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11/29/10

The bus ride kept going and I was able to nod off from time to time and get some shut eye. At some point in the early morning around 1 or 2 am we got a new driver and he did his talk on everything and told everyone to call him JD instead of driver. Then he did some more announcements and he ended them by saying he would do his best to get us all to our destinations quickly and safely......he then left the microphone on long enough to do an evil laugh like a villain would do in a movie. Of the people that were awake at this time no one really knew what to do with that and a moment of awkward silence fell over the bus. He did the same thing on a few other announcements until we got to our destination, whatever he was just having some fun with us so I found it amusing. We arrived right on time and the hostel in which I had booked was at the bus station to pick us up. It turns out that 5 of us on that bus were all doing the same trip and even staying in the same room at the hostel. It is Lena from Germany, Fiona from the U.K., and two girls from Holland named Judith and Inga. It was also nice since this package deal we were able to check into our rooms right away so I decided to get some real sleep in a bed from the get go. This was a good decision as after the nap I felt much better and then shaved and took a shower and was feeling very good. The girls all left and went to check out town and get food or head to the beach. Fiona said I could join her down at the beach, but I opted for the bed instead. When I woke up I decided to catch up on my travel journal since I was a few days behind since I had not written anything since I arrived at Airlie Beach. The hostel I stayed at was nice and I was in unit 5D and the unit had two levels with 5 different rooms 2 bathrooms and it own kitchen and living room. I was very comfy writing my journal on the couch in the living room as it was very warm out side and I did not feel like baking in the sun in the middle of the day. The girls ended up coming back at different times and taking naps since no one seemed to sleep all that well on the greyhound. We were all going on the Stargazer 4X4 Self Driven tour the following day and we had a meeting at 4pm that day to go over details of the tour. I was excited that I would already possibly know at least a little bit some of the people on my tour. While I was writing my journal that afternoon I also meet a Scottish couple named Jeppa and Stacey who were staying in a room upstairs and seemed very nice, and they were also going on the tour the next day. After having my journal all updated I decided to throw the files on a jump drive and go check out town and throw the update on my blog. I did that and returned with 15 minutes to spare before the meeting. The meeting started late and a lot of us were hanging around waiting for it to happen. When we had checked in that morning we had been given a list of things to pack for our trip which was basically (hat, sunscreen, sandals, swimsuit, towel, and insect spray). The meeting was lead by Dave and he was a bit all over the place and seemed pretty unorganized and he said it had been a while since he had lead a tour on Fraser Island but he was the one that trained everyone on how to give the tours so he was more then ready to lead the tour. As of July this year it is now mandatory to have a guide with you since in the past years you could just hire a 4X4 and take the barge and go to the island by yourself and people got in bad accidents from driving too fast on the sand or getting caught in high tide. This lead to a lot of ruined 4X4's and people were even ending up dead. The entire island is a National Park and like nothing I have ever experienced before in my lifetime. Dave went over that he would put us in groups for the vehicles we would be in and as a group we would need to come up with a $500 cash insurance bond and also a $500 credit card authorization bond. As a group we would also need to get together and go to the store and buy all the foods for our meals on the island. I was very happy that I was put in a group with 3 of the girls from my room (Inga, Judith, and Fiona). The group was going to be 8 people in total and the other members of our group were Richard and Caroline a couple on a 3 month holiday from Amsterdam, Holland and James and Bex who were traveling buddies from Leeds, U.K. From the start the group seemed pretty cool and I had a good feeling about the group. We did all of our paper work for the insurance bond and started to make a list of food we would need. Our group was then taken by small bus to the grocery store to buy our supplies. We had to buy food for 3 lunches, 2 dinners, and 2 breakfasts. This was somewhat interesting trying to put a group of nearly strangers together to plan out our next meals and do it smart and on a budget. I was down for about anything since I do not consider my self too picky for the most part on food. We were told that if we liked meat that buying meat and making food on the "Barbie" was the way too go since the clean up was easy. My group decided to go with a pretty simple food plan. Buy sliced ham and sandwiches for our lunches and buy hamburgers and sausages for our dinners. For our breakfast we would buy just some extra bread to have jam on bread or whatever. I tried to be helpful at the store but I felt a bit useless since it seemed the girls had everything under control. I told James we should go get some of the meat to be useful and the girls were OK with that. It turns out that I am just as lost or even more lost at a store in Oz. James and I walked around and found the cans of tuna we were to get for tuna salads for our dinners. We could not seem to find the other things we searched for and I ended up asking 3 different store workers to help us find the different things we were looking for. We were also told to bring any booze that we would want along for the trip and I was I determined not to be the guy with nothing this time and the fact that it would be camping style I am more comfortable drinking then on a small sailboat with one toilet and the idea that I might get seasick and booze would not help. When we came back from the store I had not gotten any and I ended up talking with Richard about what he was doing. I see that he had bought a 24 pack of XXXX Gold beer and after chatting with him he said that I could share a third of it with him and Carolina if I wanted. I said I would do that but 8 cans would not be enough and I would go pick up more anyway. I ended up picking up a case of 24 of the same beer and figured out everything would work itself out. It is a bit crazy with the prices of booze but I am trying not to think about it and just have fun. I paid $35 dollars for the 24 cans and I believe that the alcohol percentage is under 3%, where as back in MN I can get two cases of Coors Light for the same price. After returning from the bottle shop with my beer I had to make my lunch for the next day since we would not be setting up camp until after lunch time. I was also very hungry by this time which was around 6:30pm so I signed up to partake in the Hostels deal with Pizza Hut for all you can eat Pizza for $10. I meet up with Richard and Carolina and Richard shared a couple of glass bottle beers that he had and was not allowed to bring on the tour. We also chatted with the Scottish Couple Jeppa and Stacie. It was a fun evening with a lot of laughs. I went back to my room around 9:30 pm since I still needed to pack (WHICH I HATE DOING!) and I was intent on packing but I was doing way more chatting with the girls in my room. I was loving the stories Inga and Judith told me about their outback 10 day tour. This is one of the kind of tours I had seriously looked into doing before I arrived in OZ. They had funny stories about the group they were with and the guide but they said they enjoyed the trip. By about 10 pm all the girls were ready to go to bed but I still was no where near packed. I hustled up and packed up my 3 day bag by 10:20 pm. Everyone was intent on turning in early since we had to check out by 6:30 am. I was in bed by 10:30 but I could not sleep and my knee was killing me and I was not sure if my mid morning nap was throwing me off so I took some Advil and grab my book and went to the units living room couch. After a couple of hours of reading I decided to try to get some sleep and went back to my bed in the other room.