Fraser Island shines

Firstly, the sun is back and shining like a good'un! We had beautiful warm days and cloud-less blue skies on Fraser, which showed off the island at its finest.

Fraser Island is the world's largest sand island. It is approx. 120km long and a little under 25km wide at its widest point.

It's a beautiful place, like the typical desert island fantasy image... but with lots of 4-wheel drive buses roaming about! It's a 4x4 only zone, which means the tour buses have to be adapted & raised onto off-road chassis and wheels to cope. Most buses are mini or half buses, but I saw one big 52 seater on the island - it was a monstrosity! Shouldn't be allowed. As well as that, how can anyone enjoy a nice secluded part of the island if they are getting off a bus with 50 other people?!?

Luckily I was on a bus with just 4 other people, all of who were normal and happy to enjoy the island views without needing to drink 6 cans of XXXX before lunchtime! (this is a typical activity of young, male backpackers).

You'll see from the photos that it was a lovely place. Highlights included:

- Indian Head. So named by Captain Cook (still as Lieutenant back then) who had just discovered Australia in 1770. As his ships sailed past on their way back to England the local Aborigines climbed to the island's highest vantage point to get a better look. Cook saw all those coloured faces looking down on him so called the point Indian Head. (Before the days of political correctness of course). Beautiful views up there, I saw humpback whales breaching in the distance, rays & turtles swimming in the shallow waters below me, and a wild dingo.

- S.S. Maheno wreck. The S.S. Maheno was a luxury liner that used to sail between NZ and Oz. (Q: Do you know what S.S. stands for? A: steam ship). It sailed a good and full life, even serving time in WWI as a floating hospital. In 1935 it was decommissioned and sold to a Japanese company for scrap. To save money they decided to tow the vessel to Japan. It got struck by an out of season cyclone, broke away from the tow line, and in 1935 became stuck on a sand bank on the east coast of Fraser Island where she still lies today. Quite an eerie sight in its own way.

- Lake Mackenzie. A large fresh water lake completely filled up over time by rain water. I walked around it, which took 90 minutes and it was a lovely walk in the sand. It was a bit fresh for swimming in though. I also saw my first kookaburra in the picnic area by the lake - the cheeky chappy stole a sausage from the plate of a Japanese girl in our group! They are lovely looking bird. I didn't hear it 'laugh' though - its beak was too full of sausage to laugh!

- A full moon. I know, full moons can be seen every month, so why is this one of my highlights?? Well on Friday night it was the 2nd full moon of the month! This is very rare they tell me, hence the reason a 2nd full moon is referred to as a blue moon. They occur on average once every 2.72 years. Now you understand the origin of that old phrase, "Blue Moon, You saw me standing alone, Without a dream in my heart, Without a love of my own"..... oh not that one, it was "Once in a blue moon" I meant.

I had a great trip to the island and the tour was great. Our guide, Sarah, knew her stuff as she'd done an Environmental Studies course at uni. It was really interesting. I recommend a visit if you're down this way.

Fraser Island

When Aminals Attack II

I forgot to mention, I was stung on my chin by a jelly fish when snorkeling at Hook Island in the Whitsundays.

It stung like a bugger! At first it felt like someone was sticking a needle into my chin over & over again, then it felt like they were pulling out my chin whiskers one by one!

Luckily the severe pain died down after a few minutes but it was bothering me for a few hours. I told the captain and he treated it by having a pee on my chin.

Not really, they dabbed vinegar on it. A few days later when I shaved and got a good look at it, the sting had just left a small red line like a scratch.

I think I'll live.

The Whitsundays

Whitsundays

Sailing around the Whitsunday Islands was quite an experience. It was hard work, but a real adventure at the same time. (After the reaction to my previous comments about bad weather I had decided not to talk about it again, but to leave it out of my tales about the Whitsundays sailing trip would be like not mentioning I was on a boat - the weather is such an important part of being at sea.)

