Brisbane

Brisbane

The bus journey to Brisbane from Noosa was through Easter traffic, this i didn't mind, it was the rain and the fact that i was on a leaky bus - that I did mind. It was the most rain I've seen in Australia so far and most of it seemed to find the hole above my seat(!) I chatted to a lady from Sweden who was studying in Brisbane at the local university. She comforted my research skills by advising me on all the top things to do and see whilst i was there - which i kind of already knew, but I didn't want to be rude...

By the time we arrived at the Brisbane coach terminal we were 2 hours late and I was starving! So I found time for a greasy KFC. The hostel 'Brisbane backpackers Inn' was a large complex which was 30 minutes walk from the city centre. The last city I'd been in was Cairns.


Deadly Combo!

The next day I got up early and headed to town, armed with my camera and creative eye - A somewhat deadly combination ;c) First call of the day was breakfast before I met with Hanna, a German girl I'd met in Noosa. We went to see the botanical gardens, which had plenty to photograph. There was also an old tree here: one which had previously thought to be extinct from the prehistoric era..

Next we hit the shops and I got some new flip-flops... left the old ones in the previous hostel .. Oops. Hanna had to leave for her bus down to Byron Bay so i headed for the art galleries. The first was 'Queensland Art Gallery, gallery of modern art'. This was by far the largest gallery I'll visit. There was a range of artwork from Thai ancient pottery to modern paintings and contemporary sculptures. One sculpture was by an associate of Henry Moore - A sculptist I studied in GCSE art. By far my favourite works were paintings by Vida Lahey.

The second gallery I visited was the museum of Brisbane in the city hall. This display was much smaller and split into two parts. the display was called 'Temperature 2' - ' "Taking the temperature describes the practice of monitoring an interpreting to better understand the condition of something". - In this case the current work from Queensland's most outstanding artists.' There were a few interesting and inspiring pieces in here. On the way back home I passed some awesome graffiti work and watched as the sun set behind me over the city's highrise skyline.

That evening on my return to the hostel and gave Ken a ring to see if he was in town yet. Turns out he was playing pool behind the payphone in my hostel that I was calling him from! He introduced me to a guy called Elroy. After a few drinks at the bar we headed to the 'Up and Down Under' bar in town and all got very merry and drunk being sure to make an exhibition of our selves on the dance floor in the process!

The next day it was once again time to pack up and hit the road.

Brisbane Photo Album

From the Devil's Kitchen to Hell's Gate...

Noosa Head

Noosa was a surfers town, a few hours south of Rainbow beach. I traveled in the wake of the adventure on Fraser island under a quilt of cloud. Me, Rich and Amily were on the same Greyhounds bus. Slowly patches of blue sky broke through the clouds.

We arrived in Noosa with a whole afternoon at our disposal. So once me and Rich had checked into the 'Dolphins Beach house' hostel we went for a walk along the 'Golden Coast' - Sunshine Beach. This lead us to the edge of Noosa National Park. We walked around the coast part of the national park along 'Route 4'. It was a relatively easy walk with a few inclines and some great views. Devil's Kitchen was a large area with a huge cliff, on which we stood looking down as the furious ocean battered the rocks below. A rocky out crop made it possible to get a few pictures of each of us stood at the top of the cliff edge - (seems to becoming somewhat of a past-time...)

Next we made our way further up the coast to Alexandria Bay. Here was a nudest beach. Here someone had comically written 'PUT SOME CLOTHES ON' in the sand. Rich found this hilarious and we decided to spend a few minutes etching the message deeper into the sand.. Haha

We proceeded onto 'Hell's Point' - another cliff, before turning back and returning to the hostel for dinner. We met up with a friend of Richard's - also from Holland: Flo. She'd also just come from doing Fraser Island.

That evening I used the 'the rare to come by in hostels' oven to do a Mediterranean style roast chicken and vegetables dinner.. with mash(!) Mmm! After we went to the 'bottle shop' and grabbed a pack of my fave beer: Corona to celebrate the Easter weekend. Tho the Easter eggs from the convenience store we not very conveniently priced...

