Friday, April 28, 2006

Brisbane to the Coral Coast...

Brisbane to Deception Bay to Maroochydoor & Australia zoo to Noosa to Hervey Bay to Fraser Island to the Coral Coast…

Right – so after spending some time on the Gold Coast we headed back up to Brisbane for the night with everything getting super busy for Easter weekend. After finding that it’s all pretty much booked up there, and most other places – we went to visit Kelly, Malcolm and baby Aaron in Deception Bay where we were treated to real food, a visit to Eumundi Saturday markets and a fabulous home cooked proper English roast for Easter Sunday. Awesome!


Fingal Beach


Kirra Beach


Lorrakeets (sp?) @ Maroochydoor

From here we left (reluctantly!!) and headed north to Maroochydoor for a couple of nights to take Rob to Australia Zoo to see Steve and his crocs. Great little campsite right by the beach and the day at the zoo was really cool. Steve wasn’t there but we did get to see a very nice bird, snake, and then croc show in the ‘crocoseum’. Well worth a day of your time if you are near the place.









After Maroochy we went to Noosa and camped there for a few days – generally relaxing and playing in the surf and sunbathing. Good times.

From Noosa we drove up to Hervey Bay to book ourselves onto a tour for Fraser Island for a few days. We were lucky enough when we got there that the tour we wanted was leaving the next day – so we paid up and then got a room in the backpackers who said we could park our car in their car park for the days we were away. Hostel was the first one we have stayed at since we got to Oz. Very “I’m 19 and going to get wasted every night”. :). But a reasonable nights sleep before an early start and onto the ferry for the Fraser Tour.

Fraser was really cool, we had a great group that wasn’t too big but big enough that was enough people for everyone to get on (Hi people from group!). We did the usual on the first day… Lake Birabeen, Pile Valley, Lake McKenzie (lots of Frisbee and water playing!). In the evening Rob and I made the silly mistake of thinking we were 19 and got wasted on a couple of liters of wine and then $8 jugs of cheap beer. Good night, but the hangovers are by far outweighing the good times. We must be getting old! ;)





Second day was hangover day – luckily I sat up front for the first drive (about an hour and 20 minutes) if I’d sat in the back I would have thrown up for sure!! We saw some bats in the colony on the way over to 75mile beach – crazy bats everywhere. We stopped at India Head, then the Champagne Pools, and then Eli Creek for the rest of the afternoon. We even had a dip in the resorts hot tub on the way back before dinner. This evening’s entertainment consisted of very few drinks and a fairly early night… We know our limits!!


View from India Head


View back down 75-Mile beach





Third day was the best day – the sun stayed out for most of it and we got a very very cool walk over the dunes from Lake Wabby to the beach where our driver Mitch (surely one of the highlights of the trip?!?) picked us up. At Lake Wabby we found some Aussie’s that came equipped with a boogie board and they were nice enough to let us use it. Boys will be boys and they built a ramp at the end of the track which proceeded to make everyone do funny things like stop dead and come off boogie board to land their on head near water. Mainly the girls actually! I didn’t have a go, too chicken and when in Australia I always think back to last time I was here and all the silly things I did and injuries I acquired. Rob was easily persuaded though!


Lake Wabby













So we decided as we were all staying in Hervey Bay that night that we would go out and eat together – forgetting of course that it was Anzac Day so pretty much everything was shut – and the places that were open really didn’t want to be! So we had a Sub-way – which is always good! We then found a crappy noisy bar (at the hostel we were staying at!) that was open till 11, but even better was the bar next door that was open till 12. After that bar chucked us out we hit the beach for a bit of a stand about and chat and then parted ways and had another reasonable nights sleep before heading off early up the coast to here… which is Bagara Beach just on the coast from Bundaberg, otherwise known as the Coral Coast so we are getting some diving in while we can. Campsite is lovely – can highly recommend this one – a beaut.





We went out diving yesterday from the shore and also this morning on the artificial reef that consisted of planes, bits of planes, barges and boats that have been sunk over the last few years.. Photos below.. Feels strange to be putting fish photos back up on this blog again. Seems like ages ago when that was all I did! :) The visabilty is no little Cayman, but was good enough to see 3 massive turtles, a very nice ray that looked very similar to an eagle, a fair few nudibanchs, box fish, bat fish - basically a shit load of fish & animals everywhere!


Flat head fishy.


Big eagle type ray swimming for me!


Big eagle-type ray


Nudi


Nudi


Big turtle, about 2m from tip of head to tip of tail.

We are staying here for a bit and then heading up just a bit further to Agnes Waters/Town of 1770. Next major stop is Great Kepple Island, next major tour is sailing the Whitsundays.

Cannot WAIT!

Chrissie out.

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