Fraser Island - Not just any island

Our journey continued with a trip to Fraser Island but before I tell you about that, first let me tell you a bit about why the island is pretty unique. The island comprises a 75mile beach along the eastern coast where the sea plays home to a tiger shark breeding ground (no swimming for us then), rainforests, crystal clear lakes, a couple of hundred dingoes and a lot of sand. Infact, Fraser Island is the worlds largest sand island and therefore the only mode of transport that can handle it, and that we would be driving ourselves (eek!) was a 10 seater 4x4.
Once on the island, after we had been put into our groups, given our instructions and briefed on how to drive on the island, we began our Fraser adventure. Thankfully one of the guys in our group offered to drive the first day so Em, Susan and I could see how it was done before we had a go ourselves because our first drive was through the forest on a track of sand over a foot deep. It was alot of fun and although not exactly a smooth ride, being thrown around in the back of the car with 6 strangers was one way of getting more acquainted.
We stopped to go for a walk through the rainforest and walked to Basin Lake, a gorgeous emerald green lake surrounded by white sand but we couldn't stay long as the tide was coming in on the beach and we had to get there before it happened! Driving on the beach felt a bit bizarre but it was so fun. The beach serves as the main road of the island where vehicles hurtle along as if its the norm...although you don't tend to see wandering dingoes or landing planes on your average road.

We made it to our campsite, all people and car in one piece and set up for the night. It was really fun to be camping and we had really great people in our group so it made for some good campsite fun.

Day 2 came my chance to drive. It was a little scary at first, not just because of the terrain but because I was now responsible for the 9 other people in the car! It was all good though, a little bumpy in the back but no crashes so I was happy. We drove to a look out point which was absolutely beautiful, we were told we would be able to see the sharks but sadly no such luck, and then from there we went to the Champagne Pools. Nope, unfortunately not a big pool filled with champagne but saltwater pools where the big splashes from the waves create lots of lovely bubble. Then in the afternoon we went for another drive along the beach to the Pinnicles rock formation. The highlight of the trip, and I think my new favourite place ever came on the last day when we went to Lake Mackenzie. An absolutely stunning fresh water lake that was crystal clear and all colours of blue, that once in the water we didn't want to get out, it was just gorgeous!! We had so much fun on the island because of our ace group, everyone got on so well and we pretty much spent the whole time laughing. We couldn't really have had a better trip!

Agnes Waters/1770 - We found the sunshine!!

Next on our journey down the coast was a small town called Agnes Waters and the neighbourng town, giving its full title, The Town of 1770.
We were dropped off at our accommodation and the driver asked us if we would like a free tour of the area with one of his friends, might sound a bit dubious but of course we said yes as we don't turn down anything that is free! The next thing is 3 4x4's packed to the brim with backpackers pull up and we squeeze into the last one. Once in the car we discover that driving the car is just another backpacker so I'm thinking what kind of tour is this! It turned out that the tour guide was in the first car, so every so often we would all get out and he would explain a little bit about the area and the history which was pretty good. Our first evening in Agnes Water was then spent on motorbikes...that's right I've now driven a motorbike! The company is called Scooteroos and they have these mini Harley Davidson bikes and they take you out for a drive around the countryside at sunset. It was so much fun, about 40 of us driving around while the sun setting, the scenery was absolutely beautiful. We all stopped at one point as the guide had spotted some kangaroos so we got pretty close to them which was amazing!
I also got to fullfil a long overdue ambition of mine...to learn to surf! Now, I don't know if anyone reading this has surfed before but I've now discovered, it's ridiculously hard! The point where we were learning had such a strong current that it would take me about 10mins to wade throught the waves to where I wanted to be and then get thrown around a little bit before I actually attempted to get on the board. I did manage to stand up a few times but after a couple of hours in the water, I was knackered! Although I was pretty rubbish, I loved every minute of it so the next day we rented a couple of boards between us and went out again. I think this has been my fav place so far, there was such a relaxed atmosphere in the town, everyone was so chilled out and the locals that we met were just your typical friendly aussies.