Rhain and the Waves do Fraser Island!

Fraser Island is the Largest sand island in the world... Actually with the amount of sand we ate and brought back to the mainland I'm not sure if that's still true...(!)

There was 11 of us in the group in total for our Frasier Island jaunt. Me and Ken had banded together with a french girl - Olympa and one of my room mates; Simon (who was also from the East Midlands - Mansfield) and signed up together for the adventure. Then we also had Caroline, from Switzerland, Sarah and Rhian from Swansea, Rich from Holland and then three girls from Germany: . The day before we left we were subjected to a short video about Fraser Island and National Parks. The funniest thing covered was how to defend yourself from Dingos - the potentially dangerous native wild dogs that inhabited the island. Basically the video instructed you to cover your nipples and step backwards..?!

The real fears once we got on the island were more like: tipping the top heavy 4x4, having a puncture on the beach, getting caught on the beach at high tide or getting the truck hopelessly stuck in the sand... read on to find out how close we came to some of these and how many of these actually happened!

View Fraser Island in a larger map

Dingo!

We set off from the hostel at about 10 the next day once we'd loaded the 4x4 full of equipment, food and alcohol. It was about a 30 minute drive from our hostel to the barge on the beach which took us over to the Island. We lead the convoy of 6 white trucks onto the island before we all dispersed. Because of a high tide we used back tracks to get to Eurong - A small collection of shops with a car park and toilets. Simon was quite a confident and experienced driver, having driven mini buses for universities. Just before reaching Eurong Simon swapped with Rhain. She was a competent driver, but as we rolled over the soft sand we became bogged down!! We worked the van out of the sand as a team and were over the cattle grid into the Eurong car park. Next we hit the sandy island tracks again and headed for lake Mackenzie.




Having opened our first beers of the trip we got to Mackenzie island we parked up and made our lunch. Here we sighted out first Dingo! they're more like scavenging dogs than wild wolves and can be quite easily scared off.

The sky was cloudy but the lakes water was crystal clear! We played Frisbee and swam about in the cool refreshing water for a while. the photos don't seem to capture the purity of the water! It was a bumpy ride back towards the beach, but some how Rich from Holland managed to doze off next to me in the front seats...!


Cooking Up A Storm

We once again made a stop at Eurong to top up the cooler boxes with ice to keep the beers at a nice temperature before hitting the beach headed north for our chosen camp zone behind the sand dune. We had to get there before the tide started coming in at 5pm. The whole convoy had chosen the same camp zone and over the course of the afternoon we all parked up, forming a wind shield with the trucks around our cooking and seating area. Still the wind was persistent and the sand found its way into places we didn't know existed! Grrr.

The girls set up the tents (to my surprise!) as the lads unloaded the trucks roof and set up a table and windshield so that dinner could be cooked - before it got dark. I naturally took charge of dinner, flexing my cheffing skills! It was beef steaks with green salad and potato salad... with a light sprinkling of sand... the water took forever to boil for the potatoes and once the water did start boiling, Simon decided to drop the lamp in there...Ooops.

Lots of beers were drunk before me and ken decided to start on our stash of rum and coke! u can't be stranded on the worlds largest sand island without a bottle of rum! Arrrrrrrrr! I was a little late on the social scene, what with all the cooking but soon got into the swing of it. With it getting dark early and there being little to do but drink and dance to the car stereo music most people (well the younger ones...) flaked out before 11! Pha! With all 6 trucks there was about 70 of us partying. Me, Caroline, Rich (who had a nap earlier) and an interloper - Yvona from another camp kept going until about 1 before being the last to give in to the call of our sleeping bags.


It's A New Dawn... It's A New Day...

First job of the new day was to wash the pots from the night before so we could have our breakfast of bread and scrambled eggs with tomatoes and onion. rich Sarah and Rhian sorted the pots, tho they did get a bit wet. Namely Rich, who had his phone in the pocket of his shorts.. Woops. Lazily i cooked up breakfast before we hit the dusty track again!

