Noosa / Everglades

Left Rainbow Beach with Brad and Jimbo, the bus ride was only 2 hours but its seem to go on for ages actually i think it was abit longer cus I twisted the bus drivers arm to put "The Italian Job' the new movie on, and it just ended as we arrived at Noosa. Decided to come with them as they were gonna go canoeing and it sounded like a luagh, plus I had heard of the River of mirrors and this pic is exactly how most of the waterways are.

First nite we got there, we went to a meet and greet in the bar area....only went for the free glass of wine really :) it was sooo funny, the girl that was giving the talk announced that we were gonna go round the group and introduce ourselves and talk for abit, quite a few people faces dropped and they looked scared as hell!!!! I cudnt wait for my turn, just back from Fraser, cudnt wait to tell them all about it!

That evening we went down the bar for the bbq and beers etc, decided to go down to this bar attached to the kolas backpackers hostel....having a bit of a booogie and then all the lights and everythin went off, of course we all blamed the DJ as you do but he shouted look outside (all the street lights were off aswell) so it wasnt him (later I would find out that Noosa have freqeunt power cuts, somthin to do witha shit connection) the bar still carried on serving and the first torch to come from the bar went staright to the pool table :D after about 30mins of no power I decided to trek bk to the YHA cus the place was so hot and gettin quite borin, was hard walkin back in the pitch black, cus you literally cudnt see your hand infront of ur face. Got back and I sat out on the veranda for abit before going to sleep, had to be up and out for 8am (plus as I hadnt booked on the canoe trip yet, so hopefully I was gonna be able to wing it and get on) When the van turned up I asked the chap and luckily someone hadnt turned up at one of the earlier stops so there was room for me :) got chattin to the guy driving and found out his name is Peter Holiday and he was one of the original founders of PeterPan Travel, a huge travel agents in Australia aimed at providin, backpackers and students cheap adventure deals, anyway he said he just sold off his share of the business and started this canoeing company up. We went to his house to store our gear and pick up some essential gear for the trip, swimmin pool, tennis court, basketball court....the lot!!!!

We went down to the site were we would be boarding a boat that would take us over to the Noosa River. We ordered some beers from Peter and when he came back he came them to us, about 60 cans of Beer and a box of goon...quality!! We set off to the Kinabe Information Centre, this is were we picked up the canoe etc.

Before setting off to Campsite 3 we went for a quick hours canoe up Kin Kan Creek I was sharin a canoe with Jimbo, and we got going before everyone else and headed off towards the bridge, again about an hour or so up the creek, we got there had a beer and chilled out for a good 5mins before Brad and Josie turned up, we headed off passin lots of the group still tryin to fathem out how to canoe, we even passed a group of 3 ("you know who you are girls") that act ually turned around and were headin back, because they kept goin around in circles.

We got back to Kinaba and chatted with some German girls that had walked through the forest and had been bitten tooooo bits, they wernt happy. We had lunch and began packing the canoes, me a jimbo took the esky and some of the other girl who cudnt paddle too well camping gear....lookin back we made a good choice, cus the heavy the canoe the less it rocked, just cut through the water.

We headed off to Fig Tee Point using The Sandpatch as a guide to aim for (This is a massive sand dune in the side of this hill/mountian) this lead us to the Upper Noosa River from here it was about an hour and half paddleing to Campsite 3, brilliant, me and jimbo tucked into the esky and alot of the time we were 2/3 canoes together chattin, drinking beers, catchin some sun and taking in the amazin views!!! ALong the river you copme to the Everglades, this is were lots of trees overhang the river, which is as still as still, the river looks brownyblack, this is becuase of the high amount of tea tree oil in the river. It is drinkable and really good for your skin :)

Got to the campsite and we all set up our tents and and some off us decided to go for a swim, soooo nice, some parts of the river were sooooo warm and then a freezing patch would hit you, really weired, look kinda orangey browny and it tastes like faint apples to me, as we were sittin on the side, these 2 guys went past on their canoe with music blar tryin to cool as they went past us, not looking were they were goin the crashed into the embankment. I dried off and I decided to go and see these other campers who we could just see through the tree's, plus I went o ask if they had a spare roll mat as I didnt have one, as it happens I knew a few of them form other parts of the east coast, so we all had a chat and laugh over stuff we'd done (but no roll mat) Went back to my camp and we all started having dinner, I had brought 2 pot noodles one of which I dropped on my foot, great!! We then started on the beers and went round the group introducing oursleves, pretty much wot I had to do at the meet and great (everyone always says after ive finished "God youve had a busy full life for a 21 year old" is funny to hear but true I think) carried on gettin drunk and payed the other camp another visit with a couple of beers for them, as they had ran out....second load of bad luck, I traded the beers for some fresh chopped pineapple, which I dropped on myself also (was doomed not to eat)

Got up the next day and packed everythin up and headed back to Kinaba....what a long canoe ride it was, sore head, sore body from canoeing the prvious day. Only the way back we saw 3 kingfishers, which we'd never seen before. When we got back to Kinaba after we had unpacked the canoe, was takin a few pics and accidently dropped my camera in the drink....yeah it didnt work after that. (I have brought a new one in Byron Bay now, its mint :)

Once back on mainland, we went back to Peter Holiday house with all the gear, and we all chiiped in and did the washing and cleanin of the tents and repacking them....not sure if it was part of the deal, but no-one minded.

