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I embarked on my longest bus journey since my trip began, I am tempted to tell you how horrible it was with no sleep and what seemed to take an eternity. However, I have spoken to other fellow travellers who have done a 33 hour bus trip from Sydney to Mackay so I don't feel it's really justified. In addition to this, I managed to sleep on and off for about 4 or 5 hours so it could have been worse. It's not something you would look forward to, but then it's not that bad either and a necessary part of travelling. I arrived in Hervey bay under another cloudy day. However, there was a patch of blue sky and whilst it was probably never going to come my way I was happy, as it was much more promising than the infinite blanket of cloud in Mackay that appeared to consume the entire planet. Maybe it might just be me, and I am sure I have mentioned it previously but the sunshine, or even chance of sunshine, can just put such a better mood on the day. I checked in to my hostel called Nomads that I had booked previously in Mackay, I was in a 10 bed dormitory room, but I was the only one in there. I dumped my backpack and went for a walk along the beach. The sun was doing its best to come out as I explored this new place. Hervey Bay is renowned for having quite a large shark population, Tiger Sharks, Reef sharks to name a few. I wasn't overly keen to go running into the sea, despite the last Shark attack death being in 1940 in that very spot - how do I know sharks don't kill in 71 year cycles?haha. A very quiet beach, no surf, just a nice place to relax. I put my towel out about a half a mile up the beach and just looked out to sea, willing the clouds to part for some nice sunshine which it did for a couple of hours. It was around 12:30 when I sat down on my towel, and the next thing I remember was waking up around 3:40pm. *** Interuption *** I have much more to tell to get you up to the point at which I'm writing this part of my story but I just wanted to say I have just left a very sunny place into a very cloudy place, why, why, why!!!haha, oh, and it's now raining - Brilliant! Not sure if this will affect my attitude for writing for the remainder of this blog entry *** /Interuption ***. I was obviously catching up from my 12 hour bus journey, and I had one thing I knew I had to do that day which was to book my Fraser Island trip - something which I was going to do and thoroughly enjoy regardless of any plans the sky had to ruin it. I booked my trip for the following day to spend 2 nights and 3 days on Fraser Island. For those who are not familiar with this place, although I know some of you will have been, I will give you some basic information about it. Fraser Island is the largest sand island in the world stretching 25km across, it has the only rain forest in the world that grows out of sand, and the island was discovered by Captain Cook about 2 years after he landed in Sydney harbour in 1770. It is filled with sub-tropical jungle, thick bush, and plenty of wildlife. One of the most renowned animals there are Dingo's. They look a bit like a dog, with kind of a ginger fur. They can be quite dangerous and will attack/kill humans on occasion. They are not native to Australia, they were brought from Burma by boat around 5,000 years ago. I had only heard about these once I was on the island so I was hoping to see one. The island is also renowned for stunning beaches, fresh water lakes, and unforgettable views. There are different ways to see the Island, you can hire a 4wd and drive the island yourself and camp, or get a tour and some accommodation. Being on my own and not having met anyone to share a car with I had to do the tour, but it was brilliant and the driver of our little tour truck was much more than just a bus driver. He was so knowledgeable about the wildlife, the island in general and many other things, it was like he was educated to degree level on everything, despite working on the island for 18 years doing tours. In my head he was a cross between Steve Irwin and Crocodile Dundee and was mad as a brush, he would go on quite a lot a bit like the guide I had in the blue mountains (Sydney) about his eucalyptus trees, but this guy's stories where very interesting and very funny, it was only on the last day in the last two hours on the way back to the ferry did I have enough and engage the trusty iPod. So the first day on Fraser we went to a few very nice view points and did about two hours of trekking around through the bush. The cloud was about and it looked like rain but we got to McKenzie lake which was really nice and I thought the cloud just gave it another perspective which I turned into a positive thing as most people probably see it in the sunshine!! A few people braved the water which wasn't really cold despite the gloomy day, and I wasn't far behind them. After a really good day and more of the tour guides stories we landed at our basic accommodation which was more than adequate for