Return to Sydney, the job hunt and life at Coogee

Tuesday 12th

Well Rafa lost the final unfortunately. Looked like he was outplayed and Novak deserved the win. Hoping he will have a good rest and be back next early year fighting for the Australian open. Hopefully might get to see him play if lucky.

Spent most of the day in Raymond terrace again. Applied for jobs and did some more research in the library then went off to find the leisure centre. It's been a good fee days since we've showered so we walked in and asked in we could use the showers. Luckily the guy at reception allowed us in! Free of charge! Top bloke!

Did some work to the van in the afternoon. We're hoping to re paint some of the inside and patch a few things up here and there before selling it on again. 

In the evening we found a free BBQ at one of the parks by the river and cooked some steaks that we got from Woolworth's earlier. Such a nice meal! We had the, with peppercorn sauce, crusty bread (with leftover garlic cream cheese), fried onions and a portion of chips from a nearby takeaway. All for about $7 each which is a bargain (you'd be lucky to get a sandwich for that much if you ate out). We don't do too badly for food y'know! Made a garlic chicken balti at the side of the highway last night and it was gorgeous. If we had motorbikes instead of the van we could easily be the new hairy bikers, since we hadn't shaven in a week, and were cooking gourmet-esque cuisine in the middle of nowhere whilst on a road trip. Only thing is the food goes cold all too quick. Oh and the rats too.

Wednesday 13th and Thursday 14th

Moved on to the rest area before sydney I was talking about. It's 70km north of sydney. Close to a Westfield shopping centre and supermarkets so were ok but there's no free bbqs here unfortunately. However there is drinking water and probably one of the best roadside toilet facilities we've encountered on our trip.

We've been doing work to the van, fitted new speakers, bits of painting etc. Staying at Ourimbah rest area which is now our base until we have reason to drive into sydney. No places to stay there unless we can park outside someone's flat.

Really hot day on Thursday. Looks to be the last of the bad weather, which may have been brought over or come from the typhoon in Indonesia . Nights are getting quite cold but scorching when waking up. 

We have been applying for christmas casual jobs and are just hoping something will come up, and then hopefully we'll drive down to sydney and look into getting a short flat share while we work. In that time we'd probably finish up the van and sell it, before flying on to Melbourne mid or end of January for the Australian open.

Friday 15th

Working on the van.  Been painting the interior roof panels mainly. Trip to the halfords australian equivalent (Super Cheap Auto) which we have been frequenting quite a lot recently!

Tired of not hearing back from job enquiries we decided we just had to go into Sydney, even for the day, just to hand out cvs in person for Christmas casual positions. 

Went to the local library in afternoon to print off a bunch of cvs. Got in touch with some of our mates from the first week intro package and they said we could park our van in their parking space for the day. They live in a flat with secure underground parking which is ideal as they don't even use the space so we could leave it there for free all day. We decided we'd ask them about leaving the van there for a week or two in the hope we could sleep down in the car park and use their facilities every now and then if we gave them a bit of money. Would be a perfect situation if we could stay there and live on the cheap while we try and secure a job and maybe a flat as well. We'll see. They live in Coogee as well so it will bring back memories from when I stayed there on my family holiday back in 2007.

Got talking to a nice couple that evening while cooking tea. They were coming tone end of their year and had plenty of hints and tips for us. 

Another thunderstorm just as we were going to bed. Not much sleep again.

Saturday 16th

Up early to drive into Sydney. Bit stressful on the way in trying to navigate through the suburbs and eventually over the harbour bridge! Got a good video.

Eventually found our friends' place at Coogee and just about got the van underneath the barrier into the secure car park. It's a really nice apartment but quite pricey. With a beach and sea view on the top floor with a good size balcony it's just as well there's 5 of them to help split the rent. 

Sunday 17th - Wednesday 20th

Mixture of hitting the local library and heading into the Westfield shopping centre at Bondi Junction, scouting for casual vacancy signs in shop windows. Also sorting out things with the van (touching up and organising paperwork)

Let the job applications commence!

