Our tents in the morning

I was thrilled when I stepped out of the tent to see that it wasn’t raining. I can’t say that it was sunny but at least water wasn’t pelting down. Kirk told us that a few weeks ago it rained for his whole tour and that they got stuck in the sand and everyone had to dig out the bus in the rain, so comparatively we had a much better time.

Our first stop was at the Coloured Sands which were piles of sand with sand that ranged in colour from pale yellow to almost red. It was pretty because at that time we even had some sunshine which lit up the sand. On our way to the next destination we spotted a snake on the middle of the beach. So we all got out to observe it and saw that it had been run over. It was a poisonous water snake which had been washed out to land. We wanted to help it but didn’t know how since we couldn’t touch it. Kirk got a shovel and managed to pick it up and toss it out to sea and the snake swam away, so hopefully it survived.

Captain Kirk rescues snake

We got back on the bus and soon after we saw a dingo, but Kirk wasn’t allowed to let us out of the bus to take pictures because those were the rules. We were glad we at least got to see one wild dingo since Fraser Island is home to the purest breed of dingo in Australia. Our next stop was Lake Wabby which is a lake formed by blown sand that forms a bank which then dams an already existing creek. This is called a barrage lake and Lake Wabby is the only one like it on the island. It has a steep bank which is a sandblow that drops into the lake which we rolled down. It was a cold small lake which I was able to swim across.

Rolling into Lake Wabby

Then it started to rain and we all started the trek back to the bus. At least the rain didn’t last long because we had to walk through a forest. As we were walking a branch of a tree fell a few meters in front of us on the path. Luckily, this time it was not on top of me but it gave me a scare. Inside, the tree was blood red, and bugs crawled all over it.

We had lunch in Central Station which got its name because it was the centre of the logging industry. There was a short boardwalk around the area where there were some neat trees. I thought the trees with holes or ones that were overgrowing with vines were interesting.

Our last activity on the island was Lake Birrabeen and luckily it was sunny.  It is a clear blue lake surrounded by extremely fine white sand. We did not visit Lake Mckenzie which we were a bit sad about, but Kirk assured us that Lake Birrabeen was just as pretty and even more so because it wasn’t overrun by tourists. It was nice being on the beach with only a small group of people and having the whole lake to ourselves. The sand was soft and I polished my earrings until they shined. The water was cold but refreshing and at the end Hendrik and I had to make a run for it and we were the last people on the bus which was not a good thing for the last activity of the tour.

Lake Birrabeen

Then the ferry took us back to the mainland, and we spotted dolphins swimming along the boat and jumping out of the water. Before the bus dropped us off we spotted kangaroos having a feed in the meadow. Kirk pulled over and everyone but a few Aussies, who thought we were silly, got out and started taking pictures. They were the first wild living kangaroos we saw in Australia so we were excited.

I thoroughly enjoyed the tour and I’m glad we didn’t drive because we wouldn’t have gotten any of the commentary which was probably the most interesting part of the tour to learn about the history of the island, the logging, the aboriginals, the animals, and the plants. I would have been really mad if we had spent half a day digging out our vehicle in the rain, though Hendrik still regretted not having a car to speed down the 75 mile beach with.

We were picked up at our campsite in the morning by a huge 4wd green bus and were brought to the ferry which then took us to Fraser Island. It was overcast so we knew it would either be raining shortly or the clouds would break and the sun would shine though, of course we were hoping for the latter. Fraser Island is the largest sand island in the world and there is only one very short paved road there so, therefore, you need a 4wd to get around it. The main highway of the island is actually the beach which runs along the whole east coast of the island.

Our bus

We first stopped at the Yidney Rainforest which is the only rainforest on the Island which had not been logged since it was the last one which was supposed to be logged. Logging started in 1863, being initiated by American Jack Piggott and ended in 1991. In 1992 the island became a world heritage site. The rainforest is home to some spectacular plants and trees which our tour guide, Kirk, was excited to talk about. He loved the Island and it seemed that he knew everything about it. He was one of the best tour guides I’ve had on a tour, and he talked non-stop for two days which was impressive. We had a nice walk through a part of the rainforest, but we got eaten by mosquitoes which wasn’t too fun. We were told over and over again to “only leave footprints and only take pictures,” so I didn’t think killing mosquitoes really fell into that motto, but nevertheless I squashed a fair share.

