East Coast Adventures Continued: Rain, Dingos and Goon

To my relief the east coast has not been the great array of wet tshirt competitions, drunken Brits who think they're in Malia and excessive commercialism that I was expecting. I was also originally quite apprehensive at the thought of doing the majority of the east coast on my own, as many have said its hard to meet people, but I have not found this to be true at all. Instead I've finally found the Australia I was looking for; beautiful beaches, excellent surf and plenty of places to party.

So Anna and I were back in Brisbane once again. Anna was looking for work experience with a hairdressers and I wasn't too sure why I was back, but it was a cheap place to stay and heading in the right direction, so why not?! We found ourselves as the only girls in a 7 bed dorm, which was quite a different experience to all the girls only dorms we had had previously. I spent the first day not doing an awful lot except mooching about the shops and getting depressed about everything I couldn't afford. By the second night, Anna had got a trial and we needed to get out of the room so headed to the notorious 'Down Under' bar, where Lauren and Svenja had spent many an eventful night in their month in Brisbane. Mondays at Down Under Bar are known as Naked Mondays. However, we quickly discovered that this was not to be taken literally, as one boy who decided to show his birthday suit to the bar was swiftly thrown out. The night really did not disappoint as we were bought drink after drink by our room mates who were British Marines, we met Australia's best plummer (no joke - he had a medal and everything) and were kept entertained by everything from a girl strip musical chairs competition, the most bizarre little man humping a pole and an old couple (mum and dad old) who won the dirty dancing competition. The evening was rounded off with a Big Mac meal, standard, and a shower from a jet wash they were using to clean the floor, not so standard.

The next day, feeling somewhat dischevelled Anna and I purchased some sushi (my new latest food craze) and headed for the botanical gardens. This being Brisbane an' all it went from being beautifully sunny to the heavens opening and determined to drown us in five seconds flat. We quickly scampered back to the refuge of the hostel. That evening we treated ourselves to cheapie Tuesdays at the cinema and saw Iron Man 2.

I'd made the decision to leave Brisbane and head on up the coast again as funds were once again quickly diminishing. I chose to go to Mooloolaba, mainly because its a crazy name and the Lonely Planet's assement 10 line assessment describes it as a quaint seaside town with an awesome beach. Sold. So the next day after yet more sushi I lugged my bags (with Anna's help) to the transit centre and boarded the bus for Australia's Sunshine Coast. I arrived late afternoon and there was still time for a stroll along the beach as the sun was going down, oggling the surfers. Life is very hard sometimes... I was in a pleasant four bed dorm with the world's squeekiest bed, meaning everytime I dared to breathe, myself and the poor girl below me were rocked vigourously from one side to the other. I spent the evening chatting to my new room mates. The next day I headed to the beach with them and had a very stressful day reading, chatting and yes eating more sushi (this stuff was crap compated to Brisbane though). Sadly my new friends ha to leave to catch a bus to Noosa, so then it was just me and a middle-aged Australian woman in my room for company. She snored.

The next day after yet more beach, I caught the bus to Noosa, where I was reunited with Caren and the two Danish girls, Grit and Anne, whom I had met in Byron Bay. I walked into my room and was greeted by an Aussie girl in the shortest dress and highest boots ever (I'm not gonna lie, my first thought was "Who hired a hooker?!"). Bearing in mind it was only 5pm, she was already dressed up for a night on the town. Sadly for me later on that evening she took a shine to the Brazillian guy in our room an after consuming an entire bottle of rum, they decided to have very loud sex in the bunk above me. Despite my loud ahems and giggles and the noise of my phone as I texted everyone I knew, they remained focused on the task at hand. The next morning they were at it again, I really couldn't believe it!

The next day I thankfully got to change rooms and joined Caren, Grit and Anne in theirs. I spent the day incredulous at the beach, until the clouds starting closing in, so my new friend Birgitte from Belgium and I decided to go for a walk and take in what Noosa has to offer. Noosa is famous for its everglades and national park and it really was very beautiful to see a beach backed by rainforest, even in the clouds. That evening we ventured to the bar and downed several drinks, but I began to feel quite ill so went home early thankfully to a bed without a couple having sex above me...

The next day the weather was once again really poor and we were very bored. Its so hard to think of cheap things to do in bad weather. The following day Andy (idiotic German with a campervan) drove us to a shopping centre at Noosaville (I had to lie in the back and navigate). The highlight was me and Grit buying giant chocolate bars, which were really revolting. Serves us right!

My time in Noosa was up, so I caught the afternoon bus to Rainbow Beach in preparation for Fraser Island. I spent the evening playing cards with my dutch room mate. After a morning visit to the beach (yes I am determined to be as black as your hat), we had our briefing at the hostel Dingos. Basically Fraser Island is the largest sand island in the world and the only one that actually has the rainforest growing on it. The trip I had booked through Dingos was a 3 day 2 night self drive, which basically means we were placed in groups of 8 people, given a 4wd jeep, camping equipment, food, a rough itinarary and then were let loose on the island to explore, swim in the lakes, drive on the beach and terrorise the dingos (or them terrorise us).