That was abit it for the Canoeing adventure, heading off to Byron Bay next!!

Chat to you from there everyone :)

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>original post<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>upper noosa river, saw the everglades (or the river of mirrors) sooooo amazing, views, really wonderful although my body is absolutley trollied...from beers and paddling.

Just found out this place is open till 8 so I will come back and update with some pics and more info on trips..... need food at the min.

I'll be back :)

Speak soon!

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Fraser Island

>>>>>>>> updated from Byron Bay on Thursday 24th Nov <<<<<<<<

Captins Log Day 1 Thurs 17th

Got up this morning at 4:30am to go and see the sunrise over Rainbow Beach, felt abit sick sittin on the beach actually, think it was cus I hadnt eaten etc and had quite a large volume of vodka previous nite, but the sunrise was wicked, I never knew how fast the sun actuallt comes up, its like super fast then it slows rite down (will try and upload a pic of the sunrsie, but blogger was havin a mare with that image last time i tried to upload) anyway went back to Dingos and got my book out and started readin it, the thought of goin back to bed sounded great, but we had to be checked out by 730 and readin for mission de-breif at about 8am so i didnt take nay chances on goin back to bed. The guy makin the pancakes this moring was a new guy and he blatenly didnt cook enough for the amount of hungry people and so only got 2 pancakes, cudnt wait for the prat to cook anymore. Checked out and put my bag into storage and went and gathered round the 4 x4's and waited for Shane to come and give us a chat about how to drive on the Island, things to look out for and answer any questions we mite have, plus he was gonna tell us was he thought the bestest places to visit were and in what order etc to do everythin in. He's looks quite a hippy chap, dreds, feather in his hair and all that, cool though. After we had the chat we packed the truck's roof rack with everythin we were takin and we were ready, we took over 80 cans of beer and 16 liters of goon (Big mistake, later we wud find out that this is blatenly not enough booze:) All packed and ready, we set off 11:30am, a convoy of four 4 x 4's, was wicked from the off (Ian this truck was the same size if not abit bigger than the UN truck you got) easily the biggest viehicle i've ever driven....absolute monster!!! Its was made to go were humans were not!! We stop just before the beach takin us to the ferry crossing, chanegd the hubs from dif to lock so that we cud drive in 4 x 4 in the tretcherous sand dunes, waked it in Low4 popped it into 2nd and floor the crap out of it though this sand that was soooooo deep, the truck just munch through it easy peesy, got onto the hard sand and we parked up waitin for the ferry. Shane talked to us abit more about what things were likely to encounter whilst driving, he did say we he was drawing in the sand (the beach is normal on surface but an inch or so down and you get silver sand) he said it has radioactive components which make it like that, but he never said how it got there etc, so if anyone knows post is up here. We got on the ferry and began our journey to Fraser, the ferry was only 10 to 15 mins, really not that long, we landed on the south-west corner of the island, again flooring the truck to get us off the ferry and through the dodgy sand on this side of the island, we made our way up on the road that would take us to the east coast of fraser (we were only allowed to drive on the east coast, the west, south and north beach's are supposed to be some of the most tretcherous sands to drive on, and trucks that have gone there have mostly been airlifted out).

We took the road east to 12K point (there are markers all the way up the east coast telling you how far you are up the coast, however they are green and really well hidden....strange I hear you say to yourself, we its a Class 5 world heritage site and so they have very strict rules aout stuff like that) anyway shot onto the beach and althogh it was soooo cool the truck had a mind of its own, cus not only was the sand super wiered but you had the wind comin in off the sea battering you around, but i soon got the hang of the conditions "no drama's"carried on up 75 mile beach slowing down for wash out (this were the water on the island is makin is way back to the sea and causes massive ruts through the sand some of which can be really deep and damage the truck) we had no problems, kept at around 80/90 k all the way up to Eurong, we stopped here for ice creams and drinks, we then set off for Lake McKenzie, this was a proper off road track (bout 16k throught the rainforest) completely different to the beach although still sand tracks, up and down, climbing over massive trees roots, up really steep knife edge passages, but we finally got there. We unloaded some of the food and went for lunch before heading to the lake, one things we all had a problem with was march flys, these are like flys in the UK just 5 times bigger and they bite....great!!! We had lunch and made our way to the Lake, its about 1 k walk, when we got there, awwwwsome, beautiful white sands and the clearist water you have ever seen, the lake cannot sustain any life as there is no oxygen in the water, hence no fish etc, this is one of 3 lakes of this nature in the world and 2 of them are on Fraser Island, you can drink it, swim in it, open your eyes and see your feet as clear as day...the day we were there its was alittle windy and slightly overcast, but we were gonna ciome back on day 3 so we all dried off and made our wa back to the truck.

