East Coast Road Trip #1, Queensland, Australia

13th April – 19th April 2018

Once we finally set off, I got my laptop out again to carry on writing and editing the blog and sorting out the hundreds and hundreds of photos we had taken. While I was doing this, Joe entertained himself on his phone, before ‘resting his eyes’. I finished with just enough time for Joe to proof read what I had written, before we landed in Cairns at 3.05pm.

When we got off the plane, it was hot, but no where near as humid as Darwin was, so that was nice. We went straight to baggage claim but had to wait a while before the bags even started coming through. Luckily, and for a change, our bags were off pretty quickly, so we grabbed them and went out for a taxi. I looked into getting public transport to the hostel, as it usually works out cheaper, but the nearest bus was still a fifty minute walk away, so taxi it was!

Our hostel was only a fifteen minute journey away from the airport, so once we were there and checked in, we dropped our bags in the room and had plenty of time to go out on a GoPro hunt. Since mine broke in Katherine Gorge, and didn’t seem to be working consistently, I wanted to replace it, as I rely on my GoPro a lot for videos, especially in the water and we had a few water based activities coming up. For me, it just wasn’t worth risking the other one, even though I knew a new one would cost a fair bit.

From the hostel, we wandered down the street we were on and compared prices of different GoPros in various shops. We ended up in a shopping centre, where there was one on offer, but it was still $300 and it was the style I wasn’t used to. After much deliberation, I decided to go for it anyway, as I didn’t want to miss out on photo opportunities. Typically, the old one turned on just after I bought it, but it was still a big risk. Although the camera itself is waterproof up to 10 metres, I still would have liked a case for it, but the shop was out of them, so I had no choice on that front.

After the successful but still slightly uncertain purchase, we left the shop and wandered down to the harbour. We had to be down there for 7 the next morning, so wanted to see where it was, so we knew.

Once we had found the port where we needed to be, we walked back into the centre of town, towards our hostel. On the way back up, we noticed a cheap ice cream shop, so definitely couldn’t resist, especially as we were so hungry! While we ate our ice cream, we carried on walking to the supermarket. When we got to the supermarket, we did a big shop, which we hoped would last us for the majority of our time left in Australia.

After our shop, we carried the heavy bags back to the hostel, so that we could cook dinner. The kitchen was like a sauna, but luckily there were only two other people in there, so it wasn’t too busy. I made chicken tikka masala with rice, while Joe put all of our shopping away. Once dinner was ready, we sat outside at one the picnic tables to eat it.

While Joe cleaned up from dinner, I went back to the room to carry on finalising the blog. When Joe got back, he tested the old GoPro out in the water (as I thought we could return the new one if the old one worked again) and it worked perfectly! It turned on and off when requested and went under the water and recorded and took photos fine – it was so strange.

While the GoPro was drying out, Joe got our things together for our trip the next day. I was almost done with the blog, when Joe went to do a second test on the GoPro and it wouldn’t even turn on! At this point I decided I was giving up on the old one, and the new one was staying.

Eventually, just after 10, the blog was ready to be posted and we could get into bed. Although we wanted to watch an episode, we also needed an early night, ahead of our day trip!

Thanks to our roommate, our sleep wasn’t the best, as he was coming and going until about 3am and making lots of noise in the process. We had our alarms set for 6, so once they went off, we got up and ready and set off towards the harbour at around 6.30.

After around half an hour, we arrived at the marina. Although we were on time, the crew weren’t ready, so we had to wait on the pier for them to sort out the boat, before we could board at about quarter past 7. As my old GoPro still wasn’t working, or turning on at all, I had decided that the new one was definitely sticking around. The one thing I didn’t think about, however, was the battery on it, so when I got it out of the box, it was completely flat. Luckily, there was somewhere on the boat to plug it in, so I could charge it!

The boat journey was great to begin with, and we were very excited as we were on our way to scuba dive on the Great Barrier Reef. After about an hour, we arrived at Fitzroy Island, where some people got off the spend the day there. As we carried on, the water got much choppier and we were thrown about all over the place. This didn’t go down well with either me or Joe and we soon felt very sea sick. We both put our heads on the table and shut our eyes to try and ease the sickness but it didn’t work.

An hour later, we finally stopped. It was the first snorkel site and the site where we were diving. We had our safety brief first, with our dive instructor, and then she spilt our group into two, as she is only allowed to take four people at a time, and there were five of us. As we were in the second dive group, it meant we had time to go and snorkel first.

Unfortunately, as we were both feeling so sick, we couldn’t bring ourselves to get in the water, which was a shame, as we missed out on lots of great fish, apparently. While we sat and waited, I got my GoPro ready to take in. Another problem I encountered though, was that I didn’t know how to work it! It was quite different to my old one. I played around with it a little before the crew told me I wasn’t allowed to take it with me anyway. At the time, this didn’t bother me at all, as I felt so sick, I didn’t even know if I would get in.

