Whitsunday Islands sailing trip

After checking into our sailing trip as well as our hostel for the night, I finally did a little load of laundry. Travellers like us don't really do laundry often so it was a nice thing to do. I have done my undies though many times...don't worry...but other clothes just get sandy and salty and sweaty anyway...so why bother right..especially when it isn't so easy or you don't saty in one place long enough? (hehe)

We headed to pick up some things for sailing like sea sick pills in case we got sick, plastic zip lock bags for our cameras and an underwater camera to take pictures of the coral and fish. We went to bed and got up the next day, ate breakfast, wandered around and made our way to the harbour to catch our boat. We were on the sailboat "Condor" which was a maxi sailboat that had won some races and what not. It wasn't a huge boat like a pirate ship, instead it was a small smooth one that tips a great deal when sailing. We had a group of 27 people and a crew of 3. We shuffled into the cabin down below and set up our sleeping areas. These are tiny and the quarters were very cramped. Most of the beds are like bunks with a hanging cot above them...but only about 12 inches above someone else's head. Phil was beside me on a double bunk and Catherine (a friend) was above us...or rather me. It felt like I was in a little coffin...good thing I am not claustrophobic!

We set off and people helped put the sails up and we all had to sit on the "high side" so that we didn't get swept into the water on the low side. Our first stop was to snorkel. Since it is stinger season still (jelly fish) and they can be deadly, we all wore lovely tight stinger suits which made us feel like superhero's. I had an underwater camera and just took random pictures...many of them didn't turn out so I plan to rent a good one for diving! I saw a bunch of cool fish and coral...but still nothing compared to what I knew was out there on the Great Barrier Reef. We came back to the boat, found a cove to spend the night and ate dinner. We spent time just talking to people and having fun...occasionally hearing large splashes from fish...or something from the water. Seeing the stars from here too was amazing! We all managed to make our way to bed and no one seemed to have a great sleep that night. I kept hearing the waves break against the boat...and a door kept banging as we swayed in the water.

The next morning we were up at 6:30am and ate breakfast and drank some tea. We headed straight to White Haven Beach. We made a trek up on the other side to the look out and what we saw was amazing. So far...I think my favourite thing of the whole trip. The sand is silica sand and the finest sand in the world. It is so white and it goes through a canal through the island. When the tide is out...the water pools in places and doesn't in others leaving beautiful whites, blues and greens in all different shapes. It really is beautiful. We then made our way down the path to the actual beach and spent some time just sitting and relaxing. Then it was off again...lunch and then on our way to another area to snorkel.

This time I saw a little sting ray...so that was cool. Since it was more windy that day I was feeling a little queasy...but i managed fine. We ate dinner and found another spot to stay for the night and did the same thing as the night before...just talked to people and hung out. The next morning we woke up early, ate breakfast and took a quick early morning snorkel. This was cool because I had bread and was feeding the fish...especially these big bat fish that are really beautiful. After this we headed back and returned to Airlie beach for some showers and rest. We met up with the group later that night and then we were ready to leave to Townsville/Magnetic Island the next day...

Byron-Airlie Beach

It has been a while since I have had a minute or two just to sit in front of a computer screen for more than 5 minutes...We have been extremely busy with adventure lately. We have been continuing our trek up the east coast of Australia and the more north we travel the more hot and humid it is. We have met many people on our travels and have been able to meet up with them here and there which has been great. We have made some new English friends as well as people from Canada, Finland, Scotland, Ireland etc etc... From Byron Bay we made our way (haha that rhymes) to Surfer's Paradise. We didn't really enjoy our time there. It is a larger city that seems superficial. Everyone seems too vain and into themselves and our hostel was not really nice at all. The kitchen was the size of a small hallway, the fridge had a funky smell to it and Phil had his yogurt stolen. We just wandered around Surfers mainly around the main strip and then hung out at our hostel. We had met up with a 2 Canadians and an English guy we knew. The only fun thing really that we did in Surfers was the water park "Wet and Wild." It was a lot of fun and I felt like a little kid again :-)

We left Surfers Paradise and made our way to Brisbane. The weather in Brisbane was a little rainy when we arrived and we just chilled and relaxed in the hostel. We met a really nice English couple who were ending their trip in Canada...so we gave them some tips on where to go and what to do. Our time in Brisbane wasn't long and we just went to the museum and the modern art gallery. This was cool and fascinating and we spent all day there. We were off again early the next morning.

After leaving Brisbane we made our way up to Noosa which had an amazing old hostel which was an old house from the 1800's. We spent part of a day on the beach and then hanging out at our hostel with friends again that we keep meeting up with. (Ruvini and Catherine). We were off again the next day and we went on a short Koala walk but only saw part of one. I spotted a Kookaburra so that was exciting for me. From there we headed to Hervey Bay which was just a place to sleep because we were going to Fraser Island.