Edwin was driving now and we headed to the Maheno wreck, this ship was built in Scotland in 1904, for trans tasman journeys, she got caught up in a winter cyclone on the 8th of July 1935 and she ran aground Fraser Island 9th of July 1935. We set up camp here, however the sun was goin down, which made it slightly hard to put the tents up and cook. Ricardo, Anna, Brad all help with the cookin that nite (we had Steak, Potatoe and Salad), whilst us other set the tents up and started drinkin. After Tea and lots of beer and goon, we took a walk to the ship wreck, to see it under the full, quality, but I cudnt geta decent pic with my camera unfortunatly, but really amaznig. I shared a tent with Sam and Rebecca, 2 northern lasses. That nite I went for a piss quite late and as I was shining the torch round, i saw 2 green eyes in the bush, no problems a dingo i thought....then I looked abit harder and saw about 12 eyes more, I shot back to the tent, waking Jimbo up who was asleep on the tarp outside.

Captins Log Day 2 Fri 18th

Was up and about quite early, bout 9am, I cooked everone (that wanted it) scrambeld eggs and beans, while brad was makin toast. As soon as I had finished I needed a crap...we were a good 30mins drive from a bog, so I took the shovel and went and dug a hole in a sucluded place...yes I felt very at one with nature,k but there was no way on earth I could have hung on. Got back and we started packin up camp, I packed the roof rack today, when the truck was packed we all walked down to Eli Creek which doesnt look to far on the map....4k later in the 11:30am sun and we finally made it, killer of a walk, Eli Creek is another Fresh water supplied creek that you walk up to one part and jump in and float back to the begining, although its deep enough to wade, which i did with my gear in my hands, its was sooooo cold, but the absolute best for colling you down in that deadly heat. Us lads all bein lads decied to run back to the truck along the beach, what a bad idea that was, we all made it, but after downin a beer, it hit hard :) legs stiffened up a treat!! Ricardo was next up to drive....the one we were all dreading, Ricardo is a really loud dutch guy, and i think everyone was abit apprehensive at first, but he did a wicked job and I think afetr the few days on the island, he was the one that made every1 laugh, qaulity geeza. I was navigating and we were not supposed to drive past Indian Head as the roads here got pretty unpassable, however I managed to take us rite past Indian Head by mistake and we ended up at the Champagne Pools/Rocks....really not all there cracked up to be, we had lunch there (ham and beef salad wraps) and we buried and apple :( dont ask how this came about, I think me and Anna were feeling in a silly mood :D I also worked on my facial tan with a large stainless steel bowl. After lunch and abit of footy we headed back to Eurong Ricardo still driving, he got about halfway and decided to perform and emergency stops, he jumped out and said "I dont wana drive nomore, i wana drink" which I suppose you had to be there but it was soo funny. We swapped driver when we reached the Maheano wreck, Josie jumped in the driving seat, and for a girl she wasnt scared of driving the truck to its limits, infact I think I told her a couple of time to take it easy, but she loved it, we didnt actaully go back to Eurong, we stopped at Happy Vally instead we got more ice and filled up all the water containers we had. Josie than drove us to a place near to a walking track at Lake Wabby me and girls whipped the tent up and made our way to walking track 2 to Lake Wabby, it was about 5:45pm and we were trying to get there for sunset, at the bottom it said 1.8k so we set off through this wiered forest, all the tree were blacka dn white, no leaves on any of the tree's. We reach the bottom of the dunes that surrounded Lake Wabby, big sign saying 1k to Lake, the girls said no way no climbing the dunes, I decided to run to the top and get the photo....lookin up at the dunes, they go up to the sky, so I got runnin and every 20ft the dunes dipped and I cud no lobger see the top or the bottom until out of the dip. I got to what looked like the top and it wasnt, the same again to go, I gave up, my heart was trying to get out of my body. Trekked bk down to Sam and Rebecca and we headed bk to the campsite, just in time for dinner (Chicken with Rice in a Sweet and Sour sauce) after dinner a few of us lay out under the stars watching out for shooting stars (Fally Stars hey Josie), I saw 2 :D we then moved the tarp out onto the beach were we all laid watching the stars getting pissed. We all watched the moon rise out of the sea, absolutely amazing to see. Went and jumed into tent, out like a light!!!!

Captins Log Day 3 Sat 19th

Got up early again this morning noticed rubbish strewn everywere, not actaully thinkin too much about it, then Brad said look weve been raided by the Dingo's in the nite, sure enough we had, they stole the milk, butter, meat and orange juice, was quite funny cus Ricardo drank from the OJ box cus he was so thirsty and when he realised the dingos had been in it, he threw up hahaha. I cooked everyone scrambled eggs and beans on bread, packed the roof again, and I drove us round to Lake Wabby we walked down the track to the lookout, unbelievable, pure emerald green lake inside this massive sandblow phenomenon. We made our way down the further 1k of track, absolute killer. When we got there, there is one side of the lake were the dunes is sooo steep you can roll down it and into the lake, which of course I had to do, Roger one of the lads in our group did 5 backflips down into the lake. We also buried Brad head first in the sand. Made our way back to the truck and I drove us the scenice route back to Lake McKenzie, about 30k's in all, was actually a real test of my driving skills, some of the biggest tress roots that the truck just about made it over, and having to reverse for oncoming traffic is quite hard in such a big viehicle loaded with singing passenger, but did it though. We stayed for 1 hour at Lake McKenzie, awsome day for it no wind, pure sunshine, was wicked, stopped in a Eurong for more ice creams then took a nice leisurely drive to catch the 3pm ferry back to Rainbow Beach. Missed the 12k road turn off to get us the south west coast and at 1 point the sea came in and I cudnt swerve to miss it because of an oncoming car, but it was a wall of sea around the truck....everyone got soaked, much better than the log flume, drove round Hook Point, again another place your not supposed to drive becuase of obstacles, but the tides was going out so luckily we made it to the ferry for exactly 3.

