Australia: Whitsundays

Views over the Airlie Bay, not the same day as I arrived

So I take the night bus from Noosa to Airlie Beach, leaving Noosa at 6 pm and arriving at Airlie at 10 am the next day, so quite a long ride…
And just to make things better, as I arrive at Airlie it starts raining, and raining hard. So by the time I get to the hostel I’m completely soaked, and I can’t check in until 1 pm, which just tops it.

To kill some time I head to the agency that organizes the sailing trip that I have planned for the next 2 days, to check in and ask about what I need to bring and where I need to be.

Before heading back to the hostel I decide to spend some time in a café, indoors, with a hot coffee (and because I still can't check in). When the rain seems to diminish I head back to the hostel to check in and take a hot shower. I make some lunch and start preparing my luggage for the trip.

I spend the rest of the afternoon reading in the common area of the hostel, hiding from the rain.

S.V Whitehaven

The next morning I get all my stuff, drop my backpack off at a storage and head towards the sailing boat: The SV Whitehaven, the weather doesn't seem to be great this morning either, but you have to keep a positive mind set. At the meeting point we get introduced to one of the crew members as well as the rest of the group and head towards the boat.

The boat is an old boat, from 1982, completely made out of steel, with a weight of 34 tons and a max speed of 15 knots. We have 3 crew members, and 24 guests. The boat looks big enough to easily hold that amount of people, and as we get shown where we are sleeping I see that I wasn't too far off, I had a decent sized bed, if you keep in mind that it’s a sailing boat.

Once back upstairs we get a quick safety briefing, and they explain what itinerary we are going to follow: The first day will be all about water activities, kayaking, snorkelling and more snorkelling. So for these we are heading to the northern part of the islands.

First snorkelling spot

When we arrive at the first snorkelling and kayaking spot we have a nice lunch and then get in the water. I decide to go kayaking first, to get that over with, and then snorkel for the rest of the available time. When I get in the water to snorkel it starts raining again. Not that I'm complaining about it, the fish seemed way more active because of the rain, but it did take away some visibility, which was a bit of a shame. 

As more and more boats arrive at our snorkelling spot the captain decides to head to a different spot. A bit more south, thus, a bit closer to the place where we will be anchoring for the night. The bad hing about this is that the rain had only increased on our way, so the new spot had a whole layer of dirty rain water that came down from the nearby island, and this didn't help the visibility.

After the last snorkel we get some pastries to recover some energy and we head down to Hook bay, a quiet bay between Hook island and Whitsunday island  where we will be anchoring for the night. As the crew starts to prepare dinner, everyone left upstairs just starts talking and getting to know each other.

Early morning and the jumping ship

For dinner we get green curry, allegedly the best green curry served on all the ships, because it seems to be tradition to serve green curry on all the sailing trips of the Whitsundays. After dinner the mood falls quickly, the weather is at it's worst and no one seems to be in the mood to do to much, so we just head to bed and get ready for the next day, which will be an early one!



So the next morning I get woken by the sound of the engine and by the enormous waves hitting the boat at about, at one point so high that I was just bumping around in my bed.It's about 6:30 am and I decide to head to the desk, there I notice that I was the last one to wake up. But look around, not everyone seems to feel to good with these big waves.

Whitsunday Island

After a sightly rough trip we arrive at a little bay, Chance bay, which is the gate away to the Whitehaven beach. We have a nice breakfast and then make our way over the island to one of the worlds most beautiful beaches.
On our way there and from the viewing points we don't really have the best weather. But once we make our way down, the sun starts shining and makes for a wonderful beach day.
We were supposed to have about 3 hours at the beach, but after about an hour and a half, the crew member that had joined us at the beach calls us all together and tells us that we have to get back to the ship: There have been some issues back on the ship, so we need to start making our way back.