Rich did the driving for the morning, we headed into 'Happy Valley' via the back tracks of the island. this was because the tide was still pretty high and we didn't want to chance the rocky area of the beach at this time. We had to pull over on some pretty steep banks at time to let other trucks by. Rich got good at this, I was amazed the 4x4 didn't tip over as we parked at some uncomfortably peculiar angles...

the first stop of the day was Eli Creek for more messing around in cool fresh clear waters. the creek was laden with tropical trees on both sides which Eels swam around the roots of as we waded down down stream with the current towards the sea. Some of us got wetter than others on the way, ehum.

We dried off and piled back into the 4x4, next was the Mahend ship wreck further up the beach. the ship wreck was pretty sweet, but we didn't stay long as it started raining. We drove further north, out running the raincloud stopping once we came to the 'Red Cliffs' .. which were exactly that. They had a canyon feel to them and were smooth from all of the sand erosion. It was beef and salad wraps for lunch.



Indian Head





Sarah took over the driving and we headed to the most northern part of the beach - about 45 minutes away. Here was a place called Indian Head. A 30 minute scramble (In flip flops - which I have come to hate) got us to the top of the amazing look out point. We could see right down the beach which we'd been driving up for the past few hours and down Waddy point to Sandy Cape. I loved watching as the waves slowly rose out of the ocean and started their run towards the cliff bases. The water looked an amazing vibrant blue as it restlessly attacked the base of the cliffs. Me and Ken individually went out onto the most dangerous part of the petruding narrow cliff where the drops were vertical at either side of your feet. Once again the wind was my enemy as it pushed against me with varying degrees of determination! For the few moments I stood tall and expressed myself I felt victorious! This was by far my favorite spot on the island.



Once we had got back down the steep hill we sped away in our truck back down the beach towards camp. This was by far the most painful ride down the beach as Sarah sped through some washouts that were deeper than we thought. Ouch!
Simon took the wheel for the second half of the drive home as we approached the rocks we had earlier avoided by going through 'Happy Valley'. I was certain we were going to tip over as the truck bounced vigorously from a steep left to right over and down the rocks. We were thrown around in the back of the truck like balls in a lottery machine... Simon stopped at one point in disbelief we were still upright. as we braced ourselves for the second area of rocks it turned out the first was by far the worst.


Moon Party!

We were back at camp by 4ish and quickly set about parking the truck and setting up the kitchen. By 4:30 the sun had began to set the and moon had already revealed itself in the sky. It was a full moon. This called for a party... A full moon party! I got a good number of photos and drank a good number of beers before the sun had set. The girls did a majority of the cooking that night... by 6 the moon was high and bright and the party was going. That evening we concocted numerous drinking games between us. The most entertaining of which was other people trying to guess your animal impressions. Me and Ken finished off our bottle of Gougers rum with coke in record time.


Bad Times!

On the third and final day we packed out our trash and headed for Lake Wabby and the famous sand dunes which surrounded it. First we went to get rid of our rubbish. As Simon returned from the waste bin sight he noticed that the back left tyre was looking a littlw low on pressure and flatter than the others.... We decided to change it... Rhian drove cautiously the rest of the way to Eurong where Ken had to unpack the entire roof to get at the spare tyre. Simon, me and Ken with a little help from Olympa proceeded to change the tyre in record time. the new tyre looked a lot better and we continued to lake Wabby. As we were on the way a wave slowly washed up the beach, closer than any had come before. Low tide wasn't until 2 and it was still 9 in the morning at this point. Rhian sped up and we got past it. But another wave washed up the beach just ahead us, this time even faster than the first! Rhian put her foot down and closed her eyes! Ken struggled to try and wind up the wide open window next to him on the passenger side. The salty sea water rose like a wall in front of us as the truck hit it at over 70kmh!

We were drenched..

I say we... it was mostly Ken. I just laughed as water trickled off the brim of his hat.

It was a good 40 minute walk to Lake Wabby, which was no disappointment. It was a vibrant green, invitingly warm and had a slight mosey smell to it. beside the lake was the massive sand dunes, which seemed to stretch for miles. We took plenty of photos. It was peanut butter and jam sandwiches for lunch.. You gotta try it! This was our last stop on the island and we had to leave to get to the barge by 1.

