After yet another over night coach we arrived in Port Douglas more than a little jaded! Fortunately our room was ready so we shoved our stuff in and did what any normal couple would do... hired bikes to cycle round port douglas and orientate our selves. We were not surprised to find another bit of wild life to fear... there are signs everywhere saying Danger do not swim crocodiles inhabit these waters. We had been told on good authoritiy that port douglas is beautiful... unfortunately we had come in the wrong season to see it in all it's glory the waters were really merky and the threat of a grade 4 cyclone made any sea related sports more than a little risky. we also learnt that this is where beloved steve irwin died... if he couldn't handle the waters here...then niether can we. Fortunately our hostel had a pool and good company to keep us entertained.Needless to say we had an early night that night.
Mike enjoyed a good bit of man time the next day with Manny and created some new swim strokes namely the sofa swimming, the modified sofa swimming, and the back wards dolphin. They also did other manly things like lift weights. Laura enjoyed a very girly day of mooching round the shops...and ofcourse a little bit of shopping.
We had an awesome night out on st Patrick's day. started in iron bar with our new friends from norfolk sam and nat. we went to cane toad races.
This is where you have to pick up a toad give it a kiss then when the cane toads are released from a bucket you encourage them to jump off the table with party horns, you then have to pick up the toad and the first toad in the bucket wins. you'll never guess who got called up first round.... yes mike!! he was a little shy when it came to being affectionate with the toad in public...(ie on stage in front of an audience of around 60 people).... but he really came up trumps and his toad was first in the bucket, winning him a beer!!! May i take this moment to explain to you that mike did not actually need to touch his toad, it actually jumped from the table into the bucket...well done jerry springer. The american that came last was no where near as lucky having to chase his toad around the audience calling come here 'gay freddie'....very funny!!
we headed on after the toad racing for a few more beers and begged a bakery to give us food as there was no keebab places open. yummy fresh sausage rolls.
we had to get up early the next day heading to cairns to meet up with diana and weather permitting dive the great barrier reef... woo hoo so exciting!
Thursday 18 March 2010
captain crankey and whitsundays!!
After an amazing nights sleep (?) on the greyhound we arrived in Airlie beach around 7am and headed for the YHA. We couldnt check in until 1 so after breakfast we decided to be productive and book our whitsundays sailing trip!!
Tina our booking agent had good and bad news for us!! The bad news was the weather was looking aweful at the end of the week, the good news was Tina had a boat leaving in two hours we could jump on to miss the bad weather and definately go to whitehaven beach. After much debate (slightly heated) we decided to go for the one boat on offer. We raced back to the YHA cancelled our booking, brought new towels (as we had lost our other towels at 1770) and showered, packed a weekend bag, dragged our other bags to storage, trekked over to the marina picking lunch up on the way and enough beer for the 3 day trip. We made it bang on time to meet the crew and other 23 passengers and head off out to sea on our home for the next few days the Habibi.
We had warning s from the crew that the weather was looking pretty aweful and we would need our sea sickness tablets so Mike downed a cheap tblet he'd bought in Thailand and when combined with loss of a nights sleep on the greyhound spent the rest of the day drawling on himself in a zombie like state, but atleast he wasnt sick!!!
The boat was pretty budget. We did get ourselves a double cabin which was lot more private than all the other bunks but did have a locked door into the smelly toilet, so we had the smell and sound of everyones bodily functions to look forward to as we lay in bed - the whitsundays were looking to be a truely romantic experience!!
Fortunately, Tina was right about the weather though. The first day was beautiful and we snorkelled over a couple of reef systems wearing our all in one black stinger suits looking like extras from a star trek episode!!??!! Slightly bad timing on a second front not only was it cyclone season so bad weather likley but it was also stinger season, deadly jelly fish season to you and I!!! We developed an unhealthy fascination with these little creatures over the next few days!! The captain had a few books so we educated ourselves on what to look for which proved to be a bit of a mistake. The deadly stingers can be as small as 1cm and not always visible to the naked eye, this combined with the budget stinger suits which did not cover the head nd had many large hles and gaps did not add to the enjoyment of snorkelling......and to think we were worried about the recent increasing shark attacks around the whitsundays!!??!! Sharks were the last thing on our minds!!
That night was early to bed everyone very tired after the first days excitement. It was an interesting night in the flee ridden bunk. Mike decided to partake in a little sleep walking and obviously didnt get far in the 6 x 6 cabin. After a couple of hours in the near cooking heat and smell Mike decided to sleep up on deck, and it was a gooooood sleep!!