Got bakc to mainland and we all wanted to go back, even though we all had a little moan about camping. We unlooked the hubs and took the truck to the petrol station were I filled her up, 85 bucks. Got back to Dingos and began to unpack the truck, me and Ricardo washed the trucked down inside and out, to get the saltwater off, so we didnt incurr any damages.

Later that nite, we all met in the bar and got smasharoonied, I gave everyone permanent marker tatoos of things from the trip, I even had a couple of people have them that wernt even on our trip or group.

Speak soon :) email me





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Hey :D http://www.seefraserisland.com/about/
Jut got back from Fraser Island, did 3 day 2 night self guided 4 x 4 driving trip..... AMAZING!!!!! im on such a buzz, we had the bestest group, we all got on great, camping, making our own food etc and not to mention the driving, better than any off raoding ive done in the UK, its unreal tanking it doen the beach at the sea edge occasianly hitting some surf and gettin drenched, went to lake meckenzie, the S S maheno wreck, Indian head, Hook Point, The Chanpange Pools, Lake Waaby (mite not be correct spelling) and Eli creek, its soo wicked driving through the forest on the roughest, meanest sand traxx, seeing lizards, spiders, dingos, eagles.

Our camp got raided by Dingos on the lastnite, they stole the milk, butter, orange juice, meat, but we survived :) I cooked us all scramble eggs and spagehetti for breakfast this morning. We all lay out under the stars lastnite watchin shooting stars, we also saw the moon rise over the sea, its was really ace, early on the evening ran up the dunes to lake waaby to catch the sunset, but i didnt even make it to the top, the biggest dunes Ive ever seen, they litrally went up to the sky The nite before we had a full moon party by the maheno wreck, was ace :) sorry this is soo short, but the net place is closing in a couple of mins, so i just had to get a few things down on paper so to speak.

I will expand abit when im in noosa if i can, if not it'll be from brisbane, should be goin on a 2 day canoing trip, with some of the guys (and gals) from fraser trip. ohh before I forget people in my group (Me, Brad, Jimbo, Roger, Ricardo, Edwin, Anna, Josie, Sam and Rebecca) Got loads of pics, cant stress how good the driving was :) :) :) :)

Speak to you soon.

Email me people :D

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Rainbow Beach

Arrived at Rainbow about 10:30AM checked in, bumped into Ben and Darryl, but they were off to Fraser rite then, I went striaght to my room and crawled into bed feelin roten. got up at 15:45 and went to a safety meeting about driving on Fraser....however I had a word with the lady and told her I didnt wana go feelin shit and cud I possibly book on 1 later in the week....no problems, mint, got on thursdays trip, givin me 2 full days to get better :) I went straight back to bed and slept rite through till 5am next day, I got up and went and drank some tea through tim tams.....amazing, had a chat with, Gary, he's a guy from the dorm, he's re-tiered and he was up workin on one of his 5 didgeridoo's, I then went and phoned the SCFP (Hemmings) and the Boner (Chris) had a good chat with both of them guys, was wicked speakin to them, I took my cup of tea to the phone booth with me.

Got back to Dingoos and got my free Didgeridoo, I got 1 cus I brought so many trips back in sydney, otherwise about 100 bucks, and I took it and got wokring on it, sanded it down so it was lurvly and smooth and then begen drawing on it in Pencil what I later wanted to paint, spent allday working on it, looks amazing, still needed more work though.

This guy shouted "Oi, English lad!!" fro the pool, looked over and it was Kurt from Koalas in Airlie Beach (He's a alcaholic hairdresser...im sure he'd agree, he actually cut my hair in Airlie, did a wicked job....not as good you though Gail :) he came over and had a chat, he was smashed....not unnusual, he passed out on the decking and the irish guy painted all over him with the didgeridoo paint :)

I went back to the dorm and began to read Dan Browns The Devinchi Code listening to my music, arranged with Louise (girl from the dorm) to get up at 4:20am and go see the sun rise, so got some kip in. Just before I went to sleep, we had the worst storm, it was like movie rain, with lightening cracking across the sky.

We wenht down to the beach this morning and the storm that had been over in the night was still makin its way out to sea, thus preventing us from seein the sunrise...pants, spotted some sand crabs though, kinda clear ugly looking crabs...yuk!!!! Headed back and had Spaghetti on Toast :) and then started back on my Didge, go it finished and just waiting noe to have it varnished and the top waxed so that it can be played.

updated you soon :D

The Whitsundays

Posted in Airlie Beach and was very ill :(
Sorry this post is not going to be long, i have caught a cold from my trip to the whitsundays and I have no tissues here to blow the beak. I had a brilliant time, ill update you more from rainbow beach.

Speak soon :)

--------------------------------

Currently im in Rainbow Beach :) in the internet cafe attached to the dingos backpackers hostel, but back to the Whitsundays!

Right friday 11th, checked out of Koalas, and went and stored my bags at PeterPan, they held my bags for 3 days while I went on the whitsunday sailings trip. Went back to Koalas and sat round the pool with paul and hannah for abit, just wainting around for my bus that was picking me up at 13:30.