our stay. The following day I woke early, we had an 8am start, so after a full cooked breakfast we made our way to some new destinations. I need to back up a bit here, once I had woke up that morning and went outside the sun was shining, I nearly pissed in my pants at the thought of a nice hot day at such a great location. I wasn't going to get my hopes up though because the weather is so changeable in Australia it can be nice one minute and raining half an hour later, however it was a very positive start and to my complete approval the sun was out all day. We drove for miles along the biggest stretch of beach I have ever seen and it was an awesome sight. We stopped at a few of the creeks and had a few walks down them. Not long after we saw our first dingo, which was what I had hoped for. Not that they are particularly special to look at but it was just something I really wanted to see. We stopped at another point and there was a light prop plane landing on the beach too. The pilot came aboard our truck/bus and told us what we could see by air. He didn't have to do much talking before I was sold and happy to part with $70 for a 20 minute flight around the island. The aircraft was very small & probably held about 6 people, only 3 of us from the tour bus got on. I was up front near the pilot and it was just fantastic taking off in such a good location, the wind skewing the plane a bit as it left the ground. We banked left toward the sea before heading over some of the mainland. The views were fantastic and even before 5 minutes had passed I thought I had got my monies worth. I might be biased but I think one of the best ways to appreciate Fraser Island is by air, it was just incredible. We passed an old ship wreck below and the pilot pointed out things of interest before we landed again on a different stretch of the beach. We then met up with the rest of the people from our tour very close to the ship wreck for a completely different view. The ship was a freighter and had been caught by a cyclone and been beached there more than 20 years ago. It was a shell of its former self, and we were told the air force have used it for target practice. They spent 200 bombs trying to hit the wreck, and only landed two (maybe they should stick to surfing and telling good stories). We stopped for lunch on another part of the beach were we could walk up to a view point, a huge cliff with another unique view of the area. There were rock pools edging onto the sea with people swimming, the driver told us some fisherman once caught a shark and put it in there to frighten the tourists, he said the fishermen had a good sense of humour, I thought it sounded like it was more twisted than mine! As we drove along the beach you would see a few flags out indicating a camping spot, the fisherman also used to move the flags further down the beach so the campers couldn't find where they were staying after it went dark - Hilarious. Having had a one of my favourite times in Australia I didn't want to leave Fraiser Island, it's a beautiful place that seems unspoilt by, well, anything. I arrived back to my hostel after a long but fantastic day around 18:30. I had been given my own double room for the night because they didn't have anything else, but for the same price which I suited me just fine. I spent that night just relaxing in my room, with only a pot noodle type affair in my stomach for tea. I was off the next day on 4 hour bus journey to Noosa, a place further south where there's surf. I planned to spend 3 nights there before making my way back to Sydney to catch my flight out of Australia to New Zealand. So here I am right now on that very bus, out of the sun, into the cloud and rain that I was keen to express a little bit earlier. I will still be more than happy to surf though as long as there are waves, the weather cannot always spoil that. As much as people are telling me how jealous they are of my travels, it can be very long days and you can spend a lot of the time tired with early buses, late night trains, lack of sleep and other factors. Also, the time of week you land in your new destination can dictate what's going on there. So if you do fancy a few beers and bit of a night out its worth trying to plan to get somewhere near the weekend. Not that I'm doing that very much, but it's something I keep in mind when planning your new destination. Obviously I am not complaining, I am having the most awesome time and these points I have mentioned are nothing compared to the experiences, but for those people who haven't travelled in this way I wanted to highlight these things.
That brings us up to date with this blog, it's been a while since I have managed to catch up to the here and now as everything is usually in the past tense. I am not far from Noosa now, the weather still not doing me any favours but I have got over that now, I'm just happy to make the most of my time left in Australia before the next leg of my tour…
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