The next day we awoke to the early call from captain cranky to "get our arses out of bed and down to breakfast"!! It would appear that someone had forgotten totell captain cranky that we were on holiday and not part of a paid crew there for him to vent his angers on!! After breakfast captain cranky got the maps out and weather print out and told us the news. The wind was looking to be blowing 40knots and the captain told us the weather would be hitting whitehaven beach therefore their was no point heading over there and he had selected a few sheltered bays for us to enjoy teh next two days!!??!! Obviously we were all disappointed but accepted our fate as we all agreed we would rather be safe!!
So we headed to our next snorkelling spot opposite some rich and famous resort filled with Brad and Angelina types. The captain herded us hurridly into the water as we were apparenty on a tight schedule. We enjoyed a short snorkel before we were surrounded by jelly fish and got the fear and swam back to the boat asap!! This was much to the captain cranky's annoyance. Even though he told us we only had a short time to snorkel and we had been in the water for 30 mins he was incredibly pissed off with us for not staying off the boat longer!!??!! He seemed to show no care for us being surrounded by stingers in the water but when asked why he wasnt joining us he confidently told us he never swims in stinger season!!??!! Good old captain cranky- damned if you do, damned if you don't!!
Next stop after snorkelling was a spit of sand that was only visible at mid to low tide. We set up a game of beach cricket with the other 3 brits and an ozy and Mike took them back to school!! Before leaving the boat we had another warning from cranky which really added to the enjoyment of the experience and further reminded us what a wild country we were in. Cranky showed us pictures of shells which we were not to touch as these little creatures fired a poison that would kill a man in minutes!! Great, another deadly ozy species to worry about, this time on the beach, our only safe haven in oz or so we thought!! What was more interesting was Mike had been collecting shell fish back on fraser island and prizing them open with a knife using them for bait only a few days earlier when fishing!! lol!!
The sand island also gave us chance to get to know the other people on the boat which was great and as it transpired we were not the only people to have developed a feeling that captain cranky should be made to walk the plank and we should take our chances with our own way home!! We also made friends with the local turtle who swam up and down the beach as we played cricket by the waters edge. Very cool but not much of a fielder, he droped every catch!!
We returned to the boat via the little motorised dinghy for lunch and some more moans from cranky that everyone was being too slow!! Little did he realise everyone was just enjoying time away from him and plotting his downfall!!
The winds were indeed picking up so we were taken to a resort island for the afternoon which was very relaxing. We took full advantage of the pool with swim to bar, jacuzzi and sauna's!!
We got to chat with the cook from the ship a littl more, Mel, a kiwi who was new to the boat and she was pretty cool!!
When we got back to the boat we were moored off of lovers cove, a beautiful spot for our last night on the boat. Captain cranky and his first mate (Dominion Dave, a real captain cranky in the making) were clearly very relaxed and suspiciously red eyed!! The BBQ was great and we sat around the table all 25 of us and had a great evening chatting and drinking into the night!! one of our drinking rules was no one can hold thier own drink. Matt and Jay the two Brits looked like they were enjoying this rule. laura told them "that is the gayest thing i 've ever seen" they said "no this is" and proceeded to pretend to snog with choclate cake in their mouths...very funny boys. We slept up on deck under the stars that night, so no toilet smells and luckily no sleep walking from Mike!!
The next day we were again awoken in the same fashion, had breakfast, snorkelled then headed back to harbour in the 3m swell with sails up and sea crashing over the front of the boat- good fun!!
We got off the boat, took some pics, and dragged our salty, sleepy selves back to the lagoon and counted our flee bites. We spent the rest of the afternoon in the lagoon pool with our shipwrecked mates!!
As soon as we got in we boil washed all our clothes to rid them of bed bugs. we had showers and cut eachothers hair. we were spruced up and ready for a good night out.
That night we got free pizza with our new pals in one of the bars, had a boogy to live music, and caught up with fraser island crew the Argentians, Liam and Tom. Whom had all made it into port!! We ended this night with a mad rain run...good times.
