Fraser Island, the ULTIMATE adventure!

When we set out on planning a trip over our 5 day weekend, Jon and I decided we wanted a small group of us to head to Fraser Island. So myself, Jon, Joe, Mike, and Shabana set out on an unpredictable adventure to Fraser island in order to get away for a short while. I was a bit hesitant to go because we had a ton of work due right when we got back, but that was not a good enough reason to stay behind. We didn't really know what we were getting into but the trip was booked and all we had to do was show up to the hostel at Hervey Bay on Friday night and be ready to go early Saturday morning. We met a group of Swedes in addition to two Canadian girls and a random Austrian weirdo we dubbed as monkey man. Our group of 13 loaded up two 4x4 Land Cruisers with all of our gear for 3 days, including food and booze of course. It was a 3 day and 2 night self-drive tour, and Jon and Joe (& the Austrian dude) were able to drive us around this pristine island. They were the only ones older than 21 who could successfully operate a stick shift left-handed.
Fraser Island. Largest sand island in the WORLD. There is more sand on this island than the SAHARA DESERT. With that said, we knew that the trip would be quite the epic journey but also, that there might be a few bumps along the way. Sure enough, there is little to no development on the 1840 square km island and that means no real roads. Just sand. It was super fun riding through the rain forest but a ton of cars got stuck. Jon was able to get us through without any problems though. He was obviously the best driver. Basically the whole trip consisted of driving up and down the coast and through the forests, swimming in unbelievably crystal clear creeks and lakes, eating bland food purchased on an extreme budget, camping out in tents, and getting drunk. Everyone here loves to slap the goon (gnarly wine made with milk and fish eggs as ingredients), and sure enough we discovered a new found love for it too. Not that I didn't already appreciate slapping cheap bags of wine. And whiskey of course. You can't camp without whiskey.
We met a plethora of interesting people along the way. Our first camp site was on aboriginal land, and we met Nick who is of aboriginal descent. He showed us pictures of aboriginal ghosts that hang out around the camp and showed us around the property. He also brought us to his house where we were able to meet a full blood aboriginal. It was pretty awesome to meet such a person; however, they were trying to con me into buying one of their unique homemade baskets. It seemed as if they just wanted my money, but that didn't happen. They did indeed have interesting things to say though. We also met Joe Wold's significant other. By that I mean a cattle rancher who was also a park ranger and loved to fish. They were soul mates. Haha and we met him by means of a certain unfortunate event...
The MOST interesting part of the trip happened on the second night we were there. During the afternoon, the pretty blonde Swedish girls heard that there was a beached wale up at Waddy Point, just north of Indian Heads, while they were learning to fish from some older gentlemen. Mostly everyone was eager to see this so we hopped into the cars and headed up there. On 'accident' one of the cars drove through a large puddle of water. Sure enough, they engine completely flooded and the car immediately died. We were not even close to where we were suppose to be. A huge gang of older guys stopped and helped us try to restart the car. Surprisingly it worked and we were able to get it to the campground. Although the intinerary was shot for the rest of the night and the next day, we lucked out with the whole situation. Basically, we screwed a 60,000 car, which now required a new engine (big bucks $$$). I felt super bad for the guys that run the tour company and had to come over to the island to tow the car out. Thankfully we were fully insured for any accidents, and luckily the company that we booked the trip through is the only company that has full insurance to cover situations like this. Looking on the bright side, everyone was safe and we made it home on time and all in one piece. Shit happens I guess...


...but it was one of the best trips ever!

Oh and the whale, it was dead and rotting away. I didn't really care to see it in the first place, but it was fascinating to see how big they really are. We also didn't have any real dingo encounters, which are known to eat small children. They were seen by one Swedish girl eating off of the whale early in the morning however.

Sand dune

4x4 stuck in the sand

Ship wreck- what remains of the largest passenger boat in the world before the Titanic.
Cruising down the coast
Mike and Jon hanging out on the roof rack1st Night around the camp fire
The Pinnacles (Sandstone formation): Aboriginal women's land

My favorite- Eli Creek, crystal clear waters. The water is so pure because it filters through the sand. You can drink right from the creek.

More cruisin'

Large puddle

Dead, beached whale. Smelly, but huge!

Me on sand dune

On our way back to the ferry...

Heron Island, Great Barrier Reef

Heron Island. Great Barrier Reef. Unlike any other place on earth. We arrived here on October 5th after a long and grueling 7 hour bus ride, followed by a 2.5 hour ferry ride. The initial view of the island was totally worth the trek. The turquoise blue water was crystal clear and teeming with life. Within moments of stepping off the boast we saw our first shark! The island itself is entirely made up of coral with some vegetation, mostly casuarina trees. Although it is extremely isolated, the island is home to the Heron Island Research Station run by UQ and the Voyages Resort. Basically, our week long stay consisted of snorkeling. That about covers it. We were swimming around with everything from green sea turtles and eagle rays to black and white tip reef sharks and tons of fish. Everything was extremely colorful and full of life. It was unbelievable. When we were not snorkeling, we were most likely eating or relaxing on the beach. Quite the life. We did in fact create and carry out a research project over the course of 3 days. My project involved observing cleaner wrasse fish, the tiny fish that cleans parasites off of larger fish. It was quite fun because we were able to do even more snorkeling than other groups. The only down side is that I now have to write a scientific report on the research, which is due in 2 days. Lovely. I also have a marine ecology test on Thursday, covering all of the information we learned in lecture on Heron. Even better. Blah!

