Hey hey hey

After flying back from Fiji we spent a few days in Brisbane, before getting the Greyhound bus north to Hervey Bay to do a 3 day tour to Frasrer island. The last week has been pretty hectic but really fun, and we've loved doing so many different things and meeting different people.

We spent a few days in Brisbane, doing a mixture of sightseeing and also sorting out the next leg of our journey/recovering from Fiji! Luckily we both finally felt better when we got back to Brisbane, so on our first day there we were able to wander intothe city to do abit of sightseeing, and also book what we are doing for the next month! Booking up xmas and new year etc took most of the day, but we were really lucky to be able to get all our first choices, so we will be on a boat on the great barrier reef for xmas where Phil is learning to dive and I'm going snorkeling (they won't let asthmatics dive... not that I can say I was too sad about that!)and for new year we will be in cairns.

We spent part of the day walking round Brisbane and soaking up the atmosphere. I really enjoyed seeing Brisbane, and I love the city - it's quite small but has a really nice feel to it, and it has some lovely parks and botanical gardens. There is also a 'fake beach' next to the river which is really cool. As it's nearly christmas Brisbane has it's xmas decorations up, which we found really strange to see the decorations when it's 30 degrees and sunny! I really can't get used to the fact that it's xmas in the heat - it just feels so wrong. In the way of xmas decorations there's also a 'singing christmas tree' in Brisbane, which is a giant xmas tree with a platform in it where people perform christmas songs. Despite sounding abit cheesy, I thought it was a really nice idea!

On our second day in Brisbane we went to Australia Zoo - the Steve irwin zoo. Phil had really wanted to go, i wasn't too fussed about it but I ended up having a really good time - and even managed to look at the aligators and crocodiles without running away and screaming! The zoo had different shows throughout the day too, like a turtle feeding session and the main show which had reptiles, birds, crocodiles etc. The zoo is like a shrine to Steve Irwin, there are pictures of him everywhere and all the people doing the shows and things kept saying 'we do this as this is how Steve liked it to be done...'. We were really lucky when we were there as his daughter was doing some filming for her show, so we had a sneaky watch of that! We sampled a bit of the Brisbane night life that evening as we went out for dinner on a street next to our hostel which had loads of restaurants and bars. We thought we had chosen a nice restaurant so we sat outside and ordered our food, only to find out that we had to eat our food inside. That would have been ok, but when we got inside it turned out to be a gambling bar which was showing the greyhound racing. We sat down to eat our food, when a woman came and sat herself down at our table to watch the racing, and then started talking to her. We didn't have the heart to send her away as she seemed abit lonley, and Phil said we should keep talking to her incase she won! It was quite a wierd meal though.

On our final day in Brisbane we wandered into town and visited the town hall, where you can get a lift to the top to get a view of the city. Brisbane from the air wasn't as impressive as some of the other citys we've been to, butit was still a nice thing to do. After our brief town hall stop, we got the greyhound bus north to hervey Bay. It was our first time on a greyhound, and it was nice to not have to navigate or worry about where we were going - we could just sit back and sleep! The journey only lasted 6 hours, so we might not be as much of a fan of the bus after we do an overnight stint! We arrived in Hervey Bay late on Friday evening, where we checked into our hostel, which was also home to the company we were going to Fraser Island with. Fraser Island is the biggest sand Island in the world, and is famous for it's lakes, beaches and wildlife. It's also famous for it's dingos, which roam free round the island, which I wasn't looking forward to too much, but I figured millions of people visit the island each year, and they wouldn't do if the dingos were THAT dangerous! The next morning we had our briefing at 7am - so so early! The briefing consisted of us watching a pretty cheesy video about camping on Fraser, being aware of Dingos and how to drive on sand - not that i think many people took it in properly as we were all trying to keep our eyes open! The company put us into groups of 9, and gave us 4WD cars, tents and cooking equiptment etc. We were then more or less left to our own devices to buy all our food, get on the boat to Fraser and then explore the island! We had a really really good time on Fraser, and were lucky as our group was really nice and we all got on well, which definetley makes or breaks a trip. When we arrived on the island, we headed straight for Lake Wabby, which is a lake set at the bottom of a giant sand dune. The lake was absolutly beautiful - from the look out point in looked a green colour, but then we got to it it was blue, and so clear you could see the bottom. As is was boiling hot we all jumped in the lake as soon as we got there, and spent a few hours chilling out and cooling off. It was such a surreal place to be - if you looked one way you could have been in any lake anywhere, as there were trees in the background and just the water infront of us, but then when we turned around there was this giant sand dune straight infront of us, which just looked like nothing any of us had ever seen before - it was so surreal. After a few hours at the lake we went to set up camp and cook our evening meal. Camping on Fraser was really cool, and definetley a good way to experience the island properly, but the camping was definetley roughing it camping - we had the oldest tents, slept on roll mats, and didn't see a shower for 3 days! It added to the fun though, and as we had a good group the constant setting up and putting down of the camp didn't seem too bad! Both evenings we just spent around our camp eating dinner, drinking, and chatting with our group and the other groups. We went to bed quite early on the first eve as we were all really tired, only to find out the next morning that we had had dingos around our tent in the night - I was so glad I hadn't seen them! The next day we got up early to be able to drive along the beach to see the different sights, as we were only aloud to drive on the beach between 6am-12pm. We stopped at the maheno shipwreck, an old wreck that washed up on the beach, went to a look out point and ended up at the 'champagne pools', which are basically 2 giant rock pools where you can swim. As it's not safe to swim in the sea on fraser we welcomed the pools when we saw them as it was boiling hot again, and jumped straight in when we got there!

That eveing we had a thunder storm, which although nice to clear the humidity, was not the best thing to have whilst we were camping! We managed to make the best of it though and ate dinner and played drinking games in the van. We were camping with one of the other groups, so we put our vans together and ended up having a really good party. As we were chatting and drinking, some dingos decided to come and visit us. It was quite scary, but they really weren't interested in us - i don't think they even knew we were there, they were just interested in scavenging for food.

The weather was pretty bad on our last day on the island so we took the day easy and just went to lake Mackenzie, which again was absolutly beautiful. It had clear water and was so warm to swim in, despite it being cold and rainy outside the water. We spent time chilling out and swimming at the lake, before heading to get the ferry back to the mainland.

We had a really good time on fraser and met some really good people. By the end of it we were defiently ready for a real bed and some showers, but it was a fun trip. Phil was one of our 3 drivers and got to drive along the beach, and along the dirt tracks which I he enjoyed doing, and it was such a good trip because we did things that you just wouldn't get to do back home, like sleeping next to dingos and driving along the beach! We're now getting ready for our second greyhound experience, as we're traveling to a town called seventeen seventy tonight where we're going to spend a few days chilling out, before heading even further north to go on a sailing trip around the Whitsunday Islands.

Hope everyone is well, keep writing on the message board, nad we'll write another blog post in a bit!

Love Cat and Phil xxxxxx