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  Sydney-Cairns and back, Australia
Saturday, September 16, 2006

G'day everyone! I'm sorry I haven't updated in a while, but I've been on a 2 week spring holday up to Cairns. I figured I'd do a sort of calendar entry to give you all more of an idea where I was, what I was doing, etc.

Day 1 (9/2/06): LeeAnn, Catherine, Natasja, and I took the 12:30pm bus from Canberra to Sydney. Catherine and I thought it was the 1:00 bus, so we were almost late, and consequently caused LeeAnn and Natasja near heart attacks. We arrived in Sydney around 3:30pm and soon after hopped on a train to Casino (the beef capital of something or other..maybe New South Wales, I dunno). The train ride took about 11 hours or so, and our car was filled with elderly Italian people...so that was loud. :) Lastly, we took a bus from Casino to Byron Bay, arriving at about 6am on the 3rd (Sunday).

Day 2 (9/3/06): We got to our hostel in Byron Bay assuming (foolishly) that we would be able to check in and take a nap. Even though we called ahead of time, this was not the case. :( So, we dropped off our bags and went on to explore Byron Bay. It was Fathers' Day there, and there were plenty of dads and families out for breakfast. It was a nice little coastal town with shoeless hippies strewn about. This was the first opportunity I had to see the ocean in Australia. I got so excited despite my sleepless delirium that I threw my shoes off and started running toward the surf screaming. My friends laughed at, not with me during this joyful moment, but whatever...I was happy. Once we were able to check into our hostel, I took a 3 hour nap while the other girls went to the beach. They soon learned of my dire need for sleep and the consequences they would incur had they woken me up. (haha...I swear, I'll NEVER grow out of this) On the way to meet them at the beach, I came across a fresh fruit stand and a garage sale. I bought oranges (yes, oranges) for the first time in my life at this fruit stand, and also found an old school camping backpack for $6AUS at the garage sale. Woo hoo! this blue bag would be my friend for the rest of the journey. I may have looked like a Girl Scout, but I was doing it in style.

Day 3 (9/4/06): After an early (about 10:30pm) night in Byron Bay, the 3 of us woke up at about 7am to catch our 8am Oz Experience bus to start our tour. The aboriginal bums accompanied us at the bus terminal where we waited for approximately an hour before calling the Oz Experience office to see what was up. It turns out that they changed the routes THAT VERY DAY and our bus wouldn't be coming until 2pm. You can imagine how happy our sleepy selves were to hear this. We decided to take a bus out to the 'industrial arts' section of Byron Bay. It was really nice. There were all these warehouses that people used as studio space along with businesses, cafes, boutiques, etc. Oh, and there was a cookie factory!! Yum! After that, we finally caught our bus at 2, and were on our Oz Experience way. We met Dean-o, our first driver, and he took us Zorbing. What is zorbing? you may be asking yourself...well, I'll tell you. It's this enormous ball made out of plasic, where you slide inside an inner chamber filled with water and roll down a hill. Natasja and I did it with this other girl on our bus. This place was also where I saw my first wild kangaroo. Yay! Finally! So, we did this, and our bus driver told us that we should really re-think our trip because we weren't staying anywhere for a substantial amount of time. He said that Cairns (our final stop) was actually sort of boring, and that we should see something like Fraser Island or the Whitsunday islands instead. So, with his help, we booked a 2 day tour to Fraser island. Yay Dean-o! He was cool, despite his insistant country music playing. That night we drove into Brisbane (one of the bigger cities in Australia, pronounced BRIS-bon), but we didn't really get to see much. We pretty much went out, ate some yummy gelato, and went to bed in our room at the Palace hostel. It was nice, but our carpet smelled like mold...oh, and I had an eye infection, so that was gross.

Day 4 (9/5/06): We left Brisbane at 7am to head to our next destination, Hervey Bay (pronounced Harvey Bay..I dunno, Aussies are weird). We traveled all day listening to songs like 'She thinks my tractor's sexy'...but the stops were cool. We stopped in a place called Rainbow beach, where the sediment was all different colors. Dean-o taught us how to play a digeridoo on the beach, and how to properly throw a boomerang. I wasn't very good at either..but ah well. Once we got to Hervey Bay, we tried to go out for a drink and dinner at around 8pm. Everything there was dead as a doornail, so we just got some overpriced Chinese buffet crap and went to bed. The hostel was really nice though, and it had it's own kitchenette and bathroom in each unit. Woo!

