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I name this blog update, Flaming Fraser! For reasons that will become clear in just a minute!
I believe my last update finished with me in pain after splitting my knee open but hoping to go to Steve Irwins zoo still. Well luckily the pain was sufficiently dulled for me to be able to go to the zoo and sample the delights of Mr Irwins empire! It was amazing what he'd done too and you can tell that everyone there really misses him. We saw all kinds of crazy creatures including the 10 most deadly snakes, we got to go and mingle with the kangaroos and stroke them aswell as Koalas! Cool huh! Then we went to see one of the shows they put on where they did snake displays, bird of prey displays and alligator displays! During the bird of prey display they picked members of the audience to help out, one of these members was me! The presenter got me to stand in front of several hundred people with my arms out straight and kaw like a bird so that they would land on my arms; unfortunatley this was a big hoax and I just made myself look like a right tit infront of everyone, good laugh though!
After the zoo we left Brisbane the following day and headed to Hervey Bay where we going on a 4x4 tour of Fraser Island. Fraser Island is the World's biggest sand Island and the tour consists of eleven travellers such as ourselves driving themselves around this island in a massive 4x4, yes 11 people in one vehivcle driving around pretty extreme off road conditions and beaches, sounds like fun. Anyway we spent one night in Hervey Bay then got up about 6 in the morning for our briefing and to drive to the island. This bit went ok, we packed all of our stuff for the following three days including booze and food on the roof rack and headed off. We got on the ferry and made our way to the island, the island is really remote there are no tarmac roads and limited services and the tracks can only fit one car down at a a time! We made it ashore pretty easily and continued to drive to our first site when suddenly about half an hour in we smelt a funny smell like burning so we stopped the truck and popped the hood. By the time we had got out there were flames lapping the bonnet! We all took a step back! Within minutes the whole truck was engulfed in flames there was nothing we could do apart from watch the truck get completely destroyed (I will upload photos ASAP, you won't believe it!).
Eight of our group had run to rear of the truck whilst me, G'bo and Leeroy had run to the front. We were convinced that there was going to be a bush fire as the trees began to catch fire so we hitched a ride with a car that had come down the track to safety. As we were on an island we had no signal, I had to call the satellite phone to inform the emergency services, I got through eventually and it took them about two hours to get there and put the flames out. In the meantime the others were on the other side where they had been given food and beers from a few of the twenty cars that formed a traffic jam all the way down the track as they couldn't get past. I couldn't help feeling we had chosen the wrong side of the vehicle! The worst thing of all is that we had packed our stuff for the three days which had been incinerated on the top of the truck, our Ipods, diaries, clothes and other valuables have all been destroyed! Great! Leeroys wallet was up there so now he can't get any money out (me and G'bo are helping him out) and he has no driving licence so he can't drive Genie, gutted! Hopefully we get some kind of insurance claim on the go!
After about three hours of sitting on a dirt track we got a lift off the island, the tour company we booked through sorted us out with accommodation and we all decided to do the trip again the following day! In the morning we were all pretty aprehensive about getting in the truck again but after we arrived at our sight we all settled down. Fraser Island is beautiful, theres green lakes like Lake Wabby that you can go swimming in, long bush walks, Lake Mackenzie which is in the top 10 beaches worldwide, a massive shipwreck on the beach you can look around its incredible and we had a brilliant time! Our group was wicked too an ace mix of people and we kept the campsite alive with our drinking games, I believe we ended up swinging from the raffters! Quality!
Because we had gone to Fraser one day later than expected we had no time to rest, as soon as we got back to the mainland we loaded up Genie and headed to 1770 (the second place Captain Cook landed in Aussie and the first place in Queensland), we had one day here and decided to make the most of it, especially as everything was so cheap! We began with a free tour of the town, then we headed to an airstrip where a crazy Aussie called Bruce took us up on his 4 seater airplane and did loads of acrobatics using 0G, basically like a rollercoaster ride in the sky. l loved it and the videos we got are amazing, not sure how much Leeroy enjoyed it though his face was a picture! Bruce landed us on a deserted beach where we played with crabs and generally had a little walk around, there was no one else on this beach apart from us. Whilst we were in the air Leeroy and G'bo had a go at flying unfortunately I had preiviously drawn the short straw so didn't get a go, but it was amazing nonetheless!
Literally as soon as we landed we had to make our way to our next adventure which was cruising around 1770 on 'Harley Davidsons'. We were slightly late so we missed the safety briefing but its all good! We put on our helmets and headed out, there was about 25 of us cruising down the highway on our choppers it was class! The trip started at 3 and ended up looking out over the harbour at sunset which was gorgeous! To top it all off as we were watching the sun go down on our Harley's several bottlenose Dolphins popped up right infront of us to say hello, incredible! It was an awesome day to say the least!
After the excitement of 1770 it was time for another early start to enable us to get to Airlie Beach on time (where we are now), we had to check in at our boat operator at 4. We arrived at Airlie and checked in, had a bit of a quiet night (watching Liverpool beat Chelsea 2-0, get in!) and prepared ourselves for the mornings adventure filled with anticipation for what our boat trip would be like. We got up early and a coach took us to the harbour where we met the 1st mate, Chris. He took us aboard Ragamuffin 2 which is a maxi sailing boat that had won many a race in Sydney prior to being used by tourists. There were 13 of us on board and the sleeping conditions were crammed to say the least, bit like we sleeping in coffins! On the first day we sailed off and found a great spot for a bit of snorkelling so they moored up and we jumped in the sea wearing our sexy stinger suits (its deadly Iragangi jellyfish season) and checked out the reef. After a bit of snorkelling we headed to a calm bit of sea where we would spend the night!
The one downside of this trip was the weather! Its the Australian summer and it absolutely pissed it down every day we were onboard, the wind was blowing from the north which apparently only happens around 10% of the year and this causes the sea to be pretty rough, not very nice when your trying to sleep, several of us felt pretty ill and one girl was actually sick! It also meant we couldn't open windows in the evening so it was like sleeping in a sauna! Oh well it all adds to the sailing experience!
Thats the moaning over with! The following day we moored up near Whitehaven beach where the silica sand is incredibly fine and glowing white, it has been voted the best beach in the world and it certainly lived up to it! The only problem was the jellyfish so you can't really go for a swim, we put our stinger suits on again and had a little swim but didn't venture too far it was pretty cool though because we discovered that we were swimming with stingrays and small sharks, quality! Here comes the best bit of the trip for me at least! After Whithaven we went for another snorkel but this time pretty msch as soon as we entered the water we spotted a massive turtle, we literally swam around with this turtle for about ten minutes until we let it go, but then after another 5 minutes we saw a huge stingray, its barb was about 1.5m long and looked like it could cause some serious damage we followed this arouud until it stopped and looked like it was going to reverse at us, then we left it alone! It was brilliant to see these creatures, unbelievable! We also saw loads of turtles surfacing as we were on the boat we probably saw at least 2 a day, they were all over the place!
Again we moored in a calm place and spent the night there after having a fat steak cooked on the ships BBQ for dinner (the food on the trip was delicious!). By the third day we were all pretty tired so we headed for one of the resorts on South Molle Island and chilled out in the pool and the spa for a day! So that gets us to where I am now, we've landed back in Airlie Beach and have two more nights here to recover before we head to our next adventure (we're not sure where we are going yet, but its Australia day on 26th so that should be pretty cool!). Its been manic over the last week or so but absolutely amazing, we've had some scrapes and some bad luck but all in all I don't think we'd change it for the world!
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