Tina our booking agent had good and bad news for us!! The bad news was the weather was looking aweful at the end of the week, the good news was Tina had a boat leaving in two hours we could jump on to miss the bad weather and definately go to whitehaven beach. After much debate (slightly heated) we decided to go for the one boat on offer. We raced back to the YHA cancelled our booking, brought new towels (as we had lost our other towels at 1770) and showered, packed a weekend bag, dragged our other bags to storage, trekked over to the marina picking lunch up on the way and enough beer for the 3 day trip. We made it bang on time to meet the crew and other 23 passengers and head off out to sea on our home for the next few days the Habibi.
We had warning s from the crew that the weather was looking pretty aweful and we would need our sea sickness tablets so Mike downed a cheap tblet he'd bought in Thailand and when combined with loss of a nights sleep on the greyhound spent the rest of the day drawling on himself in a zombie like state, but atleast he wasnt sick!!!
The boat was pretty budget. We did get ourselves a double cabin which was lot more private than all the other bunks but did have a locked door into the smelly toilet, so we had the smell and sound of everyones bodily functions to look forward to as we lay in bed - the whitsundays were looking to be a truely romantic experience!!
Fortunately, Tina was right about the weather though. The first day was beautiful and we snorkelled over a couple of reef systems wearing our all in one black stinger suits looking like extras from a star trek episode!!??!! Slightly bad timing on a second front not only was it cyclone season so bad weather likley but it was also stinger season, deadly jelly fish season to you and I!!! We developed an unhealthy fascination with these little creatures over the next few days!! The captain had a few books so we educated ourselves on what to look for which proved to be a bit of a mistake. The deadly stingers can be as small as 1cm and not always visible to the naked eye, this combined with the budget stinger suits which did not cover the head nd had many large hles and gaps did not add to the enjoyment of snorkelling......and to think we were worried about the recent increasing shark attacks around the whitsundays!!??!! Sharks were the last thing on our minds!!
That night was early to bed everyone very tired after the first days excitement. It was an interesting night in the flee ridden bunk. Mike decided to partake in a little sleep walking and obviously didnt get far in the 6 x 6 cabin. After a couple of hours in the near cooking heat and smell Mike decided to sleep up on deck, and it was a gooooood sleep!!
The next day we awoke to the early call from captain cranky to "get our arses out of bed and down to breakfast"!! It would appear that someone had forgotten totell captain cranky that we were on holiday and not part of a paid crew there for him to vent his angers on!! After breakfast captain cranky got the maps out and weather print out and told us the news. The wind was looking to be blowing 40knots and the captain told us the weather would be hitting whitehaven beach therefore their was no point heading over there and he had selected a few sheltered bays for us to enjoy teh next two days!!??!! Obviously we were all disappointed but accepted our fate as we all agreed we would rather be safe!!
So we headed to our next snorkelling spot opposite some rich and famous resort filled with Brad and Angelina types. The captain herded us hurridly into the water as we were apparenty on a tight schedule. We enjoyed a short snorkel before we were surrounded by jelly fish and got the fear and swam back to the boat asap!! This was much to the captain cranky's annoyance. Even though he told us we only had a short time to snorkel and we had been in the water for 30 mins he was incredibly pissed off with us for not staying off the boat longer!!??!! He seemed to show no care for us being surrounded by stingers in the water but when asked why he wasnt joining us he confidently told us he never swims in stinger season!!??!! Good old captain cranky- damned if you do, damned if you don't!!
Next stop after snorkelling was a spit of sand that was only visible at mid to low tide. We set up a game of beach cricket with the other 3 brits and an ozy and Mike took them back to school!! Before leaving the boat we had another warning from cranky which really added to the enjoyment of the experience and further reminded us what a wild country we were in. Cranky showed us pictures of shells which we were not to touch as these little creatures fired a poison that would kill a man in minutes!! Great, another deadly ozy species to worry about, this time on the beach, our only safe haven in oz or so we thought!! What was more interesting was Mike had been collecting shell fish back on fraser island and prizing them open with a knife using them for bait only a few days earlier when fishing!! lol!!
The sand island also gave us chance to get to know the other people on the boat which was great and as it transpired we were not the only people to have developed a feeling that captain cranky should be made to walk the plank and we should take our chances with our own way home!! We also made friends with the local turtle who swam up and down the beach as we played cricket by the waters edge. Very cool but not much of a fielder, he droped every catch!!
We returned to the boat via the little motorised dinghy for lunch and some more moans from cranky that everyone was being too slow!! Little did he realise everyone was just enjoying time away from him and plotting his downfall!!