As we rode the bus to the place where we would have lunch the rain started to come down and by the time we were supposed to get out of the bus and have lunch it was pouring. It was the kind of rain that gets you soaked in seconds. We all ran to the restaurant and had a buffet lunch and hoped that this was just a shower, but no such luck, it just kept coming down.  I was really upset because I was really looking forward to relaxing in Eli Creek. Eli Creek is the largest creek on the east coast of the island and you can walk to the top via a boardwalk and then use it as a lazy river to get back. I put my bathing suit on before getting back on the bus just in case.

After lunch we went to 75 mile beach which is the highway and even runway but it’s not good for swimming because of dangerous currents and Tiger sharks. We spent most of our time on Fraser Island driving along this beach. It was still raining and a bit chilly when we got to Eli Creek. I first waded into the clear clean stream with my umbrella and when I reached the top of the boardwalk I really wanted to ride the creek back. My clothes were already damp from the rain so I figured I can either be wet and swim, or I can just be wet, so I went for it. The rest of the group thought I was crazy, but I thought, “Screw you rain, why should you ruin my fun?” One other guy followed as well so there were two of us in the creek. It was very relaxing to lie in the water letting it do with me what it wanted, until I hit a root, which was painful. The water was warm, the surrounding silent, and the pitter patter of the rain on my face didn’t bother me at all. It was one of my favourite moments on the island. The rain was probably a blessing in disguise because our tour guide said that on nice days the creek is jam packed with people, or maybe he was just trying to make me feel better. I was a bit chilly after and moist the whole day, but I would have been moist anyway since I happened to have the seat in the bus under a leak.

Eli Creek

The next stop was the S.S. Maheno wreck which was shipwrecked on the island in 1935 while it was being towed after its retirement. We saw before pictures so we could compare and see the drastic effects of salt water and wind in less than 100 years. We also learned that soon after it became beached a wedding was held on it because it was still a beautiful ship. I thought that was a very original wedding location.

Maheno Wreck

The next site was at the Champagne Pools which on a nice day would be a cool swimming spot and people asked me whether I was going to go for another dip. Because the weather was so bad the waves crashed into the pool and caused too much motion so I thought it looked a bit too dangerous to go swimming since it was really rocky, but I did go for a wade.

Champagne Pools

That night we stayed at a campsite where we had a bbq dinner, played cards, and hoped for a sunny day the next day. We slept in tents but they were permanent tents with wooden floors, double beds, and nightstands so they were comfortable except that I could hear everything outside such as the pop pop pop of the rain on the canvas and worse the loud rainforest birds really early in the morning, so I didn’t sleep too much because of that and because I always have trouble sleeping in new places.

We took this day off to relax, do much needed laundry, and decide how we want to visit Fraser Island. Ideally we would have liked to rent a 4wd and drive around the Island ourselves but all the rentals were so ridiculously expensive, that we could go on a tour with meals and lodging for the two of us for less then just renting a vehicle. We asked at reception which was also the booking agent what we should do and the lady said, “tour, no doubt, you’ll get all the information about the island. If you drive yourself you’d be digging yourself out of sand all day.” Coincidentally there was another man at reception that agreed that he got stuck in the sand when he drove around Fraser Island. Much to Hendrik’s dismay since he has fantasies of being a rally driver, we booked a tour. We found a company that we felt was the best value, the Fraser Island Company, and then we didn’t even have to make a choice which one to take since every tour did not depart every day. Since it was a Tuesday we had to go on the 2 day wilderness safari.

Pelican

Then we went to check out Hervey Bay and to find an ATM to pay for the tour. The town is nothing special and the only reason people come here is for Fraser Island. There is a beach with pelicans all in a line which I thought was cool, and we found pineapples for 50 cents each at the Spar and it was really good, so a definite score right there.

