Fraser Island, Oz, 29 Feb - 2 Mar 2012

So then, Fraser Island. A place I'd vaguely heard of, but only because I was told if you travel around Oz you have to "do" it.
When we went to book it, I asked Jo what we did there, and she didn't really know either to be honest. If you're as ignorant as I was, it's a huge sand island which you camp on (or there are a couple of resorts), and drive around in 4x4s. I don't know what to expect, so when we were taken for a briefing the day before we left with the others on our trip, I was pretty chuffed. We'd be driving around in this huge Landcruiser, taking it in turns to drive, camping in a private camp, and seeing stuff.
We'd be sharing a load of cookers with other tour groups there, but would need to shop for everything we'd need. We were then left to put together a list to buy from the supermarket, and a list for the butcher. This was where the group of 4 lads who seemed really standoffish, and arrogant spoke a bit, and joined in, and we put together a list. They were ignoring the 2 french lads almost completely, so we had to make sure they were happy. The lads "leader" who we nicknamed GI Joe, then volunteered the 4 of them to go to the supermarket to buy everything. Mistake. Next morning when we checked over the receipt to pay our share, we saw that they'd bought stuff we'd agreed not to buy, and done other idiotic things like buy 7 apples for 10 people. Morons.
Anyway, in the Landcruiser we'd be driving was myself, Jo, Lorna and Kellie (brit girls), and Jeremy and Arthur (the frenchies), then in the lead vehicle which was driven by our guide Tony was the 4 lads. Anyone wanting to drive would drive the Landcruiser.
I drove down to the ferry and the first stint through the middle of the island which was like jungle with big sand tracks where steering doesn't really do anything. It was great fun, tearing around inches from death through the sand!
We got to our first stop which was Lake Birrabeen, which is a huge freshwater lake, where the water has been dyed by the trees and foliage around it to make a giant cold cup of tea. And because it's a sand island, the shore of the lake was a beach! We then headed to Lake Wabby with Jo at the helm. She took a bit of time, but got used to it and loved it. She was pretty good too, apart from sailing into bit roots or dips in second gear and sending everyone in the car flying on a couple of occasions! Lake Wabby was about a 25 min walk through huge sand dunes which felt like you were in a desert, then at the bottom of the steep bank of them was the lake. Again, it was freshwater and like a cup of tea, but this one had a lot more life in it, with lots of little fish, and quite a few pretty big catfish who would come right up to you. Another instance of idiocy from the lads was here, where to try and impress girls in another group, GI Joe tried to catch or at least knock out the catfish. Then when one of the girls boyfriend went over to her and they started kissing, Jo decided he'd had enough, so his little gang sulked off back to the cars! Loser!
(By the way, GI Joe is so-called because he was American and in the army on leave. He took some bands to work out with and his protein powder with him not just to Oz, but to Fraser too. He was vain, selfish, and incredibly arrogant. 2 of the other lads were Swiss, and 1 Dutch. They were a good laugh when Joe wasn't there, but as their unofficial leader, they acted as arrogantly and sulky as him when together. Shame, as none of them drove in the end because Joe didn't want to, but I know that 2 of them really wanted to at the start, but whenever we offered the wheel to them, they normally ignored us, or said no!)