The winds were indeed picking up so we were taken to a resort island for the afternoon which was very relaxing. We took full advantage of the pool with swim to bar, jacuzzi and sauna's!!
We got to chat with the cook from the ship a littl more, Mel, a kiwi who was new to the boat and she was pretty cool!!
When we got back to the boat we were moored off of lovers cove, a beautiful spot for our last night on the boat. Captain cranky and his first mate (Dominion Dave, a real captain cranky in the making) were clearly very relaxed and suspiciously red eyed!! The BBQ was great and we sat around the table all 25 of us and had a great evening chatting and drinking into the night!! one of our drinking rules was no one can hold thier own drink. Matt and Jay the two Brits looked like they were enjoying this rule. laura told them "that is the gayest thing i 've ever seen" they said "no this is" and proceeded to pretend to snog with choclate cake in their mouths...very funny boys. We slept up on deck under the stars that night, so no toilet smells and luckily no sleep walking from Mike!!
The next day we were again awoken in the same fashion, had breakfast, snorkelled then headed back to harbour in the 3m swell with sails up and sea crashing over the front of the boat- good fun!!
We got off the boat, took some pics, and dragged our salty, sleepy selves back to the lagoon and counted our flee bites. We spent the rest of the afternoon in the lagoon pool with our shipwrecked mates!!
As soon as we got in we boil washed all our clothes to rid them of bed bugs. we had showers and cut eachothers hair. we were spruced up and ready for a good night out.
That night we got free pizza with our new pals in one of the bars, had a boogy to live music, and caught up with fraser island crew the Argentians, Liam and Tom. Whom had all made it into port!! We ended this night with a mad rain run...good times.
Tuesday 9 March 2010
1770 hogs!!
We headed north the next day sharing a lift again with Liam and Tom. We were gunning for a little place called 1770. The place where Captain cook first landed.
We had taken it under good advice from Kelly and others that we could do a cool motorbike tour. We booke into the hostel and booked straight on the tour the next day.
We spent the rest of the day looking around 1770, its a very peaceful place. The beach was a little rough but we had been spoilt for very good beaches lately!!
The next day we did the scooterootour.com tour. We joined a convoy of 40 odd others doing the same and rode mini chopper like bikes around the island to the sea to watch sunset over the water. It was a cool experience. A bit start stoppy and our lights didnt work which made the drive back a bit of aggravation having to argue a little to get Laura and I on bikes with lights but all in a good time hairing around up to 50mph on the little choppers. I can't imagine ever having that many people in a bike convoy again in my life time especially not on english roads!!
We returned to the hostel around half seven pm and got ready for the greyhound overnight night bus picking us up at 9pm taking us to our next adventure, Airlie Beach and the Whitsundays!!
We had taken it under good advice from Kelly and others that we could do a cool motorbike tour. We booke into the hostel and booked straight on the tour the next day.
We spent the rest of the day looking around 1770, its a very peaceful place. The beach was a little rough but we had been spoilt for very good beaches lately!!
The next day we did the scooterootour.com tour. We joined a convoy of 40 odd others doing the same and rode mini chopper like bikes around the island to the sea to watch sunset over the water. It was a cool experience. A bit start stoppy and our lights didnt work which made the drive back a bit of aggravation having to argue a little to get Laura and I on bikes with lights but all in a good time hairing around up to 50mph on the little choppers. I can't imagine ever having that many people in a bike convoy again in my life time especially not on english roads!!
We returned to the hostel around half seven pm and got ready for the greyhound overnight night bus picking us up at 9pm taking us to our next adventure, Airlie Beach and the Whitsundays!!
Fraserf island, 4x4's and Dingo sticks!!
We shared a lift to Hervey Bay with Liam and Tom in their Ford Falcon a real Beaut from the early 90's that they had brought to drive the east coast!! Hervey Bay is the jumping off point for Fraser island. Fraser Island is the biggest sand island in the world. We had booked a 3 day self drive trip in a 4 x 4 with camping gear included.
We arrived in Hervey Bay to find out our booking had been lost so we were only on the standby list for the next day. This was not a big issue as the weather forecast was for rain and we were told we would have free accomodation if they couldnt get us on the next day!! We had to wait until the morning to find out!!