When our turn came round, I got kitted up, but could barely stand with the weights and gas cannister on my back. I made it to the edge of the boat and sat there, deciding whether going in was the best thing for me. As the crew told me that I would feel better in the water, and I knew I would regret not going in, I gave it a go.

Before we fully started the dive, we had a little test, just under the water to make sure that we could use the equipment correctly. Once we had all done this, off we went. As we went further down, we saw lots of fish and coral, but nothing overly big or colourful, which was a little disappointing. Just before our dive was over, we saw a turtle! It was so big and definitely the highlight of the dive! This is when I wished I had my camera!

Once our dive was over, we swam back to the top, and lunch was ready on the boat. Everyone else had already eaten, so we could go straight up. As we both felt sick again as soon as we were back on the boat, neither of us ate very much.

After lunch, we drove a few minutes more, and stopped for another snorkel. As we had missed the first site, we made sure we went in this time. We also want to try the new GoPro, even though I still had no idea what I was doing with it.

In the water, we saw lots more coral and fish – we got so close to it, as the tide was low. We stayed in for about half an hour before I felt too cold to carry on any more. The sea was so choppy, with a very strong current, and the water kept going in my snorkel. Joe felt the same, so we swam back to the boat.

Back on the boat, we chilled out and did a little sunbathing, while we waited for the rest of the group. Once everyone was back, we made our way back to Fitzroy Island to collect the other people. The ride back was even worse than the ride there. We both just sat with our heads down as we were thrown from side to side. To make it even harder, water was splashing in the sides and it was very difficult to control our stuff, which ended up in the middle of the boat so had to be rescued by a crew member.

After collecting the others from Fitzroy, we carried on back to the marina in Cairns. The rest of the ride was much smoother, luckily, and we were back just after 5. When we got back, we walked back to the hostel, via a souvenir shop for a patch, which we weren’t successful with unfortunately, as we had no cash and it was $10 minimum on card. We made another little stop in the chemist for some seasickness tablets – we had another boat trip coming up in a few days and didn’t want to make the same mistake again.

When we got back to the hostel, I made chicken and veg for dinner as we were both so hungry. Once we had eaten, Joe washed up, while I had my shower. When I was done in the shower, Joe had his, while I played around with the new GoPro and tried to figure out how to use it properly. Once we were both back in the room, we packed our bags ready for the morning, so that we could sleep as long as possible. After all of this, we climbed into bed to watch Suits, before falling asleep.

 

Road Trip, Day 1: Cairns to Airlie Beach

The next morning, we had a little lie in! We had booked a car with Jucy, but as the office wasn’t open until 9, and our bags were already packed from the night before, we slept in until 8. Once we were up and dressed, we grabbed some breakfast, before setting off on the thirty minute walk to the office.

After only getting lost a little bit, we arrived just after 9, we checked in with the man and he told us our car wasn’t quite ready yet – typical. We paid the outstanding fee that we had (which was $10 to add me as an additional driver) and put down our insurance bond, before sitting and waiting. I was half expecting to be given a bill for the $150 one way fee, as we hadn’t been charged that when we booked, but we somehow seemed to get away with it – very lucky and we weren’t complaining! After waiting a while, we got a tour of a different, but similar van, so that we knew where everything was, and how to use it. The van that we had a tour of, was the type that we had booked, but when we were getting the tour, the man told us we had been given a free upgrade, to one with a penthouse suite – even luckier!

Just before our car was ready, we were given chance to look into the box of free things that people had left behind from previous trips. We grabbed a camp table, as there was only a little ledge included to prepare the food, so I thought a table would make things a lot easier.

Once our car was eventually ready for us, the man drove it to the front, showed us the little differences from the one that we had already seen, and then gave us a free aux cable and in-car charger, because we had to wait! We had got a very good deal overall, providing we don’t crash it and lose the insurance bond.

As we drove away from the office, we only had fifteen minutes until we had to check out of the hostel. We were able to park right outside though, which made it easier to load our bags in, before handing the key back.

When everything was packed into the car and sorted, we set off on our second Aussie road trip. As the fridge was so tiny, it didn’t fit all of our food in, so we decided to bring the grapes we had bought, into the front, to snack on along the drive. Before we knew it, these were all gone and it wasn’t even lunchtime!

After a few hours of driving, we stopped in a town called Ingham, to get some bread to go with our lunch. We made our sandwiches in the car park – tuna of course – before getting back on the road.

