2010 Over

6 December, 2010

The bar opened and I made some friends, a Frenchman and a Canadian and enjoyed my last evening in Noosa. The next day I took the bus through the rain to Rainbow Beach, excited for my next adventure. Rainbow Beach is a SMALL town. Not much to do here, so I guess I’d better start drinking. The hostel bar was hopping. It was another karaoke night. I met a Danish guy who was a competitive tumbler and grew up in a boarding school, which is apparently normal in Denmark. As the night wore on people became friendlier and friendlier and we all mingled around. Everyone was pretty interesting to say the least. I met a drug dealer from England who came over to work on farms before going to explore Asia. I met a pompous, know-it all from England whom I laid into for saying that most Americans are idiots and don’t leave their own country, he did say I was an exception though. Then I met a German guy who loves the Mavericks and Dirk obviously. I told him he and my Nana would get along like a house on fire. I met a stumpy, obnoxious, gap-toothed Englishman who was allegedly a stripper in Sydney. Gross. The list continues. As you may have noticed there aren’t many chicks around. Usually they are coupled up and not as social towards other girls as the single dudes. Who would have thought? The bar closed down around midnight and we headed for the beach. The stars were out in full force. An Australian was kind enough to point out the Southern Cross for me, tick that off the list. I was so excited to see it. It’s the little things.

Today consisted of more beach time and a short hike through the Great Sandy National Park. The hike lines the backside of a strip of mansions that overlook the ocean. Not a bad spot I’d say. The hike takes you to the start of the Great! Cooloola Walk, everything is great here. I walked up the first 20 minutes of this epic trek and it led to a giant sand dune that was about the size of two football fields. It is bordered by forest on two sides, the ocean on one, and the town, a couple inlets and a peninsula on the other. I was speechless. I wish I had a frisbee and a friend. I hiked back down as the sun was setting and saw a spider web glimmering in the sunlight that was at least 4 ft in diameter. Thank God I didn’t see the spider.

28 December, 2010

Man how time flies. I have been avoiding updating this blog because there is too much to tell and it has become a daunting task. However, my fans deserve it, so here I am. I’ll just hit the really good stuff.

The really good stuff conveniently begins a couple days after my arrival in Rainbow Beach, mentioned above. I signed up for a 3 day tag along 4x4 experience of Fraser Island, the world’s largest all sand island. The tour included 4 land rover type cars with about 8 people per car. We drove all over the island and checked out the sites. This was absolutely one of the best experiences I have ever had. The weather was perfect, the sites were nothing short of stunning and the people were true value. There are no roads on the island so you just get tossed around in the 4x4 as you navigate through winding trails in the bush. The ocean side driving is less nauseating but I preferred the unpacked trails. We swam in some of the clearest fresh water I have ever seen. We saw sharks swimming from a cliff called Indian Head, where Aboriginals would make their wrong doer’s or captives jump to their death in the rocks and sea below. We drank water from a fresh spring, saw cliffs made of sand, enjoyed a sky full of stars at the beach, camped with Dingos (no one was eaten), saw the skeleton of a massive cruise ship that wrecked and washed ashore in the 1800’s, and hiked to a massive sand dune that led down into a lake about 3 km inland. I can’t explain how amazing the people were on my trip and how quickly we all bonded. In my car were an Irish couple, a Frenchman, a Brazilian, 2 German girls, an Englishman and our driver was Australian. It was quite the multicultural experience.