Thursday 21st and Friday 22nd

Well after numerous applications, some meticulous CV distribution and only two interviews I am pleased to say I've accepted a job... wait for it... as a sales consultant at a luxury jewellers (of all places). Had a great little casual interview with the friendly store manager (who was from Lancashire) and he offered it to me pretty much straight away. And not just because I was from up north too but it helped! I'd never heard of the company but those of you more into your expensive jewellery may have heard of Georg Jensen, who are a Danish jewellery brand specialising more in unique collections that are made by a range or artists, designers, sculptors and even architects. Which is great for me. Theres some really nice designs on offer if you have the $! They also sell luxury home and gift wear so I feel quite comfortable working in that type of environment. It's a really nice shop and seems like a close knit team of friendly and young staff. I'm glad I'm in a job where I'm going to be talking to lots of people. All I have to do now is get good at sales! It's not a bad job at all really. Especially to have over Christmas. 4-5 days a week. It's $22.48 p/hr + commission and double time on Sundays! Plus I get to dress smartly and wear an expensive watch of my choosing. As its a high end brand there is some really expensive stuff on show so commission could be a nice little bonus if I get a big sale! The most expensive piece in the shop is $35000. Some pieces of jewellery are even listed as works of art and feature in museums. Interesting stuff!

Oh and fortunately I have plenty of hours... Will be working most weekends with a couple of days of during the week. Usually 9:30 till 6pm, or 10pm on late night shopping. And paycheque every fortnight!

I've been really lucky to land on my feet with this type of job. It's just what I need and I'm thankful something finally worked, out just in time. Now to start saving! 

The view of Sydney skyline from Bondi Junction Westfield. This is the view from the balcony where I sit on my lunch break :)

Saturday 23rd and Sunday 24th

First shift today! Had an enjoyable day (as every job starts out at first haha). Sold some cufflinks and some earrings. No commission for anything under $3000 though. Not as busy as I expected. Quite quiet for a Saturday.

Really nice team it seems. They are all lovely and very friendly. Get on well with all of them and they are chilled out and up for a laugh. Best people you can work with are the ones who don't take everything so seriously, even if it is a boutique jewellers.

Monday 25 and Tuesday 26th

Looked at a couple of flats over the weekend but still undecided about how we want to proceed with things. Tom still waiting to hear back from a few people regarding potential jobs. There are quite a few other things we are factoring in before we jump at a flat, but for now, our friends don't mind us staying with them at all. We will thank them for everything properly when we do eventually move on.

Very quiet at work, bit boring really but found stuff to do. Getting a little frustrated as I want to learn and know everything straight away but it's going to take a while! So much to learn. Even more so as I don't know much about jewellery. Finding myself reading up on diamonds and gold, silver and platinum while on the bus haha it's quite cool actually, I like it.Might be an expert after I finish.

Memories!

Our local beach. *not a surfing beach

Picturesque coogee

The result after Nadine used washing up liquid as a substitute for dishwasher tablets

Good luck Rafa

Gutted I won't be watching another epic Rafa - Novak showdown later tonight. Rooting for Rafa to win his first end of season masters to top off an incredible year after bouncing back from 7 months out of the game. 

Hope to be at this tournament once again maybe next year or the year after but I have the Australian Open to look forward to now! Can't wait! Hopefully Andy will be fit and fighting for it in the final once again!

Surfing frustrations

Saturday 9th and Sunday 10th

Not much at all to say this weekend I'm afraid. The surfing has been a disaster. We haven't found anywhere suitable, condition wise. We're getting pretty annoyed at rolling up at various beaches and finding only 2ft waves after the surfcast looked promising.

We have since driven from Coffs Harbour to just north of Newcastle covering quite a distance. Coffs Harbour and Port Macquarie were nothing out of the ordinary and we found ourselves sitting by the waterfront wondering what to do with ourselves. In fact we spoke to two German lads who were wondering the same thing. I guess when you're low on cash and have already seen the most of what the East Coast has to offer you can't help but feel like nothing interests you anymore, especially at these little seaside towns and ports.

Weather report!

You might be pleased to hear that the weather has took a turn for the worst these past few days haha. We're no longer basking in sunshine while its grey and dull at home!

