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Grace's Adventures!
Mine and Andy's adventures properly began by heading off on first a train, then a bus, then a ferry - across Moreton Bay from Brisbane to Moreton Island. It was quite a nice trip across, mostly down the Brisbane river then across the bay. When we arrived we were greeted by pelicans and cormorants being fed! Most people on the boat were staying at the rather tacky and overpriced resort which was immediately as you got off the ferry - they even had their luggage brought to their rooms and were greeted by the resort staff! We, on the other hand, were paying $4 each (just under 2 quid) for the privilege of hiking around the island with our big backpacks, camping in our tent in a remote place with no electricity, showers or flushing toilets!
This was my first hike with camping gear and enough food for 3 days, and I found it pretty hard going! We first walked along the beach which was rather nice, especially as we walked right past these really cool shipwrecks that had been sunk deliberately for boat anchorage, and there were a few other people about. But after about a mile or so we headed across the island on a track through the bush which seemed fun to start with but it didn't change very much the whole way, it was very quiet (not much wildlife) and we didn't see anyone else walking! Luckily, it was also a track for 4x4's (no cars can go on the island as the only roads are sandy tracks for 4x4's) and after a few passed us I said to Andy - can we get a lift if one of them has room? My prayers were answered in the form of Gordon, who runs an overnight camp for schools on the other side of the island, who was only too happy to give us a lift! He took us even further than we could have walked, up to a place called Blue Lagoon, and was very helpful! We had a look and a swim in the lagoon even though it wasn't blue and was actually rather murky, and even though the sun wasn't out! We then set up our tent in an area where there was no-one else and only about 100m from the pit toilet - hurrah! We had some food on the beach in the dark which was fun!
Luckily we got up pretty early the next day and managed to blag not only a lift back to the track from Gordon, but boiled drinking water! All the taps on the island had water that had to be boiled - we thought we would have enough with us but we didn't - he was a life saver! He dropped us on the track he found us on, but further away from the resort than he had found us coz we wanted to hike up Mount Tempest - the highest point on the island. Coz it was a one way walk we could leave our massive packs at the bottom of the hill and off we went! We were surprised to see other people when we were on top admiring the brilliant views all the way to the north and the south of the island - they had driven there though! At the bottom of the hill it was back on the never-ending track to the other side of the island where we had begun - it was really tough with the backpack again, but I didn't give up, and did about 6km with it on! Was very glad when we reached our camp which was right next to the beach and the shipwrecks - there were loads of people there! I had a cold shower behind a piece of corrugated iron (so glamourous eh?!) and after setting up camp and talking to some drunk aussies in the camp next to us we walked down to the resort called Tangalooma (about 2km) and had something to eat - ah civilisation again! Then we saw something really amazing - the resort guests were allowed to feed wild dolphins that come and visit the resort every night and we could watch from just a few metres away, it was brilliant! We stayed around the bar for a little while then slowly headed back to our camp.
The next day was beautifully hot and sunny - perfectly timed, as the last 2 weren't, which was ideal for walking! We walked to the resort, and about 2km beyond it to an area called little desert, which definitely was like a little desert! We couldn't hire sand boards from the resort, they tried to make you go on a tour! Andy managed to find one in the desert area but we couldn't get it to work! Was hilarious trying though - just would not move! It was so hard climbing up the massive steep dunes and really hot, so we called it a day and walked back through the bush then along the gorgeous beach to the shipwrecks. We hired snorkels and spent a bit of time looking at the hundreds of different beautifully coloured fish that lived along the coral that grew on the shipwrecks - was amazing down there, and a bit eerie as well! Very clear water though, and nice and warm! On walking up and down the beach we saw a massive (dead) starfish, sea eagles and beautiful big butterflies as well as lots of massive ants nests in the trees! We packed up our tent and did our last bit of walking back to the resort to catch our boat, which we only just made! Felt so knackered - when we got back to the hostel we sorted out all our stuff ready for our adventure down the coast, then we had another nice meal out in the same Chinese restaurant!
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