Turtles,Hillbillys and Caves

Before starting I thought would add onto the Frazer Island Trip about the massive huntsman that was in the girls toilets that big that the guys had to come in and have a look:


The evening we finished Frazer Island all of the group went out for an Italian. It was a great evening with plenty of joking on the Italians behalf, we heard plenty of stories about Mafia and the reason behind the Italians freaking out about the flies on the Island due to being stuck on whitsundays Island they were meant to be camping but managed to get pick up by another boat! (a video has been taken and its hilarious quite alot of swearing so wont put it on)


After saying our goodbyes, we were back on the road again headed to Mon Repos especially to see turtles, we found a campsite right next to the centre practically on the beach.

We went down to the centre that evening, we had to wait a while and had a look at the exhibition and went to the slide show talk. Both of us were feeling rather pessimistic to whether we would see anything. As we waited the centre had volunteers and rangers searching the beach for females coming in to lay there eggs and hatchlings making a run for the beach.

Then the first group were sent down and it wasn't long till we went, we were allowed cameras or light on because the hatchlings follow the horizon to the sea therefore they follow any light. As we walked along the beach we didn't know if it was a female or hatchlings we would be seeing. But as we approached and formed a circle we could see a small mound of sand, it was only a couple of seconds before the first turtle appeared. It was amazing like dude off finding nemo but tiny(2inch), black and moving quite fast for it size. About only another second later they just kept on coming up of this small hole in the sand and in the end there was probably about 100 of them!


They were then put in a holding pen after this we all formed a line either side heading down to the sea and lucky people with a torch (Alex kindly lent me his) got to form a chain of light so that the turtles follow down through to the beach.


We both really enjoyed the experience even if Alex may have been embarrassed by my comments i.e aww they are sooo cute or oh my god they are trying to go under my feet, can they bite! lol

Next we headed off to Mackay the following day but decided to head off to Eungella, after following a normal flat road we suddenly reached a quite steep winding on going up the mountain with several waterfalls along the way. As we reached the top unfortunately it was very foggy so we couldn't see the view which would have been amazing.

Eungella town was very small and old fashion and Alex said "very hillbillyish" but we parked up for the night as it was pouring it down one of the locals thankfully suggested gong to the community centre where they do meals every Friday so that was tea sorted!

The next morning we woke up early at 6.30! voluntarily shocking! and headed up the road to River Creek to see wild platypus's. But unfortunately they did a no show however we did see a large wild terrapin.


After heading to Rockhampton, we decided a good detour would be the Capricorn Cave and lucky they had a campsite as it was too late that evening to do the caves however that night we saw lots of micro bat which were tiny (with wingspans around 25cm) . The following morning we got up and made our way down and book onto the hour long cave tour due to stopping over night we got 10% discount! and Alex decided to be cheeky as we had 10% discount with our hippie van but they could only take one discount.

All paid for and with our guide we headed off into the cave system, the first thing we noticed was how smooth and prefect the floor looked which we were told was actually bat poo! W e were both in flip flop but it wasn't too bad just a bit slippy in bits. Continuing on up some steps going down into the cave then up some rickety steps, Alex got a near miss with a rock called headache rock but I quickly pointed it out to him. We then made our way to the cathedral cave which was naturally shaped similar to a church interior with a few features in the rocks such as pipe organs, bell rope(massive tree roots), choir stand. The acoustics are suppose to be near to Sydney Opera House and the guide put on a piece of music with light show where at one point it was pitch black you couldn't even see you hand in front of your face! lucky that was only for a minute lol.

The final part of the caves we got to go through a tight passage then we were back into the daylight and went over several suspended bridges to the finish, it was great fun and a bit of an insight into the adventures you can do in New Zealand. As for wildlife in the cave we only got to see several small frogs and moths there are some carnivorous bats called Ghost bats which are meant to be huge (but unfortunately we didn't spot any).


That night we stayed in Airlie Beach where we are now, we were due to do a 3 day sail of the Whitsunday islands but with the weather that we currently have up here (very wet and windy), the boat has been cancelled and so we are planning the next step.....

P.s added pics and few videos clip to different blogs

Sun, Sea, sand, sand, shark infested waters, must be Fraser Island!