This time Ken decided to sit in the back of the truck... and Simon sat in the front passenger seat. But Rhian sped through another washout with the trucks windows open, Simon ducked as he struggled to do up the window. Once again water splashed up the side of the truck in through the windows... the water went over Simon, who was lent down and got Ken AGAIN who was sat behind us... Soo funny. he just replied with a sting of curses.

Ken, Water, Simon

Our truck was the last onto the barge, we hadn't even put the breaks on before the barge pulled away. That night we finished or remaining beers in a beach hut playing drinking games on Rainbow Beach and said our goodbyes!

We decided to call our group Rhian and the waves.....


Links to Photo albums!

Facebook Fraser Island Album 1

Facebook Fraser Island Album 2

Facebook Fraser Island Album 3

Following the Path

"In every journey, the traveler must ask, was the right path taken? Many roads are long and winding. Filled with those who have lost their way. Some forge their own course, guided by faith, seeking not a location, but a kindred soul. Others step together, finding safety in the arms of another. A few remove themselves from the trail to avoid the path of temptation. But those who watch the track too closely fail to see where it led them. And they're often all too surprised by their destination." - Heroes quote

Just Tick The Box That Says "I've Left My Licence at Home"...

That's how the perilous undertaking around the town of 1770 was instigated... Trule from Denmark had mentioned the Scotter Roo chopper ride when I was in Mission Beach a week earlier...

I left Airlie beach on the Grey hound at midnight and got little sleep on the over night bus to 1770. I would definitely visit Airlie beach again, if only for another tall ship adventure. Ken turned up just in time for the coach after having a tipple... or two.


1770

The backpackers hostel here was pretty sweet. Had a laundry session :cS and headed out around the shops to find some food. Found a lovely bakery nestled in a corner and decided to get some 'pizza' looking lunch... Me and Ken eyed up the cakes but decided to save the pennies and just get the pizza... Insisting that half a pizza each wouldn't fill two adventurous backpackers the bakery lady shoved the cakes we'd been looking at into our hands and charged us for just the pizza...! Guess I've got a little too good at looking like a bum... time for a shave!?


Scooter Roo

AT 2:30 we were picked up from the hostel and taken to the Scooter Roo shed in Agnes Water, up the road. There was about 50 of us in total, all crowded around the shed. You didn't need to show any for of licence - just sign on the dotted line. The bikes were scooters done up as Harley Davidsons. I picked matching bike and helmets - Black with firey red/orange paint work. We had a quick lesson on how to ride a bike and then was let loose on the roads!

The ride lasted about 3 hours around the quiet local roads, through the scenic roads of Agnes Water and along the foreshore of 1770 - where captain Cook had first sighted Australia. I may have broke the speed limit a few times as the needle on the speed dial was trying its best to push past the 80 kmh mark... Excellent fun. I lead the 50+ pack of riders for a good 20 minutes up and down the hilly roads of Agnes Water. Stopped off and saw a few Kanger Roos on a grassy park and had snacks as the sun set at a beach near 1770.

Scooter Roo Photo Album


Fit For A King

Once me and Ken got back to the hostel we started to prep our dinner. It was sunday and time for a nosh-up! Grilled Beef Steak and plenty of veg was had. A meal fit for kings, kings of the road!

The next day I headed for Hervey bay for a rainy day in. Took a few panoramics along the beach and of the pier. Definitely starting to get into cooler weather now as I head south. Will be winter when I fly to NZ. Time to get out the rain mac (cheers for that dad!).

Like A Rolling Stone...

Australia's Updated Itinerary!

Flight: Singapore to Cairns - 23/03/09

- 23/03/09 - Cairns

- 27/03/09 - Mission Beach

- 29/03/09 - Townsville - Magnetic Island

- 31/03/09 - Airlie Beach- Whitsunday Island
Three day sailing cruise

- 05/04/09 - 1770
- Scooter Roo!

