Hello again!

Sorry for the slight delay in updating (yet again), but I have been busy moving myself down the east coast! Since my last update I have been 4wd touring on Fraser Island and canoeing in Noosa, so you might want to go grab a cup of tea, this could get long!!

I will start with my time in Hervey Bay, my leaving point for Fraser Island. I spent a night in a hostel there with a couple of friends I had met on the greyhound, and we went to see the new bond film, Quantum of Solace, which was good if not very Bond-esque! The rest of the evening was spent packing and having opur driving briefing, which I am sorry to say was not very good with the main solution offered to any problem being "hit it with a stick". The next morning, we were all raring to go and divided into teams. I was with Dan and Isabella from the greyhound, liam, craig and owen the Irish boys, Hose the spaniard, Kenny the frenchman and Sabine the german. All in all they were all very cool people and made the experience as good as it was to prove to be.

Time really seemed to drag on that morning but eventually we were up and running, touring along the coast of the mainland until we reached the ferry crossing to the Island. Our first stop on the Island was the grandly named center point, which turned out to be nothing but a campsite and toilet block! We stopped here for a while and went on a boardwalk through the rainforest, coming across the clearest creek I have ever seen in the process. After this we moved on again, over the rough and sandy terrain. We got stuck four times, but this was easily solved with a bit of pushing. We eventually worked out our troubles were due to the fact that our 4x4 drive was not engaged and after that was recified we were fine!

We spent the rest of the day exploring the Island, stopping off at two lakes to bathe, the first of which was truely spectacular! It was clear blue and set in amongst the rainforest with a mountainous backdrop: truely breathtaking! After these lakes, we made camp on the beach and cooked our dinner. The evening was spent alternating between getting to know my carmates and swatting at the billions of sandflies that made an apperence. the best part of the evening was the wildlife that came out after dark! There were birds and crabs,l and our whole camp was being circled by Dingos looking for food scraps, it was perfect!

The next day we decided to get up early and head over to another local lake. This one was bordered by a sanddune which I promptly rolled down and into the water! We then drove along the length of the beach until we came upon Indian Head. This is a prominent point thrusting out into the ocean, and offering great views of both the Island's northen beaches and the sea. We climbed up and took in the view. In the water there were turtles, stingrays and a shark clearly visable, which was fantastic! We spent quite some time there before descending down onto the beach. We started back to camp, stopping on the way to takee pictures of the Maheno, a ship washed up on the Island in 1937. This was vaguely disappointing though, all the previous pictures I had seen showed the wreck as a dramatic center point, a rusting manmade giant situated in the middle of one of nature's most breathtaking panoramas. Since then, however, sand, sea and weather had eroded the ship somewhat, lessening its effect. We arrived back at our camp just before dark, and spent a quiet(ish) evening playing cards.

The final day of our trip involved packing up the camp and making our way back to the ferry. We stopped on the way home at Lake Mackenzie, which out of all the lakes we had seen on the Island was by far the most picturesque. It featured clear azure blue water and white san, bordered by the now typical mountains. We swam and played frisbee here for a few hours, before making our way back to the mainland and the hostel.

The next day I departed Hervey Bay and made my way down to Noosa. Here I was join a canoeing trip over three days. We spent the first night in a bushcamp, which despite being in the middle of the bush, still featured a pool table and tv room/tent! We spent the evening as usual, eating dinner and meeting the people who we would be traveling with.

The next day was the first real day of the trip. We embarked on our open Canadian-style canoes and made a short trip downstrea, and across a lake to reach a pub and the beach. We spent the afternoon taking advantage of teh aforementioned facilities, with swimming in the sea being the highlight. We also saw a bit of local wildlife, including a stingray in the shallow water of the lake. In the late afternoon we started to make our way back across the lake, but the wind had picked up making it hard work. One of the canoes got sideways to the wind and was swamped in a matter of seconds, but as the water was only knee deep it was easily rescued the following morning! We spent the evening back at the bush camp, watching movies.

Next morning, we started out on the main event of the trip, a overnight journy upriver to a campsite 7km away. With little or no wind, the journey was a lot easier than the day before. The best part of the trip was a detour we made up a small creek to reach a rope swing. We decided against the swing itself and instead just jumped off the tree into the deep water, at its most a drop of about 6 meters. We then made our way to the campsite, moving fast over another lake as a storm loomed behind us. Luckily, we made dry land and had set up the tents before the rain arrived! We spent the evening in the only walled place we could find, which just so happened to be the local pub!

The following morning we packed up and left the camp, before paddling back to the original bushcamp. Everyone was a bit tired and so the incesant banter of the last few days had dropped a level or two! We made it back all in one piece, and after unpacking and a quick shower we were dropped back in the center of Noosa. The canoeing trip was something that I was really glad I did, and while it lacked the visual impact of my time on Fraser Island, I still had just as much fun!

So, that brings us up to today. I checked out of hostel in Noosa and took the short greyhound journey down the coast to Brisbane. It was weird moving back to a big city after all these weeks (including my time in cairns!) in quieter areas! This will be my last stop in Australia before I return to Sydney in a few days to fly to New Zealand, so I intend to make the most of it!!