Our next stop along the route, was Townsville. I thought I had been here before, but when we arrived I realised that I had just passed through it, to get a ferry to Magnetic Island, so hadn’t actually seen the town. As we were on limited time (because I like to be able to cook tea in the light, and it goes dark so early, now that we’re in Autumn), we didn’t stay for long. We parked up by the harbour, right near an ice cream shop – how convenient!

As we (I) couldn’t resist, we got an ice cream and walked along the harbour front. It was a hot and humid day though, and the ice cream melted fast, making it a messy one! Once we had had a little walk, we found a tap to wash our hands, before heading back to the car.

From Townsville, we didn’t have much further to go to get to Airlie Beach (or near to it, as the free campsites aren’t very close to town centres). However, I didn’t quite realise how quick the days were ending, so we arrived just after the sun had set. It was a little annoying, but manageable.

Once we arrived at the campsite, which was much busier than any campsite we saw in the outback, we set up our penthouse suite tent. It was much quicker and easier to set up than the last roof top tent we had, so we were already convinced it was a good upgrade!

After the tent was set up, I got on with cooking dinner. We were having chilli con carne with rice, but I didn’t realise how big the cups were in the van, so we had pretty big portions! We were hungry though, so that was okay.

While Joe washed up, after dinner, I took the bedding up to the tent and got the bed ready. It was much more spacious inside, than it looked outside. We opened the windows (but not the fly doors) and chilled out for the evening. We parked in a great spot for people watching, and as we were a little higher up, they didn’t notice us, so that was fun. We treated ourselves to an episode of Suits – we have to be limited on the road, as we only have as long as my laptop battery lasts because there is nowhere to charge it – before getting some sleep, ready for another exciting day.

 

Day 2: Airlie Beach to Whitsunday Islands (and back again)

As we had a little bit of a drive to go, before we got to our activity for the day, we were up super early, and on the road for 6.20. We arrived at the port in Airlie Beach with plenty of time to spare, so we found a car parking spot and got our breakfast. Just before 8 (the time we were scheduled to meet) we went to the building area to find our group. We had a look around, and while there were a lot of people there, we couldn’t see anyone for our tour company. Rather than waiting around, I rang the company and they told me we were in the wrong spot and should be at the place the email had highlighted. Annoyingly I never got this email, as it went to my junk, so with a little bit of a rush, because we were now late, we made our way to the meeting point, which luckily wasn’t far.

It felt pointless rushing, because when we got to the meeting point, they weren’t completely ready to go anyway, but I guess that’s why they say an earlier time, so that people like us have time to get lost.

When we finally boarded the boat, we sat ourselves in the middle. Apparently it’s less bumpy there, and even though we had taken our seasickness tablets, we didn’t want to push it. The downside was, that we might get sprayed, but that was worth the risk in our eyes, as we didn’t want to feel like we had another ruined trip because of seasickness.

From the port, we had a forty minute ride to Palm Bay Resort, on Long Island, to pick up another couple, before we were on our way. On the way around the islands, our crew gave us some information about them, but it was really difficult to hear over the noise of the boat crashing on the water, so I didn’t grasp it all. One thing I did hear though, was that scientists believe the Whitsunday Island group, which consists of 72 islands, used to be a mountain range, which was attached to the mainland of Australia. Over the years, as sea levels rose, the water washed over, creating the island group.

After we had collected the final passengers, we carried on around the islands to our first snorkel stop. We had already been kitted up with most of our snorkel gear, so on our way off the boat, we grabbed some fins and we could get straight into the water. Ellen, one of the crew members, was in the water too, but on a paddleboard; she had some fish food to try and entice the fish to the surface for us, but all it did was attract seagulls. Unfortunately, as the tide was high, we couldn’t see much as the coral was pretty deep. We did find a little bit that we could see some fish, and as we were both into it, and swimming around, we both managed to swim smack into one another’s heads – it hurt, but at least it was each other and no one else! We stayed out for while though, until we were called back in as the tide was turning and the current was pulling us out, apparently.

Once everyone was in, we got back onto the boat, and were given a biscuit treat to boost our sugar levels. Our next stop, was Whitehaven Beach, where we were stopping for lunch. On the way, we drove along the Cook Straight, in between Cook Island and Whitsunday Island – the two biggest islands in the group. The crew told us that lots of films have been shot in the Whitsundays, including Pirates of the Caribbean. Following this, Johnny Depp bought a house on Hamilton Island – I don’t blame him!

When we arrived at Whitehaven Beach, it was more beautiful than I remembered – probably because the sun was shining this time. The beach is over 7km long and it is pure white sand, consisting mostly of silica, so it is super soft! Whitehaven is voted Australia’s number 1 beach and it the second best beach in the world, apparently. We had a little bit of time to chill out on the beach, while the crew set up lunch, before we could eat. Lunch was really good! There were meats and salads and bread to choose from and it was all really tasty.