Day 5 (9/6/06): This day we took off for Fraser Island. We left our Austrian, English, and Korean busmates and took a guided island tour. We had to be on the Ferry at 9am I think, and our tour started around 10...I can't remember, but it was something to that effect. The ferry ride was only about 45 minutes, and our tour guide met us at the island when we arrived. His name was Carl, and he was from New Zealand (a Kiwi bloke, if you will). The other people on our bus were a couple from England (one of which thought my name was Sharwin...which Catherine now insists upon calling me), 2 women from England, 2 non-english speaking Slovak people, 2 non-english speaking Korean girls, an Irish guy from Tipperary, a weird guy from Canberra (oddly enough), and us. Our bus was a 4x4 and the ride was a bit bumpy. The first day was overcast, but we went swimming in the beautiful Basin Lake and Lake MacKenzie. These lakes are freshwater, created from the aquifer situated under the island. I have never seen such beautiful water...it was so clear! We hiked through the bush and saw a python!!! Ah!! We also learned that the first time anyone ever used camoflauge it was because of the ANZAC (Australia-New Zealand Army Corps) soldiers stationed on Fraser Island. They have these trees that look exactly like camoflauge..it's really cool. I have plenty of pictures, but there's ben a discrepancy with Lee Ann's computer and it's picture storage, so I'll have to show those later. I'm gonna take a break from re-capping right now and continue later or tomorrow. I've got a couple days left, and this is exhausting.

Day 6 (9/7/06): Alright alright...so I know I took AGES to continue this. I may have forgotten some parts due to the inevitable passing of time, but here goes nothing. So, we were on Fraser Island, right? Right. The first night (yesterday, for the sake of this entry) we went to our hostel sort of thingy and washed all the sand off ourselves. We then met the others for a buffet (wow, how appetizing and excitingly different from Ursula hall..haha) dinner and drinks at the island bar. It was pretty good because they served much-missed tacos, and we played pool with the interesting and attractive bartender. I lost of course, but I'm improving, I swear. We retired somewhat early to our room in preparation for the big day ahead. Day 2 on Fraser Island was much hotter than day 1. We all suited up and climbed into the 4x4 hoping to see a dingo, or other Australian wildlife that day. Our plan was basically to drive down the West side, and see some interesting things along the way. The scary part about this trip, however, was that this was the DANGEROUS part of the island where sharks can attack you in 2 feet of water...AHH! Needless to say, we stayed quite a distance from the creepy man-eating sharks. We did, however, visit a place called the Champagne Pools which were beautiful. It was a rocky reef type beach where the waves crashed over the rocks and made a bubbly, champagne-like sound and appearance. I think the best part of this stop was the weird little organisms we saw in the water. Catherine and I went around poking these little plants that would close up, 'swallow' some water, and spit it back at you. It was really bizarre, but a source of good fun. Next, we drove down the beach and stopped at the S.S. Maheno shipwreck from the 1930s. It was used as a hospital ship originally, then got stuck on the rocks at Fraser Island, and is now a permanent tourist spot. It was actually really beautiful how the rust ate through the majority of the ship to create these jagged holes and such...you get the idea. Other things we saw on the beach that day were two dingos, along with some stupid fisherman fishing in the dangerous water on this side. One of the coolest things about this day was the time we spend sitting on top of Indian Head, an enormous rock-like thing right on the edge of the beach. From there we saw several sharks, sting rays, and sea turtles, so that was pretty great. The water was so clear, you could see right down to the sand. Marvelous! After the stop at Indian Head, some people on our tour (including Lee Ann and Natasja) went on a plane ride around the island. Catherine and I stayed with the tour, and waded in this nice stream instead. I was a little upset about not getting to see the island from above, but I survived. It was extra creepy when we ran into an eel in the water in the stream though. I nearly jumped out of my skin, and promptly exited the water. There were plenty of people laughing at me from above on the bridge though, so don't worry about no one witnessing it..haha. That was basically our stay on Fraser Island though. We also went on a couple of walks through the rainforest which were beautiful, but then Carl drove us back to the ferry, and we said goodbye to our new friends from the tour and went back to the hostel in Hervey Bay. Right as we got there, they were having a Pizza Hut pizza party, so we luckily got some food and watched the Dukes of Hazzard movie (which was not as horrendous as one might think) before getting ready for bed and our big day ahead of us.

