Noosa - Brisbane - Moreton Island
Trip Start
Jan 2003
1
109
200
Trip End
Dec 2003
Where I stayed
Moreton Island,
Australia
Monday, July 14, 2003
Despite residing in the local YHA (again full of weirdos) we've felt more like we're living a life of luxury in Noosa. Not that we've been spending a fortune but at least we've been able to look round galleries and do things we haven't been able to for what seems like an eternity. Noosa's size prevents this from lasting more than half a day however and by the afternoon we were restricted to more traditional Australian culture. "The Big Shell" was disappointingly small and we felt suitably embarrassed taking photos. It did help us to stumble across another curious attraction - The House of Bottles. Built unsurprisingly by a bottle collector, the building, fence and rather oddly a huge bottle in the garden are all made of bottles. Only in Australia ......
Day 164 - 165 - Noosa - Brisbane - Moreton Island
Driving from Noosa to Brisbane we passed two 'landmarks'
Noosa Sunset
. The first of which, "The Big Fish", signposted from the main road, was a grotty, closed-for-refurbishment cafe with a far from impressive fish on the roof. The second was the end of the Bruce Highwat, the road we've done virtually all our travelling on since Cairns. A couple of thousand kilometres long, one lane each way and the definition of a traffic jam being three cars in a row. It's with regret that we have to bid Bruce farewell.While some of Brisbane is reminiscent of the South Bank in London, the rest is depressing. i can't pretend to have seen it all, having spent less than 24 hours there, but what I've seen has given me no reason to explore further. The first state capital we've seen since Perth and I can't help thinking it's a dirty and disorganised version of its West Coast relative. In addition to seeing the town, the reason for going to Brisbane was because it's the gateway to Moreton island, in turn the reason why we weren't totally distraught at missing out on Fraser Island. While only the third largest sand island in the world (Fraser being the largest), the only other thing Fraser can apparently boast over its smaller rival is thousands of backpackers. Moreton seems to hopefully possess more than just that and added to the fact that we're staying in refined and pleasant accommodation we've already started experiencing a bit of what is on offer in The Tangalooma Wild Dolphin resort
Rainbow Parrots
.The first of these was quad-biking. Frustrating because of others' ineptitude to exceed 5mph it was still a lugh especially going up and down sand dunes. We followed this with a game of squash (first physical activity for a while) - a necessity given the outrageous amounts of food we're currently eating. To complete our first day here we were trated to the most spectacular sunset I've ever seen. Further up the beach there are 13 shipwrecks and we had made the effort to walk up to watch the sun set behind them. thankfully I'm now getting a bit better at predicting what a sunset will look like before it happens and therefore can be prepared. I know it's corny but it felt like a once in a lifetime moment. the ships are partially submerged and while the panorama was partially ruined by the more modern vessels seeking the shleter provided by the wrecks it was spectacular. It must have been special because even the staff at the resort were discussing it later on.