After waking up and going seeing the dolphin that comes in to be fed at Tin Can Bay we loaded up our campervan, brushed and dried off as much water as we could (yes its been raining here too) and hit the road again, destination Hervey Bay.
The drive was easy, no rain just nice green looking fields and incredibily high and straight trees perfectly aligned, we drove through Maryborough, which on the map looked like it would be quite large but on arrival we were greeted with a very old fashioned western movie style town with the star attraction being a museum dedicated to all people they know called Mary, so yeah we didn't stop!
All we knew was we were heading for Hervey Bay and looking for a backpackers which we had no address for, just the name Next backpackers, but it turned out to be all too easy, I took a "wrong" turn down a road and there it was!
Once we were all settled in at the hostel which was very nice and clean we checked in with the tour operators and meet the other 7 people we were due to spend the next few days with driving around the World's largest sand island.
The tour guide, Troy introduced himself and the company Unique Fraser who provided us with the vehicle and an Itinerary of what to do over the three days as it was a self guided tour, as it turned out this was a bit of a shock to Jen as she didnt realise that they just gave a bunch of backpackers a 4.2 litre Landcruiser and set them loose on sand dunes, regardless of whether or not they had ever driven offroad previously!
It was all good though, Troy was a bit of a nutter and always using the word "bushka" whenever he could fit it in, like he would say, "the offroad track at the back of Indian head (a landmark) is deep in soft sand so stick her in low ratio, bury your foot to the floor and then bushka your over and through the other side!". He was also telling us that we do things on the tour that other companies do not allow you to do and drive etc. but as it turned out this was not the case and we went where nearly every other self guided tour group went. So basically we soon learnt that what Troy told us we should take with a pinch of salt!
After being shown the Itinerary we were given a shopping list for food and we sent the girls off to the shops for us, well Jen told me i take a long time to choose stuff in the shops so i reluctantly had to stay behind and share a beer with a new friends!
It worked out quite well as it was as the shops were close to closing so the girls didn't have long to dash around the shop grabbing as much home brand cheap food as possible!
That evening was spent getting to know one another better, i now know more about Jen that I ever did, no only joking i mean the other guys and then we got an early night! and yeah the group consisted off an english couple, three Italian guys, an Austrian guy and a Canadian guy so a nice mix of accents!
Early the next morning we were shown a safety video about driving a 4x4 on Fraser Island, which i must say was almost enough to put us off wanting to drive there, they also played a few horror news stories back to back of nasty accidents that have happened there over the year, so basically if we did anything wrong according to the dvd it looked like we would die!
All the serious stuff out the way we through our kit onto the roof of the 4x4 and bushka we were on our way to the barge.
It was at this point we realised that our truck was quite knackered and it didnt like reverse, it embarrassingly jumped out of reverse while we were backing up the ramp onto the ferry much to the amusement of the other backpackers also heading across in other 4x4's!
Once on the island we took it in turns to drive the truck although a few of the guys didn't want to do it, it was quite tough going and you really had to be commited to a track once you were going through it, as soon as you backed off the thing would bog and get stuck which i can thankfully report never happened it us at all!

Our first night was spent camping at the top of one tree point beach which was pretty cool, the Italian guys cooked us up a very nice pasta dish and then it was off to bed, kinda early but purely because it started raining shortly and luckily after food had been packed up!

The next day when we got up we could see Dingo tracks all around the tents so we had visitors in the night, after our food, luckily we are good little travellers and had done exactly as all the signs had said and placed all of our rubbish and food back in the truck.

The day was spent going up and down the beach to many different locations and lakes, which was great fun, that evening we pulled up at the K'gari aboriginal camp ground where we thought we would be in for a great insight into their culture and way of life, I was especially looking forward to this and hoped that Jen could have seen what the culture is really like rather than all the bad press that is generally reported on. However there was only one guy there, Daniel who had only really just begun playing the didgeridoo and seemed to know very little, although we hand fed a couple of dingoes there which were really quite friendly under the guidance of Daniel, he also light a fire and we painted our faces in Ocha (a natural paste stuff!).
It was still all good fun.

Our final day was spent visiting some sights we had seen before as we were on our way back although we started the day by floating down Eli Creek and then chilled out at Lake Mackenzie before heading back to the barge and to the backpackers in Hervey Bay where we are now.

Back on the road again tomorrow, we think the town of 1770 or maybe Bundaberg, we shall see where the road leads us...

Brisbane and Beyond

After Byron Bay we headed off to Brisbane which toke a couple of hours on bus then we found our hostel (base which was okay apart from the room smelt like warm beer).

We had about 2 full days there and went to the museum which was good we got to find more about early Australia and more about Aborigines and didn't even have to spend any money cause it was free! Also we went to see Australia the film which is very good a bit of a tear jerkier though. Nearly forgot the botanical gardens we went for a walk there too.

Then we went to pick up our little hippie camper as seen in the pic below:

After this we went off to Australia Zoo for the day, the zoo was good fun, the crocodile show was a bit crazy with the keepers getting into the water! then we went to the tiger encloser which they even played in the water with them while they explained how they use play to learn how to hunt!

After getting to see a lot of animals we headed off to find a campsite and stayed at Peregian Beach for the night.

Bush Camp Not for the Faint Hearted!

We decided after one night in a campsite it would be fun to try and camp in the Kenilworth State Forest in a place called Charlie Moreland campground. The site was beautiful with a small creek that we swam in and a good walk where we saw wild bushturkeys and walbeys.