Got picked up, got and the bus, and as per usual, there is always thsi "quiet before the storm" so to speak, nobody knows each other, its abit quiet and before you know it everyone knows everyone and there is never silence. On route to the harbour, the only things i think we could all hear was this canadian lad at the back, really loud....typical canadian I thought (would later find out he's was a quality lad and the loudness was just him, seabas good lad) we all got off the bus and went to the rendevous pointn where Tony "met and greeted" us, bought some last minute supplies from the shop (already had the goon with me :) but we had to take it out of the box's so that they would fit in the eskeys....no problem!

Made our way down to the 83ft Boomerang Maxi Ocean Racing Yacht (you can find a details description of here + pics at http://www.soxsail.com.au/fleet_details.php?vessel_id=2 ) the first pics you see on that site is how we had the boat the first day, we got the sails up with 8 of us on the grinders (these raise the main sail, they are geared...thank god, towards the top it gets really hard to move suck a large canvas?? not sure what it made of), all sittin on the high side of the boat as we cut through the ocean....quality!!! Sat talked with several people on top deck (James, Alister, Brad, Marie and Rosani) before we got on the boat we had to put our shoes in a big bag....no shoes for us. We had an intro off the crew, the skipper was James/Jimmy/Jim/Skip/Cap he didnt maide any of them, he had been sailing since he was 8, Tony he was Decky training to be a Skipper, he had about another 8months of training left, Digger he was also a Decky but also the Chef and they had one volunteer Rasmus (I actually met Rasmus on Magnetic Island 2 weeks age, and he was volunteering cus he had no cash to pay for the trip).

Took about 2 to 3 hours to reach the Whitsunday Islands as the wind had dropped considerably compared to when we set off, we achored off in Chavce Bay, just round the corner from Whitehaven beach, by this time is was dark, we watched the sun disapear over Hamilton Island, we had dinner (Steak, Mash and gravey) and we all got up on top deck with the beers and goon out, you know I was sayin you can really see the stars clearly on this side of the world, well out at sea its unbelievable...you could see Mars and Venus really clearly along with every other stars that could possibly be out there! Later that evening about 12 wen most poeple had gone to bed we dragged out beds from below deck onto top so that we could sleep comfortably under the stars....it was allittle chilly to start but I got wrapped up in my sheet and I was fine :) was ace waking up with the sun rising, undescribeable! everyone was woken up early around 5:30, we all had some breakfast and tea, hauled the anchor up and we motored round to Whitehaven Beach which is on Whitsunday Island, the beach is 7 k/m long and is 75% pure silica (this basically means its nearly the purest sand you can find, its makes a funny squeeching sound wen you tread on it) we mored up and 14 of us jumped in the dingy boat to be taken to the beach, we arrived at 7:10AM (The earliest ever drop to Whithaven that the boomerang crew had done to date) put my gear down and played football and frisby with some of the people, after about 10mins I was bord of reisby so I decided t catch Brad up who had wondered up the beach towards the south end, however he dissapeared out of sight before I got to were he was, came across some funny sea creatures washed up on the beach, Brad then re-appeared from this walkway. As we walked down the beach allitle futher we came across this black cloud in the sea, it was massive school of fish clumped together, we saw a turtle abit futher out and when we reach the end of the beach we could sea thousands of other fish in the sea around these rocks that we had climbed. By know the sun had come out and it was gettin far too hot, we made our way back to the others, passing other people from the boomerang also exploring the beach. Too be honest I was ready to leave the beach then, cus it was sooooo hot, but they didnt pick us up for another 30 mins, because they said we had 2 hours there, they made sure we did :)

When we all got back on board we motored round Tounge Bay-Hill again we got dropped off the same as before, Tounge Bay-Hill is was about a 15 min trek up the hill to a lookout point over Whithaven Beach....now no word of a lie, from beach level it looked like paradise, from up here it looked like double paradise, the whitest sands, the bluest of blue waters, with foot step marks trailing across parts of the sands, it looked better the postcard without a doubt. Made our way back to the pick up point, where Tony Picked us up and took us back to the Boomerang, once we were all aboard Jimmy took us over to Border Island were we anchored off in Pitstop Bay to do some snorkeling. We all got out Stingersuits on as its the season for Jelly Fish. The reef we were swimming around is called fringing reef, this reef only grows around islands for this reason its is different to the Great Barrier Reef, as this is free standing Coral so to speak. It was amazing, so many fish and different types of Coral, me and Seabass buddied up and went exploring different parts of the reef, we found a giant clam probably about 500 years old, when Seabass touched it it snapped shut, we also found a tunnel of coral to swim through, however Seabass went through and caught his foot on some sharp reef, so I decided to give it a miss, as cuts from the coral can become easily infected ( some people came back to the boat with awfull gashes on there plates) Went back to the boat and removed the Stinger suit so I could do some diving off the side of the boat, was wicked, Alister got a mint photo of me, just before I entered the water, you can see a clear reflection of me in the water, well done son.

We then motored just round to Cataran Bay, still on Border Island, were we went snorkelling again, lots of baby clams here, the current was really strong and after swimming out and arounf the reef, i decided to swim back to the boat....christ I wished I hadnt, nearly killed me, not leterally it was just really hard work, just as I was getting to the ladder to climb back aboard I saw a tiny jellyfish (cud have been an incurda not sure) but I dont even think I used the ladder, i lept onto the boat!!! and that was the end of my sea activities, wasnt takin any chances.

