OZ - Hervey Bay (East Coast Antics)

Leaving Brisbane

Now the proud owners of a 1984 white Mazda 929 Sudan (see picture) we departed for Noosa Heads. We bought the car from Melanie, a Canadian Rich met during his Kiwi Experience tour. She was leaving the country and needed a fast sale, so seven hundred and eighty Ozzie dollars lighter we took the burden away from her, with six months insurance included!

We are now also joined by Hayley, our Australian co-backpacker for the next week or so. Richmet Hayley in Surfers Paradise and it sort of all worked out from there as a good idea to share costs travelling up the coast together.

We waved good bye to Mel andRich took the wheel for the day, with me the co-driver and navigating were not tapped asI feel asleep within five minutes of our departure.

We pulled off the main Bruce Highway towards Noosa Beach to check out the legendary surf with our freely acquired Buzz Light year boogie boards. However our triumphant boogie boarding session turned once when we tried to moveour beloved vehicle. The clutch was no more! Upon closer inspection we found the hydraulic reservoir wasn't full as the dark shadowto the top line had indicated, as this line was as a matter of fact....just a scum line! Costly and time consuming repairs were envisaged but thankfully an RACQ patrol was five minutes down the road and performed a hydraulic line bleed for us in a matter of minutes and we were onour way in no time at all feeling lucky but still ninety dollars lighter!

We arrived slightly late into Hervey Bay but in time to meet our new close friends for the next three days. Our group composed of a fairly broad bunch includinga Mexican couple, two ex-army Swedish lads, four German Girls and of course our Australian addition Hayley. One 4x4, tentage, cooking equipment and food supplies for eleven people....yes it was going to be pretty darn cramped!

Straight after introductions began the inventory discussions for food and alcohol followed by a mad dash to actually shop it before the shops closed. Late night packing ensued followed cruelly by a five o'clock reveille!

During thestern briefing on Dingo's, Snakes, Spiders, Stingers, and Sharks Rich was reminded by one primary school favourite Hymn, "All Things Bright and Beautiful'. The Reverend composer of West Mersea Parish obviously hadn't met any of the "great and small' Fraser Islands habitants!

Despite the early start the mood was still jubilant as David took us on our first leg of the journey over the ferry, over 4x4 rough terrain and onto Lake McKenzie (see photo). David and I took an impromptu swim to the far shore and a run back, although ten minutes into the swim we realised the far shore was a lot further than estimated, but it was a bit late for that by then! Our stubborn male ego's forbid either to back down from the swim across so risking a cramp and a certain watery grave we persued.

Driving along the beach at eighty kilo meters an hour with breaking tiger shark infested surf to the right and beautiful white sand as far as you could see in both directions was quiet something. The beach was interrupted only by the occasional freshwater creek (see photo), but these served either as a refreshing dip or a reckless 4x4 aquaplane attempt.

In the evening most of the group were turned off by the site of uncut raw meat we had set for dinner. Taking the chiefs hat I took it upon myself to cook up a true Ozzie style BBQ complete with salad, potatoes anda good helping of sand which helpfully blew into the food periodically.

Our first night camping was unexpectedly uncomfortable. We were hit, what we were informed later asa 'freak' monsoon. Hayley woke to inform us there was an inch of water adjacent to her soaked sleeping bag. Realising the tent did, in fact, have doors and windowsthat were current open. We made Rich dart into the moonlight rain and releas the window and door ribbon ties, whilst cursing to himself for pedantically tying them both top and bottom, left and right!

The following morning everyone exchanged sob stories and laughed about the previous nights events. Spirits we still high if slightly only dampened.

We checked out a load of the other fantastic spots on Fraser all day including an old rusty ship wreck.

That night turned out to bejust as eventful as the previous only instead of the weather playing up it was the dreaded dingo's! Before sunset they had attempted to steal a rucksack from another set of campers and after nightfall the dingo paranoia set in. The Mexicans discussed relocating their tent closer to the main group, flourolamps were raised higher to provide earlier warning of there approach and high power torches were coveted by all! There were numerous encounters, but closest of all were the experiences of five girls. Deciding to all take a communal 'natural break' to save on digging numerous toilet holes, one girl spotted a dingo no more than four meters away! I'm sure the dingo got the greater fright in the following noise and light show!