Hard work due to the terrible freezing weather and the cramped conditions below deck - I kept banging into the ceiling above my top bunk & got little sleep. There was only 1 toilet and no shower on board. It poured down the first day and was so cold, but the weather dried up and wind dropped as the 3 days passed and we actually caught a glimpse of the sunshine as we sailed back into the Airlie Beach marina! (It's raining heavily again now though.)

But the islands were beautiful even if they looked much more dramatic than normal due to being covered in gloomy clouds and misty rain. Whitehaven Beach still looked fantastic and was the prettiest place we visited. The sand on Whitehaven beach is 99.9% silica which makes it the whitest & finest sand you're ever likely to see. The lens on the Hubble telescope was made from this sand due to its quality. The silica washes up from an old volcanic crack in the sea bed not far off the beach, it's quite unique. Whitehaven is one of the most photographed beaches in the world and if you've seen a postcard from Oz with a beach scene on it, chances are it is Whitehaven.

I'm told that on a dry day the sand squeaks between your toes, but the rain had compacted it down a bit when I was there. It was still incredibly soft in the shallow waters on the sea's edge. Plus we saw lots of rays swimming about the inlet there as it is a big breeding ground for them. That was cool.

The sailing was a highlight too. Hammer is an ex-racing yacht and was placed a few times in the Sydney - Hobart race. There was plenty of strong wind to catch (one positive about the weather) and we got up to 12 knots. At just under 25 kph this doesn't sound fast but it is very quick to be pushed along the water by wind power alone. Some of the faster racing yachts go about double that speed in ideal conditions with a professional crew, so our speed wasn't bad for a bunch of amateurs.
It's very exciting when the boat is tipping sideways at around 45 degrees and we are all clinging on to the high side of the boat to balance it out and keep from tipping!

I'm back on dry land now waiting for the next leg of my bus trip south, which is tomorrow morning at 0700.

Singing in the rain

I'm in Airlie Beach now and depart this afternoon for the Whitsundays on my maxi sailing yacht, called "Hammer". It's still raining but it's not too cold today so it shouldn't stop me snorkeling or taking lots of pictures of the islands.

After a few comments from my concerned friends about me getting depressed about the rain, just wanted to clarify that I would much rather be here than back in London at work, and it's not that bad really I just think it would be even better if the sun was shining! At least I am not at risk of sunburn... the local newspaper reports this morning that yesterday was the coldest June day in the area for over 50 years and maybe since records began. See how lucky I am - witnessing records being smashed!!

Airlie Beach is much more lively than Townsville & Magnetic Island, so it should be a fun place to stay for 3 days after my sailing trip returns on Sunday.

Bon voyage

Oz Experience (v.1)

Between Cairns and Brisbane I am travelling on the Oz Experience buses, so thought I'd set up a photo album for what I see and do along that stretch of the East coast. I will add to it as I get further along - next stop is Airlie Beach (Whitsundays), then a compulsory night stop at a cattle station, then Rainbow Beach (Fraser Island), then Brisbane on 2nd July.

As I add more photos to the album below I will change the title of this posting to v.2, v.3 etc so you can check again if you want. I'll add captions to the pictures to add some flavour...

Oz Experience

Need words with Mother Nature

It's still overcast, windy, grey & miserable on Magnetic Island. So my dive to Yongala has been cancelled a second time and I have no more time to re-schedule, so I will have to miss out this time on one of the best dive sites around. My timetable travelling South is tight with trips to Whitsundays & Fraser Island already booked, so I can't stay here longer. At this rate the weather is going to ruin, or at least effect, those trips too.

I'm pretty depressed today, this is probably my lowest moment since leaving South Africa. Where is the damn sun?!? Boo-hoo!!

Not what I signed up for!

It's hammering down with rain in Townsville today. Hope that brightens up your Monday mornings at work! I was under the impression it was sunny in Australia?!?

And as I did the only tourist attraction in town yesterday - the aquarium - then I'm stuck today. Was supposed to be diving Yongala wreck today but I woke at 0600 to find out it was cancelled due to high winds (not my own).

The aquarium was good though. Their 2.5 million litre tank contains about the only living coral reef - basically a hunk of the Great Barrier Reef - in captivity. Plus I was there for shark feeding time.

