On Friday night I packed my bag and once again and made my way towards the airport, I had a late flight to Brisbane. I arrived in Brisbane around 4AM, the tour company wasn't picking me up until 7 and I didn't want to buy a room in a hostel for just a couple of hours so I just slept in the airport. Around 6:30 I took the train to the designated spot where I would meet the tour guide. I boarded the bus and we were on our way to Moreton Island, the third largest sand island in the world. The sand is collected from the Eastern Australian Current (for those of you who have seen Finding Nemo it's the current that Crush the sea turtle is caught in), if the island hadn't formed the sand would then travel to the Great Barrier Reef and it would not exist today. We had a half hour drive to the Port of Brisbane where we drove our bus onto the ferry that would take us to the island. We had a really small tour group, there were only two other Thai people on the tour. Once we arrived on the island we went to the campsite where we dropped our bags off, although the campsite was a step up from camping in Broome, it was defiantly still camping. We spent most of the first day looking at scenery, we went to the northern part of the island to the Blue Lagoon, then we drove to cape tribulation where the lighthouse is located. It is whale season so we spent some time watching the whales. Then we made our way to a beach where the tour guide Ed made us lunch, since we had such a small group there was plenty left over so he invited two men who were fishing nearby to eat with us. They were Australians from the country (you could tell by their heavy country accents). We then went stopped at the one, and only, store at on the island to buy firewood. We spent the rest of the night sitting by the campfire sharing stories and getting to know each other, Ed had a didgeridoo, an aboriginal instrument made out of wood, that we all tried playing.

We woke up early the next morning, right after breakfast we went to the shipwrecks to go snorkeling. Moreton Island used to be a whaling station, when it closed they sunk some of the old ships to make a "harbor" to protect anchored boats, it has since become a great snorkeling location. The whether has been chilly, too cold to go into the water in just our "swimmers" so we were given a wetsuit to keep us warm. Snorkeling was fun but we were not able to see very much because the water was very murky due to the easterly winds coming in. We went back to the campsite for lunch and packed everything into the truck. On the way back to the spot where we would catch the ferry we stopped at the "desert" where huge sand dunes have formed and we went sandboaring!!!!! It is just what it sounds like, basically sledding or snowboarding down the sand hills. It was so much fun, we went forwards, backwards, upside down and standing up!!! Walking back up the sand dunes was so difficult, but totally worth it. Then we boarded the ferry and returned to Brisbane. I am now waiting in the airport on my way to Cairns.

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