Me and Alister had been taking a steady pace on the beers all afternoon, after the snorkelling we went round to Macona Inlet off Hook Island were we all proceeded to get smasharoonied, was playin this daft drinkin game called shoulder, that got harder the more we played. Tony and Digger asked for alcaholic Donations and they made a punch, that tasted well dreadfull, but lethal :) Jimmy then came up and announced that the bar on Hook Island had said that we go ashore for some drinks and pool, there was a big cheer and that sealed the deal, we piled into the dingy with the punch and polished it off on the way to the island. On Hook Island I went to the bar and order a southern comfort (Flemmans comin out in me) and lemonade (mite I add it was free pour and the guy didnt hold back, I nearly asked him if there was any lemonade with that southern comfort) Got that one down me and Margi a Canadian girl, wanted one so I went a got 2 more, after that one I felt the need to lie down, so i stumbled towards the sun loungers on the beach were I proceeded to pass out/fall asleep im not sure to be honest, but I woke up and all I cud see was the dingy leavin Hook Island, I ran to the waters edge waving my hat tryin to gettin some attention (later I would find out that they thought I was a drunk local waving goodbye!!!) they didnt come back for me, I went to the bar were they tried radio'ing the Boomerang telling them they had left someone behind....no answer...typical I thought!!! I waited on the beach, I couldnt even see the Boomerang it was that far away, waited for about 45mins and I got a tap on the shoulder from these 2 local guys, they told me they would take me back as it didnt look like they were comin back and that the tide was goin out and soon it would be immposible to leave the island, I helped them drag a dingy down the beach and we set off, when I arrived back at the boats edge people could see it was me and they found it quite ammusing, as most of them thought I was in bed :) had a good laugh with a few people about the whole ordeal, by this time the p!ssed feeling had acome back, so I made a beline for a bed below deck, were i comfortably slept until the early hours wehn I stumbled to the fridge for a bottle of water.

Woke up the next day with a really sore head, and a snivverly nose (you know that feeling you get when your comin down with a cold sneezing and blowing my nose the whole journey back) got some tea and breaky down me, not that it helped, the mornin sun was up and toastin us, there was not one drop of wind in the air, so we had to motor back to Airlie Beach, doin about 3-4 nots so slow, especially in the sun, with no shade on the boat, just gettin baked to death, sweatin my ass off!! We finally got back about 11AM we had a chat off the crew and we gave them 3 cheers for puttin up with us.

We handed our stinger suits back in to a guy on the dockside, got our deposits and shoes back and made our way back to were the bus was to pick us up. Me and Alister picked up a Bacon and egg batch from the Shop....not to forget a peach ice tea. Got on the bus and got dropped off outside Koalas. Went and brought some new sunnies as I trod on my new pair on the boat...great my third pair, also brought a box of tissues.

Collected my bag from PeterPan and made my way to the Lagoon were I knew some of the people from the trip were waiting for the buses that would be comin later in the day, I dropped my stuff with them and went for a shower etc at the lagoon showers....first shower in 3days, so good except you had the whole lagoon watching you shower :) Went back and drided off got chattin to this German girl who was sat next to me. I then spent the afternoon goin back and forth to the pharmacey, gettin anti cold drugs etc....seabass had his photos developed from his underwater camera and he got me 1 done for 5 bucks.

Back at the lagoon I fell asleep for about an hour on my rucksack....so comfy :) bout 6:15PM made my way to the bus station as I was catching the next greyhound at 6:30...en route I bumped into Rasmus, he was gettin the same bus but he was stayin on it to Brisbane (mad man it was 16 hours to Rainbow Beach and somet like another 10 to Brisbane) Bus was late!!! but we all got on fairly fast and what a nightmare of a journey I had, hardly got any sleep, was hot, sneezing and up against the window...hated every minute of bein on that bus. We changed buses at Hervey Bay where I made a couple of quick phone calls, it was then 2 hours on to Rainbow. arrived at Rainbow about 10:30AM checked in, bumped into Ben and Darryl, but they were off to Fraser rite then, I went striaght to my room and crawled into bed feelin roten. got up

Apologies

Sorry for the delay in pics on the site, but blogger seems to be havin problems with certain random images (strange i know but some pics will upload and other wont) sorry folks. Ive added some, just not as many as id hoped for, i'll try on sunday, as im off to the Whitsundays 2moro and wont be back till then.

speak to you soon everyone :)

Airlie Beach

Well since my last post in Bowen, that day I caught a taxi to Horseshoe Bay (I reckon there is one every 10miles of coast....sayin that I cant think of any bay that arnt horseshoe shaped???) Best beach ive been to in oz by miles, wicked blue water and rocks, quality :) got a taxi back....the same one that dropped me off, obviously overrun with work, told the guy about my taxi driver days and he said it sounded too much like hard work!!! He ran over a snake, infact he swiverd to run over it, they're classed as pests most of them out here. Met up with Wayne and Si and we went drinking and playin pool allday, some more of Waynes work mates showed up for a few beers, we got a feed in this bar down the road from the hostel (half roast chicken, chips and gravey, waitined till 8:55 for the bus but it was and hour late :( and in that hour we had a run in in with a local drunk, he was no trouble just a stupid drunk who was annoying, but we saw him off. But sayin that te bus bein late gave me and Wayne chance to have a proper chat, was really wierd cus I hadnt seen him in well it feels like years, probably nearer 18 months, but I promised him id be out to see him, so I wasnt gonna let him down, quality, we gonna meet up more nearer xmas wen he's out of Bowen as it aint exactly partyville central!!