Despite the beauty of the reef and the relaxing atmosphere, there was one incident that really grinded my gears during our stay. I had been looking forward to scuba diving on the Barrier Reef ever since i signed up for my certification class last winter! We were told that there would be opportunities to dive while were were on Heron; however, every opportunity I had to dive was denied by the resort. The resort runs dive trips everyday, four times per day, and there was supposedly slight buoyancy problems with the first group of 4 students that went. A couple of Germans that were on that trip complained directly to the resort and resort guests take TOP priority. Therefore, we were cut off completely from any possibility of scuba diving. Of the ~16 dives that were run over the several days we were there, there was not a single time when we were allowed to participate. I think that this was a major flaw in the program because all of the certified divers were completely led on about the diving experience in Australia. I kind of question why I spent the time and money to get certified when I wasn't even able to dive once while on this trip.
I was extremely upset with the situation mostly because it was the only opportunity for Jon and me to dive together. We are both going to Cairns over our break with the intent to scuba dive; however, we have separate itineraries. This was very upsetting and I am still a bit riled up about the whole situation.

Despite the diving incident, I was still able to enjoy the peacfulness and isolation of the island. One afternoon I was able to escape to the beach at Shark Bay and just read a book. Doesn't get much better than that.

P.S. I have yet to receive/upload the underwater pictures.

View coming in on the ferry

Beachrock around the coastline

Sea hare

Jetty

Sunset on the jetty

about 5 minutes later

Touch tank at the research station

Colorful clam

Costa del Sol and other adventures

For the past two weeks I have been stuck in Brisbane taking mid-terms, classes, writing paper after paper, and doing research. Despite this long stretch of dreadful school work, some of us were able to sneak away for the weekends. One weekend we took the train to the Gold Coast, an hour south of Brisbane. We only stayed for the afternoon and played on the beach, but the Gold Coast is known for its nightlife and money. It is highly commercialized down there. The following weekend, a good amount of us traveled north to the Sunshine Coast, which is a more chill environment. We stayed in Mooloolaba at a backpacker's lodge and on Saturday we embarked on an unexpected adventure. We hired a Hawaiian surfer as our guide to take us to the Glass Mountains. Sure enough we went there, with many stops along the way. We started off the trip with a 10am wine tasting, followed by some rope-swing/cliff jumping action, mountain lookouts, more wine tasting, and sure enough more cliff jumping off of the waterfalls in the rain forest. Kondalilla Falls was quite the local hotspot, with a ton of people cooling off in the rock pools there. Other than the seven of us who went, everyone was pretty jealous of our day trip. The weekend brought more fun being Katie Bus' birthday. We enjoyed Thai food and our fair share of cheap boxed wine. Doesn't get much better than that.
This past week culminated with a day hike to Moogerah National Park. We hiked up a steep gully on Mount Greville, encountering the usual snakes, spiders, and of course goannas mating in the brutal summer heat. The view of Lake Moogerah was quite spectacular, yet it was a mission to get to the view point. A whole bunch of people were attacked by jumping ants that were climbing into their boots and biting them over and over. They all turned back to our base, but luckily I escaped without any bites and I was able to get there! It was pretty fun and a great alternative to class in a lecture hall all morning.
ALSO, this past Saturday morning I awoke at the early hour of 5am to join my host mom, Elle, in an outrigger canoe excursion. The two of us, along with other Aussies, set out on the Brisbane River and paddled as we watched the city come to life in the morning. Elle does quite a bit of boating and her specialty is dragon boating, a Chinese sport. It was pretty intense, considering the people that joined us in the outrigger were avid paddlers. The whole Brisbane River Dragon club seemed to be quite the organization. I surely enjoyed it, yet my arms were feeling extra sore for the rest of the day!
The time has finally come! Tonight we take off for the Great Barrier Reef. We leave for our 6+ hour bus ride at 11:30pm, followed by a 2 1/2 hour ferry ride. We will be stationed at Heron Island and I plan to finally due some diving, snorkelling, and all that jazz. It's about time! Until next time...

Day at the beach on the Gold Coast

Frogs at Brisbane Forest Park

Cruisin'

Joe with our personal guide/driver, Colby

Glass House Mountains

Winery

Flame Tree

Quite the popular swimming spot. Awesome rope swing here

Rainforest

Kondalilla Falls Rockpool. Not us pictured here but we did it

Looking out over the rainforest

Tree
The actual Kondalilla Falls
Geology Field Trip
Moogerah Lake

Platypus! Compliments of Jon