It's the first time we've experienced continuous storms and heavy downpours. On Saturday night we had a gigantic thunder and lightning storm (while we were cooking tea in a shelter at the side of the road) which went on for well over an hour. It was without a doubt the best storm I've seen. On Sunday night we had the same again although it happened during the early hours of the morning while we were sleeping. Consequently after waking us up we lost about 4 hours of sleep since we couldn't get back to sleep as the rain was hammering down on roof of the van like someone firing a nail gun!

The stormy weather was forecast and must be normal since its been so rainy and humid near the coastline recently.

Cloudy and grey Sunday evening. We took a detour off the main highway to Myall Lakes National Park and found a nice spot by a lake. Reminded us a bit of the lakes back home, especially since it got so chilly.

Monday 11th

Drove to the town of Raymond Terrace, got some shopping and used the free library facilities to search for jobs in sydney and type up a suitable australian resume.

A few decent sounding jobs that we will apply for tomorrow. 

We are thinking best thing to do at the moment is to find a potential job and get straight back to sydney. After all, it is getting on close to mid November now which was my estimated time to arrive back in e city. Most of the Christmas casual jobs start around then. Currently looking at options for where to park the van or where to stay while we try and sell it. We have been staying at rest areas off the highway recently since there are no free camp grounds anymore. I think there is maybe one free spot about 50k north of sydney which we can stay at before heading in.

Few rain showers today but no heavy downpours. Very cloudy but still t-shirt weather. Feels a lot like English summer.

I really like this surf board. I really do.

Brisbane and the Gold Coast

Thursday 31st

Today we parted ways with the canadians and drove to Brisbane. Great to see another big city with skyscrapers and bridges on the horizon as we drove in. Feels so long since we were in Sydney walking around the urban jungle. We spent a good 45 mins driving round the city centre trying to find a decent car park but at $30 per hour we left and headed for some residential areas outside the city where we found free non restricted street parking near Kangaroo Point, only 15 min walk to city centre! Walked into the shopping district and tried to sort out our wifi modem that we got with the van at the virgin shop, until they told us we needed a tonne of paperwork and passport /visa docs before we could set it up! Not happy. Explored bits of city. Finished back at Kangaroo Point cliffs by the river and watched the climbers on the rockfaces. Cooked dinner and had a walk along the river. No evidence it was Halloween at all here apart from seeing the odd person or so in the city dressed like a zombie or slutty vampire. A few shops had gone to the effort with the decorations. Phoned Dad later that night to wish him happy birthday and was great to hear he was enjoying his holiday. Happy birthday Dad! Stayed overnight at small carpark at Raymond park.

View of Brissie from top of Kangaroo Point Cliffs

Friday 1st November 

2nd attempt at sorting our modem out, this time with a shed load of paper work. Honestly, it felt like we were being investigated by immigration or something. Its so annoying that they do a credit check on you just to open a flipping new account with them over here.

Had my first Australian haircut in the afternoon (even though the geezer that did it was clearly of Asian decent). Hair was getting pretty scruffy so had been on the lookout for a while. Found a place in the suburbs that did $10 cuts which is great value and normally unheard of so it had to be done. Despite the cheap price it was actually a really good cut and service and even included a complimentary fresh lemon scented hot towel!

Cooked and slept at same places that night.

Cooking on the stove and bbqs at kangaroo point. What a view! 

Saturday 2nd

Left Brisbane and travelled east to the coast. Not much happening apart from the odd large marina. No beaches or shopping plazas. Headed back to M1 en route to Surfers Paradise in Gold Coast City. 

When we got there we started exploring parts of the city trying to find our bearings. Had kebabs for lunch (they're back in offer in Woolworths. Yesss!) on the esplanade overlooking the beach and the surfers and volleyballers then sat in the van for a few hours trying to figure out where we could stay the night. There are no free camp sites or grounds within about a 100km radius of where we are and between here and Sydney they are few and far between, which will make the last legs of our journey a little challenging! There are quite a few caravan parks but at $40+ a night and very limited availability we aren't bothering.

 We decided it best to go around all of the local parks as it had worked for us in Brisbane. They don't seem to be as tight on security further south as the cities are bigger and harder to patrol. But most of the places we've seen don't have any no camping signs so we should be fine. After all we're not even camping - just sleeping. Nothing wrong with that.

Stayed at a park 5 mins in from Mermaid beach. Cooked tea waited then until 11.30pm. No security, no problem!