After lunch, we had the option to go on a bush walk, which we decided to go on. It was only a short one up to a view point on the island. We were told we wouldn’t need shoes and as it was only a short walk, I listened to them, but regretted that once we were walking over twigs and pebbles – it wasn’t very comfortable. The view at the top was worth it though. We could see all around us at the different islands and the beautiful blue waters. We didn’t have very long at the top, as we had to be back on the boat to carry on with our trip.

When we got back to the bottom, we had just enough time for a quick dip in the water to cool off, and it was needed. Then the captain brought the boat to shore and we all boarded. The next stop was only around the other side of the bay. The was our second snorkel site and we didn’t waste much time getting in the water.

The underwater views this time were beautiful. The coral was much closer to us and there were loads of fish of different colour, sizes and kinds swimming around us, not bothered one bit by us. The coral was beautiful too, there were lots of pretty colours in it, which would have made for beautiful photos, had the GoPro been working properly. I tried my best but the quality wasn’t what I expected and battery kept dying, despite me fully charging it before the trip, so the GoPro is going back to the shop. It was the best snorkel spot we had seen, so much so that we stayed in the water for forty-five minutes enjoying it.

Once we were called back to the boat, we carried on our journey. The next, and final stop, was Palm Bay Resort again. On the way though, we went passed Hamilton Island, which is where some celebrities own houses and it is a popular holiday resort, with a flight coming in and landing at the islands own airport every day. Hamilton Island is also home to 6 star resort. The only thing previously missing, for the island to have the 6-star status, was a golf course. To solve this problem, they bought the island next to them and built their golf course there! They ferry their guests across as and when they like.

When we arrived at Palm Bay Resort, we were getting off the boat again. We weren’t just dropping the other passengers off, but we were spending some time there, to chill out. The had a bar open for us, and we were allowed access to the pool. We weren’t bothered about the drinks, but before we went to the pool, we had some fresh fruit that the crew had brought onto the island. On our way to the pool, we saw a little kangaroo just hopping about in the resort, but missed the chance for a photo. At the pool, we thought it would be a great chance to freshen up and wash off the salt water. This however, was not true, at the water in the pool was salty too! It wasn’t very pleasant at all.

We had to be back at the boat for 4, which most of us were, but one man had fallen asleep by the pool, I think, as one of the crew went running off to find him. He didn’t seem bothered that he was holding the whole boat up, as he strolled towards us.

Slightly behind schedule, we arrived back at Airlie Beach port just after 5. When we got back, we had a quick wander into the township to look for a patch, before we headed back to the car. Although this camper didn’t come with any time restrictions, we still didn’t like driving in the dark, and I prefer to cook in the light, so the autumn nights are cutting our days really short, which is a little annoying.

When we got back to the car, we drove towards our campsite. I grabbed the broccoli, a knife and the pan from the back so that I could get some prep done on the way, but it didn’t save much time. We arrived at the campsite just after 6 and I got straight to cooking. It was a different campsite to the night before but was still just outside of Airlie Beach – just a bit further down the coast. For dinner, we were having chicken and broccoli omelette, with sweet potatoes – I think it tasted a bit bland but Joe said he enjoyed it, although he was probably just being polite. We ate in the car, at our table, before Joe got to washing up.

While Joe did the washing, I went for a trip to the toilet. However, it didn’t quite go to plan, as I saw two huge frogs on the way – one of which I nearly stood on! I stayed calm and carried on going, until I realised the toilets were outdoor ones. This is where I turned around and quickly headed back to the car – it was too much to risk one being in the toilets, especially as I was alone. I ran back into the car and locked myself in, waiting for Joe to finish. From the car, I could see a few different frogs hopping about right near us, it was a good job I was safe! Luckily all the cooking had already been done, and the tent was up, otherwise we would have struggled.

After multiple, thorough frog checks, I managed to get myself up the ladder into the tent, where I remained for the rest of the night. I kept myself distracted from the fact that I needed the toilet by setting up inside the tent, writing blogs and watching Suits. As we were up early again the next day, we had another early night, ready for a very long drive day!

 

Day 3: Airlie Beach to Gympie

The night’s sleep wasn’t the best, as there were so many trucks coming and going, beeping their horns and just making general noise, all night long. I guess that’s the price you pay for staying at a service station. The alarm went off at 5.30am, as we had a long day of driving ahead of us! We packed up and got the tent down. I still needed the toilet after the frog torture the previous night, so Joe escorted me there and made sure it was frog free, before I went in. Once the frog drama was over, we were ready to set off for 6.

