Bundaberg, Hervey Bay & Fraser Island to Brisbane

Our next day consisted of the longest drive of the trip so far. We made about 600km to a coast town called Gladstone and figured it might be a nice place to spent the night although the “Rough Guide” / “Lonely Planet” didn’t say a lot about it. Shortly after reaching the place we noticed why. Pretty industrial and maybe a bit comparable to Port Hedland on the West coast…so we left and drove another 40km to find a free overnight campsite next to the highway. The noise really wasn’t the problem but the rain. Therefore only Kasper and Jodi put up their tent and Helen preferred the front seat of FeeBee (she still had a bruise two days later from that seatbelt lock) whereas I was having my rest on the usual spot in the back of the van.

The weather only slightly changed till the next morning but at least it was less rainy so I hadn’t use my little squidgy (small window viper) as much.

Anyway, next stop: Bundaberg distillery.

Despite the fact that I don’t like rum at all we had to see Australia’s – I’d say – number one drink.

A big part of its popularity truly comes from the polar bear displayed on every can/bottle (there isn’t actually a reason WHY it’s a polar bear but its cuteness maybe).

U could see a parallel between the Jaegermeister deer and this one. By the way…a really common drink at bars is something called a “Jaegerbomb”. What happens is that u get –let’s say 5 - shots of Jaegermeister placed on the top of 5 Red Bull glases (in a row). So when u hit to first Jaegermeister shot it’s causing a domino effect and makes the shotglasses drop into the Red Bull: Jaegerbomb! Strangly I never heard of that back home…Anyway, I bought to T-shirts on sale and a bottle of Bundaberg “Royal Liqueur”

which is exclusively available at the distillery and got a smooth chocolate and coffee flavour. If u drink it on ice with a bit of milk and cream it just tastes like a rum version of Baileys…delicious…for a rum.

and Jodi went nuts ;-)

On the way to Hervey Bay I almost hit 2 Roos but they decided to stay off the highway in the last second…a little adrenalin rush once in a while makes u feel alive...but we had some water fun with FeeBe as well ;-)

When we got to the hostel (Thursday evening) Helen had a look on the weather forecast on the internet which made us postpone the Fraser Island trip to Saturday.

This also gave a a bit of time to sort out some worries and select the nice pictures. On the same day I noticed that I’m running low on money and figured that I’ll still need some. So I arranged a transfer from my reserve which wasn’t supposed to be touched at all but what can u do…going to bed after a long day and hoping for the predicted good weather...

...to be continued...

... we got up at around 6am this morning and it wasn't even hard. If your staying in that crappy hostel sleeping in a room between the kitchen (with a fridge turning on and off) and the main wooden hallway on the other side you'll be awake with the first one who gets up.

The hosel cat was probably the best thing about this place

During the trip I've been awake between 6-7 as well but more because of the daylight (at the moment sunrise is shortly before 6am). Therefore it gets dark sooner as well (until the time gets changed on the last day of October). My theory is that my body sort of thinks its warm it must be summer, Back home it gets dark at 10pm?!? Here betwen 6 and 7pm. If u get tired - lets say 2 hours after darkness - you'll be tired at 9pm...believe me it's really hard to stay awake sometimes...

We were picked up by a staff member of our self drive safari who surprised us the evening before with unexpected additional expenses over 80$ (if the basxxxxx in the travel agency would at least tell you about it...). We reached the pick up point quickly and for this trip (11 persons in 1 car but enough space). We packed our gear...



...and off we went.
I became the "main" driver during the briefing which made me responsible for driving our Toyota Landcruiser on and off the barge...but I just love it...especially in 4wd areas like Fraser...


and the ferry was delayed of course.

but we finally got on.



....and we had an astonishing young captain :-)

The original name of the island is 'K'gari' in the Butchulla people's language. It means paradise.

According to Aboriginal legend, when humans were created and needed a place to live, the mighty god Beeral sent his messenger Nendingie with the goddess K’gari down from heaven to create the land and mountains, rivers and sea. K’gari fell in love with the earth’s beauty and did not want to leave it. So Yendingie changed her into a heavenly island – Fraser Island.

The name Fraser Island comes from Eliza Fraser and her story of survival from a shipwreck on the island. Captain James Fraser and his wife, Eliza Fraser, were shipwrecked on the island 1836. The name of the ship was the Stirling Castle. Captain Fraser died but Eliza was rescued off the island. Eliza later made money traveling around England and Australia telling her story of the events that had occurred while the Stirling Castle’s officers were on the island. She is known to have told several versions of the story; it is unknown which version is the most accurate

On "Fraser" the track soon got really sandy.

No wonder: Fraser Island or Batjala K'Gari is the largest sand island in the world at 1630 km². It was inscribed as a World Heritage site in 1992. Fraser Island has over 100 dune lakes, as well as the second highest concentration of lakes in Australia after Tasmania. The freshwater lakes on Fraser Island are some of the cleanest lakes in the world. A supposingly beautifull and popular area is Lake McKenzie which is located inland from the small town of Eurong. It is a "perched" lake sitting on top of compact sand and vegetable matter 100 metres above sea level. Lake McKenzie has an area of 150 hectares and is just over five metres in depth. Have a look at this!