It was off to the rum distillery first thing in the morning, where we got a guided tour and saw where all those cane trains were going since Rum is made from sugar. It’s definitely worth a visit, especially if you like rum, and you get to try two of their products at the end of the tour. I volunteered to drive since I don’t particularly like rum.

Bundaberg distillery

Next was a stop at the Ginger Beer brewery. When we entered, we were the only patrons and we asked for 2 tickets and the woman asked us, “You do know this isn’t the rum distillery?” We nodded that we knew that and she said, “Oh, good you don’t know how many people come here looking for the rum tour.” I guess we did fit into the demographic of the rum tour because the ginger beer brewery was unfortunately not a guided tour through the factory but a children’s learning center on how to make ginger beer. I learned over and over again that ginger beer is made from fresh ginger, sugar, yeast, and lemon juice, and that I can make it myself.

I really enjoyed the tasting aspect of the factory since they make a few flavors all from natural ingredients including peach, apple, lemon lime bitter, lemon, and sarsaparilla and they let you try all of them. The one that’s not natural is Burgundy (cherry), and I didn’t like it as much. That’s why I like the ginger beer so much more than ginger ale, because that’s made from flavoring. Though they claim to export to the US, I haven’t seen it there before. I bought myself Bundaberg brewery flip flops since they were on sale and mine would have to retire after the trip because of all the trekking they had to do around campsites to get to the facilities.

Then we drove the rest of the day down to Hervey Bay from where we planned to visit the “must do” Fraser Island.

I insisted on at least driving through 1770 because it is the site of the second landing by James Cook and the crew of HM Bark Endeavour in May 1770. Obviously for this reason alone 1770 deserved at least a photo. Though once we got there we were pleasantly surprised how nice it was and stayed a bit longer. There were, beautiful beaches and hiking paths, and of course the sculpture commemorating Cook and his efforts. We found a nice beach with waves to finally use our boogie board that we had been schlepping around and went for a swim. It’s definitely a nice place to spend some time in.

The marker for Cook's landing spot and our van

Then we were off to Bundaberg. Bundaberg is most famous for its rum distillery which is called Bundaberg and Bundy for short since the Aussies (Another shortening from Australians) can’t be bothers to say names with more than two syllables. The ever present mascot is a polar bear because they wanted the drink to appeal to people in colder climates down south, because Rum is a tropical stereotype.

The other reason the town is famous is the Ginger Beer factory which I have to say I like more than the rum. It’s non alcoholic but it’s really good, so I was excited about going on their factory tour more.

We arrived in Bundaberg in the evening and decided to try to have a meal out again since we had failed yesterday. I had a craving for Chinese since I hadn’t had Chinese the whole trip and I missed it. Of course there was a Chinese restaurant in the town, which was much cuter than Rockhampton. We were the only patrons at the restaurant the whole time, it smelled of mildew, and the wallpaper and rugs didn’t match and the colors were overwhelming, but we decided to stay anyway even though we felt uneasy about it. We would have rather just taken the food out but then we had no where to go besides eating takeout in the van which was less appealing than eating in the mismatched soggy restaurant. When the food came, though, I have to admit that it was the best Chinese food I’ve had in AU. The problem is that there are so many Asian people here, that the food is actually properly Chinese and not the Americanized version which I’m used to. But in Bundaberg I had proper westernized Chinese food which was so yummy, or maybe it was because I’d been eating ramen for days before that but it was lovely.

We left Airlie Beach and headed south to Rockhampton. The roads through Australia are long and boring with unchanging scenery. No wonder they needed signs every 5 KM telling you to stay awake, “Stay awake, take a break,” “Power nap now” or “Stay alive, revive.” Some rest areas even offered free coffee for drivers, of course it was only instant. There are also lots and lots of dead wallaby carcasses along the roads.  We haven’t seen a living one in the wild but we sure did see lots of dead ones.  Along with them we saw lots of big black birds hovering over the highway or enjoying a roadside meal. I heard that in Australia it is illegal to move the road kill or use it for other purposes. I don’t know whether it’s true or why that law would exist but it would explain why there was so much road kill.

