Breakfree French Quarter Resor Noosa

... a fab beach and coast line and a perfect place to chill and pass a few hours. Sarah joined me a little later and we played 'jump the very big waves and almost get killed by them' and other such things like - bury my legs in the sand - you know - the normal beach games. As we went about our silly business Sarah caught sight of a man just up on the sand banks - shall we say - 'pleasuring himself' as he looked on at us. Hmmmm. What to do. I found it quite amusing - we ...

... there are only 1 or 2 services that run a day which are at rediculous times as they have come from so far away.

I got to Rainbow beach at about mid day and met my mate Phil who i had met on the Whitsunday cruise a few days previously. We both checked into the Hostel 'Dingos' which was a pretty nice place. The main purpose for our visit to Rainbow Beach was to do the 'Fraser Island' tour which is pretty much a must do for any backpacker travelling Australia. We had a night ...

... a eroded hilly track. We did arrive a bit late but just before darkness to this lovely campsite in the middle of a forrest. After a good night sleep we had a long walk into the hills with dogs . We decided to take the same route back but that was the wrong choice , because after about 1 km going manly up we could not get the bus to do that last bit ...

... to eventually give in and buy an umbrella :( not what you expect to be buying in Australia. That evening there was nothing we could do, so we rented a DVD and watched it in bed with a bottle of wine and Tim Tams! The next morning the sun was shining and we were going to Australia Zoo! CRIKEY. We were both very excited and couldn't wait to see all the animals. It was fantastic, and we were not ...

... deal. Pretty cool. They also have two Batman rides, one of which is one of those motion chair things, and the other one being a PlayStation ride (I know it's not called that anymore, but to anyone who grew up in the north west and is of a certain age, those shoot you into the air tower things will always be called PlayStations). Now, I could practically fall asleep on the Big One and I'd go on the Irn-Bru ten times in a row if it didn't involved ...

... waiting for 8am so they could try to feed the dolphin. So we decided to leave and were glad we did because when we were pulling out of the car park we saw a tour bus of 50 Swedes who were on our campsite the night before and two other tour buses heading towards the boat ramp.
So we made our way to Noosa and found it after we originally missed our turn and got lost. First time getting lost in Australia after 7 weeks driving around, not bad! Noosa looked ...

... until we arrived that the Uni Games were happening at the time! And just after the AFL cup as well! We ended up going to the Old Melbourne Gaol and did a tour of the court house. The tour guide of the gaol was an actress portraying a police guard and we were actually locked up in some cells. "Wicked" was amazing - everyone should see it! We also did the Queen Victoria Market and picked up some souvenirs for ...

... was coming from the Nescafe factory which was not far from the park. There is also still a working gold mine in Gympie run by Eldorado Mine Limited which still mines 25,000ozs gold per year. Our plan today was to ride "The Valley Rattler" for a day trip through the Mary Valley. The restoration of the steam locomotive and all the carriages was down by volunteers and the staff on the train are all retired volunteers but real train buffs. It was in 1910 that a railway ...

... flops Que = line up Togs = bathing suit One dollar coin = loonie two dollar coin = twoonie Mackers = McDonalds Sunnies = sunglasses Car Park = Parking lot Fare dinkum = genuine Goon = cheap boxed wine Petrol = Gas Greneetas = slushy I only included the loonie and the twoonie because I made the mistake of asking for "two twoonies and a loonie" and a fiver in place of the ten ...

... It was weird to dig your feet into the sand and uncover marbled sand. Walking back became an issue when we all fell out about which way to go. The girls said the hostel worker who had dropped us off said something about another track over the dune and I thought she'd said come back the way you came. So in true smithy stubborn fashion I wandered off my way and they went over the dune. I just followed the track through the woods and then onto the road that ...