The bus ride was only an hour but it took ages, think it was cus Id had a few beers. Arrived in Airlie Beach at 23:00, Ben and Darryl met me at the bus stop, as apparently its quite a walk....which it was, walked straight into Koalas, and droped my stuff in there dorm, Ive been staying in their dorm since and havnt paid so far but the site is that big and reception is a million miles away and i cant see them fillin the rooms up. went staright to the bar that nite and proceeded to get more drunk, infact actually I didnt even stay there that nite, I stayed at this other girls dorm.

Woke up bout midday with a quality hang over, real head splitter, and went and met the lads, they were makin bacon and philladelpia sarnies...quality, well tastey. me and Ben went shoppin, bought new sunnies, board shorts and a cap ("look at the dogs on that" you know what I mean Darryl) and american football for the pool, pink of course - for the chicks, we then went back, dropped in on morocco's had a couple of beers and a few games of pool, met up with Darryl and we all lay by the pool gettin tanned up, met these scotish people, Paul and Hannah, Hannah was playin the guitar and we were all singin along till bout 6 as the sun was going down. Went back to the room and we had a couple of new people in the room, Andy and Beth, really nice couple from Leeds about 27ish, they were goin on the Whitsundays on the 7th, but they are traveling in motor home, im not sure why they stayed in the hostel when theyve got a van to kip....maybe they wanted proper beds??? We through a very dodgy meal together that nite, Mince, Pasta, Baked Beans and Cheese, quite bland, not very lively, 5 out of 10. Went down morocco's, played some more pool, but it was far too hot so went outside and drank out there. Called home from the phone box's over the road, was good cus I cud still order drinks over to the box :)

Up well early yesterday mornin, bout 8 cus of a phone going off in the next room and no one in to turn it off. had muffun and toasts, cus Andy and Beth brought theyre kettle and taoster up, so we were sound. hit the pool at 10AM and got on the professional tanning oil out SPF0, oh yeah it works, im crispy. played in the pool quite abit, Andy and Beth came down and had a kick about before they left for the Whitsundays.

Me and Darryl went out and brought some food for dinner, Chicken Breast x 3, Bag of browm rice x 1 and chicken n mushroom sauce x 1, I volunteered to chef again, everythin was goin wicked until the brown rice decided it didnt wana be cooked, took over 30mins and still wasnt great, but over all 8 out of 10. Everyone came round our room to get pissed lastnite, me and Ben drank a box of goon, christ it was awful, about 2AM we all went down to the pool bar a couple but I felt far to sick, so I went back to the dorm, were Darryl and a couple of lads that moved in just for the nite were still up, couldnt get to sleep cus I had too much booze in me, so I did the sensible things of going and chuckin up in the bathroom (isnt bein sick the worstest worstest worst feeling, I mean you do actually feel like you could die) I felt instantly better and went back to bed on a one way ticket to snoozeville :)

Not done much today, gonna try and get a job promotin (handing out flyers) for morocco's as it come with free accomodation at Koalas and meals, so try that until my boat sails friday if not im gonna have to check in.

Oh the reason we have gone cooked mad, is cus we keep cathin ready, steady, cook, the ozzy version as we have a TV in our room, ozzy TV is pants, the adverts are so rubbish, its just unbeleivable what depths they have to go to the sell to the ozzy public.

Speak to you all soon :D

Bowen

Well got up today about 8:30 went for a quick look to see if the Greyhound timetable was up were it dropped me off, no such luck, went and put some credit on my phone as it has been dwindling for a while now, bit the places I've been I've had no signal anyway so no point topping it up. Went from a Big Breakfast at this cafe called McDees, I've never eaten sooo many fri-ups in all my life, brilliant way to start the day though with an ice cold ice tea :)

Called Greyhound and booked on the 8:55PM coach to Airlie Beach arriving at about 10PM, this will give me chance to say good bye to Wayne and maybe get on my Whitsunday trip 2moro. Plus I've just spoke to Ben and he says they have got like a massive festival thing going on in Airlie at the minute and the whole place is rammed.

Gonna go do some more sunbathin I reckon, maybe even come back here and burn sum pics onto CD.

Speak to you from Airlie.

Bowen (Wayne Holland)

We have just left Magnetic Island, so good as there is soooo nuthin to do on that island, but relax!

Got the 11AM ferry so we cud get the 1PM bus...no such luck, all spaces taken, so we got on the next bus at 4PM, so we had to ahng around the ferry terminal as it is too far to walk into Townsville in the midday heat, its was a long 5 hours but an even more comforting thought was that we had to sit on a caoch for another 4 hours, finally after 4 ice tea's and some dodgy food, the coach turned up and we got on our way, sat next to yet another German girl friendly enough but I cud see some spare seats and I wanted to stretch out abit, so I politely moved seats :) however in moving I got chatting to 2 girls, 1 from Canada and 1 from Israle, they were both going to Airlie as Ben and Darryl. Funny thing was they are booked on the same boat as me to got the Whitsundays, so Im gonna try and get to Airlie for Sunday morning and go with them.