Joe did the first bit of driving, which was about two and a half hours, before we stopped for breakfast. We just ate on the side of the road, in a little turn off, but that didn’t matter, as we were only stopping for a quick break before swapping driving and carrying on.

For my part of the drive, which went quickly, but was actually over three hours, Joe slept the entire time. This was fine, until I hit the town of Rockhampton and had to try and listen to the satnav which had made its way onto the floor, whilst sticking to speed restrictions and traffic lights! It made it easier that the car was an automatic, but I had never driven one before, so kept reaching for the invisible clutch! We made it through okay though, but then we hit a load of roadworks, which slowed us right down.

Eventually, we stopped for lunch at a service station. We made tuna butties and treated ourselves to a cold drink from McDonald’s – it was needed. After lunch, we swapped driving again, and carried on further south.

While Joe drove, I took my opportunity for a nap, but its just so difficult to get comfortable. We stopped for more petrol, at the cheapest spot, according to my app. At the petrol stop, I treated myself to a cornetto, which was a lovely treat.

Eleven hours after leaving our campsite near Airlie Beach, we arrived at our next campsite, which was in an area called Gympie – it was the closest free spot to Rainbow Beach for our next trip. As it was just after 5pm, we didn’t have much sun light left, so I got on with cooking straight away. While I was cooking, we got approached by some people asking if we wanted to buy some food; even though we already had our own, we wouldn’t have bought anything anyway, I don’t think.

We ate dinner in the car, at our little table. Dinner was the other half of the curry that I made in Cairns, but I was a little wary about it because I wasn’t sure how reliable the fridge was in our car, and I wasn’t sure if it had frozen it. We risked it anyway and luckily were fine, but I didn’t feel comfortable.

After dinner, Joe washed up, while I set up things in the penthouse. Once we were done downstairs, we went up and chilled out. It was early, as usual, but as it was dark, it made sense. I did some blogging, before we tried to watch an episode of Suits, but the laptop died. Instead, we played some cards, before going to sleep.

 

Day 4: Gympie to Rainbow Beach (and Fraser Island) (and back again)

It was another 5.45 alarm the next day, but we’re very used to this now. We got up and dressed and packed up, before filling up the fresh water tank in the car and heading off at around 6.30. We had about an hour to drive in the morning, to get to the township of Rainbow Beach, where we were being collected for our day trip to Fraser Island.

On the way, I had a little panic, that we had to have a pass to drive on the roads in the National Park that Rainbow Beach is in. I did some research and was convinced that we did, but when we got to the petrol station where we were meeting the tour, we checked and it was only for certain roads that we would need one, so we were okay. While we waited for the tour group to arrive, we had some breakfast and got our bag ready for the day.

At around 8am, lots of tour buses arrived in the service station car park, so we had to make sure we found the right one, before we loaded up. As we were the last to be collected, we didn’t have much choice with the seats, but luckily we managed to get two together as someone moved for us, which was nice.

Once the rest of the group had had a little break (as they had already done a two hour drive) we got on our way. We drove down Inskip Point, towards the barge to take us across to Fraser Island. On the way, we drove by lots of campsites, all of which are named after ships which have shipwrecked at that point. Fraser Straight is a very shallow strip of water. The average depth for the majority of the straight is 1.8-2.2m, so if boats travel in low tide, they easily get caught out. We made it to the water’s edge and got the barge over the straight.

When we got to the island, we had to drive inland a little bit, as the tide was too high for the truck to ride along the beach. This pathway was a little bit bumpier, but it was okay.

As we were driving along, the driver was giving us some information about the island. He explained that the wildlife on the island is pretty much the same as what would be found on the mainland, beside koalas and kangaroos. Apparently, one of the reasons for no koalas, is that they don’t like the taste of eucalyptus leaves that have grown near water. As the trees on Fraser Island are near both the sea and the fresh water springs in the island itself, it gives the leaves a very bitter taste, which the koalas aren’t fans of.

One of the main animals to be spotted on Fraser Island, are the dingoes. However, our guide said that as we were visiting during breeding season, we were less likely to see any, as the dominant males are marking their territory and protecting the females, so are mostly inland at this time of year. The dingoes on the island are the most pure blood of their kind, as there are no other wild dogs, or domestic dogs for them to breed with, so there is no cross breeding. He also emphasised that they are wild animals and people can sometimes forget this and try to pet them as they look cute.

Just before our first stop, we drove passed Dilli Village, which is an old mining village. The village is no longer a mining one, as in 1976, a man name John Sinclair and a group he worked closely with, took the miners to court, in a bid to save the island. It’s lucky that it worked, as the island wouldn’t be as beautiful, had they continued mining. Queensland University have turned the village into a retreat area for their students – I imagine that that would be ideal!