Jodi having fun with her extraordinary thick hair

The beach sand of Lake McKenzie is nearly pure silica and it's supposed to be possible to wash hair, teeth, jewelry, and exfoliate one's skin.

Personally, after getting there, I've been once more totally stunned by the nature and its beauty. FANTABULOUS!

After having the first splashes in the Lake we kept on going (still me behind the wheel), drove on the 75 mile beach "highway" (entering at Eurong)




passing the airport


and thousands of dead jellyfish (it's like a constant poping sound whilst running over)


to have some beach lunch




, see a couple of other sites and finally go to the beach for the night. Unfortunately we weren't really aware of the tides so we missed the window for not driving through salt water (which is stricktly forbidden due to its aggressivness) and had to find an alternative.


So we went back to the inner parts to set up the camp (a bit illegally) and cook dinner.



I didn't wanna share one of the tiny tents for the nights so I thought about sleeping in the car but it turned out to be ON the rooftop where I could see the amazing starry sky...zzzzzzz...

...on the next morning most of us were awake quite early (around 6am).

Due to the unpaid camp site we planned to leave as early as possible to avoid running into a ranger. Destination: the famous shipwreck of the S.S. Maheno.

our lovely group

a bunch of mates with cylinder hats

The S.S. Maheno was originally built in 1905 in Scotland as a luxury passenger ship for trans-Tasman crossings. During the First World War the ship served as a hospital ship in the English Channel, before returning to a luxury liner. In 1935, the ship was declared outdated and on June 25th, 1935 the ship was being towed from Melbourne to Japan for scrap metal when it was caught in a strong cyclone. A few days later, on July 9th 1935 she drifted ashore and was beached on Fraser Island. During the Second World War the Maheno served as target bombing practice for the RAAF. The ship has since become severely rusted, with almost three and a half storeys buried under the sand. Climbing on the shipwreck is not permitted of course...but you wouldn't want to do it anyway...

...cruising another couple of kilometers along the beach and passing the "Happy Valley" (yep, it really does exist!)

made us reach the Indians Head.

The first European to sight Fraser Island was Captain James Cook who passed along the coast of the island between the 18th and 20th May 1770. He named it Indian Head after viewing a number of Aboriginal people gathered on the island...we climbed up the hill and got rewarded with a beautiful view (again).

A little funny detail about Fraser (and - as I know now - you'll find that phenomenon in a certain extent down the coast as well): The grain of sand is so small that it actually does a squeaking sound whilst touching the surface with your foot pad (maybe a bit comparable to the squeaking of snow)...

...we postponed the lunch and went to "The Champagne Pools" to have it there...mhhh...tell you what...it literally was a sandwich ;-)

You really should watch the ocean and the splashing waves...they can get quite big and I wonder how many people got washed away in the past (some people are just going over the top). That's been our last stop for the day so we looked for a beach camping spot a bit earlier than yesterday...


I prepared my bed again

my bed view

and I got persuaded to climb the nearby - not so high - hill for the sunset (among an australian couple).

What a mission! Just too much brushwood and sand in the way. We made it just about right to catch the last sunstrokes. After taking a picture and regenerating for 5 minutes

it was actually steeper than it looks

I left the couple a bit of privacy and wished to find an easier way down...shoe sandsurfiiiiiing! At least for the first 30 meters...

We had a - under these circumstances - delicious dinner and a really enjoyable evening


...and a beautiful starry sky with quite a few shooting stars! I made my wish...and before I fell asleep I reminded myself (as I did quite often to appreciate this whole experience even more):

This is real! I'm on this beautiful beach, on this beautiful Island, in Australia, with a nice bunch of people, laying outside on the car rooftop looking at the starry sky...right now! How fuxxxxxx fantastic is that?!?

I'm sure it can't be better,...but maybe...Aneli...stillzzzzzzzzzzz...

waking up on my rooftop has been just as nice...right before sunrise. Have a look at these awsome colors...

Although we had to catch the ferry at 1pm we decided to spend the remaining time at Lake McKenzie and I somehow think it the colours were even brighter, maybe because of different daytime.

Some girls just chilled

but some others proved that they're just as destructive as men...what you usually don't seeeee i recon...

When we left I briefly met a bunch of french people from the Whitsunday trip again but we didn't wanna get late. So I drove and some others told me the directions. We arrived at Kingfisher Bay at 12.25 pm but it looked strangly different...WRONG BAY! We had about 35 minutes to make the 30kilometers to the other ferry.

Boy! I'm tellin' you THAT's been a HELL OF A RIDE (especially for the guy who didn't feel so well this morning)!

I pushed the Landcruiser and myself to the limit as far as I could when being responsible for another 10 people ('s lives) in the car. Fortunately I seem to have confirmed certain driver skills (if it's a dog/Dingo free area *rrrrr*). Unfortunately we got stuck between a stupid ass tourist bus and there wasn't any chance of overtaking unless the bus lets us. So I hunked and tried to gesture it to the driver and after around 4 minutes he let us pass...just to get stuck behind his mate's bus. I bet they just didn't understand why I hunked or they were just two dumnasses who thought it was fun to block us even though I shouted at them that we're gonna miss the ferry. Bastards! I was relatively furious and believe me, if that guy would have gone the same direction...luckily he didn't. Including that pointless delay of 8-10 minutes we made it safely to the ferry departure point in 40 minutes at 1.05pm...to see it leave!

