Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
We are now back at home after spending the weekend on a four wheel drive tour over on Moreton Island, just off the Brisbane coast. It is one of the biggest sand islands in the world and only a short ferry ride across from the city.
We were due to be picked up at 6:30am on Saturday morning from the transit centre in the city and had ourselves all packed and ready to go on Friday night in advance of our early start the next day and we realised just how important this was when we awoke at 6:35 to find that our alarm hadn't gone off! One frantic phone call later to the tour operator and a quick dash to get ourselves washed and out the door, we were waiting by the side of the road, looking out for a four wheel drive to appear in the distance and take us on our way. After a few minutes of waiting we realised we hadn't got our phone in case they called us with further instructions so it was a sprint into the building and up to our apartment and back again, only for it to dawn on us a couple of minutes later that we didn't even have our sleeping bags with us! Once again it was a sprint inside to grab our stuff and then we were finally ready for the trip to begin. We were eventually picked up at 7:10 (fully forty minutes after we woke up and plenty of time for us to have had a shower and taken our time getting downstairs) and bundled ourselves into the back of the Ute, very tired, slightly warm and probably just a little smelly after our quick deodorant showers!
Once we were on our way it was a relatively short drive through the city to the ferry to take us across to the island and we just made it on time - we were the very last people to get onboard. The journey across took little under an hour and it gave us a chance to catch up with our tour guide, Ebon, who told us about the history of the island and gave us an idea of what the weekend had in store for us.
When we arrived on the island we piled back into the Ute and were driven off down the sand to the southern end of the island, where we took off across the island along one of the 'roads' that had been created while our guide pointed out some of the flora and fauna. After a while we jumped out of the Ute and were told that the sand "might be a little hot" but that it would be "ok just to go barefoot", so we left our thongs (flip flops to you and me) behind and set off behind our guide. It was great to feel the sand under our feet again as we walked along the beach, until we got to some steps that lead up the bank where it would be "a bit hot here". This is when we discovered that our guide's hobbies must clearly have included fire walking and bathing in molten lava, as it was like walking on the surface of the sun!! We fairly sprinted up the steps until we reached some grass at the top where we could stop and pick out the small thorns and pieces of twig that had embedded themselves deep into our soles on the way up. However, it was worth the discomfort when we stopped and looked around as we had reached a great little lookout that provided shelter from the sun as well as some great views out over the water towards the East.
We continued on along the path and around back to the beach and stopped by some rock pools that had some people splashing about in them, where our guide told us that it is fairly common for waves to crash over the rocks into the pools behind them. As if on cue, a couple of huge waves came along and came crashing down on the unsuspecting crowd below covering them in icy cold water causing a chorus of screams, much to our amusement!
After a nice healthy lunch we all jumped back in the Ute and headed inland along another one of the bumpy dirt tracks through some more forested areas towards the sand hills for a spot of sand boarding. It was a bit of a walk to the top of the dunes and with the wind blowing across the surface we had a few issues seeing much, but once at the top we realised how high up we were. It wasn't quite as high as the dunes we slid down in New Zealand but this time we had a choice of boards that we could use and a number of different drops to challenge us. To start with we stayed with what we knew and went down on our front and managed some quite good speeds, before we decided to challenge the standing boards on the assumption that we could snowboard ok, so this must be pretty similar!? This theory was soon corrected as we went tumbling down the sand but after a while we managed to get down the dunes without falling over. All was going well until it was time to head back to the Ute as we had twice as many people to get down the hill as we did boards and we had to double up and Ebon told us that the safest way to go down with our bags and possessions was to sit on the boards facing forwards and use our feet as brakes. Needless to say, this kicked up an excessive amount of sand into the air and by the time we got to the bottom of the hill we were covered from head to toe as our sun screen acted like glue, making it impossible to brush the stuff off!
Two of the people on our tour were staying at the island resort and while Ebon took them up to check in, we took the opportunity to cool off in the water and clean off some of the sand. The water was pretty cold but it was a welcome relief to us after the stickiness of the sand dunes and it was great just to be back in the turquoise waters of the sea and we splashed around for a while before participating in a spot of sunbathing until the Ute came trundling back down the sand to pick us up and take us to camp.
The campsite was on the other side of the island and after driving along more bumpy roads to get there, it was nice to be able to sit on a bench and not worry about suddenly hitting a divot and banging our head on a roof. There was a permanent shelter with some picnic benches and a sink underneath it, a trailer that the tour guides kept locked that had the supplies in it, a small pit for a log fire and a number of tents scattered around for our weary bodies. By now there were only five of us left for the second day of the tour - us two, two Brazilian guys and an Aussie girl - and after we had unloaded the Ute with everything we would need we headed to grab a quick shower while the sun was still out and the cold water was merely refreshing rather than painful, and then took to the beach while the sun went down with a bag of goon between us.