Early in the morning we left for Fraser Island in groups of 11 and went grocery shopping. We were all packed into a 4WD vehicle and took a ferry to Fraser Island. Fraser is an island made up of all sand and has a rain forest growing on it. It is a natural phenomenon really. There are lakes and little rivers on the island that are fresh water as well. We camped for 2 nights and roughed it hard core...i mean no toilets, no showers...dingoes invading our camps...digging a hole to pee, camping on the beach...kind of thing. We had an awesome group and spent time looking for shooting stars on the beach, to playing around in the water. Our first day we spent giggling and getting used to 4WDing. We stopped at Indian Head to take a walk up to see the view. It was spectacular! We didn't have time to do much so we set up camp on the beach. We were only allowed to drive on the beach at certain times due to the tides. We made dinner, watched the boys play soccer and then played some games and watched the stars...I have never seen so many in my life and the milky way is spectacular! On the second day I woke up before 6am to catch the sunrise on the beach. It was amazing! There were so many flies that were gigantic so that was a bummer! We ate breakfast and made our way to a proper campground to clean our dishes. We headed to the shipwreck and then to this little fresh water stream. It was so cool and lovely to walk in! We saw many spiders as well...and some poisonous ones! We then made our way to Lake Wabby...this was my favourite lake. We had to take a hike down and then up a sand doon to get to it. It was really remote and lovely. The pictures don't do it justices. We headed back just as it began to rain for a few minutes. We set up camp again and began to make dinner. Just as we were doing this we spotted some dingoes on the edge of our camp. As we were watching them these 2 girls came back from the camp beside us saying they had been walking and the ranger drove them back to camp telling them to be careful because a pack of dingoes were just attacking some kids down the way. Just then as we were focusing on 2 dingoes, the other one sneaked around and into our camp. It grabbed a hold of our cooler lid which had a beer in the cup holder and tossed it aside, leaving the beer still in it without spilling. We chased it away but from then on were a little nervous about leaving camp to pee! This was our last night so we played concentration and talked. Later that night Rob (a guy from our group) started throwing up at 3am continuously for 20 minutes. Since we were on an island we had to call the mainland to see what to do. We figured that it could have been a bug bite or dehydration. He wasn't really drinking and he was having cramps and chills. Phil, another guy Tiago, Rob and his 2 friends drove back inland to the Ferry Bay where they met a boat that took him to the hospital on the mainland. We didn't want to risk not taking him in case it was something serious. I dreamt that he was ok and that it was something to do with his Urinary tract and told everyone that while there were gone. They came back at 6:30am and said they wouldn't know anything until later that day....so we still assumed that it was a bug bite. We later found out that it was Kidney stones! Me and my crazy dreams! We then went to Lake Mackenzie and just chilled. It is filled with minerals so you feel nice and soft afterwards. We ate lunch and headed back to the mainland on the Ferry. We spent the night eating dinner with our group and then going to sleep. Phil was feeling sick and I was too the next morning.

We took the OZ bus and since it was a long leg to Airlie beach, we stopped at a cattle ranch in Krombit. We weren't feeling well so we just slept basically the whole time. We headed to Airlie beach and got there later at night because it was a long trip as well. We checked into our sailing trip for the next day....

The snoring...naked Swedish man and Byron Bay

So here we are in Byron Bay. We made our way from Surfers Camp to here. It is a small Hippie town near another town called Nimbin...a place where weed is sold in cafes and is baked in cookies etc. The cops tend to look the other way and so many people walk around in Nimbin and Byron with bare feet, nappy hair, long skirts and look nice and hippieish. Phil and I didn't go to Nimbin but we heard many stories!

We arrived at our Hostel which was really nice...one of my favourites so far. We are in a 4 share room. Me, Phil, a 50 yr old, and a 30ish Swedish man...so last night I was tired and didn't go out. Had to recover from all the activities that we have been doing. So I was second to go to bed after the 50 yr old, then about 1am the Swedish guy came in kinda drunk but went straight to bed. Phil came in later and I woke up due to incessant snoring that could wake the dead. I was already wearing ear plugs too! But seeing as I am a very light sleeper I guess that didn't help me in this situation. So anyway, it wasn't only me who was annoyed. Phil too was peeved. We both tried to sleep but it was too loud, I threw some stuff at him but that didn't work...I then told Phil to shine his flashlight in the guys face to make him turn over. Phil explained that he didn't want to b/c the guy was naked. "WHAT?" i exclaimed..."HOW...WHY?" to which Phil explained that when he came in the guy seemed as though he was turning over (and at this point the light was still on when Phil came home) and instead the guy took his boxers off and was laying on his back without anything covering him. I was completely disgusted...and did not look that way all night! Needless to say I didn't sleep well...even with my iPod blaring in my ears...I dreamt of spitting spit balls at the guy..and am really going to put that by my pillow tonight to shut him up! (haha) I woke up this morning...opening my eyes and saw his bare a** and wanted to puke! It is either spit balls...sleeping pills or something tonight to make us sleep through this snoring naked Swede!