Day 7 (9/8/06): We 4 girls woke up to be on the Oz bus with Dean-o at 7am. This day is when we met Franz (from Austria) and Doug (from Scotland). Little did we know, we'd be spending the next two days getting to know these lads. They were pretty cool, and willing to talk to us, which is more than I can say for a lot of the other passengers we traveled with. This was also the last day we traveled in the Deano-mobile so to speak. I can't remember exactly where we were...I think it was Bundaberg (where they make lots of yummy rum), but this is where we switched drivers and met our new buddy Bogan. His actual name is Darren, but they all have driver nicknames I suppose, so this is where Bogan came in. For all of you American folk, 'bogan' is an Aussie term used for a sort of country-bumpkin type person. I've gathered that it is about the equivalent to our word 'hillbilly', 'hick' or 'nascar fan'. In any case, it's not particularly positive to be called a bogan. We drove and drove from Bundaberg (let's say) until we reached Kroombit seemingly in the middle of nowhere. Bogan told us we would be staying the night here, and that we should change into junk clothes because we'd be getting dirty. Oh boy. Kroombit turned out to be a cattle station. We started off by eating a delicious steak lunch with real vegetables and potatoes. Then we got ready to go horseback riding and, eventually goat mustering. This is where you gather all the goaties from the pasture and put them into their big goat-house pen on horseback. My horse's name was Chrissy. She was an enormous momma-horse that I feel might not have been the best choice for my short self, but she did the job. We gathered the cute little goats from all around the hills, yelling UP UP!! (apparantly that means "get your little goat booty moving"). It was so great. Lee Ann wasn't too happy with her cranky horse, but Franz was a regular equestrian, galloping circles around us novices. He told us previously that he was in the army for a year or so..so that would explain it. After the goat mustering, we got a chance to 'brand' them in teams of 2. Doug and Franz went first. Unfortunately, their goat hopped over the fence and escaped. So they got a second chance. Lee Ann and I were next. We didn't turn out to be that great at catching our goat, but Natasja and Catherine were...so yay them! Following the branding, we did some skeet shooting (where I didn't hit one clay pigeon) and learned how to crack whips from the man who owned the cattle station. They fed us dinner, and the night came to a close around a bonfire where we chatted with the locals and drank our fair share of giggle juice (cheap wine) and of course, beer. For some reason, this turned into a sort of junior high party where we played 'spin the bottle' type games...but it was fun nonetheless. Oh, I almost forgot, I also rode a mechanical bull for the first time ever. I fell off in the first minute or so, but it was an experience. Franz, the man who's good at everything, broke the cattle station record and stayed on the bull for 140 turns...AMAZING. It was good fun.

Day 8 (9/9/06): We reluctantly woke up at 7am to get on the bus with Bogan. I recall that the first thing he said to me was that I looked like s%#@. Little did he know that it was the eye infection, not the alcohol...but I knew at this moment that we would be friends. This day was basically all about driving. We stopped at this really amazing little bar where the owner made us sandwiches and we got to talk with his pet cockatoo. Other than that, it was about an 8 hour drive to our next destination, Airlie Beach. We played plenty of games in the bus among the 7 of us. One included 'spot the tractor', 'roadkill bingo' (let me tell you, it's really strange to see kangaroos as roadkill), and playing dj with bogan's mp3 player. We also had quite a few singalongs. I slept quite a bit on this trip, but it was so hot, that it became a little uncomfortable. We arrived in Airlie Beach at around 7pm, ate dinner and tried to get into being at a bar...failed, and went to bed around 11pm. We would be leaving Doug and Franz here to go to the Whitsunday islands, so we also said our goodbyes, and that was a little sad. :(

Day 9: (9/10/06): We took off with Mr. Bogan at around 8am to make our way to Townsville and Magnetic Island where we would spend the night. Once in Townsville, we took the 2pm ferry out to the island and arrived at our most beautiful hostel here. The hostel was right on the beach, and there was an open air bar surrounded by beautiful scenery. Since we arrived here relatively early, we got to do basically whatever we wanted. Apparantly, I was the only one who wanted to do anything, so I braved the bushwalk and the sea kyaking on my own without my amigas. They laid on the beach, which was also valid, but I wanted to see a bit of the island. On the bushwalk, I licked an ants butt, because it tasted like lemon...don't ask..it just did, and I saw a momma and baby koala. This was also the island where the ANZAC troops were stationed in case the Japanese attacked during WWII. They never did, but the equipment was still on the island. That night, we ate dinner at the hostel, had a couple margaritas, and turned in early. I think it was about 10pm. We became progressively more decrepid as the vacation went on...it was a sleepy time.

Day 10 (9/11/06): On the morning of this day, I went sea kyaking with the Oz Experience group, but again, not with my mates. I shared a boat with a girl from Canada who was traveling the world for a year or two on her own. It was really cool to talk to her and hear about her adventures in Thailand, Fiji, etc. We didn't spend much longer on Maggie, as soon as we took showers to wash off all the salty water, it was time to go back to Townsville (the mainland), and continue on to Mission Beach.