Howdy folks,

After leaving Byron Bay on Tuesday 25th March we boarded the Greyhound up to Surfers Paradise, then we caught a local bus to Caroline and Mark's house. Caroline being Ailsa and Aaron Souttars fantastic mother. By the time we got to Helensvale it was late afternoon, Ed and myself went to do the food shopping and the girls went back to Carolines. It was great to see Caroline and Mark again, especially as Caroline had prepared an amazing lasagna and had some cold ones waiting in the fridge for us. It only gets better Caz had a 10 man hot tub which is "THE BOMB". After a few beers and a game of scrabble we hit the sack Early as we were all a tad hungover from the festival the previous day.

Wednesday 26th March was an exceptionally lazy day in the hot tub and relaxing in the back yard. Ed and myself cooked up the barbie at night, then we got a DVD out and had a chilled out night on the sofa.
On Thursday 27th March Jamie myself and Ed went up to Brisbane checked into our hostel then went to the "down under" bar to wait on the 2 "Forfarians"(Staci and Zoe) who were over on holiday visiting. For those of you who don't know, Staci and Zoe are Jamie's best mates from Forfar. As you can imagine Jamie was very very excited to see them both and the reunion was very screechy with lots of "Oh My God" screams!! It was brilliant seeing their smiling faces, we all had a lot to catch up on so that was done over a beer and a few glasses of vino.

It was an early rise on Friday 28th of March the 5 of us were getting picked up at 6.30am for our trip to Fraser Island. We were all feeling a little hungover, however we opted for the back of the bus, it was a big 4 wheel drive 18 seat with lots of room. Unfortunately Staci was feeling a little "Travel Sick" ha ha, OK so she was hungover. It was probably not the best idea to guzzle a 750ml bottle of Chocolate Milk prior to boarding the bus....The bumpy 3 hour journey up to Rainbow beach proved a bit difficult when pucky Staci ran out of carrier bags to spew in so we had to stop the bus while she got cleaned up and bought a bottle of water. Aahhh poor Staci :-( Thankfully Staci felt much better by lunchtime. We all had a bite to eat at Rainbow Beach where we caught the ferry over to Fraser Island.
Fraser Island is the BIGGEST Sand Island in the World, Supposedly there is more sand on Fraser Island than there is in the Sahara desert...FACT! This World Heritage-listed sand bar measures in at 120km by 15km and was created by 800,000 years of long-shore drift sand blowing from the blue mountains in Sydney into the water then drifting up north, the only reason it stopped where it did was because of a Volcanic Eruption which happened and created 3 trofts, which ended up catching most of the sand, therefore creating Fraser Island. Its hard to believe that initially there was no vegetation, its home to some of the worlds most beautiful Rainforest's and there are some amazing fresh water lakes and a beautiful beach. Although you can't swim in the sea for fear of being eaten by tiger sharks which you can see circling the Island, and you also risk being stunk by killer Jellyfish, needless to say we didn't go near the sea. The first day we arrived it was quite overcast and the sun was hiding. We checked into our hostel, then went to Lake Wabby for a swim. They say that the lakes are full of minerals which is good for your skin, we all stripped off and jumped in after our 4k hike to get there. Unfortunately once in it started to rain a little, after about 1hour in the water we all got a bit chilly and decided to get out. Our tour guide (Chris) was adamant that we were there for a while longer, being with my Forfar Buddies it didn't take much encouragement to start heading back to the Van. As we walked across the sand dunes we realised that we were being followed, and not by a person....It was a Dingo! Yikes, they are wild Dogs which live on the Island and have seemingly become more aggressive due to humans feeding them, so your advised not to go near them or feed them. Personally I thought they looked pretty cute and was really wanting to go and clap one, don't worry I didn't!! Staci used her "doggie" skills and shooed it away. We continued our 4k walk without realising that the same Dingo caused problems for the rest of the group who were way behind us and in fear of being attacked, Chris was unable to scare it off so they all had to stay still until it became disinterested. Once they returned Staci and I got into trouble for making our own way back to the van, we didn't bother to tell Chris that we managed to scare the same Dingo away, he he he!!
That evening we all had a nice hot shower and some dinner which was included in our package with "Sunset Safaris" the food was tasty and it was buffet style so even Dino couldn't complain, bless the little man. Anyway before we knew it we were all yawning our heads off and it was off to bed after a long but nice day.