We stopped along the beach for morning tea. There was tea, coffee and juice available, as well as biscuits. While we were having a wander, while the guide set the drinks up, a dingo approached us. It was a very calm and confident dingo but the guide didn’t like it being so close as he could tell it was a dominant male and they can flip at any point. We all gathered back together and I was able to get some photos close up, but the guide made sure the dingo kept its distance. He said that he had never had one come so close before, so I suppose we were kind of lucky.

On the beach, there is lots of pumice stone, that has been washed up. Our guide (whose name we didn’t know), explained that there is a volcanic trench in the middle of the Pacific Ocean which spits the rock out. It then travels out and is distributed on beaches all over, so it has come quite a way.

After a short break, we continued along the island. On the way, we learnt about the trees and greenery on the island, and how it all survives. We were told that Fraser Island has the same types of trees, as on the mainland, but they are trees that wouldn’t be found anywhere else in sand, as there aren’t any nutrients usually found in sand. The sand on Fraser Island, however, has a microscopic fungus living off the decay. This fungus provides the necessary nutrients for the trees to be able to grow and develop. As the trees soak up the nutrients from the sand, they also soak up the silica making the trees very strong. They are made up of 90% silica, meaning that woodworm can’t eat through it and rangers need more than one chainsaw to chop them up, as the first chain will almost always break! Even when there are bush fires, the fire won’t burn through to the core.

The aboriginals which originated on Fraser Island, were known as Butchulla people. They lived off the land and learnt how to use the plants to help them. A lot of it in the beginning would have been trial and error, but they soon developed medicines and a healthy diet. One ingredient that they developed was the cyanide seeds found in the middle of the fern plants. They would wash the cyanide out, in fresh water for weeks at a time, before grinding it down, and drying it out, and then grinding it down further, to use as flour to make bread. It’s very clever that they were able to learn to do this without any research or modern day techniques. Another use of the cyanide seeds was to sterilise women. If they decided that they didn’t want any more children, they would eat the seeds after only half of the poison had been washed out, to make themselves sick, but prevent them from having more children. It was a very risky procedure, as the balance had to be just right.

Last September, on Fraser Island, a bush fire was started on the island, by a lightning bolt, after months of no rain at all. The first wiped out all of the greenery but now, just months on, it has mostly grown back. Burnt out land creates lots of nutrients, which is great for new re-growth when the rain comes again. This is a technique that the aboriginal people would use if crop growth was low.

Towards the end of the gold rush era, in 1863, an American named Jack Piggott came to Australia to start logging trees on Fraser Island. He recruited lots of people to come and help him for free, and said that he would look after them when the money started to come in. As lots of people had just left the gold rush period unsuccessfully, they had no choice but to work with Piggott. Understandably, the Butchulla people didn’t like this and a civil war broke out between them and Jack Piggott. Eventually, Piggott was killed by the aboriginals, before living up to his promise. The Australian government caught wind of what had happened and killed the majority of the Butchulla community as punishment; sadly most of the history of their community went with them.

After about an hour of driving, we arrived at the beautiful Lake McKenzie. Lake McKenzie is one of a hundred fresh water lakes on the island. The lake isn’t connected with the underwater flow that the island has, the bottom of the lake is completely sealed off with fossilised plant decay, which has then filled with water. Lake McKenzie isn’t the largest lake but is still pretty big, as 1.2 kilometres by 800 metres. As the water is freshwater, it is all drinkable, but isn’t advised in Lake McKenzie, as so many tourists swim in it. The Butchulla community were clever about this, as they would have lakes reserved for swimming and other lakes for drinking.

When we arrived at the lake, it was so busy – much busier than last time I was there. We took some photos, before getting in the water to freshen up. We spent some time swimming, before getting out and drying off.

At 12pm, lunch was served in the picnic area by the car park. We had wraps with a choice of fillings and salads, which was nice. There were a few visitors in the picnic area but they didn’t bother us. There were some lizards wandering around and some cockatoos flying over. One cockatoo did steal a piece of meat off a plate from another group which was funny, but our food mustn’t have looked as good.

After lunch, we went to Central Station for a bit of a bush walk. Although it sounds it, Central Station isn’t a train station, it was the centre point for the loggers, back in the logging period. There isn’t anything left in the area today though, to show that loggers lived there.

In the area, there are lots of trees that were planted by early loggers, around one hundred years ago. On these trees, are large ferns that grow off them. They don’t harm the trees, they just live off of the vegetation that falls from above. The size of the ferns would be worth thousands of dollars, if they were sold.

Also in the Central Station area, are pine trees. They are the only non-native tree on the whole island. It is unusual for them to still be there, as it is a National Park, and usually non-native trees are killed off, but these haven’t been.

