Fraser Island 4x4

    
     After Byron Bay I headed up on a 6a bus to Rainbow Beach. Another town of roughly 10 shops. Ridiculously small. I got there two days before we left as the day before we had a meeting regarding the Fraser Island 4x4 trip. I pal-ed around with a different French guy, Ulyse, and that first night we had happy hour and met the other people in our dorm room. The next day we were supposed to have our FI meeting but 'the other buses were late dropping off your fellow 4x4-ers' so it was postponed until the day we were leaving for 645a!! No gracias. Stocked up on some fruit as snacks as they only provided meals, and got some bug spray and my first box of goon!! It's boxed wine that costs $13 for 4 liters. Yummm. Hung out with Matt that night and since we were prolly the coolest people on the trip the next day ;) we decided we'd say we were travelling together to be able to go in the same truck. Luckily it worked out that way anyway because for the 16 people going that day there were only 4 drivers, including me, so Matt and I got to go together.

     That morning we had to be checked out of the dorm, fed, packed, and have had our bags checked into the luggage room before 645a. It was so rough. We had our pre-meeting with Luke, this Aussie guy who liked to rhyme things....like, don't be lame, make Fraser's a game....but I swear he rhymed EVERY THING that came out his mouth. After a while I was like....oh please just give us the info and let's get on with it! It's before 7a!!! But we all know how impatient I am. :)  Then we got to go see our beasts of trucks, pack them with the supplies like tents, the eskie (cooler), table, gas stove and food. Then, with 5 in the back on bench seats facing each other (thank gawd I didn't have to sit in the back...barf!) and 3 in the front, me sitting in the middle and Matt driving first, we headed to the 4x4 garage where we'd get info on how to drive on sand and in 4WD, and where we heard that the mechanics there weren't the friendliest. That was an understatement. They were pretty much angry dudes. They showed the drivers how to lock and unlock the tires to drive on the sand and inland tracks and how to use the 4WD. And then we were off!!

       We drove to the ferry that takes you across with your vehicular, and it takes about ten minutes. Then we got onto the inland track that was so bumpy and then out to the beach! We got to go 60kph...ooooh. When we got to Eurong we headed inland again on even bumpier tracks to Lake Birabeen. With Matt driving, that left me to navigate. I may or may not have shoved the map under the back BACK seat and forgot about it so I'm using this crappy little hand-drawn map to get us to Lake Birabeen so I accidentally got us lost for, like, 5 mins. Our brother car behind us with the other 8 honked and we got straightened out. We were told we couldn't go to Lake McKenzie because it was being given a face-lift, and that Lake Birabeen was just as good. It was. The water was so clear and the sand was so soft and white! It was beautiful. It was hard to believe after driving through forest for over an hour we would find this pristine lake out there.

We made lunch, wraps, and layed out for a bit. I managed to get bitten 4 times within a few minutes by the same pesky mozzy that I couldn't catch. It was super. Afterwards, we headed to the campground to set up. It was back in the forest at a camp site but it was really pretty there. Dinner we made in the dark but it was good. Then some people played drinking games and others talked and drank goon.

   In the morning we got woken up by two crows yelling at each other across our campground. It was soooo annoying, and waaaay to early for that. We got an early start, deciding to try and go to Indian Head, a lookout point, even though the 4x4 garage guys said we couldn't. Such rebels our car was! I drove that day and we headed to Lake Wobby first for a bit. Its the island's largest lake and its being taken over slowly by a sand blow.

 On the way there I had to go down this massive (ok, like, 4ft drop) with the truck. Matt's navigating, hollering at me how to best approach it. Scared the crap outta me! After I got down I stopped to wait for the other guys' truck and my heart was pounding!! So fun!! Later, when we got to Lake Wobby we were talking to the other truck and they were like ,'um, you were literally on two wheels, then the other two and it looked really dangerous!' Oh....hmmm...well...glad I couldn't see what I looked like going down!! Also got frightened by ANOTHER of those lizards, goanas, that I saw at Manly Beach. This one came outta the bushes on the walk back from Lake Wobby and I was the first to come across it and startle it!!