Driving into Gold Coast City. There are roadworks and maintenance going on everywhere. As well as fitting a new tram network they must be repairing and doing work on the roads which would have taken a battering from the V8 Supercars in the Gold Coast 600 race. We just missed it (happened 25th October) ! The crash barriers and spectator stands were still up as we drove over the starting grid!

Tower candy. Plenty of interesting architecture in the city

Sunday 3rd

We found another park (via google maps) that looked better than what we were staying in. It had a car park listed on parkopedia which indicated it might have showers (which we desperately needed), so we headed there and after getting a bit lost in the crazy waterway/canal neighbourhoods of the area we eventually found it. Saw some very sleek and modern waterfront properties on the way!

The gold coast is home to 446km of canals. That's 9x more canals than Venice.

Residential canals where first built on the Gold Coast in the 1950's and construction continues, providing waterfront living to 80,000 residents.

View from a plot of land for sale overlooking one of the canals and the city skyline, which includes the Q1 tower (Australia's tallest building).

The car park did after all have toilet and shower facilities! HOT shower facilities! For free! Thank you, Gold Coast City Council! And it was in a great spot which had a manmade lake and beach, with amazing views! It was our first shower in about a week and it was so good! Hot water is a luxury! We must have spent half an hour in there scrubbing the dirt and dead skin off of ourselves. It's probably the longest I've ever been without a shower I think (Tom managed about 2 weeks when in Europe. Crazy.).

So, both clean as a pair of whistles and satisfied with our fresh and fragrant selves, we continued our clean streak by heading into Surfers Paradise to track down a laundrette, did our washing and then I took a trip up to the Q1 building - tallest building in the city - to the Skydeck viewing platform. It cost $25 but the panoramic views were worth every cent. I could have easily stayed up there all afternoon buying cocktails and chatting to everyone. Great experience.

Q1 is the tallest building in Australia and the Southern Hemisphere when measured from the top of its spire (third tallest building behind Eureka Tower and Rialto Towers, both in Melbourne when measured to roof and highest habitable floor) and the second tallest freestanding structure in the Southern Hemisphere, behind the Sky Tower in Auckland, New Zealand. It opened in November 2005.

View from Q1 Skydeck - North

View from Q1 Skydeck - South

The area near the convention centre where we parked and had a swim

Monday 4th

After waking up we went and did a workout in the park by the lake then decided to go for a swim. Very grey and dull this morning with lots of wind and cloud. Better for exercising but cold when standing still. A few lengths of the lake and another nice long hot shower we cooked breakfast on the bbqs and headed into town. Walked round a shopping centre getting bits and bobs then drove to Miami (two suburbs down from Surfers Paradise) to check out some surf shops we'd researched. We are after a couple of surf boards and looking to buy within our budget of $250 each. We later got stuck between getting one board each or clubbing together to get a newer and better board that we could share. After weighing everything up we agreed on buying just one and sharing it. We looked at some boards we liked but didn't buy one. We still have a few more shops we want to check out tomorrow so will keep shopping around and decide when we've seen and compared as many as we can.

We slept at the carpark by the lake again and when we were fast asleep at 11:45pm we were suddenly woken by security who gave us a warning and asked us to move on or face an on the spot fine of $375. Very annoyed about this as there were no signs saying no camping or overnight staying anywhere. Probably would have stated our case a bit better if we were more awake. So we had to get up and drive to the nearest outer city park we could find and stay there. Luckily we found a sports recreation ground with a parking area tucked out of the way near some houses. 

Tuesday 5th

We bought a surfboard!!! Spent the morning in and out of surf shops in Burleigh Heads and found one we really liked over all the others with the best specification for both of us. The guy in the shop was really helpful and not pushy at all. Very chatty and friendly too. The board was $400 and we found a bit of other stuff to go with it -a carry case and a wetsuit vest, a leg strap and some wax, which the guy threw in all for $550. What a bargain! The board is second hand but in very good condition and the brand is one of the most sought after board brands on the Gold Coast. It wouldn't have been in the shop long if we didn't buy it today!