Whitsunday Sailing

So our next big adventure was back at sea to spend 3days and 2nights sailing around The Whitsundays. A little bit of info - they have been voted (not sure by who) the 2nd best group of islands in the world and on one of the islands there is the best beach in the world, Whitehaven Beach...so I was pretty excited about the trip.
There were about 25 people on board and luckily we had a really great group. Sadly though, again, the weather was pretty pants, which is bad enough on dry land but at sea...you get wet! But again, this wasn't going to dampen our spirits. We were supposed to make it to Whitehaven Beach on our first day but the sea was so rough that our skipper decided to drop anchor a little earlier in a beautiful, peacful bay which was lovely after the craziness of our first crossing with pretty massive waves.
It felt really weird spending the night on a boat but it was so amazing lying on the deck with nothing else around us and just looking up at the stars.
Because we were a little behind schedule, the captain set sail in the morning at 5.30 so it was a rather early start for us and we all felt a little bit sea sick but we soon got over it and made it to the beach. Now the beach was absolutely beautiful but because of the bad weather we sadly didn't get to see it to its full potential. We could still see walk along the finest, whitest sand Ive ever seen and wearing a very fashionable stinger suit, we went into the sea and had stingrays swimming around us which was ace. Back in the bay where the boat was anchored , we watched turtles bobbing in the water as they came up to the surface for air and in the afternoon we did some snorkelling in jellyfish infested waters. It was great fun to start off with and saw some cool things (including a hump-headed maori wrasse fish called Elvis, he was huge! The photo is just a regular fish) but then most people got out except from myself and an american girl...we were having too much fun. But not for long. Gradually I started to see more and more jellyfish, so I would try and swim around them but then people from the boat would shout 'jellyfish on your right!' and within a minute they were everywhere and the girl I was with started to freak out because we couldnt get back to the boat! Thankfully, one of the crew members was watching us closely and came out to get us with the speedboat but it was a little bit scary!
It was a really great few days and once back on land alot of us from the boat met up and spent the next few days together which was really fun.

G'day from Down Unda

Yep you guessed it, we're in Australia!! Sadly we didn't quite arrive in Cairns to the beautiful sunshine that I was expecting. It would have been nice if someone had warned me that we were arriving during monsoon season. It pretty much poured for the first few days but thankfully we've had a few sunny days since then.

Cairns - The Great Barrier Reef

Our first true Aussie experience was a boat trip to the Great Barrier Reef, a good place to start I'm sure you'll agree. Although our first few days were spent in the rain, the weather was absolutely perfect for our sailing trip. The most exciting part of the day for me was the chance to try scuba diving! We we're given a short brief on various safety instructions and signals we needed to know while in the water and that was pretty much our training done(eek, a little scary). I donned on my rather fetching scuba gear (thankfully not a wetsuit in sight) and although just a tad nervous, I jumped off the side of our boat. There were three of us and the instructor in the water and gradually he sent each one of us down to the sea bed, about 10m deep. It was such a bizarre sensation, it took me a while to get used to the breathing and I was so focused on trying to breathe that every so often I would have to remind myself to look around, 'you're in the barrier reef!!' I saw some amazing coral and lots of Nemos but nothing too scary on the first dive. Then we went to another spot in the reef and I was able to go in again, about 5m deep. I was a bit more comfortable this time which was just aswel as we ended up seeing a shark! Don't worry, I'm not quite the next Steve Irwin just yet, it was only a reef shark but it was still pretty cool.

Magnetic Island - Wildlife Sanctuary

From Cairns we went to a tiny little place called Mission Beach where we didn't do much except sunbathe because we were waiting for my friend Susan to come out from Scotland and join us. Once she arrived we headed to Magnetic Island. Again the weather was pretty awful here but the reason you go there is for the wildlife. Our hostel had a small animal sanctuary attached to it, so one morning we had a Bushtucker Brunch which involved a guide bringing round a snake and a crocodile to our tables as we tucked into a yummy breakfast. No need to panic, they were just small so didn't put us off our pancakes. After that, we were able to hold them ourselves. The best thing we got to hold though was Dexter the koala! Although slightly stinky, he was very cute, I just wanted to take him with me! It was very cool.

Ive lots more to write about and even more photos to add so I shall continue soon!