On the Saturday morning we were up early for breakfast, and left camp at about 8am. Chris decided that we would go to Rainbow Gorge first thing. It was a nice long walk with massive sand dunes and lots of fresh water streams to drink from, the sand was pretty spectacular, there are many different colours of sand black, orange, red and white. Marc thought that the best bit was the Boomerang throwing, which he was exceptionally good at! After a few shots he had it sussed, so much so that he was very reluctant to let anyone else get a shot. Zoe and Deano were also pretty good and I wasn't bad, we all made the Boomerang come back which is the main thing. Staci on the other had didn't really get the knack of it, instead she threw in directly into my legs as I was about to take a picture of her, ha ha ha. After an hour or so of boomeranging we went for another walk and did some sand dune jumping, lots of fun!
Once we returned to the bus it was back to the bumpy road as we continued our trip along the beach. Chris stopped the bus a few times to show us cool little things, one was Cockles (also called Phi Phi's) they are a type of shell fish which are generally a few inches under the sand but leave a little pile of sand on the surface, this is how you find them. Chris offered one of us to try one, so yeah you have probably guessed it Jamie ate one....RAW!! She claims it tasted like an oyster but more meaty, yuck.
After that we visited the Maheno shipwreck which sank i think in 1960. The Japanese tried to tow in back to Japan after it sunk but on route back to Japan it was hit by a cyclone and ended up on Fraser Island, it was stripped of all its valuables and has been left to erode ever since. We also took a drive to the Pinnacles which was nice to see but not a patch on the ones we visited on the West coast. Lunch was served in the middle of the Rainforest beside Lake Allom, once we had eaten we walked through the rain forest and had a look at some of the vegetation on the island, we eventually came to the lake which is home to loads of turtles.
We had a leisurely walk down Pile Valley which included boogie boarding which Deano and Marc did, this is where we spotted the "Death Adder" Snake, scary or what.
That evening we played several games of Uno....Im still the CHAMPION! Plus it my turn to write this part of the blog so I'm definitely the CHAMPION. Ha Ha Ha
We cracked open the "Goon" and played several drinking games including "Banana Banana, Avocado Avocado" and "G'day Bruce, say G'day to Bruce, Bruce" very very funny night, for those of you who don't know these games you don't know what your missing!

SUNDAY 30th MARCH It was a nice early start on Sunday morning we were up, fed, and away by 7.30am. We left camp and had a 45 minute drive to Central Station where we went on a bush walk. It is the deepest Rainforest on the Island so lots of cool stuff to see. We all went bear footed and not long into the walk I felt something in between my toes, I thought it was mud so continued the walk. It was pretty surreal to be in the middle of the rainforest listening to the whip whip bird, cockatoos, and also realising how peaceful it was. We seen several spiders, lizards and eels. After walking for about an hour we came to the end where there was a wooden platform, Chris gave us some more knowledgeable information about the rainforest, my foot still didn't feel right so I tried to take the mud out. It was like it was clued to my foot, then I realised it was a slug or something, I pulled the "slug off" and within seconds my foot was covered in blood and there was a pool of blood on the wooden platform. A leach had decided to attach itself to my toes then suck blood for an hour, by the time it had finished with me it was fat "ph" phat. YUCK...
After our stroll in the jungle it was off to Lake Birrabeen for a swim some Frisbee a little bit of volleyball and some sun bathing. Bliss and just like PARADISE! Lake Birrabeen is a fresh water lake made from all the years of rainfall on the island, as you can see from the photos it has stunning white sand and crystal clear waters. After spending a good few hours here it was time to leave Fraser Island for the 4 hour drive back to Brisbane. By the time we got back to Brisbane we were all tired and hungry so we had a bite to eat then went back to the hostel for some Uno playing, which by this point had become pretty competitive.

Monday 31st March was a chilled out day at the man-made beach in the middle of Brisbane city. Zoe took a stroll to see the Andy Warhol exhibition whilst Staci got sun burnt on the beach. The girls enjoyed a few coffee liquor's in the afternoon before going back to the hostel to get "dolled" up for there last evening with us.
Since it was Staci and Zoe's last night we headed into the West end of town for a nice Greek meal. While we were there we arranged to meet Jamie's friend who is Irish "Caroline" Jamie knows her through Susan and they met in Finland. It was a brilliant meal and even better company. The girls sipped on cocktails for a few hours before doing a bit of dancing. It was another brilliant night and again reminded us how lucky we are to have so many great friends visit us from home.
The next morning we said our good-bye's to the girls which was very sad and many tears were shed....We all had a wicked time, thanks Zoe and Staci.
Jamie, Eddie and I collected our rented car from Abel once we left the girls, Abel have terrible customer service and we would not advise anyone to use them for car rentals....Also have heaps of hidden costs. Once we collected the car, the next stop was Carolines, (Jamie's friend) house to pick up some tickets for Wet 'n' Wild. She gave us some directions and we had printed off a map, so by doing that technically finding Carolines should have be rather easy. OH NO you guessed it, we got lost, and because im the worst map reader in the world, Eddie sat in the front and decided to navigate Jamie. Bad idea!! A drive that we later found out should take 10 mins tops ended up taking over an hour it was a total joke. We got there in the end, got our tickets then took the highway straight back to Helensvale where we stayed with Caroline (The Souttars mum) for another night before getting ready for Surfers Paradise.....

Thats all for now people, we know we are a bit behind with the blog but we will continue to update it over the next week....
Jamie and Marc xx