So we are chuffed! Been smiling all day, and the unusual sight of a surf board in a shiny Cary bag every time we open the van door makes it feel like Santa has come early! We're like two giddy kids who can't wait to try out our new toy! The surf and swell is supposed to be very good tomorrow, especially at Cooloongatta (where we checked out this afternoon), before it dies down again so need to make the most of it! It's been about 2 months since surf camp. And we are on a lot smaller board so it will be interesting to say the least!

Spent the night at a service station 20 mins south of Cooloongatta.

Actually forgot it was bonfire night for you guys back at home. Fireworks are illegal for the public to buy and let off here and they don't celebrate it! So we didn't see a single one! However something tells me the New Year's Eve displays will make up for that.

Surfers at Burleigh Heads

Burleigh Heads beach - looking north towards Gold Coast City and Surfers Paradise 

Wednesday 6th

Spent most of the day at Cooloongatta beach testing out our surf board. We were both nervous at first haha but excited at the same time. Seems to be a good buy. We both like it and managed to get used to it a little but a lot of practice needed still. Its short fibreglass construction is a lot different to the long foam based boards we learnt on. Waves ok. A bit tricker to ride as well; whereas the beach where we learnt was perfect for beginners. Hoping for same conditions or better tomorrow, although weather and surf forecast not in favour. We shall see.

Went back to services for the night. We've been noticing its been getting really quite cold during the evenings now. The on-shore winds don't help either, since we've been cooking near the beach a lot recently. In fact it's just and in general that will make 20 degrees feel like 12. The past few nights we've been shivering while making dinner, often putting on about 4 top layers and tracksuit bottoms. This is the first time we've been cold in Australia and I think with it being so humid in northern Queensland we have almost acclimatised to living in 25+ degrees. So whenever it drops below 20 with a strong wind chill we can't deal with it! Obviously we have lost our manliness for bearing cold, rainy and windy English evenings! Shocker.

Thursday 7th

So we drove round most of the coastline this morning and checked the surf reports and guess what... Rubbish surf conditions. Surfers Paradise did not deserve its name at all today. Needless to say, after walking around, grabbing lunch and taking some pictures, this was a good enough time to move ourselves on to the next place on our journey - Byron bay - and hope for some better surf. 

Point Danger - this was the only spot we found where there was good surf. You can see all the surfers if you look close. However these surfers where clearly very experienced and there was a lot of them in one area so we thought we better not cramp their style by practicing on our board right next to them. Somewhere quieter maybe! 

By the way, Point Danger is notoriously known by locals as the point at which the state border line meets the east coast. It divides Queensland from New South Wales, and at this time of year there is a 1 hour time difference, which we found a little confusing since we were driving over it, back and forth, quite a lot over two days. Literally back in time and back to the future! So as of now, we are back in New South Wales, and that's an 11 hour time difference from back home.

We arrived in Byron late afternoon and when checking out the beach I noticed some big splashes a few hundred metres out in the sea. We waited a few seconds and saw a big black mass emerge from the surface, compete with big tail fin! Whales!! We kept watching and saw them jumping up in and out of the waves. Nobody else seemed to have spotted them. Pretty lucky to be treated to that unexpectedly!

Friday 8th

Slept in instead of getting up early to go and check the surf. Good job we did though as we found out it wouldn't have been worth it at all. The surf conditions at Byron were terrible. 1ft waves if that, and breaking way to late. Checking the surf forecasts for the next few days in various places further south revealed that we are all out of luck for the next week. Bummer. Conditions deteriorating until middle of next week.

So all we could do was walk round the town of Byron bay and look at everything we couldn't afford to buy. Similar to Noosa and port Douglas, Byron is made up of mostly quirky gift and clothes shops and expensive bars and restaurants. It relies almost solely on the money from tourism. So being a backpacker on a bit of a strict budget, with no job, living out of a van, is not really ideal when wanting to get the most out of that sort of place. Because the wages are so high here (to compensate for the high cost of living) no Aussie job means no Aussie wage. So consequently we have been enduring our former english pounds literally disappearing form our Aussie accounts extremely quickly.

After trudging round and walking out of a few bars in disgust at the drinks prices we decided to give up the ghost so to speak and continue on. Which admittedly was a shame as we were hoping to spend at least a few days here.

We drove 2 hours south to a rest area by a services about 15 mins north of Coffs Harbour and will check out the local beaches tomorrow.