After a while Ebon headed back and once it was dark enough to cause a few issues finding our way back to camp we headed back and eventually found our guide finishing off a much needed dinner for us all. Everyone was pretty exhausted after the early start and the activities of the day and once the food was gone and we had washed up the others headed off to find themselves a tent for the night, while we stayed up chatting to Ebon for a while around a campfire whilst roasting a few marshmallows in the flames. When we could stay awake no longer we headed to the nearest tent, which we had claimed as our own, and crawled inside our sleeping bags. It was only now that we realised we had forgotten our pillows! After some careful folding of clothes we had what we thought would be sufficient for the night to rest our heads on, only to find that our chosen shelter had been put down on top of a rather large tree root but, too tired to move, we tried to get some sleep whilst contorting around the obstruction in our floor.
We awoke this morning after barely more than a few hours sleep to find Ebon already up and making pancakes, and there was no getting back to sleep after the smell wafted into our noses! Once everyone was up and ready to go we headed off down the beach again towards our first destination of the day for some surfing. After a slight delay while we dug the Ute out of the sand we rocked up to a section of beach that we had all to ourselves and started our day with some lessons on how to get up on the surfboard before heading out into the water. As we waded in Ebon took us to a small sand spit a few metres out and told us that if he blew the whistle, this is where we were to meet as it would mean that he had spotted a shark! The waves seemed a lot bigger here than on our previous excursion into the surfing fraternity on the Gold Coast, which, although a little unsettling to begin with, did make it easier to take off. Once we had overcome a few problems with keeping the boards straight and toppling off to the side into the water, we began to get the hang of things again and it wasn't long before we were managing to stand up and ride the wave in to shore.
After a couple of hours we had to leave the surf behind and pile ourselves back into the Ute once more as we headed up the beach to the lighthouse on the Northern tip of the island. From here we could see the far corners of the island in all directions and there were some great views down along the beach for miles and miles into the distance. During the migration season it is quite common to see whales in the water but unfortunately there were none on view today, but we could see a couple of stingrays swimming in the shallows below us. We had a quick look around the lighthouse museum, which had some displays on the marine life of the area and then it was time to get back to camp for some lunch before the tide came in too far and cut us off.
When we got back we were taken to one of the freshwater lakes for a swim around whilst Ebon set about preparing lunch for us all. It was pretty cold again but it was nice and refreshing to splash around in the water without worrying about swallowing any salt and good to cool down in the heat of midday. After a while we headed back to the campsite where we packed up the Ute for our final part of the day before sitting down to some much needed food while we waited for the tide to head out to sea so that we could get moving again.
We soon headed off in the Ute again along the beach and along the dirt roads across the island towards the Tangalooma Wrecks, where we would be snorkelling for a while before having to catch the ferry back to Brisbane. On the way, Ebon stopped to pick up a huge jellyfish that had been washed up onto the shore with the incoming tide and told us that they can survive out of the water for several hours providing they don't get eaten by any of the birds that were circling around the island. When we arrived at the wrecks we sorted out some snorkels, masks and fins and were soon in the water again and heading out to see what was around the shipwrecks that lay barely a couple of hundred metres out from the shore.
The wrecks consist of nine boats that have been sunk at different levels and when the tide is out it is possible to walk all the way out towards the wrecks and get to within just a few metres before the water gets above waist height, but it was a different story for us this afternoon as there was a really strong current running from left to right across the wrecks. We set out towards the far left of the wrecks so that the current could carry us along the length of the ships once we were out there and we could concentrate on looking at the marine life that was all around. There were lots of fish swimming around our feet and after one of Ebon's surface dives he informed us that there was a small reef shark swimming around down below us. It was great to see everything that was going on beneath the water, but it freaked us out a little when we floated over the shipwrecks and could rest our feet on them as it was a really unnatural sensation.
After about half an hour of floating around we had to make our way back to the shore and get ourselves ready for the journey home. By the time we had made back to a reasonable depth that we could stand up in we had drifted pretty close to the ferry that was waiting to take us back and Ebon set off up the beach to get the Ute while we splashed around for the final couple of minutes. Once he returned we had to get ourselves dried off and on to the ferry to take us back to Brisbane and we were soon back in the Ute driving along proper tarmac roads again towards the city as our weekend drew to an end.
- comments