Anyway, today I'm about to go to the pub and commence my first ever solo all-dayer.

Wish me luck.

When Animals Attack!!

To get to Josephine Falls, near Innisfail, you have to walk along a 700m path through the rainforest. It was pretty wet as it's a rainforest, but also it had been raining that morning. I was wearing flip flops (I still haven't started calling them thongs like Aussies do!), and I enjoyed seeing the falls.

Back on the bus I noticed a little worm or slug like think inbetween two toes. I tried to flick it off but it didn't budge, so I flicked harder. When it didn't move that time I got a little worried about what it was so pulled it off my toe.

It was only a bloody leech and I started to bleed a surprising amount! It's okay, I survived the ordeal and mopped up the blood with a tissue.

Another example of how you can't turn your back for a minute on the savage Australian wildlife!!

Great Barrier Reef

My first experience of the Great Barrier Reef was good and bad.
Good because the colourful corals and abundance of fish were fantastic, also the boat I lived on for 4 days - Reef Encounter - had great crew, good food & a comfortable living area.
But bad because the sun never came out, it was windy & rainy which meant the boat was restricted to more sheltered parts of the reef and I spent most time on the same part. Luckily I wasn't effected by sea sickness - my sea legs must have come from my granddad's DNA as he was in the Navy during WWII!
I'm glad I went though, I did 13 dives in my time on board and completed my Advanced diver course which means I am now able to dive to greater depths. Doing that many dives in succession really increases your confidence and ability & I've noticed my buoyancy and navigation skills improving.
Having said that about my diving skills, I did manage to get stung by the slightest touch of my big toe on some fire coral - it stings man!! A blister forms and pops and it's still healing days later.
I met some cool people including a 50 year old guy from North Carolina. He was an instructor and technical diver with quite some experience - he did over 200 dives in 2006 alone!! It was good to pick up a bit of knowledge from him.

Here are a few photos, but I didn't always take my camera out when doing the Advanced course dives or when the light was poor. The camera also can't capture the extent and colours of some of the coral gardens I saw, they were spectacular and cos they were not in deep water the sunlight made then shine.

Great Barrier Reef

Next stop the Reef

I've arrived in Cairns today and the temperature here is much more like it - around 28c. I'm heading to the outer Great Barrier Reef tomorrow for 3 nights and I don't expect they have internet on board so it's au revoir for a few days.

Mail me if you're bored at work!

My Uluru Experience

Background: Ayres Rock was first discovered by a European in 1873 - William Gosse was searching for a route through Central Australia and saw the monolith and named it after a politician from South Australia who was funding his expedition. In 1986 the rock and surrounding land (including the Olgas) were returned to the traditional owners, i.e. the local Aborigines, who in turn leased the land back to Australian National Parks on a 99 year lease. At this point Ayres Rock was renamed Uluru and The Olgas were renamed Kata Tjuta. The new owners now get a lot of the ticket sales revenue and other income derived from the national park. As there are only about 150 of the locals living in the area, they each get about AUS$50,000 to AUS$80,000 each year paid direct into their bank accounts for doing sweet FA. Not a bad life!
Uluru is 348 metres high and covers about 9 square kilometres.

Camels: There are estimated to be about 1 million camels roaming central Australia. Originally brought over from Afghanistan in the 19th century to help explorers as they were better equipped than horses for the terrain. They came over with their handlers (called camelteers), so there is a small local population descending from Afghans. There are so many camels and they are of such a high quality breed, due to the lack of disease and predators, that Australia now export camels to Saudi Arabia and the Middle East. Genius! Enterprising aussie exporters are next planning to sell coal to Newcastle and ice to the Eskimos...

Sunset at Uluru was easily the best bit for me. You'll see from the photos here that the change in colour is spectacular. As the sun went down the rock got darker and duller but then suddenly it lit up and glowed bright red as the red light part of the spectrum in the setting sun refracted onto the rock (excuse any inaccuracies in my science here!). The sunset itself was amazing too - the best I've seen for a long while.
In the morning we got up for sunrise but that wasn't as good as sunset. I did the 9k base walk, which was interesting cos you get right up to it and can see a lot more of the formations caused by erosion and the aboriginal cave paintings.

