Hey all,

Last time I wrote I was in 1770. Chloe, Neil and I were supposed to be picked up in the morning by the shuttle bus, to be dropped off in Miriam Vale, where we'd be reunited with the Oz bus. This did not go smoothly! After we'd been waiting for half an hour, we decided to go back to reception and ask if they could call the driver to find out what was going on. Turns out he'd forgotten about us and was half way to Miriam Vale (40 minutes away)! I was getting myself into a right mood (which I'm very good at doing) thinking about how I was gonna have to book another night in 1770, change my Fraser Island trip, call Janina and let her know I'd had to change my Fraser Island trip, bla bla bla… when fate stepped in, in the form of the Oz Experience training bus! It was so funny. "Squatter" (the driver I had from Sydney to Melbourne) came bounding into reception asking where the 3 stranded passengers were, and he let us on to the training bus which was going north, so that we could catch up with the shuttle bus driver and make the southbound Oz bus. The trainee drivers had no idea what was going on and it was really funny to have them asking us so many questions about Oz Experience! Luckily the southbound bus was running late, so in the end everything was fine and we were on our way to Rainbow Beach. Not every passenger can say they've done some Oz Experience driver training!

After the trauma of the day's bus events, it was a quiet first night in Rainbow Beach. That, plus the fact that it's a really small place and there's nothing to do. The following morning also started pretty horrifically as the first thing I did was put my USB sticks into one of the computers at Peterpans so that I could upload my blog entry… next thing I knew, both sticks were f*cked and I couldn't access any of my photos. Ideal. (Hopefully a family friend can restore all my pics when I get home - if not, you may not see me for a while, as I'll be greetin' for a fair while). After moping around for a substantial amount of time, I went for a lunch time pie with Janina and then it was time for our briefing for our Fraser Island trip, which we were starting the next day. We were put into a group with 3 other German girls, a Canadian guy and an Aussie guy (what a novelty). Our group was only 7 people, as we were gonna be in the car with one of the tour company drivers, which meant that I wasn't able to drive the 4WD even though I'd said I wanted to. I was a bit disappointed about that at first (although, I wasn't surprised, as it was already such an unlucky day!) but it turned out to be ok… not sure if I would have been totally comfortable going from driving the wee Corsa to a big beefy 4x4 on bumpy sand…

Anyway, the DVD they showed us in the briefing was hilarious. It basically suggested that we were sure to be killed, most likely by dingoes. It took ages to go through the briefing and decide amongst our group what alcohol we wanted to order, etc, etc… but we got there in the end. Later that evening, Janina and I went for fish and chips (another healthy day in Australia) and then it was time to pack a wee bag for Fraser. (Island… not a person).

By 7am the next day we were up and ready for our free pancake breakfast before another briefing in the car park. We got our car packed up with all the gear we would need for the 3 day trip, and finally we were on our way. The driver we had in our car was an Aussie called Byron (like Bay, but from Rainbow Beach). He was pretty delicious, so Janina and I were happy to take the front seats! (This also meant that we didn't get battered around as much as those who were in the back, and we got to play DJ with the iPod). We took the eight 4WDs in convoy onto the Fraser Island barge, which only took about 5 minutes to get across to the island. Fraser Island is the world's biggest sand island, so from that moment on it was nothing but driving on sand, sitting on sand, eating sand (accidentally), breathing sand. Sand is the enemy! Our first stop was Lake McKenzie, which was beautiful. The water was completely clear and it tasted just like bottled water! (I don't know if I was supposed to drink it, but I was thirsty and curious). The sand was really white, similar to Whitehaven Beach. We hung out there for a while and then got back into the cars and headed to Eurong, where we would be camping for the next 2 nights. We all got our "two minute tents" set up and started cooking dinner on our wee camping cookers. Ian the 19 year old Aussie took over, because he reckoned he cooked the best steak… I found this funny because he also reckoned the steak would need 15 minutes! He was a bit irritating, but probably just because he was still half way through puberty. Anyway, I got over my kitchen control-freak moment (ok, I didn't, but I kept quiet while he annihilated the steaks) and we all sat on the sand (of course) to eat. It was getting dark but somebody suddenly noticed a dingo sniffing around the cooker! Instead of standing up tall and clapping loudly, as we'd been told was the best thing to do, we all instinctively turned Neanderthal and started making bizarre noises at the dingo. It looked at us for a while and eventually wandered off (probably thinking "what a bunch of f*cking weirdos"). It was cool to see dingoes in the wild though. That's definitely one of my favourite things about Australia - the wildlife (especially the fact that you don't have to be in "the wild" to see it). After the dinner and dingo fiasco it was time to wash the dishes in the ocean (challenging) and then get onto the goon. There were about 60 people on the trip and a big proportion of that was British/Irish, which made a really nice change (it seems like every backpacker in Australia is German… are there any people left in Gemany?) We got chatting to a couple of Irish lads, Barry and John, and there was also a group of English boys who were nice too. Big drinkers! The problem with drinking on Fraser Island is that there are no toilets in the camping area where we were… the DVD had told us to always take a friend and a shovel when you needed to use the facilities! We chose instead to take a torch and use the beach.