Noosa, Fraser Island and Australia Zoo

Hey guys, I know it's been a while. Sorry for not posting sooner. Among a combination of island trips, poor signal, no battery and having to rewrite everything (blogger didn't save the posts) I've just about got round to catching up with things. Ive split these weeks into two posts. Scroll down to the next post to catch up from where I left off!

Sunday 20th October 

Lazy lie in and then just a day of driving really. I drove us through Rockhampton and on to Gladstone. Not much in either of those cities from what we saw. Stayed at a camp spot just south of Gladstone.

Monday 21st

Skyped with family. Great connection on Skype and happy to see their faces! 

We booked a Fraser Island tour trip (v excited for that) and now we have a deadline to be in Noosa (where the trip departs). We washed and cleaned van, sorted stuff out for most of the morning then drove as far as we could south towards Fraser Island and Noosa. Stayed at small camp area in the town of Tiaro.

Tuesday 22nd

Drove to Tin Can Bay and Rainbow Beach which is actually the place where you get the ferry to Fraser island. it just so happened that our trip departs from Noosa as it includes two nights accommodation at a hostel there either side of the trip.

We had lunch at Tin Can Bay, not much of a beach there but nonetheless a nice shoreline with lots of greenery and views out to other peninsulas. The scenery en route to these places was pretty nice. Road to coast was high altitude and overlooks mountains and national parks. Lush vegetation and trees as far as the eye could see.

Rainbow beach was nice! Long long beach stretching very far with massive dunes and rocks. Plenty of steps down from the town before you could get on the sand. There were a lot of 4x4s driving up and down which got us excited for our Fraser trip as that's how we would be getting around the island (they let you take it in turns to drive on the sand).

Rainbow beach, north

I told Tom it would be a good photo opportunity to get him doing a front flip off of one of the rocks on e beach which he completed with ease. He was feeling a little more acrobatic than usual and decided to go up a sand bank and try to backflip all the way down it. This sand bank had a pretty steep gradient to it (to the point where I wasn't comfortable even climbing up it, let alone back flipping down it. I got some good pictures of him while I stood at the bottom. He was up there for about 10 mins. I eventually decided to move from my cowardly position and climb a bit of the bank to get a picture of him at a different angle, looking out to sea. Within 1 minute of me getting up there and striding to a new vantage point I saw a snake shoot out of the sand next to my leg. It bit my ankle...

Snake bite!

...It came out of nowhere and I quickly started to realise I could be up shit creek without a paddle here, as the Aussies would say. Fortunately the snake, which was very thin and not long at all, had slithered a little further and stopped in the sand. Firstly, I did the right thing by taking pictures of it (so it could be identified) but then completely forgot about having to stay put and apply pressure. There wasn't really an obvious bite mark on my ankle but I had to get off the bank. I told Tom (who didn't believe me) and I walked down back on to the beach, had a closer look, then naively decided for myself that I wasn't in any trouble. It wasn't hurting, I didn't feel faint or sick and there was no marks or patches. 

It was a half hour walk back to the town of rainbow beach and I went to ask someone at the nearest place if they had any poisonous snakes around here and told her what had happened. She looked at me in shock and drew me a diagram showing the way to the local doctors practice. Bugger!

When we got there the receptionist was getting ready to close the surgery and to my disbelief didn't even seem to care when I told her I'd been bitten by a snake. When she finally agreed I should be examined the doctor was just as rude and miserable! He had a look, did some tests, checked blood pressure etc and determined that I wasn't in any danger at all despite not being able to identify the snake from my pictures. In fact he said if I was in any danger then I'd probably be unconscious or frothing at the mouth by now, in a playful but at the same time still deadly serious tone.

Basically I think the snake wasn't able to bite me properly, if that makes sense. It went for my ankle where the skin is harder and tougher to penetrate. Maybe  only a passing strike as well as it shot out so quick. Consequently the doc said that there were no signs of venomation so fortunately the snake hadn't been able to inject any poison. Some people up there are watching out for me I think :)

The examination, which lasted less than 10 mins, cost me $30! Which hopefully I can claim back. I made sure I got a slip with diagnosis and signature. So now I have paper  proof that I survived a snake attack! He told me take it easy and get some rest tonight, and no drinking. No problem. I know I was very lucky there and hopefully that will be my only run in with deadly animals. Fingers crossed.