Back on the ship the captain tells us about what happend: The hydraulic steering had a little hole in the pump, so there was no way to steer from up the main desk, the only way was to have a man down there manually moving the rudder. This ment that we were going back by motor, as sailing could have to much of an impact on the course.
Everything goes smooth anyway, but it takes us about 6 hours to get back, instead of the planned 3.

Back at the port, on my way to my luggage storage, I see a few girls of the Norwegian group of Fraser Island, so I decide to join them later for a couple of drinks, before getting the bus to Cairns. 

Australia: Fraser Island

Fraser island: The biggest sand island in the world, the place where I will be spending my next 3 days.
It's an early morning and as I get to the reception, where we are getting picked up, I see plenty of tired faces. No one seems to enjoy the early hours of the trip too much.
The bus drive from Noosa to Rainbow Beach goes smooth and without too many issues, except maybe the heavy rain that started to fall as soon as we got to our break.
In Rainbow beach we get introduced to our tour guide: Kevin, and go trough the basic safety briefing and such.

Dingo!!

We have 4 jeeps available, 2 manual ones and 2 automatic ones. and we are a group of about 30 people, everyone gets sorted and we all have an assigned car. I'm in the car with Kevin, an Irish girl, and a whole big group of Norwegian girls.
It takes us about an hour to get to the ferry towards the Island, including the stop at a bottle shop and a super market before leaving Rainbow Beach. And another 30 minutes from the ferry drop off to the first stop: Lunch at the resort where we will be staying the next 2 nights.

On the way to the resort, we get surprised by the beautiful long beach and the amazing scenery, and to make it even better we get to see a dingo, sitting all by itself not to far away from our resort's entry. As we drive into the resort I notice that we drive over the same security that I saw in South Africa to keep the animals outside of the area, some sort of rails over which animals aren't supposed to be able to walk on.

After lunch we have a few minutes to refill our water bottles and get something from the local store before continuing to Lake McKenzie.

To get there we go though an amazing bush drive for about 10 km, or 30 minutes more or less.
The island already felt overwhelming, with the sandy coast and the massive jungle just a few metres away from the coast. And now with the lake it just feels like the cherry on top of the cake.
The sand is incredible white, and very good for your hair, skin and to whiten your teeth, or so they say. And the water is incredibly clear.
There is barely any form of life in the lake which is one of the reasons behind the crystal clear water.

Lake McKenzie

As the sun starts falling we make our way back to the resort, where everyone seems to be too tired to do anything so it looks like almost everyone goed a quick nap before dinner.
For dinner we get steak with veggies and potatoes, and after finishing we head towards one of the rooms that got upgraded (so we had a tiny fridge there) to play some drinking games and get to know each other a bit.
We end up going to the resort's bar later on and even jumping in the pool to end the night.


Day nº 2 starts with an early wake up call followed by what was left of breakfast (the other group seemed to know how things worked here and got up earlier to get the best of breakfast)
After breakfast we leave towards the northern part of the island. We drive for about an hour, over the incredibly long beach before we get to our first stop: The Champagne pools. The weather wasn't the best when we got to there, but that didn't stop us from jumping in and heading to the furthest part, where you get all the "bubbles".

View from the Indian head

After the pools we head towards the Indian Head, the most easterly point of the island, and even with a cloudy day like the one we had, you have some amazing views over the island.

The remainings of SS Maheno 

After the Indian head we go for lunch at a nearby picnic area before continuing towards the SS Maheno wreck that you can find on the island. Kevin tells us how after all the years of great labour, the ship had been sold to a Japanese company that bought it hoping to use all the metal of the ship, but on the way to Japan (the ship was being towed, as it had nothing left but the metal and the steering wheel inside)a storm raised and  broke the wire that connected both ships. The crew, without any way to navigate the ship, decided to strand it on the beach hoping that the Japanese would come and pick it up once the storm was over, but by the time they found it, the was had pushed the ship so deep in the sand that it wasn't rentable to get it out, so the legally abandoned it. 

