AIRLIE BEACH
Hopped on the Greyhound again and stopped off en route to Airlie beach at Cardwell, a tiny place for a quick break so we sought out some grub at the local bakery, took some quick snaps by the sea and a had a coffee. Oh, and a took a quick photo op with a giant crab (fake, don't worry). Now, when Ana tells you this story she will say that I bullied her into getting on the giant chair under the giant crab and laughed when she fell off getting down and grazed her knee. In my defence this is only partially true and I did offer her a hand down from the slightly elevated chair which was somewhat brusquely refused before she tumbled a£$e over t*t! I had no sympathy for her and I am still hearing about this now!
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| Our luxurious transport for the next 11 hours or so... |
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| Too long on a bus journey can make you act a little strangely! |
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The coast again! Random beach shot in Cardwell, shortly before 'Crabgate', see how Ana is smiling and not bleeding?
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Any way, after a short onward journey we arrived at Airlie beach stop and were picked up in the hostel minivan and driven to 'Backpackers by the Bay' in late evening, we met a couple of interesting people on the journey including Remy, a Dutch traveller (more of him later) and we quickly checked in as there was a bit of a festival in town that evening and the firework were due to start soon.
We headed down to town take a look, a short walk from the hostel into the centre of what is a very small place and checked out the music stage set up in the middle of the main road, the little fun fair by the beach and generally just enjoyed the celebratory atmosphere. We scouted around for food and spotted a fish and chip shop - put in our orders for barramundi and chips at a bargain price of 11 AUD each and sat in the park and watched the fireworks whilst eating our chips (Sans chicken salt) what the hell is that anyway?
Nice evening, listened to the music and then headed back to crash out after the fireworks were finished.
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| Fresh fish, fun fair, fireworks, and festival fun! (See the red mark on my knee!!) |
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| Make a change from cod! |
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| Little stage attracted quite a crowd! |
Next morning we hired some bikes from the hostel and cycled towards shute harbour, it was a fair cycle in the heat and we stopped off at a few side walking trails to take some of the local hiking trails to explore a little, some of these were pretty long in the heat and were certainly ready for lunch by the time we had made it to Shute harbour and happily scoffed our packed lunch by the bay - good views!
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| 25 min cycle to the start of the Mount Rooper Circuit, hot but still happy! |
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| Swamp Bay. Nicer than expected, maybe the name could do with a rethink! |
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| Me pretending to be injured by a cactus, hilarious! In my defense, I think the heat was getting to me. |
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| Back to the bikes after 8K and onward to another walking trail. |
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| Good view of the Whitsunday islands, so close - and yet so far, maybe next time.... |
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| Ana admiring the view from the trail, it was pretty amazing and well worth the effort. |
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| We even saw our first Scrub / Bush / Brush Turkey here. An odd looking creature. |
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| A nice older couple from Melbourne took this photo overlooking Shute Harbour, they had driven about 800Km a day for several days to start their holiday here. It's a different world! |
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| Stopped off at one more side trek before our return, 'The Beak' via 'Coral Beach' |
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| We stopped at Coral Beach for a quick rest |
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| I tested Ana's tolerance levels with an improvised hot stone massage. Apparently I can be quite childish when I want to move on... |
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| Really childish in fact! I just found this stone, heheheh! |
Enough walking! We trekked back to the bikes feeling quite virtuous and having enjoyed the day out. Also a little thirsty and peckish so back on the bike we get and cycle for the hostel, only about 30 or 40 mins cycle away but hard going in the heat. After about 5 minutes, I turned to see that Ana wasn't with me anymore so stopped for her to catch up, after a minute or so I started to head back to see what was up.
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Bugger - The work of a lone 6 inch nail.
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The return journey was looking a little longer now and not quite as fun in the sun. We trekked with the bikes along the road for 30 mins or so then ducked into a holiday camp to check if they had any kit that might help but no joy. We were just deciding to wait for a bus when a guy mentioned up and said he was off over the hill in his UTE and could sling the bike in the back if we wanted. There wasnt a whole heap of room so Ana hopped in and I cycled after them back over the hill. He was a good sport! Although I did feel a bit wierd seeing Ana drive off with a random stranger. Not the smartest choice in hindsight....still, we were re-united back at the hostel.