We arrived having heard a few horror stories about the driving including crashes where people were air lifted to hospital so Liam and I decided we would ensure we would be the drivers in our group. Liam seemed a pretty good person to be with as in his real life back home he is a mechanic and also has spent some time in 4x4's. We also saw a few people from the previous trip arrive back on crutches following Dingo attacks!! The only thing for it was to prepare ourselves, so we headed to the nearest camping store and stocked up on torches, fishing gear and mosquito repellant.
We then returned to the hostel and cooked a big roast to ensure we would not starve over the next few days on the island camping if the Dingo's bullied us and stole all our food!!
We had to await for the first day to find out who we would be sharing the 4x4 with as we needed another 4 people to fill the Land cruiser!! So we had a tentative look around that night for possible people to share the ride with and kept our fingers crossed that we would be on the next days trip and we would be put with some nice people!!
We woke up at 7am to find out we were on the trip as some other people had cancelled. We went along to the morning presentation and were taught all the rules and regulations, given advice on driving on the island and warned about the local wild life (Dingo's)!!
We met the rest of our group 4 Argentinian girls and immediately we all hit it off, things looked promising!! Laura was pleased to get some girl time and Mike pleased to get a chance to practice his spanish!!
We took our Land cruiser to the shed and met some inbred "mechanics" who showed us where to stick all the camping gear and then we headed off to Woolworths and filled it with food and drink. The girls were deployed to get food and did a great job. The boys just brought a load of goon and beer. We drove onto the ferry and our adventure began.
We arrived on the islands west side. Liam drove the first day, along some pretty extreme tracks, certainly more extreme than we had bargained for. We stopped at Lake Wabby and all had a swim in the fresh waters!! 6 trucks in total left the hostel and we all stuck together so we had quite a big group to mess around with!!
We drove onto the East side and up the beach to find our first nights camping spot. We put our tents up with another van in the same spot, set up the camp stoves and sat around eating and drinking late into the night, no Dingo's to be seen, but we were ready for them with our big dingo sticks. Liam and mike went out digging for bait to go fishing with the next day at about mid night as it was low tide.
That night we had a bit of rain which tested the tents claims of being waterproof to find they were very false claims. Laura was well medicated so slept well but Mike awoke to the Dingo's outside tearing chunks out of each other and thought it was lucky for the drunken swiss guy we found lying asleep on the sand outside and stuck him in the van. He would have been attacked for sure and was in no fit state to fight!! A little scary!! When anyone needed the toilet we went in pairs and took the Dingo stick for protection. Luckily it was only ever needed to dig the toilet hole and never used in anger!!
The next day started as it meant to go on- rainy!! We hastily packed the tent up and headed north up the east beach. This time with Mike driving. We stopped at the pinnacles a really cool look out along the beach and champagne pools, a rocky area where the huge waves crash in and form a really nice champagne effect over the rocks but protected enough to swim ie no sharks!! Swimming in the sea is strictly prohibited due to stingers and more worringly tiger sharks!! The girls looked after the boys very well and made lunch to keep our strength up to do man things like make camp and fish.
Liam and Mike did some fishing catching a couple of fish but unfortunately not big enough to feed everyone for diner that night!!
We headed back south to find our camp site for the night and took some pics of the ship wreck along the way etc. The rain made driving the beach quite hard work as it was difficult to see the changing surface. We found a nice sheltered spot trying to protect ourselves from the elemenents as best as possible. We helped the others set up camp. The rain was heavy and almost horizontal with the 30mph onshore winds!! We made pasta and had some beers with some of the other people from the other trucks that had parked up in the same area. NO Dingo's that night, obviously they only attack the tourists in the good weather. We slept in the van that night as the tent was soaked through.
The final day brought with it sunshine, we slowly packed up camp and dried out a little before heading to Lake Mackenie. Laura drove on the beach doing a great job. Mike then took over to head in land through some pretty exreme off road track- he loved it!! Lake Mackenzie was a beautiful place to spend the day in the water and on the lush sands. We had some lunch then headed back to the ferry!!
We got to the ferry in good time, sad that our adventure was nearly over, but happy to have met some realy good people and had a great little adventure!!
We got back to the hostel, all jumped straight in the nice warm showers and passed out for a good nights sleep, safe in the thought we had survived the Dingo's, sharks and dodgy roads!! :)
We arrived in Hervey Bay to find out our booking had been lost so we were only on the standby list for the next day. This was not a big issue as the weather forecast was for rain and we were told we would have free accomodation if they couldnt get us on the next day!! We had to wait until the morning to find out!!