Back to the story; we left Lake Wabby and headed back towards camp via Eli Creek, and a drive past the wreck of SS Maheno. To get back we had a nice long drive along 75 Mile Beach, with Arthur at the wheel.
Camp was ok, but we were lucky as we were supposed to be in tents, but as a small group, we slept in the rotunda which had a solid roof and floor, mozzie net walls, and bunkbeds. The girls pooed themselves when they saw there were 3 dingoes sitting under our room though! We had to be careful of them as they are wild, and do attack, but they're just dogs really, so a bit of a growl at them and they back down. One lad didn't know this however. His name was Jack (still is actually, he's not dead or anything), and as we walked back from the beach, we saw a dingo clawing and eating its way into a tent. I tried to shoo it away half-heartedly, but to no avail. Then as we went to walk away, we heard a very camp northern voice asking for help feebly. We got rid of the dingo, and out popped a lanky bleach-blonde bloke who introduced himself as Jack. Jack was funny without meaning to be. He felt like he was in "I'm a Celebrity..." and talked about working in a bar in Greece. When I said that they had different stars (in the sky), his response was "I knoooow, and they've got different singers and pop stars too over 'ere!" - I thought he was joking and laughed - Jo shook her head; he wasn't joking.
Anyhoo, we got on the goon and played some cards (turns out the frenchies were awesome at Shithead), until I spotted something out the corner of my eye. All I said was "err, girls..." Before they were all clinging to the ceiling and screaming. There was a bloody great Huntsman spider, hairy bugger about 5 inches across. Some weird fella then tried to put it in a cup - muppet - it was far too big for the cup, and it popped back out. Then some old loon who thought they were "beautiful" got rid of it. A few hours later there was another one (bit smaller) hanging from the ceiling in the rotunda, so loony came and got that one too.

Next morning we were off to see the Champagne Pools, which are natural pools on the coast refilled at high-tide, and then along the beach to the Indian Head, which is the only rock on the island, and is the edge of an old volcano, the rim of which is shown by the beach (only half though, the other half sunk in the sea). We climbed to the top and saw a turtle, a few rays, and a young shark.
We popped back to camp for lunch, then out to some dunes for some sandboarding. Bloody hard work getting up there, and wipeouts are a pain in the arse as sand gets EVERYWHERE! Straight after we went back to Eli Creek to wash and cool off, before getting back in the truck to head over to the western side of the island.
Because we were a small group, there was much less waiting around, so Tony took us across the island, and first to Lake Aloma, then onwards to the western beach to watch the sun set. Was really nice, and there were no other tours there as they don't do that route. Getting there was great fun too as Jo wasn't driving fast enough, so she handed over to me, and I got to tear across the island, it was brilliant. We headed back to camp, made a bit spag bol, drank goon, and then went and laid on the beach. As there's basically no light pollution for miles, you could see thousands of stars, as well as the distinct milky way. Was really lovely to see stars we don't get to see in the UK.

Next morning we cooked all the meat left over. GI Joe was hesitant to cook lots of meat on the first night, and this had left us with loads left over, none of which we could take home, so Jo and I took charge and made steak and eggs (good high protein brekkie!), which the lads didn't eat for some stupid reason, although when we stopped at a resort shop after leaving camp to pick up a drink and some fresh stuff for lunch, they spent about 20 dollars each on food. Dickheads.
We headed down towards Lake Mackenzie, and stopped off for a rainforest walk along the way. Lots of cool trees, all different shapes and colours reaching far up to the sunshine, and some streams running about underneath. Really pretty.
Lake Mackenzie was beautiful. Crystal clear (I swam out to the middle which was well over 12m deep and could clearly see everything on the bottom), with perfect white sand. We spent a few hours there topping up the tan, messing around in the water and having lunch, before heading back to the ferry and back to the hostel on mainland!
All in all, was a great trip, just a shame with a couple of nicer people, could have been a lot more fun, but as the lads vehemently refused to drive, and just wanted to sit in Tonys car, we got to have a great craic without them!

The following day after getting back, we boarded the Greyhound for Brisbane, and the rains started. It turns out it's been peeing down for weeks here, but we've managed to see loads of the city, and the rain held off yesterday (Sunday), so we looked around a few markets, and dipped our feet at the lagoon. Next stop on Tues is Byron Bay!
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Airlie Beach, Oz, 25 Feb 2012

Airlie Beach has fantastic graffiti artists; just one thing on their mind...

Chintsa, PE, & Coffee Bay, SA, 30 Jan - 7 Feb 2012

Ok, epic update time. I've been way too rubbish at this, as I knew I would be, so time to catch up!