The scene of the incident. Somewhere up on that dune 

We stayed the night at Standown caravan park just south of Tin Can bay. It was a great park with nice owners (who initially created the park for war veterans).  Plenty of nice facilities and a massive kitchen and cooking area, complete with dart board and hoop throwing hooks. We chilled out and rested. At one point I thought I was going dizzy and lightheaded but it was probably because I was hungry and had a headache. Funny how your mind plays tricks when it senses fear or danger.

Wednesday 23rd

Drove from campsite to Noosaville and checked out the town. Noosaville (Noosa for short) is apparently a very popular choice for when Aussies go on their holidays and it didn't disappoint. Very stylish but quaint beachside resort town with plenty to see and do. Loads of posh riverside houses and yachts. Plenty of money here! We really liked it but you wouldn't really want to live here - as well as being quite cut off still,  it's way too touristy and full of backpackers and holidaymakers.

Thursday 24th

Up at 7 to get shuttle bus from Noosa back up to Rainbow Beach. Fraser island here we come!

We were in a group of 15 people and picked up 2 4x4s (toyota land cruisers) from Rainbow Beach (by the way, rainbow beach is not named because there was a rainbow over the beach at the time but because the cliffs have so many layers of rock, they appear colourful and therefore linked to the rainbow in that sense). Our tour guide drove one car with 7 passengers and we took on turns to drive our car which also seated 8. 

We boarded the ferry and crossed the sea at Inskip point onto Fraser Island (only 10 minute journey).

After some dusty track driving inland we burst out of the dunes and drove up 75 Mile Beach - the main beach which runs along Fraser Island (yes that is the actual name of the beach and yes it is actually 75miles long). Fraser is the largest sand island in the world! The beach is the motorway here.

An hours drive later and we stopped and had lunch at the main 'town' on the island. We then drove inland on an extremely bumpy sand road to lake Mckenzie for swimming and sunbathing. Never experienced 4x4 driving like this before. Head banging the roof literally every few seconds! Our front bumper actually came off and had to be strapped up with rope. Good fun though. Tom drove us back to the beach and then further north to our camp point where we chilled out, bought booze and had spag bol for tea, which our Aussie tour guide kindly cooked up for us. Spent the night drinking and chatting with the rest if the group. Great day!

Lake Mckenzie 

Can just about see rainbow effect in rock, similar to that of Rainbow beach

Friday 25th

Up at 6 and after getting ready I drove the group down the beach to the famous Maheno Shipwreck which was pretty impressive. Best wreck I've seen. I then drove further to Eli creek which is a natural freshwater spring and river system, only a few metres wide with a slow current. So it would best be described as a natural lazy river, which eventually spills out onto the beach. The aborigines believed that if you drink the water from Eli creek you will be blessed with good fortune. So I had three handfuls and prayed I wouldn't get bitten by another snake. A graduate job would be nice too! 

In the afternoon we all went on a walk inland from our camp spot up to some huge, never ending sand dunes. What a landscape! Vast dunes and trees with the sea for the backdrop. Like a tropical desert by the sea!

BBQ for tea and drinking into the night with our group. Nice to change to have a small group as opposed to the boat trip. Much easier to get to know everybody properly. There was only one other English girl and the rest were French, German and Swedish.

Tropical desert

Saturday 26th

Up early again and spent morning chilling and checking out Indian Head look out and the Champagne Pools. Weather quite poor today and water temp at Champagne 

Pools was not at all inviting which was a real shame. Spent afternoon having fun in Lake Wabi (much more inviting) after a long hike inland through thick bushland and more sand dunes! Then a long drive back down the beach, caught the ferry back to mainland, watched our tour guide blow a tyre then helped him fit a new one. 1 hour shuttle ride back to Noosa. Checked into Nomads hostel again, got showered and went to the pub with our Fraser group then went out into Noosa later on. Didn't stay out too long but had a good time!

All over so quickly! Best part of the trip so far though!