We arrived having heard a few horror stories about the driving including crashes where people were air lifted to hospital so Liam and I decided we would ensure we would be the drivers in our group. Liam seemed a pretty good person to be with as in his real life back home he is a mechanic and also has spent some time in 4x4's. We also saw a few people from the previous trip arrive back on crutches following Dingo attacks!! The only thing for it was to prepare ourselves, so we headed to the nearest camping store and stocked up on torches, fishing gear and mosquito repellant.
We then returned to the hostel and cooked a big roast to ensure we would not starve over the next few days on the island camping if the Dingo's bullied us and stole all our food!!
We had to await for the first day to find out who we would be sharing the 4x4 with as we needed another 4 people to fill the Land cruiser!! So we had a tentative look around that night for possible people to share the ride with and kept our fingers crossed that we would be on the next days trip and we would be put with some nice people!!
We woke up at 7am to find out we were on the trip as some other people had cancelled. We went along to the morning presentation and were taught all the rules and regulations, given advice on driving on the island and warned about the local wild life (Dingo's)!!
We met the rest of our group 4 Argentinian girls and immediately we all hit it off, things looked promising!! Laura was pleased to get some girl time and Mike pleased to get a chance to practice his spanish!!
We took our Land cruiser to the shed and met some inbred "mechanics" who showed us where to stick all the camping gear and then we headed off to Woolworths and filled it with food and drink. The girls were deployed to get food and did a great job. The boys just brought a load of goon and beer. We drove onto the ferry and our adventure began.
We arrived on the islands west side. Liam drove the first day, along some pretty extreme tracks, certainly more extreme than we had bargained for. We stopped at Lake Wabby and all had a swim in the fresh waters!! 6 trucks in total left the hostel and we all stuck together so we had quite a big group to mess around with!!
We drove onto the East side and up the beach to find our first nights camping spot. We put our tents up with another van in the same spot, set up the camp stoves and sat around eating and drinking late into the night, no Dingo's to be seen, but we were ready for them with our big dingo sticks. Liam and mike went out digging for bait to go fishing with the next day at about mid night as it was low tide.
That night we had a bit of rain which tested the tents claims of being waterproof to find they were very false claims. Laura was well medicated so slept well but Mike awoke to the Dingo's outside tearing chunks out of each other and thought it was lucky for the drunken swiss guy we found lying asleep on the sand outside and stuck him in the van. He would have been attacked for sure and was in no fit state to fight!! A little scary!! When anyone needed the toilet we went in pairs and took the Dingo stick for protection. Luckily it was only ever needed to dig the toilet hole and never used in anger!!
The next day started as it meant to go on- rainy!! We hastily packed the tent up and headed north up the east beach. This time with Mike driving. We stopped at the pinnacles a really cool look out along the beach and champagne pools, a rocky area where the huge waves crash in and form a really nice champagne effect over the rocks but protected enough to swim ie no sharks!! Swimming in the sea is strictly prohibited due to stingers and more worringly tiger sharks!! The girls looked after the boys very well and made lunch to keep our strength up to do man things like make camp and fish.
Liam and Mike did some fishing catching a couple of fish but unfortunately not big enough to feed everyone for diner that night!!
We headed back south to find our camp site for the night and took some pics of the ship wreck along the way etc. The rain made driving the beach quite hard work as it was difficult to see the changing surface. We found a nice sheltered spot trying to protect ourselves from the elemenents as best as possible. We helped the others set up camp. The rain was heavy and almost horizontal with the 30mph onshore winds!! We made pasta and had some beers with some of the other people from the other trucks that had parked up in the same area. NO Dingo's that night, obviously they only attack the tourists in the good weather. We slept in the van that night as the tent was soaked through.
The final day brought with it sunshine, we slowly packed up camp and dried out a little before heading to Lake Mackenie. Laura drove on the beach doing a great job. Mike then took over to head in land through some pretty exreme off road track- he loved it!! Lake Mackenzie was a beautiful place to spend the day in the water and on the lush sands. We had some lunch then headed back to the ferry!!
We got to the ferry in good time, sad that our adventure was nearly over, but happy to have met some realy good people and had a great little adventure!!