Life is funny...and later I guess I will laugh more about it...

We spent most of our time in Byron just relaxing, sitting by the hostel's pool and walking around. Phil and I hired some bicycles and took a trek half way up to the lighthouse. We then walked from there b/c the road was steep and didn't have a wide shoulder. The walk was really beautiful but it was incredibly hot and humid that I was all red in the face! Near the top we reached Australia's Most Eastern point. There we looked into the ocean and saw some turtle's surfing and some giant manta rays. We finished the trek to the lighthouse, ate some ice cream and headed back down again and sat on the beach for a bit.We later met up with some friends and went out for a bit. Byron was one of my favourites because it was small and had a lot of personality.

On our way...

Well this is just a short blog really...I will try to write more to it later...so you will have to look for the new version later. We have left Sydney...but our last night in Sydney was spent at an OZ Experience...tour assistants place..the place we are travelling with. It was a small little place with basically a table, a mattress on the floor (which Phil and I shared) and a dodgy cot that he slept on. We had hooked up with the guy when we went to check out and book most of our trip up the coast. It is a bus thing that you hop on hop off whenever you want kind of thing. Along the way they have some kind of activities that we participate in etc. It is fun and a lot of young people take this instead of the Greyhound. We had to leave early in the morning so the reason we stayed there was b/c we had to be in Sydney to catch our OZ bus by 6:30 am...and Terrey Hills is too far (where my cousin Sandra lives).

Phil and I spent some time looking around the Sydney University looking at old buildings and then ate some dinner while our new friend Josh attended a Jehovah witness meeting. It was quite hilarious because he said he had to go out and left us his key to his apartment and said "I have to go to a meeting...I am sort of getting involved in this new thing lately, Jehovah's Witness...have you heard of it?" Phil and I laughed a little because he laughed when he said it, but he was serious and we just tried hard not to laugh and talk about something else.

In the morning we woke up early and he brought us to the bus station (rather walked us to it) and paid for my bus fair to the OZ meeting place. We began our journey in the OZ bus, having to hand a mic around and say something about ourselves and so on.

We stopped for breakfast and lunch and finally arrived in the late afternoon to Arrawarra, Surfers camp. We planted our gear in our dorms with 8 other people and got into our swimmers and set off to surf. It is fun...hard work, but fun. The hardest part is getting out there past all the massive waves. Afterwards my throat and eyes were burning from the salt water.

We stayed in a massive camp and I saw a giant grasshopper while on the phone to Jude and screamed. I am not so good with the massive bugs here. I also freaked out b/c on my way back I was opening a gate and realized I had a creatures eyes on me...and that creature was less than a foot away from my face. I jumped back in fear and realized it was a possum. I don't know why...but they freak me out b/c they are creatures of the night and I can't see them as well...The next day we were off again to another adventure...

More adventures in Sydney

I doubt that I am actually resting my feet and legs and much as I should while I am here in Sydney...and resting my bank account for that matter as well. Sydney is a very posh, hip happening place and it costs an arm and a leg for most things. A coke will cost anywhere from $2.80 up..can you believe that? So you can imagine what the bus or train costs which we take everyday. I pray that my money doesn't deplete before I get to Adelaide to work for a few months!

In these last few days my cousin Phil and I have been trekking around as usual. We went to the Sydney zoo with my cousin Sandra and her 2 kids. We ended up staying the whole day while they left just after lunch time. It is an enormous zoo with a great view of the Sydney skyline, bridge and Opera House. I seem to be fascinated lately with taking up close and personal pictures of spiders and their webs. Thankfully with my camera and the lens, I don't have to get that close in real life...because I really don't like spiders at all!

Today we went into town and booked our stops all the way up the east coast of Australia. We will take some surfing lessons on our way up so who knows how that will go! The further North we go, the hotter the weather. Australia is heading into Fall as it just finished Summer...or was it Spring. Who knows..everything seems to be backwards here!

We also went to the Chinese Gardens and spent a great deal of time there. I find that I am alone with my thoughts a lot of the time because Phil and I walk and different paces and wander off a little on our own. This is fine with both of us as long as we know we where the other one is...we don't go far though! He keeps laughing at me and seemingly doesn't understand why I can't keep up with him on our long treks. I kept telling him that he has to remember that I have short legs and therefore I take more steps and I am walking as quick as I can. I think in an average day we walk probably close to 10km or more! Good thing I brought my walking shoes!

Tomorrow we head to the beach to relax, Monday to the Blue Mountains for a day trip, Tuesday something...and leave Wednesday early morning up the coast...

Until then...I sign off!