Some of the tree stumps that were left in the ground, were the stumps of trees that were logged many years ago. We could see the holes in the tree where the loggers would have knocked through to put timber through, to stand on. This gave them a ledge to rest on while they cut the tree. The stump wasn’t wanted, as it was too heavy to pull and would slow the process down.

We started our bush walk and came across some Brush Box trees. Some of these are only young, as Brush Box trees were logged heavily. The wood of these trees was used to line the inside of the Opera House in Sydney, as they believed that it is acoustically neutral. Apparently this isn’t true, but people still believe it is. The Brush Box tree that we saw was being strangled by a strangler plant. It will take a long time for this to happen though.

On the whole island, it was amazing to see how the trees survived. They would live on sides of hills, on an angle and not fall over. This is because the roots all intertwine with one another, giving each other support.

The bush walk took us along Wanguba creek, which is a silent creek. The water was unbelievably clear and it really was silent, as we stood still, we couldn’t hear any water running at all. The water in the creek is pure water and very cold, apparently. The aboriginal women gave birth in the creek, as the cold water was soothing for them. We followed the path along for a couple of kilometres, until we reached the end, where our guide had brought the truck round for us.

Once everyone got back, we had another drink and biscuit, before hopping back on the truck, to start to make our way back to the barge.

While we were driving back to the barge, our guide told us the story of how Fraser Island got its name. From the outset, we were told that it may or may not be a true story, as the woman that told it, changed it so many times, she was eventually branded as a liar.

In 1834, Captain James Fraser sailed his ship into Sydney to bring supplies to the colonies. Travelling with him, was his wife, Eliza Fraser, who was only in her 20s (he was in his 60s) and was eight months pregnant. After twelve months in Sydney, they decided to head back to England, with a well planned route. Unfortunately for the crew, this didn’t quite happen, as they only got as far as Swines Reef, up the East Coast near Gladstone, before there was a navigational error and they struck the reef; Captain Fraser thought that they were further out on the reef than they were.

As the boat was sinking quickly, they piled into lifeboats, with twenty people squeezing into a lifeboat made for only ten people. They weren’t able to save any water and it was cold, as they were in winter. Whilst in the lifeboat, Eliza went into labour and gave birth to the baby, in the boat. As there was no warmth, food or water, the baby died shortly after.

After the birth, Eliza fell ill, just before they eventually arrived at an island (Fraser Island). The aboriginal community took them in and looked after Eliza, saving her life. She never believed this though, or appreciated it. While on the island, Captain Fraser tried to make the Butchulla people comply with his rules. This didn’t go down too well and it is thought that he was speared by the aboriginal people and killed – this may or may not be true, however, as no body of Captain Fraser was ever found, even to this day. When people die in aboriginal communities, they don’t bury them, they just sit them up by a tree and cover their bodies, so this wouldn’t be too difficult to find his body if they did that. People say that the crew buried him, but no crew has ever buried their captain and not made a carving nearby, or drawn a map. When Eliza would tell her story, she was always sketchy about this part, so it’s difficult to understand what happened to him.

Following the death of the captain, the crew then parted ways. Some sailed south but were found dead weeks later in their boats. One crew members joined an aboriginal tribe and stayed there until he died.

After some time, a search party was sent out for Eliza, so the aboriginals brought her to an escaped convict. The convict was shocked to see a white woman and knew he should probably take her to the captain who was searching for her, but also knew he would probably be killed if he did this, as he had escaped. He saw sense, and returned her anyway. Apparently, as Eliza spoke so highly of him, and said how brave he was, he was let off and went back to his aboriginal community, where he remained until he died.

Once she had been ‘rescued’, Eliza went home on the ship, falling in love with the captain on the way. When they got back on land, they married, but some say that it was a marriage of convenience as she had nothing following Fraser’s death. She sold her story, but told so many different versions, no one really knows the full truth. In these stories, she would talk about how badly she was treated on the island and never appreciated what the community did for her.

When Eliza died, she was in Melbourne, and died in an accident. Following this, the government decided the island should be named after her. The Aboriginals were understandably unhappy about this, and still to this day blame her for the first racial attack against them.

Late last year, about six months ago, the aboriginal community (or what is left of them) were given the land of Fraser Island back. They will still work with the rangers (like at Uluru), but will eventually give the island its original name back: K’Gari (pronounced gar-i).

After driving only part of the way down the 115km long, driveable beach, we made it back to the barge, where we were lucky enough to get straight onto the boat – it was very busy. As Fraser Island is the largest sand island in the world (at 120km in length in total) it attracts lots of visitors, who often stay for more than one day. I wish we could have stayed longer but I’m glad I got to show Joe a little part of one of my favourite places in Australia.