So many moons ago, in South Africa, we left J'Bay after my attempted suicide in a wetsuit, sorry, I mean "surf lesson" and playing with baby lions, and headed to Buccaneers Backpackers in Chintsa. Using the Baz Bus, we had to change at Port Elizabeth. We didn't want to spend any time there, so we just got a hostel dorm, and got dropped off at about midnight, then picked up at 6.30. This would have been a real pain in the arse, but luckily Jenna, Adam, Marlene, Linda, and Maike were all doing the same trip! Sadly Marlene and Linda who we'd been travelling with on-and-off since Plettenburg Bay, were off further as they had to get Jo'burg pretty sharpish. We arranged to meet up with them when we land in Auckland though, so was ok!
Anyway, PE (Port Elizabeth) was a shithole (sorry to swear, but it was). It reminded me of Le Havre, which is a nasty concrete jungle port in France, so was happy to leave!
We got to Chintsa late morning and were instantly much happier, we were back out in the sticks, in a lovely place which occupied an entire hill, with volleyball, 2 bars, a pool, and free kayaks for the beach. We had some grub, played some ping-pong, then I went for a wander. The interesting thing about this place was that to get to the town, you had to walk across the river estuary, then along the beach. I went and got some breakfast stuff and a pack if beers, and wandered back. That night we had a pool party and braii, which sounded lovely when we signed up to it, then the heavens opened and it pee'd with rain all night!
The next day was much nicer, so we went to town, had some drinks and played some cards (Adam was scaryily good at Shithead), then went to walk home... Well, we tried, but the tide had come in a bit, and I managed to find the shallowest point of the river, which was still about 4 1/2 feet deep! At 6'2", I was fine, but all the others looked hilarious, trying to save their bags above their heads! Reminded me of the scene in Forrest Gump in Vietnam with guns over their heads! When we got back and had nursed our sunburn, I managed to get the England 6 nations game on in the bar, unfortunately, we'd signed up to dinner which was a 3 course Xhosa meal. This was lovely, fantastic foods with pumpkin and butternut squash, a mixed bean and vegetable stew, some mash with herbs, some different beans, and a lamb stew with huge hunks of meat. Starter was butternut squash soup, and dessert a crumble thing with ice-cream. Amazing food, but meant I missed first half hour of the second half! After that, a load of saffers came in the bar and started playing a drinking game which got you drunk and simultaneously helped your mental arithmetic! Was great fun, and Jo was loving it!
The next morning was Sunday, and we got free breakfast which was served up in the big room overlooking the whole estuary and beach where we ate the previous night. As it was free and we had another bus ride coming up that day, we gorged on Xhosa bread (somewhere between normal bread and crumpets), toast, jams, honey, fruits, hard boiled eggs (we managed about 20 between 5 of us), and tea and coffee.

The Baz Bus to take us to Coffee Bay was surprisingly early (we'd waited over an hour for almost all the other legs), and we got to a service station about 2pm, where the shuttle to run us to Coffee Shack (our backpackers) was waiting. This trip then took a further 1hr 45min, and it wasn't looking good with rain and dark clouds all around us. And then we ran over a bloody piglet that decided to top itself by dashing out of a ditch and under the tyre of the luggage trailer. When we got to Coffee Bay however, it was lovely, although very desolate, with only a couple of tiny cafe/shops, another backpackers, and lots of locals hanging around trying to sell you bead jewellery (and quite a few trying to sell you weed and mushrooms, which they'd tried out to excess already by the looks of their eyes).
We had a couple of beers with Connor and Rob, 2 Irish lads who were in Storms River and on the party bus to Jefferys Bay were there, and spent the evening drinking heavily and chatting after our free Xhosa meal, which again was really good grub, with more Xhosa bread!
Following day, we (Jo, me, Adam, Jenna, Maike, and Connor) decided to walk to The Hole in the Wall, which is a tourist attraction because, well, it's a big hole in a huge lump of land not really attached to the shore, and creates a little lagoon. The walk was 3.5 hours along the coast (very up and down), and after about 45mins, my feet were rubbing like buggery as I wasn't used to wearing shoes anymore! Tried to plaster and bandage them up, but wasn't working, so just took my shoes off and did it barefoot! Was a little painful in places, and I walked in poo more times than I care to recall, but made it!
We were told that you can swim through the hole in the wall. We were def not going to be trying that, it looked lethal, with waves about 25ft high crashing in it! We had enough trouble trying to get in the water from the shore, as it was a rocky beach, and after lots of slow sliding around on bums, and getting thrown back in against the rocks, Adam and I made it in. Connor almost gave up as he was being beaten senseless by the waves, but he found his way in. Then the girls tried to get in, and did so delicately and elegantly as expected (teetered on the edge of the water, made on step, then landed on their bums). Was lovely in the water though, and we quickly noticed if we'd walked another 50 yards along, the rocks were covered in sand, and was a lot easier to get in and out!
Our guide (sorry, can't remember his name), then rang up his mate to pick us up and take us back to Coffee Shack. His mate took a while, but we saw why; the roads are potholed dirt-tracks, and he had an old bukkie (little pickup with no 4wd). We all piled in the back and bumped and rolled our way back along the winding coastal tracks. Lovely way to finish the day!
Spent the night watching some local kids put on a traditional dance, had dinner and beers, before passing out in our hot and mozzie filled dorm. Had to get up at 4am to shower and cover myself in DEET as I was being eaten alive (even got bit on my chin, and looked like Popeye!)
Next morning, we packed, and the shuttle ran us to the service station for the Baz Bus to whisk us off to Durban!