- 06/04/09 - Hervey Bay

- 07/04/09 - Rainbow Beach - - Fraser Island

- 11/04/09 - Nossa
- Lakes
- Devils gates and Hells kitchen

- 13/04/09 - Brisbane
- Visit art gallery

- 15/04/09 - Surfers Paradise

- 17/04/09 - Byron Bay
- Trip to Nimbin - hippy town

- 22/04/09 - Coff Harbor*

- 24/04/09 - Port Macquire* - observatory

- 26/04/09 - Sydney
- Blue Mountains
- Manly

New Zealand Flight: Sydney to Christchurch - 03/05/09

- 03/05/09 - Christchurch
- 03/06/09* - Auckland

Maritime Adventure!

This trip was amazing. The weather was hot, sky was clear, the waters calm and pure, the tall ship and company unbeatable...



The Solway Lass and the Whitsundays Islands

The ship named in Scotland, was built in 1902 and has endured a rough history and being sunk and raised - twice, being used, lost and won back in both world wars and being sailed in oceans all over the world. In 1984 she was sailed to Sydney and rebuilt over the course of 2 years. it was eventually in 1999 she became an overnight charter ship in the Whitsundays area.




On board the Solway Lass... ARRRRR!


Most of the day was spent in a park waiting for the time to come to board the ship. here i got some pictures of cockerteals and met Solomano from Switzerland. Our standard issue green eco bags for our luggage made us stand out in the park.


Map



View Larger Map




Where Does the Ocean Go?

It was dark when we all boarded the ship with our army of green bags. We quickly set sail. - I say 'set sail' but we didn't actually get a chance to raise the sails until the last day due to the weather being so awesome and hot and calm over the three days!

That night we had pumpkin soup as a supper and watched as the Milky Way asserted itself in the night sky. Never seen it so clearly. We sailed for 3 hours before reaching White haven beach on Whitsunday Island. We arrived at 11:30ish pm. But of course we couldn't see it!

The bunks were surprisingly comfortable and the gentle swaying of the ship lulled me into a deep sleep for a good solid 8 hours.


White Haven Beach

The view from on the deck once we awoke was unbelievable. We all grabbed our snorkeling gear, frizbees and headed to the pristine white beach. - Picture perfect... The white Silica sand was fine quarts that had been spewed out of a fisher in the Earths crust near Whitsunday Island. Polished my Silver St. Christopher with the sand. The snorkeling was excellent. Third time lucky. Previous snorkeling experiences hadn't been too enjoyable. A tornado that had been along Australia's east coast several weeks ago had made the visibility in the water crap for the past few excursions the Solway had done, but we were in luck. The water had settled and I saw a new fish and coral every other minute.

Click here for Types of Coral

Click here for Animals of Great Barrier Reef


The beach was 7.5 km long. Me and Kelsey went for a quick walk to see if we could spot any familiar faces from the parties that were starting to land on the beach from other ships... the beach was more than big enough for us all. Kelsey was the first American I've properly met on my travels. She studied Marine Biology and had previously worked in Florida. But was from DC. A place I must visit and a face I must see again. :c)




We fitted in playing with our cameras and then a tug of war (Dudes vs. Dolls... We were grossly out numbered) before returning to The Solway for a fresh salad lunch and laughs provided by the very entertaining rope swing. I took this opportunity to jump into the hammock-like net on the front of the ship. This was with no doubt my favorite spot to mooch.



Shine on you crazy Diamond!

After lunch we set sail for Hayman Island - The most northern islands of the whitsundays islands. As we aproached the island i jumped at the oportunity to stear the ship for a good half an hour. loved it! Captain Tim took the welcome break to blast out some Pink Floyd music. As we approached the tip of the island a pod of whales passed the ship.


We dropped anchor in Blue Pearl Bay for the evening and once again the rope swing provieded entertainment for all ages! Me and Kelsey sat in silence as the vibrant colours of the sunset filled the evening sky. With no land and few clouds this was by far the most amazing sunset I have ever seen... beyond words....








later that evening we were visited by two dolphins which playfully swam around the ship as the evening grew darker.


