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....