Will update Durban onwards in the next catch-up post!

TTFN

x
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Cairns and Whitsundays, Oz, 22-27 Feb 2012

Not sure how I'm going to find the time to fill in the details of SA, so I'd better update what I'm doing at the moment or I'll always be behind.

So we left Perth on our anniversary of our first date (we haven't got a "been together" date as we never discussed it, just fell into place together), on a Jetstar flight which I was thoroughly impressed with as it's so cheap, and yet my knees weren't forced up around my ears!
We landed very early on 22nd in Cairns (about 5am), and as we didn't want to fork out for a cab, we waited til 7 when the free shuttle from our hostel ran. We stayed at a place called JJ's which Howie recommended to us. Was $22 pppn, but that included brekkie and dinner, so we went for it.
As soon as we dumped our bags in our 3 bed dorm (why 3 bed I haven't a clue - bloody stupid, but oh well, was basically a private room for us!) we headed out to socialise in the hostel, have a cup of tea and plan exactly what we were going to do in Oz as it's so bloody expensive, we can't afford doss-days like in SA. We tried to plan, but we were both shattered and dirty, and very quickly were getting really shitty with each other (perilously close to having our first fight!), but we knew we were just tired, so we had a power-nap for and hour and a half. We then wandered along the esplanade into the tourist places, playing one off against the other until we had a deal that seemed to be impossible to top (the last lady tried, but was over our best offer by $40, and had missed one of the trips).
Our plan was mapped as follows:
- use the Greyhound buses for our whole trip from Cairns to Melbourne
- go on a dive boat on the Great Barrier Reef (me diving, Jo snorkelling)
- go on a Whitsundays boat trip for 2 nights
- go on a Fraser Island 4x4 tour for 2 nights
- plus a shedload of nights accom around all the tours to keep daily spend down (and easy to haggle people to "throwing an extra night" in here and there)



Post dive/snorkel



As mentioned above, we realised that we had to keep our spend down, so everything was to be squeezed into a tight timeframe. This meant that, after dinner of practically vegetarian chilli from the pub where our meals for the hostel were included, the following day, we were up at 6am, to check out of our room, stash the bags, and head to the marina for the boat trip.
Whilst haggling, we'd managed to get our trips bumped up in class each time, and our boat was a brand new cat, with a lovely crew, including a huge Fijian who kept telling me he had the best job in the world undressing women (of their stinger suits after swimming), a fellow brit who was handling us cert divers, and the person in charge of it all; a malay woman about 4'10", and about 25 years old!