We stopped at the Maheno shipwreck and took some snaps. Then while the other team cooked lunch we booked it up to Indian Head. It wasn't far and we actually made good time. The reason we weren't meant to go to it was that we were supposed to be off the beach with the truck by a certain point because of the tide. At Indian Head at the top we saw a Humpback whale jumping out of the water, Manta rays also jumping, and a pretty big shark...we also weren't allowed to go in the water. :( Should been the Fraser Island Can't-Do trip with all the things they said no to). I was glad we did that. After that we met up with the other group and camped on the beach. Matt and I cooked hamburgers that night for dinner and they were pretty damn good!

Then we played cards and drank more goon and hit the hay. At some point that night there was a storm and rain came in our tent. I woke up with half a head of sopping wet hair. Haha. In the morning the two diagonal sides of the tent were caved in so I though, I'll fix it! I assumed the pole had come out of the ground so I pushed it towards its opposite end and heard this riiiiippp. The pole had broken at the top where it joins together and the two sharp points ripped through the rain cover. Apparently its $80 if you wreck a tent. Oops.

     In the morning we lazed around, made pancakes for brekkie (nothing on yours Dad!) and just hung out. We booked it back to the ferry by 2p and headed back home. :(  It was such a great trip I didn't want to go back!! We had to go back to the hostel, clean out the car of everything but the gear it came with, and then go back to the 4x4 guys. Luckily it was the nicer (if that can be said) guy. I was soooo nervous about the tent, as we'd have to split the cost as a group, but he told us to take them out and let him look at them. He took my tent out and looked at the rain cover and bundled it up saying it was ok. I gave the most massive sigh of relief! We did have to pay for 7 tent stakes missing, not our fault, at .60 cents a piece...$4.50 he came up with. I'm not good at math, but isn't that supposed to be $4.20?? Just sayin. After that we got dropped back at the hostel to shower, do laundry and relax. I had the most wonderful time and our whole car got along it was the best time ever!

I'll hopefully do my Whitsunday Sailing here in a few days...work starts Weds at 5p!! Wish me luck!!!

Byron Bay, Brisbane, Noosa Heads, and Nimbin

   
     Oi! It's been a while. I can't even believe I've slacked this much on here. For shame. So after that last WWOOF I went back to Newcastle for a night, then flew to Byron Bay. I stayed at this really chill hostel about a 15 min walk from town called Belongil Beachouse. Using more of my smarts, I got another all chicks room. Worst idea EVER. I got stuck in there with this girl, Fanny, who worked there so her stuff was EVERYWHERE, and she had her boyfriend in there all the time. That's fine and all, whatevs, but geez. I'd walk in on them doing inappropriate things and be like, oh, um, sorry. Or they'd be sitting in the doorway smoking, which isn't allowed either. I was so surprised she hadn't been kicked out of there she got so many complaints. Go figure. Luckily I met this cool dude in the dorm next door so he offered his dorm the night Fanny was having her boyfriend over. I ended up just moving in there for the next few days, so that was a big relief. The first morning I was there I met these two Cali girls. They invited me to walk with them to the lighthouse. Luckily it was an amazing day, sun was out, and we got to walk all along the beach until the lighthouse and then a short hike up the hill to it. It was SUCH a beautiful walk. Heaven.

After that we walked back into town, got some burritos (delish!, but not CA mexican) and did some shopping. Byron is really small. Smaller than Ojai for sure. It's got one main road with tons of shops and then some side streets, but not much else. Then they have that whole long stretch of beach. It's just a really nice town to go and veg at. The three of us went to one of the local bars that night, The Rails, and listened to some kick ass live music.