Thinking I wouldnt be asked to returnback to do the cooking again, I was surprised by everyone actually asking me to cook?!!....So with some slight reservations I started preparing for a dinner I had no idea what to cook. After discovering 2kg of mince meat, potatoes, tons of tomotoes, onions, seasoning, peper and salt I started work. Deciding to delegate I managed to get the girls on veg prepping, whilst I oversaw the mince and potatoes. Cooking on two small burners was an extremely slow process, seeming to take longer with the regular persistant fellow campers asking "is it ready yet?". Nonetheless I didnt fail them and delivered a mince bolognse even I was impressed with. It even had its extra ingrediant of sand, which to even this day I do not know how got in since there was no wind!

The final day was a lot more comfortable in the back of the 4x4 now that the beer and food was all but gone. Hayley spotted a potential disaster waiting to happen as thanks to a new passenger in our spare wheel tire grooves. Mr. venomous soon to be expelled Wolf spider was raised on it's rear legs as Hayley allowed the little beastie to crawl along a stick and into the wood. Rather her than me I am happy to say!

The journey back to base was a bit depressing, we spent our last night finishing off the remnants of 'goon' (cheap and nasty boxed wine) over an all you can eat buffet and talked about our next plans, it would appear that we would at least be bumping intothese fellows of the institute of backpackers again inour travels!

Bundification and getting back to nature!

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We left Hervey Bay after lunch for the beef capital, Rockhampton or 'Rocky', setting halfway towards the next destination Airlee Beach. Expecting this to be a fairly dull drag up the main Bruce Highway we were enlightened to stop at the Bundaberg rum distillery. After an interesting tour it was polished off nicely by some serious rum tastings afterwards (see picture - 'Bundified'). Feeling a little Bundified we moved on to Rocky, with me as the sober at the wheel!

We arrived late at a cheap hostel with the communal areas thick with the unpleasant smell of body odour. No further motivation was required for us to all make early retirement! The next morning Rich woke with at least thirty bites down the left hand side of his, from ankle to shoulder! He must have been the proverbial 'sacrificial lamb' of the room as neither Hayley nor myself received a single bite!

The next morning we saw an amusing but serious note from one backpacker to another. You find a lot of backpackers follow the rules of karma. Bad karma breeds bad karma, and vice versa good to good. Stealing someone else's food is pretty low, I'm sure you'll agree, and the note attached in picture form (see picture - 'Hostel Lowlife') is pretty evident just how bad that can be! Just one of the many perils of backpacking is the food scavenger!

We continued up the Bruce Highway reading up on possible activities to do on the way. We decided to head inland and check out some waterfalls and walks covered in the Lonely Planet. The journey took us on both unmarked and unsealed roads, through cane fields and across numerous unguarded railways used to transport the harvested cane to the local sugar refineries as well as ethanol or rum distilleries. We had to be pretty vigilant as it is cane crushing season and the area was quite active!

We travelled non-stop thru the fields, except for a brief stop where Rich and I risked a bite from a ferioucious farm dog. Why? An amuzing drink relates sign of course! You can take the Man out of Essex but....(see picture - Chugalug).

We eventually found a nice caravan park with air conditioning, a pool and a playful park mongrel included ('Gizmo') for just forty-six dollars between three of us. The park owner quickly recommended a trip up the mountain to Broken River before dusk to see the Platypus's (or is it Platypi?) under the bridge there.

We were not to be disappointed, from the viewing platform under the bridge we saw turtles, cockatoos, kookaburras, a weird looking green spiders, a Goanna (big lizard), skinks (little lizards) and numerous bizarre looking Platypus's! We were honoured to see the shy creature in their natural habitat as it is not even something that a lot of Australians see apparently!

On our way back down the winding mountain road to the caravan we saw a huge flash of lightening. It was dry, silent and eery where we stopped to view the sheet lightening from the mountains lee side.

Noticing an orange glow further down the mountain we continued t investigate. We speculated that maybe it was a bush fire, or caused by the lightening. It actually turned out to be the stumps of sugar cane being burnt (see photo - 'BurnCaneBurn'), anyway it made for a great photo with the rail trucks used to transport the cane in the foreground.

The following morning set out to Finch Hutton Gorge to see the falls and swimming holes, and that wasn't all we saw. After swimming around/jumping in etc we began packing up. Whilst standing on a rock Rich was composing a picture when Hayley pointed out a freshwater eel was looking straight up at him about 4 inches away from his foot! All of a sudden these guys were coming out of the wood work from everywhere! Pretty scary considering we had been splashing and jumping cliffs into the waters shortly before.

Here ended the exploration to the pools as time had severely escaped us and we hadn't even started our way to Airlie Beach! One thing was for sure we had seen more nature in it's natural habitat in the last twenty four hours than ever before!