We had about an hour and a half trip out to the first dive site, with tea, coffee and biscuits, then dive briefing, then we kitted up and away we went! There were about 6 of us on the guided dive, and it was amazing. We saw a sleeping white tipped reef shark, about 4 1/2ft long, asleep, as soon as we got down! We then bimbled about and saw millions of fish you only see in tanks in posh restaurants, another reef shark with a bright blue pilot fish cleaning it's nosh, and lots of beautiful coral.
We went up, changed tanks, and went back in, along another route, where we saw about 30 batfish, which are huge, about the size of a dustbin lid, lots more tropical fish, a massive Napoleon Wrasse (a local celebrity and on a lot of postcards; about the size of a small sofa, bloody massive!), and then we stumbled across a green turtle, who let us watch him ponder around and then feed for a bit!
Third dive was after lunch, and on a different reef. We saw plenty of fish and coral again, but nothing new this time, but was still so nice down there. Visablilty was about 18m, which is pretty impressive when the last dive I did was between 5 and 8 in Cape Town!
We got back on the boat, and as I hadn't seen a single jellyfish all day, I took off the stinger suit and fins, grabbed a snorkel and mask, and jumped back in for a swim for another 20 mins. Found Jo snorkelling whilst I was duck diving and coming back up, and she waved at me with about 6 inches of stinger suit flapping beyond her fingertips. She looked really "special".
When we got back in, a load of dolphins swam past, quite near some of the last snorkellers coming in. Everyone was jealous that they'd seen them swimming, but I think they were too far away, and no-one talked about it when they got back on, so I think it was rubbish.
We had more tea, coffee and cake on the way back, debriefed, updated my dive log, then and sunbathed on the deck! End of a very long and tiring, but great day! We then went and showered at the hostel, got the bags, got some dinner, then sat outside McDonalds nursing diet cokes and coffees for 3 hours waiting for our bus to whisk us off to Airlie Beach!

We arrived in Airlie Beach at about 11 the next morning, and immediately checked in for our Whitsundays boat trip the following day. Then we dropped off our bags (but couldn't check-in yet) to the backpackers, and wandered off in search of breakfast. In our search for a bargain, we walked about 5 miles, and viewed every menu and shop in town, and when we finally settled on somewhere, a storm had moved in, we were drenched, and it was more like a late lunch than brekkie!
Bit of a boring day after that, just wandered around sorting ourselves out for the next day, and planning the rest of Oz.
Next morning we checked out, ate brekkie, bought goon, and stored our bags for the few days we were on the boat. You weren't allowed zips, as bed-bugs live in them and they didn't want to spread them onto the boat.
At midday we made our way to the marina where we were to meet the crew. A short, feisty kiwi called Liv came and met us, she was the deck-hand. She really reminded me of my old boss Fiona (if you're reading this Fi, look out the photos on FB and see if you agree!). Liv took us to the boat, which was the British Defender. It is an 83ft yacht, which was sailed in competition in 89, 90 and 91.



British Defender sailing... just not in the conditions we experienced!



This is where our haggling really came up trumps. It is a beautiful boat, with a crew of just 3 (Tane the skipper, Liv the deck-hand, and Rosie the cook), and 29 of us tourists. As when it was sailed in competition it had a crew of 40, we were needed to help out when sailing (which most of us were very happy to do!)
We left the marina under engine power, then we got the sails up and got sailing. We started sailing towards a big dark cloud, which we tried to skit around. It then got a lot bigger, and we went straight into the middle of it. As we hit it, the wind direction changed by 90 degrees, and we had to tack to go towards the Whitsundays. This just means going in a zig-zag, but means the boom has to swing over the heads of all 29, whilst some of us tried to help out and all move out of the way of the ropes and stuff... Whilst at about 60 degrees to horizontal... In a thunderstorm and really heavy rain. It sounds horrible, but great fun, and no-one whinged, just smiled along and laughed about it!
We got to our mooring spot in the shelter of Hook and Whitsunday Islands, and got the goon out, but not after a bit of a swim first. We had a go at diving, and my first attempt was a good ice-breaker (and prob could have actually broken some ice), as I slipped on the side, went half sideways and landed in the water on my face. Very graceful.
We all sat about on deck chatting under the covers as the rain picked up again, and drinking our goon (strangely, goon, which is cheap wine in a bag, is still nicer than cheap wine in the UK). It was when all this was happening that the storm went right over us. I was down below chatting, and Jo was sat on deck with everyone else when a flash lit up the whole sky and a huge crack stopped everyone's conversation. We went up on deck, and then it happened again. 5 mins later, a guy from another tour boat who was mates with our crew came over in a rib. Turned out our mast had just been struck by lightning, twice. It had blown a couple of lights on the top of the mast, but the earthing had done it's job, and we hadn't felt a thing! He came over to make sure we weren't all fried!


