South of Capricorn

Chillin' out at Mango's Hostel

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After a magnetic time on the island we decided to continue on through the party town of Airlie Beach, foregoing the Whitsunday Islands (too expensive), to the tranquil Town of 1770.  A lovely all nighter on the Greyhound bus left us a bit lazy as we arrived in 1770, which fit perfectly for hangin at the beach and watching surf schools in the bay.  All rested, we headed to Hervey Bay.  Here we stayed at Mango's Hostel, a house just like our Pompano Beach house converted to three rooms for guests.  We felt right at home, without the 100 people wondering were we've been and were we're going that is the usual small talk at the bigger hostels.  Hervey had a beach about 200 yards to the water at low tide and 2 ft to the water at high tide.  We opted for a dinner cruise to Fraser Island with an exquisite buffet dinner.  Ever aware of our dwindling budget, we tried to squeeze in a free camp on the beach.  After gorging ourselves (sam really) on steak, huge tiger prawns, cheese, and desserts our motivation level decreased.  We still thought we'd try to camp through the 5 hour low tide 12 - 5 am.  As we searched for a place for the night, the dingo we saw during the day on the beach, the lack of a camping permit, and the gurgling in Sam's belly motivated us to make the 11:30pm ferry back to Hervey to camp with a nice fella (we call him Edward Knife Hands - for obvious reasons - he was fending off campground thieves when we strolled up and then offered us a mattress on the floor of his caravan so it wouldn't cost us to set up a tent at 1:30am!)  Turned out to be a very nice and hospitable guy after introducing himself with two knifes in his hand!  Slept well knowing he was watching our back ;)  Spent one more night at the homey Mango's hostel and off south we went.