Back at the hostel we dropped off the maimed bikes, had a rest and headed out to town to find some food, by this time pretty ravenous so settled for the first, noisy young person pub to grab some food. It was a bog standard backpacker bar, huge but with good standard fayre of burgers and chips with a 'free' beer. Even though the beer is a half, if you are with someone who doesn't drink - it's still a bit of a result! After dinner we caught some more of the reef festival entertainment and retreated for a chill out before bed.
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| I would maybe say mid - to - poor |
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| But I got 2 so not going to complain! |
Back at the hostel we bumped into Remy again, a really nice younger lad having a bit of a break from his exhausting work schedule. What could be so exhausting? Well, as it happens, Remy is a harp player (we have met a number of 'interesting instrument' players en route so far and often they are a little cooky or just plain weird). Remy however seemed like a really nice lad and we sat down and chatted with him for a couple of hours, it turns out that he doesn't just play the harp, he is a world renowned composer/player and travels the world playing with Orchestras and solo to the good and the great of the world) after a chat I dutifully you-tubed him (Remy van Kesteren if you are interested) and was pretty astonished, he is a real celeb in his circles and has been the guest on chat shows, has his own website detailing performances and events and is regarded as a bit of a genius. Great guy to chat to and just goes to show, you really can't judge a book by its cover (or choice of instrument).
The next day we headed out for a stroll around the local area and saw some more of the coast and beaches. Nice day out but we had decided to move on to head down to meet up with friends further down the coast so no time to hang around. Later in the afternoon we caught up with some blogging and then headed out to the Greyhound stop for our onward journey to Hervey Bay (The stopping off point for Fraser Island)
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| More beach wandering |
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| A quick catch up on the blog |
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| And on the bus for an overnight trip |
Airlie beach was a beautiful place but we really didn't have the time or cash to head out and explore the Whitsunday islands. I am sure that one day we will be back, they do look stunning but it wasnt to be this time round!
Back on the bus.... see you in Hervey Bay!
HERVEY BAY
Arrived in Hervey bay in the early morning and piled into the 'Woolshed backpackers' a little too early to check in so we dropped our bags off, headed out to get our bearings and look what we found!
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| Ana was very excited! (This one's for you Dave!) |
So we stocked up on some food bits for our stay and headed back to the Woolshed to check in.
That afternoon we also sorted a tour for the next day for a ferry across to Fraser island, the largest sand island in the world and the reason most people head to Hervey Bay.
Also this particular afternoon I spotted a shop called Rays Outdoors and as I was still stocking up on some essentials from the baggage loss (I think i've mentioned it once or twice now), I bought a waterproof coat - yes, on the east coast of Oz in the sunshine! Not sure if the gods were watching or what but it started to rain just a few minutes after the purchase - just a little but a bit weird all the same!
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| I bought a coat and it started raining - eerie. Ana doesn't looks impressed! |
Back to the hostel for our dinner of spaghetti bolognaise and sorted ourselves out in the room. Watched some TV whilst cooking, good old who wants to be a millionaire. We could have been at home! Off to bed for the early start tomorrow.
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| Ana chilling out and watching some Aussies who apparently don't want to be millionaires! |
Early start the next day and we headed outside the hostel for our bus - turned up pretty much straight away and we were introduced to Steve-o our shuttle bus driver and tour guide for the day. A proper aussie guy, shorts walking boots and a giant hat. We felt in good hands!
After a quick whip around the block to pick up others we were dropped at the ferry where we started to realise it was a little chilly.
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| Whats going on with the weather - it's supposed to be sunny! |
We watched the loading of the ferry and hopped on the the crossing to Fraser island, thats when it started to rain, just a little. It didn't spoil the crossing though, we had a chat with some nice Aussie people who were on holiday, it turns out they had been to the UK and we chatted a little about their travels too. The weather started to ease up and we were welcomed to Fraser island by a cool rainbow.
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| Our barge across to the island. Note the coat - it's raining again! |
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| Nice rainbow though. |
Off the other side we were directed to our chariot for the day, a pretty hardcore 4 x 4 tour bus. As Fraser island is all sand, there are no real roads taking you round the island and the state of the track is quite interesting. Makes the ride a little bumpy, you either take a 4x4 bus tour or hire a jeep at an extortionate rate and there are plenty of stories of tourists totalling them on the island too so we took the prudent option this time round!
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| Looks like a HGV but is actually our ride for the day - check out those tyres |
As part of our introduction to the tour and the health and safety briefing (still getting used to this after several months of the 'survival of the fittest' H&S approach) we were told about the resident island dingoes (wild dogs) which are present on the island and are protected as they are the closest Australia has to the original dingos. Apparently, if you are on your own the thing to do is make yourself look big and back away slowly.