Sailing onboard the British Defender



Had a really cool night in the end, playing Arsehole and drinking goon!
Got woken early the next morning by John Mayer (not in person, on the sound system), as we chugged along towards The Lookout and the beautiful Whitehaven Beach. Weather was looking brighter, and we soon anchored up in Tongue Bay, and ferried across to the beach and walked up to The Lookout, then down to the beach. Even with some threatening clouds around us, was breathtaking. We went paddling in the sea one side of the sandbar, then climbing on rocks searching for crabs (found some too), then into the bay which was only knee deep to see some juvenile sharks and rays swimming around our feet! Weather held out until we reached Tongue Bay for the pickup, and we sailed round to Hayman Island for some snorkelling and diving. I swam out to the snorkel spot instead of getting the rib in the hope of seeing something and getting a bit of exercise (was about 250m away from the boat). I was rewarded with a load of bloody huge batfish again, and a few different jellies. Saw loads of tropical fish, and did loads of duck-diving down and looking up, as it started to hammer with rain, so looked really cool from below!
Had a bit of a swim back to the boat, then did some diving off of the boat, and got changed, ready for some dinner, more goon, and, unexpectedly, doing the macarena on deck with the Swiss and German girls! Was a great night, and finished the night playing cards again.


Me, Jo, Sarah and Gary

Woke up early again the next day, and the weather was beautiful. Tade took us out to a reef where we were most likely to see turtles. We did more snorkelling, but I didn't see any turtles, but swam with loads of fish, and followed a shoal of juvenile somethings. They were pretty big, and if they were older they'd be lovely grilled with some lemon and garlic I suspect.
We almost left someone behind because she'd swam off looking for turtles, but was all ok, and we headed for home under the sails in blistering sunshine.
When we got back, we headed to the lagoon which is a big open swimming pool for the public. We met up and played some ball games, and sadly said our goodbyes as Jo and I were booked on the Greyhound to Hervey Bay that evening, so we wouldn't get a chance to see them that night. Was a fantastic trip, and met some lovely people, so thanks to Gary, Sarah, Dan, Becca, Canadia, Craig, Joe, Donye, Vera, the Swiss and German girls, and of course to the crew!



Last night we got the Greyhound, which was pretty packed to Hervey Bay, ready for our tour of Fraser Island tomorrow!

Will try and update more regularly now, and going to put in some retrospective posts from my rubbishness in the latter stages of our SA trip!

Forgot to say...

I've just re-read my final paragraph from the last post, and seems I forgot to say thank you to our hosts!
As today is our last day in Perth, we have spent the day as demonstrated ably by Jo in the image above. It's a hard life this travelling lark sometimes!

As promised, I will catch up with a big post soon, with lots of stories of snakes, flooding rivers, safaris, and hikes reminiscent of north Wales.

A bit lax...

Ok, so I've been a bit lax... Alright, bloody useless, but going to do a big update with a load of photos in the next day or two. Until then, just to report that now in sunny (and bloody hot; 39 degrees) Perth, and it's gorgeous here, as the photo of Cottesloe beach above can stand testament to.

Will make sure I update fully later, but just a quick note to say our hosts Debbie and Nick (not to mention Georgia who sacrificed her room for a week for us) have been so accommodating and nice that we're feeling very spoilt and a little afraid of hitting the backpackers and hostels with a thump on Wednesday!

Durban, SA

Just got to Durban tonight from a couple of days in Coffee Bay, (where I did a 3 hour hike along the coast barefoot!), and we popped to the garage next door to get some grub as we were hungry, and I found this huge piece of cake, so I thought I'd share it. Lots of other things have happened since I last updated, such as almost getting bitten by an adder when I went for a poo in Chinsta, but this seemed noteworthy!