Eli creek

The last spot of the day was Eli Creek, a massive source of fresh water with a flow of 80 million litres of fresh water a day, supposedly enough to sustain Brisbane without any issues. We spend a few hours here, going down the cold river down to the beach, and going up again just to repeat.

And to end the day we get pasta with meatballs and garlic bread, and then we head to the garden out at the rooms to try and play some drinking games with the whole group. But we get interrupted by heavy rain first, and then we even get a visit from a snake.

The last day of the trip starts with another early morning, but this time we only have one stop ahead, before going back to the mainland.

The view from and to lake Wabby

We are visiting lake Wabby, the deepest lake on the island, as deep as 12 metres, as well as the lake with most sea life.

To get there we need to walk about 2.5 km, through a little forest and then a massive sand batch that looks like a small desert.
Once there we swim from one of the edges to the other one, and once back just relax a bit, some of us stay in the water, with the Dr. Fish (those that nibble all your dead flesh away) while others just spend the last hours on the beach next to the lake.

Once we finished there we had a little drive before having lunch, and then we head back towards Noosa.

The best thing about being back in Noosa is that almost everyone from the Fraser trip was staying there as well, so we decide to party all together. All in all, I had an amazing experience on Fraser Island, and I think that I was really lucky with the amazing group that I had.

The amazing group!

Australia: Brisbane & Noosa

The busy city shopping street - Brisbane

I head towards Brisbane with what you could say are the lowest expectations up to now, the reason behind this is how other backpackers described Brisbane to me: A boring city, nothing to do, a smaller and worse Sydney…

But when I got there my opinion started changing with every step that I took. Every single thing I got told seemed made up.

It is a big city, and there is no real beach, that was true, but that didn't mean that it was boring. All the streets where filled with people: youth going home from their school day, people on their lunch breaks, locals wandering around in their city, tourists enjoying street artists, families gathering on the grass or the “Brisbane Beach” for a picnic or just a little break.

Brisbane

I probably spent something like 5-6 hours just wandering the streets, hoping to get some highlights, and enjoying the city's atmosphere.
The Brisbane river flows through the city, separating it into various areas, and at the Brisbane botanical gardens you can see how the river allows for an amazing mangrove to grow.

The night life in Brisbane is something that I can’t tell you about, as I was exhausted and not in the mood for more party, so I decided to hang out at the hostel for the evening and just relax.

Noosa River's end 

My next stop is Noosa, and after checking my booking I notice that it’s going to be the first time in a while that I spend more than just 1 night in a place.
I have 3 nights in Noosa before going to Fraser Island, and another night when I get back. So I take my first day with a way more laid back mind-set, but as I walk to the main strip of Noosa I notice that you don't really need to much time. There are just 2 or 3 roads with things to do. Other than that you have the beach (which had veeery big waves the day that I arrive) and the river that gives a few nice hidden beaches.
In just a few hours I walk around all the highlights in Noosa heads, and even walk around Kayser Island, an Island surrounded by the river and located between Noosa Heads and Noosaville.

Luckily enough I have a kayaking trip planed on the Noosa Everglades the next day.

The river and it's lily pads

So the day starts nice and early, with a quick breakfast, a bus drive and a little introduction with information about the Everglades and the way that we should kayak to get into the river and back without wasting to much time.

The first part is the hardest, as we have the wind against us. We kayak over the massive Lake Cootharaba, which even has shark in it (if we have to believe the tour company that is).

After an initial hour of kayaking over the lake we get into the Noosa River, which has massive lily pad "fields".

On our way back, before heading back into the lake we have a little lunch break and enjoy the amazing view that the surroundings offer.

The next day would be a day to relax before heading to Fraser, but while making breakfast I bump into this girl that I barely remembered, but that I briefly met back at surfers paradise, so she invites me to join her and a few friends later on the day.
I head to the grocery store first and then spend the rest of the morning at the pool before joining them. We decide to make burgers for dinner and then continue towards the beach to have some drinks and play some games.