We got back to the hostel, all jumped straight in the nice warm showers and passed out for a good nights sleep, safe in the thought we had survived the Dingo's, sharks and dodgy roads!! :)
Noosa in the rain :(
Mike had been harping on about Noosa for the whole trip and how he had wanted to spend at least a week there as its his favoutite part of Oz.......so when we arrived to find sunshine he was very pleased!! We were put into the rainforest room however a 14 bed dorm which smelt of old wet socks, we were a bit sceptical but had little other options as the place was fully booked!! Unfortunately after that day of orientating ourselves we awoke on the second day to the sound of rain!! :( This sound was to be a familiar one for the next 48 hours. Rain Rain and more rain. Non stop rain, neither of us have ever seen anything like it!! The guide books said the rain started on the 1st of March, it was the 1st of March the rainy season really was very punctual!!
This limited our activities somewhat in Noosa. The surf was too big so nowwhere would hire boards so we opted to just body board and hang out at the hostel. This turned out just fine, Liam and Tom from Byron Bay caught up with us and we had the chance to hang out at the hostel and meet some pretty cool people We had a night in playing ring of fire with some Irish girls and we had a good night out with our new friends Denise and Mattheus from Germany and Liam and Tom where Laura finally got to wear her dancing shoes, she was so excited she nearly wore her dancing shoes out that night and was definately the last to want to leave. Denise i think will be avoiding mixing TimTams (australian chocolate Penguin bars) and beer for a while though after her late night turn for the worse which she could really hide in the 14 bed dorm!!
the big dorm turned out to be ok as it was pretty sociable yet quite so we stayed in there for the whole 4 nights in Noosa. We cut the stay short as the weather wasnt really improving and headed to Hervey Bay to begin our Fraser island adventure that we had booked to do with Tom and Liam!!
This limited our activities somewhat in Noosa. The surf was too big so nowwhere would hire boards so we opted to just body board and hang out at the hostel. This turned out just fine, Liam and Tom from Byron Bay caught up with us and we had the chance to hang out at the hostel and meet some pretty cool people We had a night in playing ring of fire with some Irish girls and we had a good night out with our new friends Denise and Mattheus from Germany and Liam and Tom where Laura finally got to wear her dancing shoes, she was so excited she nearly wore her dancing shoes out that night and was definately the last to want to leave. Denise i think will be avoiding mixing TimTams (australian chocolate Penguin bars) and beer for a while though after her late night turn for the worse which she could really hide in the 14 bed dorm!!
the big dorm turned out to be ok as it was pretty sociable yet quite so we stayed in there for the whole 4 nights in Noosa. We cut the stay short as the weather wasnt really improving and headed to Hervey Bay to begin our Fraser island adventure that we had booked to do with Tom and Liam!!
Some family time in Brisbane
We got off the Moreton ferry and took the train to Indooroopilly (pronounced Indrapilly) where Brenda (Laura's auntie met us). We got back to the house to find a nice big double bed waiting for us. We were made to feel at home straight away and had a big roast beef feed - yum!!
Brenda lives with her daughter Beverley and husband Mark in the huge house. Laura lost Mike for a few days as Mark and Mike had a bit of man time doing man things and talking about man stuff!! We also went into Brisbane which is a gorgeously clean city and walked along the southbank of the river, which puts Londons southbank to shame. They have created a huge man made beach along the rivers edge into swimming pools. As it was the weekend it was full of people and had a great atmosphere.
We met up with Sophie and Brendan while in Brisbane, Laura did camp america with Sophie and loved catching up with the kids camp's favourite councillor and meeting Brendan they're a great couple. We had a blow out lunch of steak as Sophie had 2 for 1 vouchers, a few too many beers then home for a curry.....the first one we've had since leaving the UK, it was lovely!! We've missed you curry India!!
On the third day we got back on the greyhound and headed north Noosa bound!!
Brenda lives with her daughter Beverley and husband Mark in the huge house. Laura lost Mike for a few days as Mark and Mike had a bit of man time doing man things and talking about man stuff!! We also went into Brisbane which is a gorgeously clean city and walked along the southbank of the river, which puts Londons southbank to shame. They have created a huge man made beach along the rivers edge into swimming pools. As it was the weekend it was full of people and had a great atmosphere.
We met up with Sophie and Brendan while in Brisbane, Laura did camp america with Sophie and loved catching up with the kids camp's favourite councillor and meeting Brendan they're a great couple. We had a blow out lunch of steak as Sophie had 2 for 1 vouchers, a few too many beers then home for a curry.....the first one we've had since leaving the UK, it was lovely!! We've missed you curry India!!
On the third day we got back on the greyhound and headed north Noosa bound!!
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