The typical roadside scenery

Rockhampton is the self proclaimed ‘beef capital of Australia.’ Every business seemed to have a statue of a cow and a ‘witty’ pun as their name which I can’t think of at the moment. So how disappointed was I to later learn that Rockhampton was home to six big things, all cows? These things weren’t any bigger than regular cows and far less spectacular than any on a CowParade. We decided to go hit the town and have dinner and possibly have a drink, since we hadn’t really done that yet on our trip.

Every town in Australia has the same layout like any town in the US. Chain stores, your typical McDonald’s and Kmart, around the roads leading into it and then a nice wide road running through the town centre with a town hall, a church, and what we were looking for a nice pub. I felt like I could have been in any mid-western town in the USA. Granted it was Sunday but the place was totally dead. It would have been like a ghost town if it wasn’t for one pub which was jam packed with people. The whole town must have been there.  I kid you not when I say that some of the people were dressed up as cows. It could have been a cattle festival, but in a place like Rockhampton every day was a cattle festival.

We didn’t want to go to that pub since there was hardly a place to stand with people crowding even the sidewalk, so we tried to find another one, but the town was literary dead. After wondering a bit we just agreed to stop by a bottle shop and just go back to the campsite and drink. It was easy finding a bottle shop on the road full of chain stores and we got a bottle of wine and a Bundy with ginger beer. I had never had a Bundy before and since our next stop was Bundaberg I thought it was only appropriate.

Needless to say Rockhampton was a total flop, and the worst city we visited. At least then we had something to fall back on if we didn’t like something further on in our trip that, “At least we weren’t in Rockhampton.”

Notice the statue on top of the sign (Yeah it's a bad pic since it was taken from a mooving (j/k) vehicle, and we went around the roundabout 2 times to get it)

Unfortunately the next day was overcast and the dark clouds looked as if they were about to let the rain fall, but luckily they didn’t. I had packed my new hat in hopes of a sunny day and before I even got on the boat the string on it broke, and they wouldn’t even give me a new one later because I had thrown away my receipt.

We spent some time at Whitehaven Beach where there was the whitest and softest sand I’ve ever touched. Apparently it is good to polish jewelery on which I can attest to since I polished my old tarnished earrings in similar sand on Fraser Island, and they really did shine. The tides were really remarkable and the changes were dramatic. We were on the beach until the tides started to change and the water receded from the banks creating a stream. We had to leave or the boat would get stuck in the sand. But before we did I took a walk in the “creek” and on my way saw a stingray.

Our boat on Whitehaven Beach

Me on Whitehaven Beach as the tide goes out

Next we were going to go snorkelling amongst the coral and on our way there we saw a whale. We didn’t get very close but we could clearly see it breaching. I’ve never seen a whale in the wild before so I thought it was pretty spectacular. Then at the end it dived into the water and its fanned tail stuck out of the water and slowly sank like I’ve always seen in movies. The sun had even come out when we arrived at our snorkelling site which was nice, but the water was still cold. There were some beautiful fish and I spotted another stingray. There was a lot of Staghorn coral which is coral that looks like daggers and sometimes I’d follow a fish into the shallow end and realize that only a few inches bellow me were only spikes which was a bit frightening since the coral is sharp. Nevertheless, I avoided being stabbed.

When we arrived at the dock we noticed that instead of one flight of stairs (which we had climbed down) to get up to land we had two. The tide had uncovered a whole flight of stairs, with shells growing all over them. I thought that was pretty remarkable.

That morning we decided to go on a short hike to one of the beaches on the other side of the famous Mother Beddrock. Since we were going to the beach we opted not to take our camera, which was the wrong decision, because there was noone at the beach to take it and there were some nice sights to take pictures of. We ended up in Murray Bay which was a small secluded beach at the edge of a private property. We went for a snorkel since we had our gear with us now that we owned the gear. It was a refreshing activity after the hike and in the morning with a few interesting fish, but nothing like on the reef, but we had expected that. Bowen has many little secluded beaches and it was a nice visit.