Out of the Dark and Into the Light when the Morning Comes


Once again we awoke to the amazing clear turquize waters which surrounded us and an island with pure sandy beaches in the distance. Todays excursion was to a coral beach for snorkeling ona 'fringe reef coral'. Once again this was excellent. Here some people went diving too, but i've got to keep an eye on that budget!



After we'd all returned to the ship the crew moved the ship 30 minutes around the island to 'Black Island' which had a beach we once again littered with our green eco-bags. from here once again we watched as the sun set behind our favorite tall ship of unparalled adventure. We returned to the ship for our last evening.. :c(

Melting Moon

It was a feast of roast beef and veg for dinner. The chef (Maxie) had prepared us some top quality meals and snacks throughout the journey. It was also her last voyage... so theres a chef job going.. This got my mind racing. Once dinner was devoured it was once again back into the net at the front of the ship to watch as the stars put on their show. We waited as the moon slowly slid down towards the watery horizon. As it did so it became an intense orange colour. It looked as if the moon was melting as it apeared to come into contact with the ocean. Twilighty! This was an awesome evening of good champagne, good company, acoustic music and twilighty tricks.

Sandy Spit

The last day we spent on a sandy spit which stretched from an island. We did more snorkeling here, for the last time. This was the clearest snorkel yet. We were on the look out for turtles, but none were spotted.

We returned to the Solway for the last time and I finally got my turn on the rope swing. Good fun! We raised the sails and set course back to Abel point marina on Airlie beach.



Rope swing... My one-handed attempt was better.

Saying goodbye to people you quickly grow close to and get to know when travelling seems harder and sadder in someways than most goodbyes because of the likely outcome that you'll never see them again.. I know i will almost definately get to see my family and friends at home again.

Bless Facebook eh?!?!??! :c)



Links to photo albums below. click on photo to go to next


Solway Lass Photo album 1


Solway Las Photo album 2

If you ever get the chance to do this trip... Do it!

On an Island in the Sun...

A days worth of travelling got me to Townsville on Saturday afternoon. I ferry ride got me to Magnetic island in 20 minutes. On arriving on Magnetic Island I met the two guys in my dorm: Gregg from France and Dan from Sommerset! the Magners hostal here wasn't great and the 'Base' hostal on the other side of the island sounded like much better. Many people had been dissapointed by Magnetic island, but i think this is because they were just looking for a party... But me and the dorm lads all had an interest in hiking and getting out into the world, which this island proved to be good for! That evening we got hold of a map and planned the route for our lads adventure!




I was up by about 7 and slept well - being exhausted from the previous days travelling. I went for a quick walk around the bay infront of us: 'Geoffrey Bay' :cD Saw some wild Wallabies and got back to the hostal for the days main hike.







Dan was a young chatty sort of lad who had been in the aircadets. he'd been planning to go for a hike for the past few days and had a good few eeks on the island. Gregg turned out to be a laugh, blowing away all my misconseptions of the French! haha. He'd been working in Oz for a good year.



First was Aurthur Bay, which we walked to in an hour, tjo we easily spent two hours here, trying to get around the coast by climbing over rocks.... Didn't work too well and we didn't get too far either so turned back and got on our original sandy path. We'd started climbing around the rocks in search of a ship wreck which was no where to be seen! By the time we got to Florence bay (Bay 2 of 5) it had gone lunch time, so we pushed on to 'Radical' bay and Past 'Balding Bay' to get to horse shoe bay!. Hungry thirsty and hot we stopped here for a break and got some stuff for dinner. By far Arthur bay was the best as it was ahrder to get to - through a stream and wasn't littered with sunbathers!



Next was the 'Fort walk'. This started off a little lame... a few concerete slabs left from forts built in world war 2, but as we progressed along the route some of the out crops, look outs and buildings were impressive.. roffs and all! The final intact fort, high up a hill we crashed out on the roof of as the sun set and the cast shadow engulfed the whole island. From here we could see almost all the island. Only the west point was secluded by 'Mount Cook'. On the way back down the track we saw our first wild Koala and baby in the tree. Getting back to the hostal wasa risky roadside walk in the dark... Dinner was cooked and beer drank!

Click below for photo album! ARRRRRR!




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