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| So, let's practice shall we? DINGO! |
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| I suspect that this works, primarily because the dogs would be too busy laughing to attack. |
So off we bounced along the trails with Steve-o introducing us to the history of the island, its geography and the 'dreamtime' stories of the indigenous people as to how the island came to be. Although this did feel a bit like a pensioners bus tour, it really is a fascinating place and Steve and the team had a wealth of knowledge and were great guides. Fraser Island is the largest sand island in the world and yet is home to a rainforest that has essentially taken root in the dunes - this really is a unique environment.
We headed up the east coast of the 100Km or so island and were quite surprised to learn that this huge long beach is actually legally a highway with jeeps and trucks tearing up and down at high speed, it seems to take quite a bit of skill to keep the cars on the straight and narrow and the 'washouts' (where small rivers of water run to the sea and carve out trenches in the road up to several feet deep) can be dangerous if you don't spot them in time to slow down
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| This is a highway-National speed limit applies! |
Along the route we stopped at the wreck of the S.S Mahano This ship was a luxury passenger liner that was wrecked in a huge storm as it was being towed to Japan. An interesting wreck but not the best story! I took a couple of snaps from a distance and then watched the busloads of tourists swarm all over the wreck despite the signs saying to keep off it - morons, I hate the arrogance of this type of tourist and secretly hope that one of them got tetanus from the rusty wreck.
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| The S.S Mahano, luxury liner no longer. |
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| Makes a good pic though |
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| Until the tour buses unload - I hope you all fall into a rusty hole. |
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| Ta Da! Highway 1 - and the suns out. Maybe it shaping up to be a sunny day finally! |
Next stop, the rainbow gorge, so called because of the coloured stripes in the exposed sandy rock faces. Oh, and we saw a dingo too!
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| Coloured sands - just like Alum bay on the Isle of Wight! |
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| Just plodding along looking for some fresh tourists to savage, maybe. |
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| Look at her - stalking this massive bus like the T-Rex out of Jurassic Park. |
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| Did someone say dingo? |
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| Actually she was far more interested in the lunch of the local fishermen! |
Starting to feel a little like a hop - on - hop - off - take - a - pic tour but Steve-o was still keeping his part quite interesting. Next stop - Eli Creek, a freezing cold freshwater stream running through the sand island to the sea. The thing to do here is to get your feet out and go for a wade so in we got!
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| I can't feel my feet! |
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| I can and they're cold |
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| Numb toe selfie |
Note that in these pics the coats are back on. The weather seemed to be taking a turn for the worst and as we headed on to our next stop of the day, a short walking tour through the rainforest, the heavens really started to open. Fortunately there was some shelter but people were really starting to be Jessies about getting wet - come on people - it's a rainforest what did you expect! So Steve-o left the choice open for people to come for the walk with him or not so Ana and I headed of with Steve-o whilst the rest of the bus cowered under the shelter - bugger that, i've paid for this.
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| Steve-o telling us all about the rainforest, apparently it rains a lot. |
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| The rainforest on a completely sand desrt island with running fresh water - Bizarre! |
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| Ana showing everyone how the Brits do things! |
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| The smug look of someone who purchased a raincoat at exactly the right time! |
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| Amazing twisty trees and vines |
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| and some not so twisty |
The last stop off of the day was Lake MacKenzie, this is a spot for some swimming and relaxing before you head back to the mainland. The water however is soooo cold. Of course we had to get in and give it a go until almost entirely numb but it was worth it! A beautiful scene to swim in once you get yourself dunked under the water!
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| Lake MacKenzie - time for a dip! |
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| and then back to the mainland on the ferry |
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| just as the sun set. |
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| And it's gone |
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| Ready for a cuppa and bed! |
Next morning we hightailed it out of Hervey bay on the greyhound again and headed off towards our first meet up with friends in the Sunshine Coast town of Noosa (Thanks Jade and Emma!) en route we stopped at a service station where I toyed with the idea of a hat just like Steve-o's Ana's humiliating laughter made me put it back on the shelf and i've regretted it ever since...
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| I think it suits me! |
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| Oh, and just in case you didnt realise where you were - there was a giant 'roo too! |
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| It's a kangaroo, not a dingo! |
Next stop Noosa and the Sunshine Coast!