Australia: Byron Bay & Surfers Paradise

The night bus drops me off at Byron Bay at about 8 in the morning, I find the hostel to drop off my luggage and walk back to town to get some breakfast and coffee, especially coffee, because I figure that I’ll need it if I want to be able to kayak in the sea without falling asleep.

Byron beach and the cape

Byron is the most eastern part of the whole country, and it feels completely different to Sydney.
It’s a small town with a few bars and a couple of restaurants, but nothing too special (especially if you compare it to Sydney).
The atmosphere in town feels very relaxed

and the beach line is amazing. It’s one long beach that ends with a small cape into the sea, and the day that I arrive there are some amazing waves (that promises nothing good for the kayaking that I got planned ahead)

Just as I get back to the hostel the pick up for the kayaking arrives, and as we leave towards the beach the beach the driver tells us about how they saw a bunch of dolphins in the morning tour, but that we'll have to get through a bunch of waves to see them.

And while dragging the kayaks to the beach we discover that the latest wasn't a lie.
On the first try we catch a massive waves breaking onto us which makes us flip over and lose my sunglasses. But eventually after 3 or 4 tries we get into the deep sea (over the breaking waves). Once we got over the waves we had to wait for the rest of the group to get over them as well, and whilst waiting a group of turtles decides to come and greet us, swimming around us, under us and even sticking their heads out in a way of saying hi! While all these turtles are swimming around one of the guides tells us how they are the same kind of turtle as the ones in “Finding Nemo”.

When everyone arrives we continue the tour upwards, following the cape almost all the way up to the end, so literally kayaking further than the Australian land reaches. And while kayaking over there we manage to see a group of dolphins a bit further playing and jumping in the waves.

As the tour progresses the waves seem to get bigger so when we got to the end of the cape we decided to turn back around.

When we get back to the hostel I decide that I want to walk up that same cape where we just kayak around. The walk takes a bit longer than I expected, but then again, I found spots that where much prettier than I expected. At one point I even passes a few areas with public barbecues and locals grouping around them with drinks and great smelling meat.

To end the day I head toward one of the bars known for it's prize games.I meet a couple of Dutch guys playing pool and join them. Later on the bar decides to hold a pool competition while we are waiting for the beer pong on. And against all the odds I end up winning this one which got me a 50$ bar tab for the night. One of the Dutch guys decides to go home so being two we sign up for the beer pong tournament, with a main price of 150$ bar tab and a skydive. Sadly enough we don’t get past the second round in this one.

Next morning is the  day that I’m heading towards Surfers Paradise. It’s a city in the middle of the gold coast, and as far as I heard, it’s a little bit like Byron Bay, but bigger and busier.
And that exactly the same feeling I got when I arrived. It feels like a big city, with enormous skyscrapers and big shopping centres, but without the stress and rush that comes with a big city, you could even find businessmen just sitting on the beach boulevard enjoying their little break.

I had no activity planned here, so I grabbed my camera and left the hostel to see the city centre and of course, the majestic beach.

The centre was nice, and so was the beach, but there was no surfing going on, I asked around and it seemed that the sea was very dangerous at the moment, the storms on Fiji had ceased, but the sea was still shaken because of it you could even appreciate the storm leftovers here at the gold coast. The government even cancelled a surfers competition that was going to be held this week because of the dangerous currents and waves.

Surfer's Paradise by night 

I take note of this and decide not to go for a swim, but rather just spend a few hours relaxing at the beach, which has a few nice shadow spots (because of the skyscrapers)

As the sun starts going down I head back to the hostel, the plan for the night is all you can eat hot dogs followed by various drinking games, but not with beer like we are used to, every glass is filled with this cheap wine that comes in boxes of 5 Litres and they call "Goon".

After the games we head to one of the clubs in the center and spend the rest of the night around there.