Obviously spending 3 days with 7 other people means that the people in your group make or break your trip. At first I wasn't so sure about my group. Along with myself, there was an Irish girl Aoife, two giggling Essex wannabes, Emma and Lizzie (who were actually from Bedford and very sweet), three lads from Devon, Ben, Dan and Jason (aka little, medium and large) and a random strange German girl, Karolin.

Our briefing about how not to kill ourselves on the island was done by Merv, the aussie owner of the car company. Despite hiding behind greasy long hair and bad teeth, he was clerly loaded, when you think each person pays at least $200 to do the trip. The next morning we were up at 6.30am although I was beaten to the shower by my French roomies, who despite my request to go first, ignored me and nearly caused me to miss the free pancake breakfast. Unforgiveable. We had more briefing about how to handle a 4wd car, how to stand up to a dingo (basically stomp your feet and yell "Go home dingo!"). We packed up the car, packed ourselves in and off we went to get the barge over to Fraser.

Despite Merv's assurances that he knows the weather and lives his life by it and has no reason to lie to us, the early morning drizzle developed into full on rain and continued all day. Cheers Merv! We were meant to visit Lake McKenzie first, the supposed highlight of the trip, but after bumping along the rocky paths, we discovered it was closed. So instead we continued on to our camping ground and set up camp in the diminishing light. After cooking steak and potato salad for dinner (v flashpacker), we started to drink goon (v backpacker) to keep us warm. As we sheltered through the rain, a budding romance (drunken fumble) started to appear between Dan and Emma. Aoife and I snuck off to bed at 10pm, but were woken by the rain pouring into the tent and on my face, as in my wisdom I hadn't shut the tent properly.

Now I'm not exactly a natural camper. I find it pretty hard to sleep in a normal bed with silence, so haring a tent with a snoring Irish girl, a grumpy German, half a tonne of sand, a selection of damp clothes and constantly worrying that a dingo might decide you make a tasty snack, whilst sleeping without a roll mat in a sleeping bag designed for 10deg conditions (it was considerably colder). Needless to say I was fricking freezing! But I surprised myself in actually waking up in a cheerful mood despite my greasy hair (no showers on this trip) and damp hoody. We were up with the sunrise at 6am and Aoife and I cooked scrambled eggs and toast for everyone. We headed off early for Indian Head at the tip of the island. We climbed up the top and saw through the rain sting rays and a couple of sharks below in the crystal clear waters. Finally the rain stopped so we walked along the beach to the champagne pools, which were basically salt water pools cut off from the sea by the rocks, when water crashed over the rocks, the pools were flooded with foam. Voila, champagne pools!

After a dip, we headed to set up camp near the Maheno shipwreck. We cooked a tea of asian stir fry, played card games, drinking games, chatted drunken German until the party got gatecrashed by some lechy Aussies who thoroughly enjoyed chasing the inquisitive, hungry dingos away. Aoife and I were last to bed at an almighty 12am. The next morning we were up at 6 again for an early second attempt at Lake McKenzie. It took forever because the tracks were so difficult and slow to navigate. The boys were really good drivers and certainly not boy racers. Aoife and I were far more nervous. Although I enjoyed the feeling of driving on the beach, the car was very tricky to manoeveur and it had clearly been abused and battered by many a backpacker before. Lake McKenzie was indeed the highlight of the trip as the weather was so beautiful, the crystal clear waters and soft white snad looked like a postcard. We amused ourselves by making a human pyramid and taking underwater pics. I was feeling really happy beacuse everyone on the trip was so nice and friendly and even when the weather was crap it had been such an experience. We drove the car back on the barge (not before it got stuck in the sand and we had to get out and push) and we were waved off my some dingos. What a trip!

Returning to the hostel we finally had the long awaited showere and chance to change into something not completely coated in damp sand. I had the misfortune to be in a room with Emma (a different one to the one in my car). Perhaps I should have mentioned her earlier.... My introduction to Emma (British, 30, braces, rotund) was her shoving a box of Imodium in my face the night before we went to Fraser, saying "I'm not gonna s*** in a hole, are you?". Charming! She was unlucky enough to be in a car with 6 Germans and 1 Frenchman, but you should have heard her complainging and misery. She really had a face like a smacked arse. Despite her attemptst to bring the morale of the group down, she actually created a talking point and was our entertainment, making us become closer together. In our room, she told me all about how she had dobbed in her group for speeding and letting one of the German girls who was only 19 drive, so they were facing a $1000 fine, which she was delighted about. Some people really are very odd.

To be continued...