The past couple weeks have been what I thought Australia would be like; long beaches of white sand, crystal clear blue water with huge ripping waves, little beach towns and amazing people. And of course, koalas and kangaroos.
Once the group and I got past Brisbane a couple of us split up momentarily and I went to Noosa with Marine and Jared. Noosa is a small town right on the beach with what I would describe as a lush tropical forest right behind the beach. The hostel we stayed at reminded me a bit of something from New Orleans. It had open verandas with old wooden floors and white walls. Whindy hallways and stained glass windows leading out to the patio with tiki torches around the perimeter. It had been raining, and continued to once we got there, which gave the green backdrop a glistening affect and really played up the rain forest feel. The first night we were there we went down to the beach and I cannot describe how the sky looked and do it justice at the same time. It seemed as if millions of stars were within view and every nanometer of the sky littered with white. And to top it off, not only did we have light from above but light from below as well. Every step we took revealed hundreds of bio luminescent algae scattered throughout the beach. They glowed green and reacted to vibration so as we walked below the starry sky our path was lit by thousands of glowing dots. That was just amazing to see.
While in Noosa I met Scott, Becky and Leigh at the Australia Zoo, aka The Steve Irwin Zoo, and I finally got some up close and personal interactions with some Aussie wild life. In the morning I got to feed an elephant and later I fed the kangaroos. The kangaroos were so friendly as they were all in a big field and you would just walk through it and go up to anyone of them and feed and pet them. I also got a picture holding a koala; they have unbelievably sharp nails but they are so soft and cuddly, just like little teddy bears. Of course we went to the crocaseum, the place where Steve always did his croc demonstrations, and saw a wild life show with birds, snakes and, of course, crocs. After our tiring day roaming around the zoo I went back to Noosa and they to their destination. We would all be back together in Rainbow Beach though as this was the jumping off point for our 3 day 2 night camping trip on Fraser Island.
When we all got to Rainbow it was raining and we were a little worried that our trip was going to get rained on the entire time. But the morning of our departure the sun was shinning and the temp was hot. We loaded up the 4x4 and hit the road, catching the ferry to the island and then driving 60 ks on the long beaches. That was simply amazing as we looked out the windows and saw the thunderous waves crashing down no more than 20 meters from us and then the sand dunes on the other side. We drove on the beach and then went inland to Lake Mackenzie. The road was pretty bumpy but more than worth it as the lake was something you see from a postcard. The light blue edge of the water gave way to a deep dark blue as the bottom of the lake bead plunged way down to the deepest part of the lake. The water was warm and we all played in it like little kids.
Camping followed that night and we made burritos and went to bed after a walk on the beach where there was more of the glowing sand and starry skies. Our second day we went up to Indian Head which was a huge cliff overlooking the water way down below. It was kinda scary looking over as it was probably a 100 ft drop down to the waves below. Exploring the island by day and cooking by night we made the most of it and had a good party with the other groups for our last night. The rain held off until our last night and we all woke up in a puddle of water and dripping tents. We hurried to pack everything as the rain was bearing down on us and finally made it out of camp, the last group to go. Once we got back to the ferry, which we missed and waited for the next one, we made our way back to the starting point and everyone had what we all described as "the best night's sleep" we've had since starting the trip. It was a great trip and great memories. Fraser Island is really one of Australia's gems.
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