Our first stop was Coffs Harbour. We put up our tent (or the boys put up the tent and we watched) and went for a few drinks and sorted out our route. It sounded great but very optimistic so we will just see how things go. Our next stop was Byron Bay. It was a really lovely place, very chilled out. We stayed at Clark's Beach campsite. We walked out to the view point which probably would have had beautiful views if it hadn't have been really cloudy and raining. We went and put our tent up in the rain and headed into town. We went to the Rails then on to Cheeky Monkey's as it had been recommended to us. It was really cheesy but we had a good time and had a dance on the tables.
The next morning we took down the tent (in the rain) and left for Brisbane. We stayed at Clark's beach campsite which was nice but it was still raining. We pitched our tent again and went to have a look around.
We left Brisbane the next afternoon after getting some more camping supplies. We stopped off in Surfers Paradise but the weather was still awful and the place didn't deem that nice so after a few hours we decided to leave. We drove for a while and stopped at a place called Tiara on the 8th of November. It was a free campsite that we had found in a book we has bought which had lists of all the free and cheap campsites around Australia. It had hot showers and BBQ facilities so we got some fish, garlic bread and beans. (Our supplies were very limited) and had a BBQ with some red Goon.
The next morning we planned to get up early so we could get to Hervey bay and sort out our trips to Fraser island and the Whitsunday's. We needn't have set our alarms as we were woken up about 4.30am by a guy in a huge mobile home that was stuck in mud and was revving his car for about an hour.
We spent about an hour deciding which trips to go on and which company had the best deals, we finally agreed on a good one and booked it.
On November the 10th we left we left for Fraser Island. We had booked a self drive 3 day trip in a 4x4 there were six of us included Zo, me, ed, Will and Jonas and Carmel. The roads (if you can call them roads) were really bumpy and scary but Ed done most of the driving and was at most times quite good. We got to Lake Mackenzie and were amazed. It was was so beautiful and the sand was so white. We went in the water for a while but as we were on a tight itinerary (as the beaches were our roads and when the tide came in you obviously couldn't drive on them) we left and headed for our campsite. The Campsite was run by Aboriginals which was really cool. We had BBQ's, watched them do their traditional dancing and they took us on a bush tucker walk. The next morning, following out itinerary we drove to Indian Head. The view was lovely and you can apparently see loads of tiger sharks swimming around (we didn't see any!!) We then walked to the champagne Pools which were like big rook pools. We drove back to the camp and Zoe decided to check out her 4x4 skills on the beach and i have to say they were very good (even better than her Clio skills!!) On our last day we went to Lake Wabby which we walked about 1km through sand dunes to get too. The lake was lovely but had Cat fish in which put me off a bit. We decided to leave Lake Wabby early so we could go back to Lake Mackensie. We swam for ages, Zoe Ed and i decided to swim to the other side as it didn't look that far. (it was) then we had to swim back. I was exhausted by the time we had got back and we laid in the shallow waters soaking up the sun until it was time to head back to Hervey Bay.
We left early Tuesday morning and stopped off at Mackay, we then left for Airlie beach to get ready for our Whitsunday's trip. We boarded our boat "Romance". We chatted to everyone and met Dalia, Eddie and loads of other people. The crew were all really friendly. We sailed for a while, the sea was really choppy and everyone was falling over the boat. The boat was moored by an island and everyone had dinner and drank lots.
The next morning we got up early to go snorkeling which was lovely. We saw loads of fish and colourful corals. The boys reckon they saw a reef shark but we missed it. We were in the water for hours then went back to the boat for lunch. We went to White haven Beach which was gorgeous. We went up to the lookout to take some pictures and then went to swim in the sea. The sea was so clear and the sand was so white. It started to rain whilst we were in the sea but it was lovely as the water was so warm. That evening it was party night. We started playing drinking games and eventually most of the people on the boat joined in. The boat was moored and we all went to this resort to carry on drinking. There was a pool there which everyone inevitably ended up in fully clothed. We went back to the boat and carried on the drinking games until the early hours. In the morning went went snorkeling again which seemed to get rid of our hangovers. We got back to Airlie beach mid afternoon and tried to find hostel beds as it was my birthday and i wanted a change from the tent with the smelly boys. we had no luck as it was "scholies" week and so we had to make do with our trusty tent. We went out with all the people we had met on the boat and got ready to see in my birthday. At midnight everyone everyone sung happy birthday and we had lots of shots. We had such a fun night and went round to a few places till very early in the morning. In the morning i got up and Zo had decorated the tent with banners and had party poppers. She took me for breakfast and gave me my presents (which i had loads of). We went out for dinner in the evening with the boys and went on to a few bars and had a dance.
Our next destination was Cairns, we stayed at a hostel called Gilligan's which was like a 5* hotel after staying in a tent. Cains was nice and we decided to book up a day trip to go snorkeling in the Great Barrier Reef. The weather was lovely and topped up our tans quite a bit. We stopped at two different parts on the reef. We saw a Nemo and about a million other different fish. We had had a wicked day and left the boat in a really good mood. The boys said they wanted to have a coffee and a chat about our next part of the trip. We met them in a cafe and they started saying what a good time we had had so far. They said that due to the extra supplies we would need to go on in to the outback there wasn't enough room for us to go with them. We were a bit shocked as we had planned to leave the next morning but we extended our stay in Cairns and planned to go back to Byron for a while with Dalia and Eddie. We said by to the boys the next morning after a slightly awkward evening and went off to plan our next part of our trip.
Sunday, 20 January 2008
Saturday, 19 January 2008
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)