Penny's Adventures: 2006

Tuesday, December 19, 2006

Whitsundays

Scott knew an english guy named Fin whom he met in Thailand who happens to be a dive instructor in the Whitsundays. How convenient :-) We got mate rates for 2 nights/3 days sailing trip on the Matador. This yacht had actually won the Sydney to Hobart many moons ago. It was a great few days, we went diving, swimming and just relaxed before having to go back to Townsville. I think it is a perfect way to end my around the world & around Australia trip.

Bundaberg to Gladstone

Me & Bundy bear

Kel, Penny, Barbara & Paul

Freakie cross-eyed asian cat ( Shannon & Elms )

Scott, Elm & Shannon

Wurgler Kids

After we left Fraser Island our tour guide Kel suggested that we should go over to his place for a few drinks & a BBQ. We agreed but didn't realise that he lived in Bundaberg, which is over an hour an half drive. We arrived at Bundy around 11pm, both hungry and tired. Kel gave us all ( Barbara & her son Paul from Germany ) a tour of Bundy downtown and then we went to his place for a few drinks. The next morning we woke up, had a BBQ breakfast and a swim in his pool. Scott & I said goodbye and then went to the Bundaberg Brewery for a looksie. As Scott doesn't drink rum I got to drink his tokens....yummy!!!
We left Bundaberg and headed to Gladstone to visits the newly weds Mr & Mrs Wurgler, otherwise known as Shannon & Elm. We stayed one night with them which was fantastic, had a few drinkies at the yacht club & Scott managed to impress everyone by finishing his meal which apparently not everyone can do as the servings are quite large. Shannon & Elm bought a house last year which is very nice...pity about the whinging neighbours...hehehe..there is a story about the swimming pool. Mildly amusing!! So the next morning we said goodbye & headed towards the Whitsundays.

Friday, November 17, 2006

Hervey Bay / Fraser Island

Scott in the Champayne pools

M.V.Maheno

spider ant

coastline

blue bottle jellyfish

just landed, off the barge onto the beach

emaciated dingo

crab at the champayne pools

We headed towards Hervey Bay & drove directly to the car ferry to try and catch the next ferry across to the island. When we got there the lady behind the counter politely said that we would be quite naive to think that we could drive on the island. She re-instated that the island is the largest sand island in the world and the CRV is not really the kind of vehicle you should take over....so on to plan B.
So we headed into town and paid for a organised tour for 1 night / 2 days. I must admit that I did feel alot more at ease now. The ferry takes about an hour to get to the island and instantly you are on sand. .... no bitumen anyway!! Here are some facts about the island that I remembered from our tour guide ( Kel ). So Fraser Island is the largest sand dune in the world, it is 120klms long & ranges from 5klms to 25klms wide. It have 4 kinds of banksia trees & beautiful Kairi trees which are the same that grown in the west coast of the north island of NZ. Fraser has the purest breed of dingoes which are very inquisitive, so you have to lock your food up & watch your kids. We travelled all over the island in a Uni-Mog ( universal machine of germany ) that can travel forward & reverse at 80klms an hour. On the 1st day we hiked for about 40mins into a waterhole, it was just like being in the Sahara desert...sand everywhere!! When we got to the fresh waterhole I saw our first dingo, he pretty much left us alone. I think because it was so hot the poor thing didn't care too much about us. The water was so refreshing & cool. There was schools of salmon tailed catfish everywhere which did startle our youngst member of the tour, amazing Miss Shannon aged 5 years & 8 months...don't forget the 8 months. After we all cooled off we jumped back into the MOG & drove to the the eastern side of the island that has a national highway which you can booked for speeding. The speed limit is 80k/hr. The police have radar traps sometimes on the beach, even our beaches aren't safe!!!
Anyway, on this beach is a shipwreck called the Maheno. This new zealand vessel has a exciting history that involves a CURSE!! It was a 5 star cruise liner that got remodelled into a floating hospital during the war, a cargo carrier and eventually got sold to the japanese for scrap metal. Apparently the curse was cast by the maori's onto the japanese as they didn't want to pay some international duties that were owing on the vessel so they took the prop off but it didn't stop the japanese from attempting to tow the ship to japan during cyclone season. Well there is alot more to this story but you can check it out for yourselves. ... so we left the ship and headed to our accommodation which to my surprise was tents!!! Oh my hat. I must confess, I am sick and tired of tents!!! I suppose the good thing about the campsite is I didn't have to put the tents up. That night we all sat around and got to know each other, had a few drinks. Note to Scott a 6 pack on the island is not cheap..$19.00 bucks.....!!! We really enjoyed every single drop of beer that came out of those bottles...hehehe...
Day 2 - So we got up early and jumped into our beast and drove to the Champayne Pools. What a wonderful way to wake up. These naturally created pools are just on the waters edge so everytime a wave crashes into the shore it fills up the pool which inturn bubble from the surf. It is just like having a spa but in the ocean. Awesome!!
We then went to Indian Head which as a sad story about what the europeans did to the local aboriginal tribes people. To this day no aboriginal people will go up the hill which is sad as the view is spectacular. We say dolphins, turtles, sharks, stingrays & masses of schooling fish. It gives you a really good aspect of the islands diversity, beautiful untouched coastline and sand as far as the eye can see. The island does have trees also, maybe that sounds a bit misleading. It as rainforests, bushland, swamps etc. It is not arid, apparently because the sand dune is 600klms deep there is an unlimited amount of water that gets absorbed into the sand. The island is continuously releasing freshwater out to sea via numerous outlets that you can swim in. We actually went swimming in one after our hike up Indian Head called Elis something..
So we then had lunch and went to another waterhole which we couldn't swim in and then headed over the other side of the island to catch our car ferry back to Hervey Bay. I recommend Fraser Island to everyone. It is just totally spectacular!!!!