Once we made it back onto the mainland, we were dropped off back at the same place we were collected from, in Rainbow Beach. As part of the tour, the rest of the group were going down to see the coloured sands on the beach. I was a little disappointed that we weren’t told that we would miss out on this part as we were collected at Rainbow Beach, but our guide offered us a lift down if we wanted. We were a little bit pushed for time, as we had a bit of a drive to the campsite, so we said we would walk down, as he said it was only a five minute walk.

We set off on the walk, but as we did, it started pouring down. It was good that the rain had held off for most of the day though. We stopped off in a shop to get a patch before reaching the beach. We found a lookout point but couldn’t see the sands, and as we were getting soaked, we decided to turn back.

Back at the car, we dried off a little and set off to our next campsite. When we arrived there, it was a service station which said the camping part was at the back. We drove round but it was muddy and wet, with a stream, so we decided that there would definitely be frogs in there and I didn’t like that. As the toilets were back round the front, and there was a car park there, we thought it would be a good idea to drive back round, use the toilets and cook dinner there, then I would only have to get out of the car to climb into the tent.

We cooked and ate dinner at some picnic tables, and I decided I didn’t want to go back to the camping area, as it was nice and dry on the car park. As we didn’t have to pitch a tent, as we had the wind-up roof tent, I suggested that we just stayed on the car park – it made no difference to us. We checked in the petrol station and we were allowed, so that was much better.

After everything was cleared away, we treated ourselves to some smarties and crisps from the shop before climbing up into bed. We played some cards and watched Suits, before falling asleep.

 

Day 5: Rainbow Beach to Brisbane, via Noosa

The next morning, we had a little bit of a later start. It was the last day of our second road trip, and we didn’t have very far to go, to get to Brisbane, but I wanted to stop at Noosa along the way. We set off from the service station at around 6.30 and arrived at Noosa Head Main Beach about an hour later.

As we were driving towards Noosa, it was very rainy and I started to wonder if it was a good idea. However, by the time we arrived, it was only a drizzle, so that was lucky. We parked up by the beach and couldn’t believe how busy it was! There were so many people in the sea having a morning swim or surf, and if people weren’t in the sea, they were out running or power walking – it made us feel very unfit at 7.30 in the morning. Before we set off to explore, we had some breakfast in the car.

Although it was still very drizzly, we set off on a little bit of a walk along the beachfront. We walked to the end, before heading inland a little to the shops, and walking back. Along the way, we stopped in a café for a hot chocolate, and watched the rain pour down. We had a few hours until we needed to be in Brisbane and I really liked what I had seen of Noosa so far, but I just wanted the rain to stop so we could enjoy it.

It wasn’t long before my wish came true, and the rain eased off! When we parked up in the morning, I saw what I thought looked like the start of a walking path, so we decided to take a little walk. Although the path I saw wasn’t quite a full walking track, it did lead us up the hill, in the general direction of Laguna Lookout.

When we got to the top, we had views over Noosa and they were very beautiful. We spent a little bit of time up there, taking some photos, before we had to head back down, as the car parking was about to run out.

We took the correct walking path back down, which led us through the rainforest. Although the rain had stopped, and it was now a gorgeous, sunny day, the steps were still quite slippery. I didn’t realise just how slippery they were though, until I skidded off one and fell down to the bottom – it was painful.

Our car park time was up when we got back, but I didn’t feel ready to leave Noosa yet, as the sun was beaming down at this point and it was such a pretty place. We decided to move the car to another spot and stay for another hour or so, as we had the time to. We parked back up at the opposite end of the beach, before going for another walk along the beachfront.

It was eventually time to head to Brisbane, so we got back in the car and set off. As we got into Brisbane, but just before we reached Christine and Max’s, we stopped off at Indooroopilly shopping centre, as I wanted to go to the shop where my new GoPro was from (not the exact same one) and question it. In the shop, they wouldn’t say that it was faulty, even though it randomly turns itself off, and wouldn’t do anything for me. I was willing to swap it and pay more for a better one, but they wouldn’t let me, which was very frustrating.

From the shopping centre, we were only fifteen minutes from Christine’s, so we went straight there. We said our hellos and dropped our bags off, before taking the car back.

Although our trip from Cairns to Brisbane was short-lived, we managed to squeeze in so many things! It was difficult to see everything in full, but our day trips were a great taster of what each area was like, even though I had seen most of it before. With the cars, we definitely preferred this roof tent, as it was much easier to assemble and although it wasn’t a relocation van, we still got a great deal in the end, and again, loved the freedom of being on the road! We’re ready for a mini rest in Brisbane, seeing more family, before our final road trip of Australia!

To travel is to live, Katie x