The bus dropped me off in Bowen ann no word of a lie, this place was quierter than Magnetic, not a sole to be seen, I called Wayne and his mate Izack came to meet me literally only 30secs round the corner they were. I cud see this fuzzy haired bronze lad in the distance, i knew it was wayne, he hadnt changed abit, bar the tan, the bear rough hands and dirty feet from working all day, but it was good old Waynos! we had a few beers, did some catchin up chatted with some of his work mates, had a good crack, but as theyd all bin up since 5AM they were all pretty tiered and most of them had to be up for 5AM next the next day, so we all hit the hay.

Adios!

ps for all those people back home i have posted a pic of Wayne to prove he is still alive!!!

Magnetic Island

We got the bus to Townsville from Cairns, just 6 hours on a Greyhound coach, these services run frequently around Australia, more so on the east coast, there is usually a coach every 2 hours going north or south. On the coach got talking to this girl called Emma, she's American or Canadian can't quite remember, she's bin traveling since she was 19, now she's 21, she was going on to Airlie Beach, and staying there for about 3 weeks, so she should be there when we all arrive.

We got off the coach and got a Sunferry to Magnetic Island from Townsville, again these run every 20 mins back and forth which is a good reason (I'll explain later), on the ferry I talked to some local magnetic ozzy about "local" stuff, jelly fish etc, only said hello and he proceeded to give me a tour of the island as we sailed past it! The ferry is mainly used by school kids and commuters as bus as no schools or "real" jobs on the island, they do have a nursery and small medical center (which I wud get to know rather well) and there are 5 policemen for the whole island. We we arrived we did not see 1 other car on the road, it was like a ghost town.

Got bus to x-base hostel..... Undoubtedly the remotest hostel on the island, in Nelly bay. We checked in which took forever, we dropped the stuff off headed for supermarket...Supposedly 10mins down the road...30mins later!! We were all abit hank so we stuffed our faces with doritos and dip, hitched a lift back to base with a lady and her daughter who worked in the IGA(supermarket). Got back and hit the hostel bar...smashed too bits! You don't relaise in the day by the pool as there are big clear wind screens that protect sunbathers from the wind, but at nite by the bar its really blowy, met German girl called Meja, got on quite well with her, we stayed out on the beach lookin at the stars etc till the earls hours. On a serious note its amazin how many stars you don't see in UK cos of light pollution, the nite sky when all the lights are off is like twinkle town, I've never seen so many stars.

Woke up really sore head, we decided to rent a tropical topless car with pink interior...Wicked, the chicks loved it!! drove all around the island in about 20mins, stopped at Radicaly Bay and walked down this tretcheras road (radical rd, we were not allowed to take the car down this road because of its condition) to the beach...Ridiculous, it went on forever and none of us could believe that this was the way to the beach, but we carried on, we came to wot looked like the end of the road and and it turn into sand and bushes, so we made our way through and finally came to radical bay! I played football and Frisbee on the beach with Ben and Darryl, did some sun bathin then headed back up the stupid road, but a lorry came up behind us so we hitched a lift up the radical road, far toooo long to walk in the sun, the driver was sound, he told us that a monsoon had ruined Radical, which explained the road and the lack of people on the beach, said it used to be the most popular bay on the island, and he was workin to get the road reopened.

On the way back drove up to the old ferry terminal and saw a wallaby, kinda like a baby roo. Headed back to base, stayed round the pool for a few hours, got burnt,well most of us did, me and Ben arranged to go play a round of golf with these 2 New Zealand lads in our dorm, however we were all dressed wrong for the course and they had no buggies :( so went back to base and all of us went and lay on the rocks drinking beers. We then decided to go to this walk (The Forts Walk) near Radical bay...Bit long is an under statement, everyone we spoke to on the walk, said another 10mins you'll be at the top (all of these people have obviously no concept of time and how it works cus an hour later we finally reach the top, amazin views of most of the bays, bout 1hour 30mins, on way bk we heard this noise like a worthog, but this German girl who appeared out of nowhere told us it was a koala up a tree, and this was the first place we saw them in the wild, it was only a baby.

We got back to base and guess wot we got drunk again :) tonite was pool comp nite, it was a massive game of killer, and guess who won....ME :D winged it completely rich!!! There was about 35 people and I won a jug of 4X gold.

Today me and Ben went to drop the car back, and we walked bk to base....Nearly killed us in the sunshine. I then went to the bog, were I felt something on me so I brushed it off and didn't think nethin of it, until as I was leaving the loo I saw this massive black spider with white stripes on its back, and then I thought "have I been bit?" so me and Ben went to reception and they rushed me to the medical center were they gave me the all clear, they cudnt identify the spider, but I made myself well paranoid and worked up, but it was better then a spider bite I guess. We then proceeded to lie by the pool all day and do absolutely nuthin but get more of a tan :D played in the pool for abit and now we are back on the beer, just had a chicken burger cus all the food we have left is milk, cheese and tuna...not exactly a Gary Rhodes special.

anyway off for a shower and more beer.

speak soon