The next day we headed off to another campsite near by unfortuntely we couldn't get down the road though because there were serveral streams that needed to be crossed. After a little walk we headed back to the orginal campsite, where I managed to see kookburras close up.We soon realised how cheeky they are when they continued to swoop down try get our dinner! Also that evening the cockatoos got rather noisey and all started flying around in flocks.

We headed off to Noosa which is the best place I think along the coast as we came down from the main town on the top unlike many other places Nossa was far green with many rivers actually flowing! We found a campsite just off from the busy coast road from the river.

After two days in Nossa we head off early to our canoe trip, after picking up the equipment we headed off in a boat across a huge lake to pick up the canoes. We had a briefing where we found out it was a self guided tour so we had to instructor at all, we were also told not to swim in the lake beacuse of bull sharks!

All 14 of us headed first up to the lunch stop Fig Three Point which had a lot of wild life including a spider under the toliet seat as big as your hand and inuganus fight around the table. After another hour and a half of paddling we ended up at Harrys Hut Camp Ground and phicked our tent for the night.

The next day at breakfast two of the girls told us about how they woke up with a rat in their tent as they had left nuts open in there!

We set off and canoed an hour and a half then walked in the bush another hour and a hour to the Coolooa sand patch where there was a dune on top of the hill where you could see right down into Noosa and out to the ocean aswell. Then we went back down to the canoe for a quick dip in and out then back off to camp for another night under the stars.

The next day we paddled back very tired and achey but overall a great trip with some great people.

We are in Tin Can Bay at the moment and off to Frazer soon so will keep you all updated xx

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD

We both hope you have a good day, see you soon

lots of love

Surfaris- Sydney to Byron Bay surf camp

The Williams family plus us

Well we made it, yes we survived 5 days of wave riding and/or pounding and are currently staying at the rather hippy Art factory in Byron bay.

The week began with an early pickup from Sydney central at 7.45am, big thanks to Nick and the family for putting up with us for the week, we had a great time and the drunken sing star night will not be forgotten especially the fab duets!

After finally finding the bus (as we were both half asleep) it was full with prob about 25 of us. We headed out of Sydney to the surf camp which took about 7 hours. When we were there it was straight to the tea tree lake to begin our training to get into the water we had to jump off a bridge with our surf boards to get in! Where we learnt paddling, how to duck under the waves and how to stand(mostly fall though). After an hour we were out in the ocean to practise our paddling and ducks after half an hour we paddled back and got attacked by mosquitoes on the way as it had got a bit too late.

After a quiet tea and few drinks we all headed off to bed .

The next day we were up at half 7 for breaky then on the bus at half 8. After a short bus trip we arrived at a campsite where we went through and onto the beach (All suntan lotioned and zinced up). We all went in the ocean then one by one we went on the board to practise our standing tecqinuies which were mostly falling off lol. Then we were off on our own to practise unfortunately after a flashing incident I came out rather embarrased and swore to get a wet suit the next day! but alex was off practising his stuff.

After lunch, sleep and a walk we headed off on the bus to our next surf spot just a round the corner.

As the week progressed so too did our surfing skills and by the end of it we were all very tired and achy! On our final night we went out for a few drinks with surf team which was great and very funny!

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Happy new year to everyone from Sydney.

I hope you all had a good new years eve, we certainly did and as a result we decided to have a rather chilled out day around the pool today!

We headed into the city about 3pm and met up with Laura and the friends she had met during her time on the Oz Experience trip she had just done, it was great to catch up and had a nice spot to view the bridge from the other side of the harbour so meant getting a ferry across.

The firework display was quite amazing which lit up the whole of the city, they definately do not worry about blowing their finances here it seemed to go on for ages!

So yeah Happy 2009 to everyone, even our blog has changed slightly for the new year, you like the new colours?!

Acheron

On boxing day we were invited up to Larraine and Pauls holiday house out in Acheron, just outside the town of Alexandra. I was very pleased we got the chance to go up there as I had heard so much about the place and it was great to see it.

We decided as we were driving through it we would go to the Healesville sanctuary and see some of Australia's wildlife that unluckily or in some cases luckily had not see on our trip so far! We also got to spend more time with Fiona and Reini which was really nice.

An hours drive later we turned onto a dirt road and drove a bit before turning up a long driveway up to the house, which was in a setting much better than i could have expected.

Alex and Ben brave the dam! (it was actually warm but Jen wimped out)

The couple of days we spent at Acheron were great, it was so nice to just relax, swim in the dam and spend time with the family, Ben even took his boat up so one morning Reini, Ben and myself went for a tour of Lake Eildon with Ben making a great tour guide!

It capped off perfectly our time in Melbourne and I know we were both sad to have been leaving the family but we will be back down mid Februrary for a couple of days before heading to NZ.

Thanks again to all the family for Christmas and especially to Larraine and Paul for being so good to us.

Then it was 12 hours on a bus...........Sydney...just like that really!