    The next day Val's friend, Megan, was supposed to meet up with me. She showed up with her two Aussie friends and we all went for lunch and wine. Then we went to the Beach Hotel which is a sweet huge half outdoor bar with live music. We had a couple more beers there and then went to the Rails. I buggered off early-ish, being super tired from the tons of walking I'd done the day before. The three of them ended up sleeping at the hostel because the two friends got too drunk to drive. They went off the next morning for coffee and I didn't see Megan again until late that night. Turns out she made her own plans, as did I, so we weren't traveling together after all. So retarded, but glad I'm not dealing with drama and someone else's plans. That's the beauty of traveling alone. Everyone else can piss off. :)

      
     I headed to Brisbane the next day on a greyhound. I stayed at this hostel right around the corner from the bus depot (thank GOD!) because my stuff is soooo heavy and I'm growing extra bags-o-crap to carry around. I most definitely look like a crazy bag lady. Hah! I roomed with this Canadian girl who I swear was my cousin Heather in 5 years. Tripped me out. And then four young French boys and an older French dude. The room was seriously...8x12...and it smelled like people, smelly feet, ugh...gross stuff. That's one thing I really hate about dorms! I tooled around the next day with one of the French kids, walking around the city, checking things out. We bought a Cornish pasty from this outdoor market they were having. It was sooo amazingly delicious! If you've never had one, I highly recommend it. Then we hit up the Botanic gardens, almost got attacked by 15 bigger birds after the frenchie fed one of them (what is WITH people?!) so we high tailed it. There were a few like, knee-high birds that followed us. I thought we were going to get followed forever. Funny though. Then we crossed the bridge and walked through this gorgeous bougainvillea covered walkway. It took us near this man-made lagoon and some outdoor cafes, it was nice. Then we went back to the hostel and chilled until free dinner! I LOVE free food!! He and I played a bar game at the attached bar of the hostel, and won a trip to Nimbin. It's the official un-official pot town of Oz. Everyone knows it. The next game this Aussie guy won a 3-day 2-night with two nights accomodation for Fraser Island. And he didn't want it!!! So instead of paying more than $200 for the trip (I ALMOST booked it that night) I bought it off him for $70. Sweet deal!! I was stoked.
     Since I already had plans to go to Noosa Heads before I won the trip to Nimbin I headed up there the next day with the French kid. It was crap weather when we got there so we didn't do much the first half day we were there. We also got free dinner the two nights we were there. Yessss!!! The one full day we were there, the frenchie and an American dude I'd met in Byron went on a walk through the Noosa National Park.

It was really nice and we didn't see anyone through the first half of the hike. We went the long way around and most people only do the beach part of the walk so it was really quiet. When we got back to the beach we got massive burgers for lunch and then laid on the beach for what little sun had peeked through for a short time. After free dinner I was packing my bag for the next day about five feet from the door, facing the door, with it open because it was raining outside and I wanted to listen to it. I was looking down and saw a flash of light and was about to say, oh, I think I just saw lightening, because I wasn't sure if it was car lights, when the LOUDEST, SCARIEST, clap of thunder boomed...I almost crapped my pants. It startled me sooo bad! Haha. I was like OMG. It had also startled the other people in the room so I didn't feel too stupid breathing all heavily and moo-ing about the noise. We left the next morning for Byron, since Nimbin is a super small town West of Byron Bay. It was like a 10 hour bus ride. Miserable.

    I stayed at the Belongil Beachouse again, and this time, upon telling the front desk girl about last time with Fanny (and her saying oh, yeah, I heard about that. That was you??) she let me have an empty dorm, and frenchie met up with his French friends who had gone to Byron after Brisbane. I got some amazing peaceful sleep while I was there. The day after we met in town for the Nimbin trip. It was raining, hard. Boo. But the bus was really cool and it was known for playing mad cool tunes the whole way, so it was entertaining. We got to stop about a half hour out of town to see the Sunday markets.

Frenchie bought a crepe and we shared it. Chocolate. Sooo sick! Then we went to Nimbin, which is all of...ten stores. The museum was cool though. Super small but cool news articles about pot and trying to legalize it and funny sayings and paintings. After that we headed to a waterfall not far from Nimbin, and then home. It was a looooong day. But I was glad it was FREE! :) In Airlie Beach now, going sailing today for 3-days, 2-nights to the Whitsunday Islands. Should be wonderful! Hopefully I don't get too seasick. :(  Can't drink my goon if I'm barfing over the side. Will have more blogging after this. Perhaps when I'm in Cairns. Enjoy the day! xx