I also visited Kata Tjuta (known as The Olgas before 1986) and we hiked the 7k rim walk around Kings Canyon. Both were great to see as well. Equally impressive but unheard of and basically ignored in terms of tourism is Mt. Conner. At 344m high it is only 4m lower than Uluru but covers 30 square metres so much bigger. Plus it has a flat top (like Table Mountain), and I found it just as cool. But it's on private land so you can't easily get up close.

The camping part of the trip was fun, although 2 nights in 1 degree overnight temperatures was enough! We only had 4 people in our tour so quite peaceful (the tours can accommodate up to 24 people) and meant we got more of a tailored service from our tour guide, Ned.

It was definitely a worthwhile trip I reckon despite me not expecting too much from it before I came to central Australia. (P.s. Alice Springs is pretty quiet and boring, glad I'm not here more than 1 day).

Uluru experience

Alice Spings is 8.5 hours ahead of London

(7.5 hours ahead of Cape Town)

Next stop Uluru

I'm back in Perth tonight, thankfully after a much more straight forward trip back from Exmouth on the bus. Just the 'usual' 19.5 hours rather that a day and a half like the journey north!
Before I left on Monday I had 2 final dives on Ningaloo Reef - saw an olive sea snake, an octopus, a scorpion fish, a few more wobbegong sharks, trigger fish. It was really challenging diving conditions with strong swells and surges and poor vis at 2-3 metres only. A test of diving though and I was happy with how I coped. Ningaloo was amazing, it was sad to leave (esp. after I heard the whale shark tour on Monday saw 7 sharks all over 7 metres long. Bast*rds!!)

Tomorrow I fly to Alice Springs and then the day after that go camping in the Red Centre so am fairly certain I'll be offline for a couple of days. No worries, I'll be back on the blog with amazing photos of Uluru hopefully.
Enjoy the UK weather - up to 25c at the weekend hey - hotter than Alice Springs, which is only maxing at about 14c! I thought the outback was a hot desert, maybe I got mixed up...

I've added more photos to the South Africa blog

If you're interested, some photos from the 1st half of our road trip have now been uploaded from my other memory card. I've put the photos at the start of the album to avoid you having to go over the same ones again!

So long Western Australia

I only have a few more days in Western Australia so here are some of my highlights, excluding the mantas (see blog posting below).

Western Australia

Tomorrow I'm hiring a car and going to Coral Bay, Turquiose Bay and the Oyster Stacks, which I've heard are all great beaches with top snorkelling.
Then tomorrow I dive at Lighthouse Bay in the day then get the Greyhound back to Perth in the evening.
I fly to Alice Springs on Wednesday and start a 3-night camping safari tour around the Red Centre, e.g. Uluru (Ayres Rock) and Kings Canyon.
On the 11th June I fly to Cairns and next day I hop onto a live aboard diving boat for 4 days & 3 nights. The boat is called "Reef Encounters" if you want to google it. I'm going to do an advanced diving course while on board, plus the boat sails around the outer Great Barrier Reef where the diving is much better. I will also do one or 2 night dives which will be a first for me.
The day after the live aboard finishes I get onto the Oz Experience bus for the start of my journey to Brisbane. First leg will be Cairns - Townsville (about 10 hours). From Townsville I have booked a dive trip to the Yongala wreck, which is one of Australia's top dive spots (which implies one of the world's top) and my first wreck dive so I'm really excited about that! I'll also visit Magnetic Island from Townsville.
After Townsville I head to Airlie Beach, which is where I will sail to the Whitsunday Islands from. That trip isn't booked yet and no more of my bus journey is certain, but I hope to take in Bundaburg / Hervey Bay for trips to Fraser Island and Lady Musgrave Island, which is a small idyllic desert island Sam told me about with fantastic snorkelling.
So plenty to look forward to. I'll keep you posted.