bus for a slow night, so long, 13 hours journey to Hervey Bay at 8pm. Time was catching up with us by now. We had 3 weeks to get to Sydney and lots to do before then so we had to kick on. We slept pretty well on the bus, obviously shattered from 3 consecutive 5am starts for diving! Not complaining!

We got into Hervey Bay and got our room pretty quickly so we were able to go for a wander. We discovered absolutely nothing of interest in the area we were staying… So we decided to make the night interesting we'd buy burgers and head to one of the lovely public use barbecues by the water that are dotted all over coastal Australia, and munch away as the sun set. By the time we actually found one, the sun was gone, and the barbecue was disgusting! Anywhere else we'd stayed these had been all over the place and pristine, they mustn't be popular here. Anyway the only reason we were in Hervey Bay was to go to Fraser Island for 2 days, so next morning we were up and away.

Fraser Island is the world's largest sand island, and a pretty popular spot with backpackers and holiday makers alike. Everything is sand from the roads to the walking paths. We were really looking forward to it with the natural phenomenon of the inland lakes (on sand!), the crystal clear creeks to swim in and the massive sand dunes the size of river valleys. We had booked onto a tour, rather than opting for a self 4 wheel drive tour, as we'd enjoyed previous tours so much. Once we'd met up with our group off the ferry we set off for a walk through the forest to a picnic area for lunch. There is a real variety of vegetation on the island and a lot of wildlife including dingoes, but the walks we went on were fairly uneventful in terms of changing vegetation and we saw one lace monitor, a kind of lizard that can grow to 2 metres long. Other than that, not much. So we were a bit bemused to be sent on another walk after lunch, through pretty much the same area. Though this time there were giant satinay trees, some of which have trunks 4-6 metres thick. They were pretty impressive.

We spent the rest of the afternoon at Lake Mackenzie, one of those lakes that have you asking yourself "why does the water not just sink into the sand?" It's a freshwater lake and it's stunning. There's a beach at one end and forest all the way round and the water is perfectly clear and incredibly refreshing to swim in. Our only complaint was that we didn't have longer there. That was the highlight of our 2 days on Fraser. We'd been warned earlier in the day that there was a problem driving along the eastern beach at the minute, and that acts as the island highway, so we might not get to some of the locations we were due to see on the second day. It turned out, we couldn't go to any of them. None. We were gutted.

The problem has been caused by a cyclone which hit the Queensland coast a few weeks ago, and heavy rain since causing flooding in many parts, which had washed a massive layer of sand from the beach and uncovered rocks that no one knew was there. The tour vehicles couldn't drive over these rocks and so everyone was pretty much stranded on the southern half of the island, where less interesting stuff is, unless you were in a smaller 4 wheel drive vehicle. We had driven down to the beach to have a look at what was happening and to be fair, massive sand banks lined the beach where there had been wash away, some parts were more than 2 metres. It was pretty impressive to think that much sand had been removed by pretty much just rainwater! And also really frustrating. So the second day was a little underwhelming as we could only go to a sand dune and to another lake, missing out on Eli Creek swimming, Indian Head lookout point, a drive right along the beach and a visit to the remains of an old ship washed up onto the shore years ago.

After such a high on the Whitsundays, it was a pretty disappointing follow up, but we were far from the only ones who were in that position and we've since spoken to a few people with exactly the same stories and disappointments from their group tours. Bit of a shame as we'd been so much looking forward to it as one of the 'must sees' on our route but hey, ya win some ya lose some!

We returned to Hervey Bay that night and headed on our not so merry way again the next morning as there was seemingly b***** all to do in Hervey Bay but jump ship to Fraser Island. We had originally planned another all nighter straight through to Brisbane but had been recommended to visit a little place called Noosa by quite a few people, so we booked a few nights there to see what the fuss was about. We got there and into a fantastic hostel, converted from an old wooden 1800s National Trust house with good facilities, a bar, cheap meals and free surf and body board rental! When we arrived we also discovered there was a courtesy bus to Australia Zoo, home of the late Crocodile Hunter so we decided we'd have a quiet night and head there next morning.

The zoo was great fun. The crocs are massive and there are loads of them, unsurprisingly. There's a really good variety in the zoo with koalas, dingoes, cassowaries, wombats, a display of the most venomous snakes in Australia, and some elephants and tigers in the new South East Asia section. Though the highlight wasn't the cheesy animal show as you all expected us to say I'm sure (they really are cheesy these shows, I blame Disney for them), but 'Roo Heaven', a large open grass area with a little creek and kangaroos just bouncing around as you wander through. We got to walk right up to them, feed them, pet them and be touristy and take pictures with them. They are really cool animals, really relaxed around us, really soft fur, friendly and hungry! Some of them wouldn't even bother getting up, they just lay on the grass waiting for you to bring the food to them! It was great fun though, even toddlers didn't upset them. So that was a pretty cool follow on after the disappointment of Fraser Island. Claire loved the fact that there were koalas dotted all around the park as they are rapidly becoming her reincarnation animal of choice - they do sleep a lot and are oh so cute.We did actually see a couple being semi-active, as in move from one branch to another. The park is currently extending and is due to get cheetahs in it next year, so we were shocked when just dandering to another section of park we saw some keepers walking through the trees just beyond a handrail taking two beautiful cheetahs out for a stroll on a lead. These cats were fantastic. They gave each of them a carton of milk each and we could hear their loud purrs from a few metres away. Brilliant.

On Saturday we woke up shattered, starting to feel the effects of a nonstop week but refused to let it stop us and after breakfast and a natter with people on the verandah, we acquired some free to rent body boards and took our first dip without stinger suits to catch some waves! The waves were perfect for us beginners, not choppy, not too big and not too frequent so after catching one it was easy to get yourself back out. Bloody knackering after a few hours though even with the nice conditions. We're gonna take some surfing lessons a little further down the coast rather than just grabbing a board and embarrassing ourselves, but the body boarding will do for a laugh!

Noosa also has a national park right at the end of the main street and about 10 minutes from our hostel so we wanted to check it out too. We needed to get on down the coast again though so we had to book our next bus to Brisbane this time for today (Sunday). We opted for an afternoon bus so we could do a walk in the park this morning but after half an hour on the coastal walk we turned round and walked back. The energy levels have been drained by the last week's activities so we're just gonna have a look around Brisbane at walking pace next few days then push on into Byron Bay and Surfer's Paradise.

We'll blog again once we've been active…don't hold your breath!

Take care

Claire and Chris xx