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Today I am on Rainbow Beach, a lovely little town, named so because the sand here is multi-coloured. Rainbow Beach is the gateway to Fraser Island, which is the largest sand island in the world, listed as a World Heritage site. Fraser Island is 125km long and over 160,000 hectares in area and the only way to get around it is by four-wheel drive. I am joining ten others tomorrow where one of us will drive a little van for three days to explore the island and we will all camp for two nights. I meet my group later today and we'll go and buy supplies for the adventure!Â
After Magnetic Island, I got to Airlie Beach safely and joined a boat called 'Pride of Airlie,' with 49 people, to sail around the Whitsunday Islands. I made some great friends on this trip and had a really enjoyable experience. We stayed two nights on South Molle island which had tennis courts, a swimming pool, bar and lovely dorms so it was nice to have a bit of luxury after a day on a boat. I went snorkelling twice and am now a converted water-baby! I didn't see as much as I did in Cairns but it was still a lot of fun. We threw bread to the fish so they would swim around us so I managed to take some good photos - I just hope my underwater camera is reliable! We had to wear stinger suits this time as there were jellyfish around but luckily we didn't see any. We also stopped off at Whitehaven Beach, which is one of the seventy-four islands in the Whitsundays. Whitehaven consists of amazing white sand which is 98% pure Silica and you can even polish your jewllery in it.Â
After the third day we arrived back at Airlie Beach and I am proud to say I didn't burn at all! The only annoyance here are the mosquitoes and bed bugs that appear in most hostels, hence I am covered in red spots! That night, I went out with the girls on the trip. This was the first time that I have missed my hair-straightners, as many travellers here, and espeically on Airlie are of the suitcase, hairdryer, trendy clothes variety and I did crave my home comforts that night! However, on Friday I headed to a rustic little cattle farm in Kroombit and went back to basics again! This stop was part of the Oz Experience and I was with a group of eight. We stayed in a tiny dorm, where the bunk beds wobbled and felt like they could collapse at any minute! But I had a wonderful time! Our group got on so well and six of us are now here in Rainbow Beach.
In the evening at Kroombit, we learnt how to crack a whip, which I mastered by the end, after getting over my fear of the sound it made! We then had a competition on a mechanical bull. I was the first girl to get on and thankfully lasted eleven seconds so didn't embarrass myself too much! The next day we woke at 6am to go roding! I have only ridden a horse about once in my life so was on a little horse called Shanti but I had no problems at all...except I am feeling it a bit today! We had to ride up to the hills to rear up the goats and put them all inside the gates. It was great fun and I felt like a real country-girl! We managed to get all of the goats to co-operate. We then had a competition to practice how to brand a goat. We got into pairs and were timed on how long it took us to catch a goat by the horns or legs, turn it on its side and brand it (it was a practice brand so heat wasn't used). I managed to catch the goat in 41 seconds which was only 5 seconds off the winner! We then got back on the bus and headed to Rainbow Beach.
Driving down the East Coast is like nothing I have done before. The vastness is extraordinary and you can go for hours without seeing any sign of human life. The drivers on our buses tell us snipets of information about Australia along the way which is interesting. They also point out wildlife that we would otherwise miss so on the way to Kroombit I managed to spot my first kangaroo! I also saw cows that were half Australian, half Indian! The lump in their backs, used to store water brought back fond memories.Â
One thing we didn't expect to see on the way to Kroombit was a van engulfed by flames on the side of the road. The van had randomly exploded on the driver and he had to jump out. We stayed with him until the ambulance and fire brigrade arrived and they were just in time, as a bush fire was in its first stages due to the extreme heat. Luckily everything was ok in the end. So the long drives are far from boring!
I am now going to head to the beach with some friends but just before I do, I will write down the dishes I made on my Thai cooking course a few weeks ago:
Course 1: Poh pia tod: Thai style spring roll
Course 2: Phad Thai: Fried noodles 'Thai' style.
Course 3: Gaeing Phed Hed Fang: red curry soup with mushroom, roung egg plants and sweet basil leaves.
Course 4: Phad Priew Waahn Pak Ruem: stir-fried mixed vegetables with sweet and sour sauce.
The course was amazing and I can't believe I managed to cook all of the above and get it to taste good! We were given detailed recipes to keep so I will have to test out my skills when I return! The course begun with a trip to the local market so we saw how fresh the products were and it was a wonderful experience.
So that's it...a fully updated blog! I hope England is still lovely and sunny. Emmaxx
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