75 mile beach south

75 mile beach north

Drink stop

Lake Wabi

Swimming in Wabi

Group photo

Changing the blown tyre

Inskip point

On the ferry... Some vehicles were slightly more equipped than our modest land cruisers

Sunday 27th

Spent most of the afternoon walking round Noosa national park until it went dark (we got caught out again by the the pitch black at 7pm. Beautiful national park though. The coastal walk is spectacular. Really enjoyed ourselves, apart from me crapping myself every time I walked on a leafy path thinking that every twig or branch is a snake. They look so snakelike it's unnerving!

Went back to Nomads that night and cheekily parked and slept in our van in the same place it had been stored while we were on Fraser. Changed the date on our parking permit. Nobody noticed. The whole place is run by backpackers anyways!

Monday 28th

We liked the Noosa National Park that much we decided to go back and walk all the trails and hikes. Also walked the whole coastal path which wraps around the park, climbing on the rocks and exploring the hidden coves and beaches. The waves were powerful and large. When they hit the rocks the sound was incredible and the spray was huge! 

The areas around the coast weren't named, devils kitchen, hells gates and witch's cauldron for nothing! 

We reckon we clocked up about 30km walking around the park - finally some decent exercise!

Late afternoon we left Noosa and drove a little further south along the coastline to Coolum beach where we luckily spotted a park area with bbqs and toilets. Just off the beach too. Weren't any restrictions so slept there for the night.

Noosa National Park coastal path - I don't own this image I just love it!

Tuesday 29th

Spent morning cooking breakfast on the bbqs and had a tough workout on the exercise machines in the park. With the sun beating down on your back while doing it was like a form of torture. as you'd imagine we were very sweaty when we'd finished and had to use the cold shower in the park until we found an enclosed one to have a proper wash in! Never has a cold shower felt so refreshing.

After lunch we decided to check out the beach (path through a bank of thick trees). It was a nice beach with white-ish sand but we noticed there was not a single person sunbathing. We soon learned why after we laid our aged tartan beach mat on the sand. It was because you physically could not lie on it thanks to the strong and relentless cross shore winds sandblasting fine sand into every crease on our skin - just after we'd put on more sun cream as well. It was awful! And such a pain to get off! In fact I didn't come off, it was impossible to remove it all without spending 10 mins in the shower. Which we didn't want to use again so soon so we retreated to the park and sunbathed on the grass before moving on to what would be our next stop for the night.

That stop was a little rest area just off Steve Irwin Way (very basic facilities but we managed as usual). Upon arrival we were offered some free pineapple from two French-Canadian girls who said they had been given loads of it by an australian they had met earlier. Lovely! We cooked tea together with them and then they offered as almost half of their pasta as they had made too much. Not to be rude of course, we ate every last bit of spaghetti and thanked them. That night we had a huge thunderstorm (it started while we were cooking actually, and we were surrounded by trees in a stone enclosure with a tin roof!). First storm in Australia and one of the few times we've encountered rain during the day, or early evening in this case. I've never seen lightning like that before, it was a great storm with long forks of lighting - vertical, horizontal and diagonal - sometimes lasting for a second or two lighting up the whole sky! Tried to get a video but it was too dark to pick anything decent up on my iPad camera.

Wednesday 30th

Crikey! Australia Zoo! 

While we didn't plan on going or actually realised how close we were to Australia Zoo we decided to pay the $60 admission fee and hope that it would be worth it. Fortunately it was and we had a really great day there! We liked the set up and how it was 90% animal species only found in Australia and couldn't help laugh thinking about what the zoos would contain back home if they adopted the same principle. 

We saw all the iconic animals you'd expect, plus a few surprises like the baby tiger cubs which had just arrived at the zoo. We saw the bird and croc show at the 'Crocoseum' (love it) and got to hang out close and personal with the koalas and roo's. Plus we had a lil' ripper of a burger at the food court. It was a chicken burger loaded with lettuce, onion, tomato cucumber, red pepper, cheese, mushroom, pineapple, beetroot and garlic aioli. Not quite a  gourmet burger from wetherspoons but it was delicious!

After the zoo we met up with the Canadians again at a truck stop in the town of Burpengary where we bridged a canopy between our two vans (raining) and cooked dinner.

Kanga poser

No respect for privacy

The cutest thing!

*Not a real panda*

This is how Tom lies when he's sleeping