Then we were headed down to the major tourist destination, Airlie Beach, the depot for the Whit Sunday Islands. On the way we flew by the big mango, and didn’t stop, which I wasn’t particularly happy about, even though it didn’t look very impressive from the glimpse I got.  It was just a discoloured misshaped spherical thing. Australia is full of “big things” which by definition the thing has to be bigger than the real thing which people built to attract tourists to make money since in most places there is nothing there. Some of these are so unimpressive you don’t even realize it is a big thing like the big Captain Cook in Cairns.

We found a nice campsite which ended up being the best one we stayed at the whole trip. There was a bouncy pillow which is great fun, mini golf, a pool and even outdoor movies at night. Of course they play only kiddie movies but seeing Bee Movie was okay. I could have stayed there all day but we went to town where we had a barbecue by the beach.

Australia is renown for its barbecues but they don’t barbecue with coals like the Americans do.  Instead barbecues are basically smooth steel grill plates that fry the food more than barbecue it but they are free and clean in many public places so we took advantage of them.
The town of Airlie Beach itself is not impressive, just a bunch of tourist stores where I bought myself a hat, to keep the sun off my face and neck and tourist tour centres where they sell you tours. We went into one of the tour centres and looked through the brochures on all the different trips we could do around the Whit Sunday Islands. We spent a great deal deliberating and comparing prices of tours. We wanted something that would only take one day and be good value for money and settled on the Fury which is the high speed rafting boat which would take us snorkelling and to the famous Whitehaven Beach. We booked the tour for the next day.

There are also lots of insects all over Australia, more so than in other places I feel and this ant is just one of the many we saw.

We spent the day in Townsville and were really surprised at what a nice town it was. I know there is rivalry between Cairns and Townsville and Cairns people believe it is so much prettier but my unbiased vote is for Townsville. We visited the Townsville museum which was actually really nice and gave us something to do. Unlike the rest of the tourists we did not go to Magnetic Island, which we do regret, but we decided to save some cash and since we were definitely going to go to Frazer Island we figured we didn’t need to go to every Island.

Townsville Jungle Gym

Then we drove down to Bowen, where we had trouble finding a campsite since they were either full or no one answered at reception. At least there were a lot there so we found one that was open but it was the oddest campsite we had been to. It was full of travellers who were fruit picking and huge groups of them were sleeping in tents and under tarps, so it wasn’t the cleanest campsite we stayed at nor was it too cheap.

We went grocery shopping which was quite handy in the van because instead of having to unload groceries from a car to the house we just moved them from the cart into our “house.” I loved having a fridge and kitchen in the vehicle, because it was so convenient. If we were hungry we’d just pull over and make lunch. That’s probably the only thing that was handy on the van though.

It was only south from here and we left Cairns to go south to Townsville. On the way we passed a billboard for Paronella Park and decided to go since I had seen brochures for it and it seemed nice. It was a bit out of the way and on the old road to Townsville and overpriced, like everything touristy I have found out, but it was a nice detour. It’s basically an old villa and gardens, which have unfortunately seen a fire and a few floods and the owners don’t plan on rebuilding, which I think they should.

Paronella Park

Cane Train and sugar cane

Then we passed through acres and acres of sugar cane and saw lots of cane trains on the rest of our journey to Townsville. We had found a campsite in the brochure but without a proper map we got a bit lost and it was a mess because when we called the campsite I think they also didn’t know where they were located and we spent a good 2 hours driving around the outskirts of Townsville.

I was in a mall parking lot, turning around when a lemon of a car drove by me with a heavy-set woman in it who stuck up her middle finger and yelled obscenities. I felt right at home, as if I was back in Philly. In Philly this is a normal everyday occurrence and on a journey to and from the city this happens at least once for sure and sometimes even three or four times. That’s when it hit me that this was the first and turns out only person that had road rage towards me, and believe me there were countless times people could have had road rage with me driving the bus, and this wasn’t even one of those occasions. I realized there is no way I would want to drive the van anywhere near Philadelphia, because I couldn’t even imagine the abuse I’d get, but here, at best when I was driving my worst I may have gotten a beep.

After the fiasco of driving then turning around four or five times we decided we had it with Townsville and would move on. As we were leaving the city, what did we see? The entrance to the campsite we were looking for all along. We could have strangled ourselves and the teenagers behind the desk since their directions were for a wild goose chase.