The next morning was a bit of a struggle for about 57 of the 60 people, but we eventually all got up and got back in the cars around 7.30am. The weather wasn't great, so when we arrived at Eli Creek, nobody was brave enough to get in. We drove on (I want to say to "Indian Head", but I could be wrong) and took a walk up to a nice lookout point. Then we had a look at the… something… shipwreck (normally I'm good with names!) and went back to Eli Creek. By this point it was a wee bit brighter and a few of us got in, despite the fact that it was freezing. It was the closest thing we were gonna get to a shower, so I braved it! It was cold but it was really nice; again, really clear, fresh water. There was a rugby ball being chucked about which was good fun :) Janina and I had a nice time perving on Byron and one of the other hotties who was in the group of English lads. Like dirty old men :) Eventually we headed back to camp, had dinner again (this time Aussie Ian didn't bother his a*se) and then it was goon time once again. We had a laugh playing "flip cup", such an easy but fun drinking game.

The next again day we had breakfast and took down our tents. We went to Lake Wabby, which took about 40 minutes to walk to from the beach. The walk was a pain in the a*se but it was worth it in the end. We came out of the woods to see big sand dunes which led down to Lake Wabby. It wasn't as clear as Lake McKenzie but it was still nice. It was full of catfish which freaked me out a bit so I didn't venture in very far. The walk back to the beach was an absolute killer - we didn't have any water and it was so hot walking back up the sand dune in the sun! We moaned our way down to the beach for 40 minutes and were pretty happy to get back in the car and head on our way back to Rainbow. We had loads of our food left over so we ate like royalty at lunch time, and then got into our rooms (Janina and I were in separate rooms). I was dying for a shower but when I got into my room there were 5 (yes, 5) English lads (in a room of 7 beds) so I got talking to them for a while. They were nice guys and they had also sailed on the Tongarra so we had a good chat about how obnoxious the crew were. Finally I got to have my shower - heaven! It was Janina's21st the next day so I took a trip to the supermarket to see what goodies I could get for her. Later that evening we met Neil in the bar and just had a few drinks before bed as we were shattered after the crazy 3 day Fraser trip! Good times.

So the next morning we were up bright and early on Janina's birthday as we had booked our free dolphin feeding trip that we'd received from Peterpans, for booking so many tours through them. Shame it was total gash! Ok, it was cool to see dolphins in the water as the boat approached Tin Can Bay, but when we actually got on to the land it was just a bit of a sham. You had to pay extra if you actually wanted to feed the dolphins and you weren't allowed to touch them. Everyone was getting in the way so I couldn't really get a decent photo but even the ones I did get were just of other people feeding dolphins! Janina wasn't impressed and we were both so tired and moody, haha. A bit ungrateful too, I guess. Whatever. We went back to bed when we got back to Dingo's (our hostel) and then I started to make preparations with the amazing stuff I'd bought in the supermarket the night before… I had bought a rainbow cake (appropriate) and two candles, a "2" and a "1". I wrote Janina's name on the icing with a knife (tricky, but amazing how easy it is to improvise when travelling - bit nerve-wracking walking from the kitchen to my room with a big knife in my hand though). I set it up in the wee kitchen in my room along with some sweets and a cheap-a** "pin the tail on the donkey" game that I bought purely because I was amazed to find such a thing in the IGA on Rainbow Beach! I gathered some Germans (not difficult) and brought her into my room where we sang Happy Birthday to her. She seemed pretty happy with my outstanding efforts! The 2 German girls went away but then another 2 Germans, Tim and Juli (who we know from the Whitsundays trip) came in so the 4 of us polished off the whole cake. Oooops. Later on we walked up to the Carlo Sandblow with Neil, Chloe, and some others from the hostel, to watch the sunset. It was so sweet, Neil and Chloe gave us both a wee bracelet that has all the rainbow colours in it, as birthday presents (they were there on my birthday too but didn't really know me back then!) So cute they chose the rainbow ones so we'd remember they came from Rainbow Beach :) After the sunset, the 4 of us got ready and went out for a Chinese… Well, kind of. It was a take away place with a few tables outside, but suddenly it started to pee with rain! We didn't really know where to sit until Neil noticed a big table in the next-door launderette… yup, Janina celebrated her 21st by eating Chinese take away food in a launderette with 3 Brits! Too random. It was nice though :) Chloe and Neil had brought the leftover sparklers from Bonfire night, which was cool :) The 4 of us went to Fraser's (the hostel next to Dingo's) where we saw Wings, who was stopping there overnight but heading north. We sat and had a few drinks with him which is always fun :) I'll miss Wings and his Kiwi accent! (And his ridiculous Movember moustache)… We were also delighted to see… BYRON! Hahaha. He had 4 days off after our trip so he was drinking with some of his friends. I guess there are not many drinking options in Rainbow Beach. We got ourselves a cuddle each before we left Fraser's, which made us both smile like schoolgirls for the next 24 hours. Haha. How cool must it be to have that effect on people?!

