I'd planned to visit Surfers Paradise on my way up the coast but after hearing mixed reports I changed my plans and instead headed for Brisbane. Although the city itself has no great redeeming features I wanted to visit Moreton Island for the day so that meant staying in Brisbane for two nights.

I arrived midday on a sunday so took the opportunity to walk along the river and browse through the markets on the south bank. I then walked over the river through the botanic gardens and back into the city, but after that Brisbane doesn't really hold much more appeal. There a shopping mall as in every town and some fairly nice architecture but most of it seemed to be surrounded by roadworks or scaffolding - very picturesque! Plus every time I've stayed here I've ended up in some dodgy hostel and this time was no different. Even two nights was two nights too long!

So the next morning I was up bright and early ready for my 4x4 trip to Moreton Island. The island is really like a miniature Fraser Island, all sand and no roads other than sand tracks so a 4x4 is compulsary. The day turned into a bit of a day for wildlife, starting early as we spotted dolphins and a dugong (you might know it better as a manatee or a sea cow) on the ferry over. Once we got there first stop was The Desert for some sandboarding. Having done this already in Western Australia I thought I might have a bit of a head start but this time we used a different kind of board whch meant lying down rather than sitting down, so all my worldly experience was of no use. But there is a definite knack to this as if you don't pul the front of the board up high enough you'll spend the next 10 minutes retrieving sand from out of your mouth as you get a face full of it - nice!

So after this somewhat tiring activity in blazing hot sunshine we retreated back to the truck and the promise of a swim to wash away all the sand which was now finding a home in every part of my body. We drove along the beach and saw huge jellyfish that had been washed up and also a massive grouper fish - or more accurately the top half of a huge grouper fish...the bottom half had clearly been a nice feast for a passing shark! Now with proof that sharks really were around we headed off to the other side of the island where we assured it was safe to swim - really...

But on the way we encountered yet another one of Australia's many deadly animals - this time it was a 1.5m brown snake. While we're all happily gawking out the window at it slithering along the sand, we soon brought our arms and heads back in once we were told it was the third deadliest snake in the world - how glad was I to be in safety of the truck and not just taking a nice leisurely stroll along the beach?!

Once we arrived at our lunch spot everyone eagerly jumped out of the truck, keen to get rid of the now very scratcy and irritating sand. As we headed for the sea all seemed well until someone spotted a dark shadow lurking in the waves. We watched it from a safe distance for a good 10 minutes or so and were then told it couldn't be a dolphin or a dugong because they would have come up for air by now so that left only one other option - yes a shark! It didn't seem too fussed about us being there so we 'enjoyed' (with a watchful eye on the shadow!) the rest of our swim, knowing this was the nearest we ever wanted to get to swimming with a shark. But I swear in between the rising and falling waves I definitely spotted that illusive fin!

The afternoon was then rather tame in comparison. We took a walk to a beautiful cove called Honeymoon Bay, went to the lighthouse and watched sea turtles in the water below and had a quick swim in the freshwater Blue Lagoon. We'd been pretty lucky with the weather all day as we'd had clear blue skies but could see that it had been raining over on the mainland. And sure enough as we got on the ferry to return back to the city the rain came down. But what it produced was the most amazing rainbow I've ever seen. It was a whole rainbow where you could see both ends coming out of the sea with such bright colours contrasting against the blue sea and the greenness of the island. Not sure how well the pics will come out, but it was definitely one of the best day trips I've done so far...