After a short discussion we drove to the Central Station to find a telephone and call the Safari guys. They knew it already (contacted by ferry owner) and told us to take the next one at 4. Although we had to pay a 250$ penalty (devided by 11) we relaxed a bit, ate the remaining food, somebody saw a Dingo and were early (again) for the ferry.


Of course the ferry was 25minutes late. I guess you all get my point here...

Returning to the hostel we decided to save money and drive a couple of K's avoiding the crappy hostel. It was getting dark already so I did the only responsible thing in order minimize the chances of hiting any sort of animal:...waiting for the next roadtrain and sticking close to its backlights ;-) They would "clean up" the highway easily with their 500kg bullbars and the tons in the back...I guess you need to experience that on your own...after 60 K's we found a free camp site. Reflecting this "day of crazy unsuual driving" was fun before getting caught by the sandman.

That also must have been the reson why we couldn't remember the direction to go on the next morning. Left or right? No signs, no nothing. Just a bunch of raodworkers. We asked them and the reaction was quite like a beer commercial cause one was pointing to the right and the other one in the opposite direction. We believed the only woman on the scene and went left for 20 minutes until I realized that this wasn't the right way *grmpf* What's to learn? ;-) I'd say females are just great...sometimes...

anyway, we got to Noosa after turning off the highway, following a narrow road for 5km to the Mt. Tinbeerwah lookout. This is only one of the spots that you definately don't see without a car. An incredible view overlooking the whole Noosa area.





The name Noosa comes from the Aboriginal word for shadow or shadey place. It is commonly used to describe a cluster of suburbs none of which are actually called Noosa. We reached it at 1pm and did the usual well know procedure: driving in, looking for signs or people that lead us to a tourist information (even the smallest places in Australia got at least one tourist information "center"), get a map, look for interesting brochures, find a caravan park, make (a) call(s) and get there. In this case we found a caravan park that just has a brilliant location in Noosaville (other side of the bridge), surrounded by water and quite a few pelicans. Sadly they got a strange payment system. They charge 24$/night for each tent, no matter how spacious it is?!? so we pulled my 5 person tent out and paid 24 bucks for 4 persons (not too bad although backbackers usually pay just two which makes it about equal). We put up the Kasper's, Jodi's and Helen's for this night and went to Noosa beach at 2pm.


It's been beautiful but a bit to chilly in the water due to stronger wind. I don't quite get it why Australians don't windsurf but only kitesurf...it seems to be extremly unpopular over here...Kasper and Jodi had some fun digging around

...I gotta admit that beaches can get a little boring if you see so many in all diverseness and got Whitehaven and Lake McKenzie beach as a comparison...

So I had a milkshake and sent my letter regarding the renewal of the registration to the Northern Territory (NT) Motor Vehicle Registration (MVR) office before doing some grocery shopping, having a deluxe backpacker meal (including Kangaroo) and a long chat with my travelmates and going to sleep that day...we had to be fit for the "Steve Irvin (memorial) Australia Zoo" northwest of Brisbane.

Jodi and Kasper wanted to save money and stayed at the car park. Helen and I swallowed the pill of paying 45$ (50$ without VIP-card discount) and were keen to get started...and we did it all:

roo cuddeling

pet a "call me always stoned" koala ;-0

feed an elephant

,see (baby) tigers

sit on a crocodile.

Cassuaries

Jabiru's

other beautiful colored birds

Tasmanian Devils

Wombats

big turtles

many more and watch the daily show in the crocoseum




, a lot of domestic and international snakes



...and of course all the little dragons who run around the zoo.

even Helen found her favorite (colored) animal in the end ;-)

Overall it took us exactly 4 hours before we had lunch and kept going towards Brisbane. The closer we got to it the more I noticed that I haven't been in a major town for nearly 5 month.

All those cars, 6 lane motorways, petrol polluted air, caotic street planing (we had to search our hostel for over an hour), the ridiculous amount of people buzzing around, all the fashion furniture and jewlery shops. What a shocker!

It's amazing how awfully meaningless those things became over the last month. All you care about as a backpacker is: beautiful places, a good time, food, a dry place to sleep, a warm shower and electrcity.
Kasper and Jodi planned to wait for some friends in Brisbane and rent a car what extended my ToDo list a bit:

- get lift offer printouts and post'em in hostels
- visit the Emirates office to fix the return flight date
- finding a mechanic for cleaning the carborator and checking FeeBee for the remaining kilometers

We planed to leave around the 15th so there was only little time. 3 days where I safed some money by not checking in a hostel but staying in FeeBee. On the second day we had a little street party with approximately 15 backpackers and on the next we went out with people where one intruduced himself as the "hostel party bitch"...oooookaaaay...funny though.