On Sunday I got on the Oz bus at 8am and left Rainbow, heading for Noosa. It was super nice. The YHA where we stayed is right next to the beach and some cool shops (including Cotton On, Australia's answer to H&M, where I bought a couple of things… what? I needed to replace my goaty leggings, and a dress for $10 is something you can't pass up!) When I woke up on Monday, the first thing I saw out the window of the room was a giant goanna walking past. Earlier that morning I'd been to the toilet and was greeted by a bush turkey. Seriously, I love this country! We went to the cinema in the evening, as Janina had wanted to do that on her birthday but there was no chance in a place as small as Rainbow Beach. We saw "The Social Network", a film all about Facebook and how it began. I was a bit disappointed with it (especially because Justin Timberlake was in it but he looked rough as) but it was really nice to go to the cinema anyway. When we got back I called Gareth as he was leaving the next day for Egypt. Still can't believe he won't be there when I get back. In a way it was probably best that we just had to say goodbye over the phone. It didn't seem like a goodbye, because I've not seen him for so long anyway, and I've still got my own trip to think about. But it's gonna be so weird not having him there when I get back to Scotland! And what about our annual Garona Christmas? Who am I supposed to waste money on, buying 15 bucks worth of the most random crap possible? Saying that, I highly doubt I'll be spending that much on anyone this year, sorry chaps!

On Wednesday I walked with Neil and Chloe up the big hill to get to Noosa Junction, where some more shops and the big Coles are. In the evening we went down to Nomads hostel to see some live music, which was alright. The following day, the weather wasn't great so we decided to take a walk to the Noosa National Park to go koala spotting! We only saw one on the way back, but it was a nice walk all the same. We went to Coles and bought some stuff to have a BBQ (there are BBQs all over Australia that are free to use, it's so cool). When we were walking towards the beach to find a BBQ, we noticed live music coming from the Surf Club and there was a TV crew. We went over the see what was going on and noticed a big X Factor sign - turns out one of the Aussie X Factor finalists is from Noosa! I guess it must be the time in the X Factor when the contestants go and perform in their home towns. Should try to watch X Factor tomorrow night and see if we're in it! It was funny, at one point some dude in a chicken suit gatecrashed the stage while the guy was in the middle of a song. We watched him get escorted out by the police! Haha. Anyway, we moved on and found a BBQ to use and had a nice dinner of burgers, sausages and kangaroo kebabs :) After the BBQ we went back to the hostel and chilled out on the veranda for a bit, which was nice. This morning I got on a very busy Oz bus and came down to Mooloolaba. Neil and Chloe are also here, so we're all gonna head to a market at Eumundi tomorrow, and then hopefully to Australia Zoo on Sunday - exciting! We just missed Steve Irwin day. It would have been cool to be there on that day, but also a bit weird I think.

Anyway, Janina, Neil and Chloe are all standing about waiting for me to hurry up so I'll finish there. I guess I'll probably just be writing one more blog, as I only have 10 days to go until I leave Brisbane for home! Until then… "She'll be alright mate" :)