I was so sad to leave everyone after Fraser Island but I was heading for Airlie Beach and the Whitsunday Islands so who could complain? After a 16 hour night ride on a greyhound I arrived in Airlie Beach. Almost immediately I boarded my sailing boat for a 3 day cruise around the Whitsunday Islands. Again we were blessed with good weather, which is pretty hard to come by at this time of year, which is called The Wet, short for the wet season. The Whitsundays were also stunning. Bright blue waters, lush green islands and bright blue skies. Everyone just laid around the boat, sunning and drinking and making new friends. I went snorkeling for the first time and saw so many colorful fish! We made a stop at White Haven Beach, the 8th most beautiful beach in the world. If you are caught with a kilogram of White Haven sand you can be fined $50,000! Seriously! The sand is so fine you can brush your teeth with it and clean your jewelry. Or you can get it into the lens of your camera, rendering your camera useless. Luckily I avoided that. During the warm summer months in addition to your worries about sharks and The Wet, you have to be concerned about Stingers, aka jellyfish. There are several kinds that can do serious damage but there are two in particular that could kill a horse. So, when swimming in the ocean during the summer months anywhere north of Hervey Bay you must wear a stinger suit, much like a wet suit but a bit thinner. Luckily they don’t cover your face or protect you from sharks so you still feel adventurous. It’s a strange feeling to be swimming in such a beautiful place and be wearing a full body suit but honestly the sun is so strong here that I was thankful for a break from it. I have NEVER used an entire bottle of sunscreen in the States and I used up my new bottle in less than a month here. The sun is powerful here.

After the Whitsundays I had a night in Airlie Beach to do a pub crawl with everyone from our boat. The next day I headed to Magnetic Island, which was beautiful. I went on a hike there that had more great views, saw a kangaroo crossing the road and won a paper airplane contest, earning myself a free jug of beer.

The next day I was off to Cairns, my last stop before heading back to Melbourne. In Cairns I did a day trip to the Great Barrier Reef on a beautiful boat. We stopped at three different spots along the reef to snorkel and I did my first introductory dive. The snorkeling there was everything I ever imagined. Thousands of fish, fish everywhere!!! All kinds and colors and shapes and sizes! I saw a reef shark and jelly fish (not the deadly kind), giant clams, an Elvis fish, Nemos or Clown Fish, and a few hundred other types that were all so vibrant and incredible. My scuba dive was quite an experience as well. At first I thought I wouldn’t be able to do it because it hurt my ears so badly but eventually I equalized the pressure properly and was good to go. We spent about half an hour exploring under water about 30 ft deep. I felt like Ariel from the Little Mermaid, though not as sexy because instead of a shell bra I had on a stinger suit and diving equipment. Either way I was swimming around having a blast. Another highlight of the trip was the food spread. I had been eating pretty much the same 3 meals for the last few weeks so when I saw the sushi, prawns, fresh fruit, curries, etc. I went all out. Ahh so delicious.

Back in Melbourne things have been great. I’ve been busy working various jobs and catching up with friends. A big group of camp people went climbing at Ben Cairns in the Yarra Valley last week. That’s a wine region here so the drive out was through beautiful vineyards. Mark and Suzi are here now so they joined us for the climb session and we had a BBQ the other day so everyone could catch up. I’ve been meeting up with friends I met on the east coast that are either living in Melbourne or just passing through on their adventures.

The day after Christmas is called Boxing Day here. Long ago families used to box up their leftovers and give them to the poor or homeless. Now, I’m assuming with the invention of the refrigerator, people just eat their leftovers. Anyway I celebrated Boxing Day with the Carraghers, No-e and Lord Dubingston, and a couple of their friends. We went to a cricket match against the English. It was part of a very important tournament called the Ashes and Boxing Day is one of the biggest days to go. While cricket is far from what I would call riveting, I really enjoyed myself. Dub explained all the rules and scoring throughout the day and we basically just sat around enjoying the sun and a couple beers. Lucky for me that match will go down in history as the worst score the Australians have ever had in this history of the Ashes tournament. They were pathetic. It was great. Dub, being from England was delighted but everyone else seemed less than impressed for some reason. After that we all headed for a bar and to catch up with friends who were spread out throughout the stadium.

This month I will be organizing my next move and trying to find casual work for the next few weeks, as the events company has slowed down and I only work weekends at the café. The IHC reunion is on Jan 22nd and after that I’m road tripping it over to Adelaide with 1T. Plans are to do a bit of camping and exploring of South Australia, another cricket match on Australia Day, the music festival Big Day Out, which I am so excited for, and possibly a trip up to Ayers Rock if I can earn the money in the next couple weeks. We shall see. Hope everyone at home is having a great Christmas. I miss and love y’all so much.

xx,
Elizabeth