Well i'm almost ready to leave Hervey Bay. I have been to quite a few places since leaving Sydney, but nothing very exciting to write about unfortunatly.

I arrived in Port Stevens on the 15 of May, only stayed a couple of days though I should of stayed longer. It is qutie a large place and the port is 3x the size of Sydney Harbour! I couldn't get on any excursions so I just visited the main Port (port Nelson) and relaxed on the beach. It was an experience however as I was in a cabin in the jungle on the edge of the beach, so there were hundreds of massive spiders, hundreds of bats, and lots of very noisy possums! Brought a whole new meaning to 'things that go bump in the night!'

After that I went to Byron Bay, it was a lovely little seaside town, good for surfing and clubs but nowt much else, ha ha! Everyone takes a trip to a little town called Nimbin, which is an experience and is full of old stoners who went there for a festival and never left, but they made an agreement with the cops and local council to get rid of the heroin addicts in and have a blind eye turned to them smokin' dope! It's a strange little hippy town with a dope museum, Hemp emmbassey, shops which sell everything from fish and chips to space cookies! and cannabis clothing to rizzlars and bongs! I'll have to be honest although I didn't try ANYTHING I wish I had 'cause everyone else did! After Nimbin we went to a crazy old guys house in the middle of the rainforest. He moved there 29 years ago from New York, he bought the land with 1 tree on it and started planting, He walked us round his property letting us taste the various fruit and nuts he grows too! It was a very nice place but I couldn't live there. We then went to the top of a waterfall which was 130 meters high! The view was amazing and very beautiful.

Next was Surfers Paradise, paradise definatly not! It was a just like Benidorm! I couldn't wait to leave and we only went there to go to a water park and movie world. Them 2 days were great fun. We joined up with a couple we met in Byron (Stevie & Sharife) The water park had a load of new tecnologically advanced rides which were amazing. Movie world was good too. I seen Shrek in 4d, a police academy stunt show, all the Warner Bros cartoon characters, Batman, Wonder-woman and Scooby & gang!

It was then time to move on to Noosa, I tried (and failed) to learn to surf! I also tried and achieved a tan here in Noosa, yayyee (only took me 7 months!) Noosa was beautiful and I wanted to stay longer to try get a job, but Matt didn't! I done a national park walk too. A walk right along a coastal path around the penninsula. It was great I seen koalas, spiders, 3 different pods of dolphins which had about 20+ dolphins in them, sea eagles and some fantastic views and strange rock formations.

I made a brief stop in Rainbow beach and glad I did as I made a wicked saving on a LARK trip (a vessel which drives on land and is also a boat!) Great fun. They took me to some huge rocky sand dunes which are all different stripey colours, then sailed in the bay and let us chill in the boom net, gave us a delicious lunch in a private little bay, took us up a huge mountain to a lighthouse with magnificent view and dolphins! Then showed us how paint was made out of the sand. Which meant I had to be painted up like a warrior, ha ha! I also met 2 lads from STOCKTON ON TEES!!!! which was great, and we knew loads of the same people from back home. Another trip I done there was a walk through the bush to a place called 'Carlo sandblow'. It took you right up to the top of the sand dunes high, high above the beach, which are covered in trees and plants then there is a massive opening which of just sand. Its like a hurricane has passed through the middle of the forest and demolished everything and left a field of sand! (check the pics out to understand this one) You could also see for miles on either side of it. One side was Rainbow beach and the ocean with Fraser Island in the background, the other side was the Noosa Everglades.

Finally I arrived at Hervey Bay in order to start my Fraser Island trip. Our trip had been overbokked so we were going a day late but were not bothered as we got free accomodation and food. I took this extra day as an oppotunity to go to the aquarium and swim with sharks as well as feeding the turtles and massive gropers! Amazing day, really worth it.

In Hervey Bay the weather wasn't the greatest but I had high hopes. After having briefings and buying food and alcohol we all went to bed for the early start. The next day was glorious and we all couldn't wait to get to the island. The first stop was a place called central station, where we all popped to the toilet 'cause we didn't know when we would next see a toilet! Then we were on our way to 'Lake Birrabeen' which was amazing, blue water and white sand around it surrounded by forest. 'Lake Boomanjin' was the same as the first, but very beautiful. We then drove to the Maheno wreck which was blown ashore in 1935 by gale force winds. We then had to set up camp before it got dark! We ate spag bol for dinner and started getting drunk when it started to rain so the camp next to us invited us over as the were 'proper campers!' they had music, flood lights, and a proper undercover area, class. The next morning we were all cold, damp and tired as the rain kept us awake all night. We drove to a proper camp ground to wash pots and have HOT showers, I say this as all the guys had a freezing cold shower before they realised you had to put $1 in the machine for a hot one, ha ha, bless them! It was then on to Indian Head. A climb up a hill to a point on the island where you can view lots of different sharks and whales, bearing in mind it was STILL raining, so we didn't see a thing, a bit grumpy and disheartned we decided to forget about going to champagne pools and drive straight to the pinnicles we took some photos and then stopped at Eli creek where you walk quite a way inland following the stream, jump in and let the current take you all the way back to the beginning! However it was too shallow, even with all the rain we'd had it wasn't gonna work! Heading for raimbow gorge, which we couldn't do as it would take an hour to walk it and we had to set up camp as it was already getting dark. Luckily it stopped raining long enough for us to pitch our tents and get the bbq cooked. I still had half a box of goon as well so I decided to get pissed and forget about the rain! Next morning everyone was drenched, the waterproof covers hadn't worked! We packed up and headed for 'Lake Mackenzie' Everyone decided to leave 'Lake Wabby' as all the rain meant we wouldn't be able to sand board down the dunes anyway. 'Lake Mackenzie' looked even better than it does in the photos but the rain meant no one wanted to get in for a swim. So we all headed for the barge early an sat in our 4x4's!

All in all we had a good trip and we never let the rain spoil it, but if a get a little windfall i'll definatly go back and see it in nicer weather so I can appreciate it more. And that is it for Hervey Bay i'm afraid off to 1770 next then Airlie beach to do my Whitsunday sailing. Speak to you in a week or so. Much Love Ellise xxx