Fraser Island / Rainbow Beach

Happy Easter!! The Sun is shining here and I hear you have plenty of snow back home. We arrived back from our 4x4 Camping Trip to Fraser Island yesterday afternoon. Tired and with Sand everywhere!!!

We left on Friday in a Toyota Land Cruiser (a Tank!) with 11 people in total. Packed up the vehicle with enough food, alcohol and camping equipment for 3days! It was good fun, reminded Chris and I of being in cadets. We soon left for the biggest sand Island in the world and soon arrived at the ferry terminal for the 7minute journey over to the island. Alan (from Ireland) drove most of the time, which was good because he was the only one who had driven a 4x4 before. It was good fun. Driving along the longest beach with FatBoy Slim pumping out the stereo, it was good fun. 100km later we arrived at Indian Heads which was the most northern part of the Island. We couldn't drive any further so we visited 'Champagne Pools'. It was stunning, there were waves crashing up against the rocks on one side and the other there were these quite pools with the spray of the waves coming over the top, making the water look like champagne bubbles. It was really good to visit, we ended up swimming in the pools until the waves got higher and started washing us back! Later on that day we drove back along the beach and set up camp near quite a few other campers. The tents were suprisingly easy to set up, despite there being sand EVERYWHERE. We tried our best to keep it out. We set up the cooker and cooked our meal for the night Steak and Potatoes, which turned out really well. We soon moved onto our selection of alcohol consisting mainly of wine as its what is cheap out here which im slowly getting used to. It was'nt too long before we headed to bed as it was a very long day.

The following day we awoke around 9am to cook scrambled eggs for breakfast, quickly packed up the Land Cruiser and head off to Eilie Creek about 5mins down the beach. It was a small creek of water that had come down from the hills, ICE cold. It was very shallow so we managed to walk down the whole thing. We soon moved on to Rainbow Gorge which had some amazing sand dunes, the sand was all different colors, it was stunning. Some of the steeper sand dunes we ended up sprinting down, jumping and even roli poling down. It was good fun, we got a couple of good pictures aswell. Once we shook most of the sand off of our clothing we began to head back to the car. On the way back Chris managed to spot a python hiding underneath a tree stub, Our first close encounter with a snake. Chris got about half a meter away whereas I stood way back with my big lens to take a picture. Later on in the day we head off to Lake Wabby which was a good 40minute walk through the forest it was quite secluded. Well worth the walk tho because it was stunning. There was a massive sand dune headed downwards into the water where we had races into the lake almost toppling over, it was really funi, martin ended up falling in head first (wish i got a picture). Along the beach we found some Australians body boarding down the slopes which looked like soo much fun. Around 4pm we head back to the car because we could only drive until 5 (because we could'nt drive on the beach during high tide). We headed to a campground on the beach close to the entrance to the road leading to Lake McKenzie so we could visit it in the morning. We set up Camp and it was a similar story to the following night. We awoke in the morning to a touch of rain. We had cornflakes which somehow attracted a dingo that was hanging around the sight, the girls that were traveling with us got quite scared as it was right outside the tent. Chris took a few good photos and it soon went away. Once the dingo left we soon packed up camp again and headed along a long bumpy track to Lake Mackenzie. White sands, blue waters. It was amazing, soo clear. It was very touristy tho which I didn't like and not as secluded as Lake Wabby so I didn't enjoy it as much. Was a stunning lake tho and got a couple more pics.

We soon headed back for our 2pm ferry, tired and sandy. We got back to Dingo's (our hostel) at around 4, jumped into the comfort of a bed, washed all the sand off and chilled out for the rest of the evening. It was well needed.
So after a refreshing sleep and some free pancakes here I am in Dingo's Internet cafe spending the next couple of hours trying to upload all the photos from the past couple of weeks. Have a look! Theres loads tho, can't stop taking pictures.

Today were going to head up to Carlo Sand blow, which is another sand dune region of rainbow beach. We're gonna take the body boards so it should be good fun!! Tomorrow we head off to noosa for a night, to check it out. Then off to Brisbane, I'll update you all of our movements from then.

Hope your all enjoying the snow :)

Whitsundays / Airlie Beach

Yesterday we arrived back on the mainland at Airlie beach on the return from our boat journey on the Atlantic Clipper. It was amasing, it was quite a big yaht and had 50passengers on board. We headed out to the Whitsunday Islands. The first island we visited began on the first night where we headed to the Northern part of the region of Islands to an Island named Hook Island (one of the 74 Islands within the National Park). It was soo peaceful, not a car or a plane in sight. We docked up there for the night as the water was soo still. Early on in the evening Chris and I were on deck talking to the dive instructor when suddenly out the corner of his eye he spotted something and shouted 'HAMMERHEAD'. If you havnt gathered he spotted a hammerhead shark. Chris and I darted round to cath a glimpse in the water. The rest of the boat attempted to join us but i think it was too late for them I think. We were told this is where we wernt going to be snorkelling. :) In the evening we had our meal which was cooked in a small kitchen oin board consisting of chicken and mashed potato which was great, i havnt eaten mashed potato in a couple of months. different to my usual diet of noodles or pasta. The boat is a great place to be when its still, although not soo much below deck when we're hitting fairly big waves. We finished the eveing with a couple of games involving some alcohol and socialising with some new found friends on board. The cabins we were staying in were quite small, stuffy so I did'nt sleep well for the first time since being away and awoke around 5am to sit on deck to cath the fresh air. Once everyone had awoken we head off to a beach where everyone went snorkelling and scuba diving. I gave scuba diving a go as I had been waiting to do it for quite a while now. I did an introductory dive which cost me about 25pounds which was really good. It was very strange at first getting the breathing right but after a while I got used to it and we all went for a dive in no time. We got down to about 9meters. The weightlessness was such a cool feeling and we saw soo many fish. We managed to swim underneath and between some of the coral, it was quite a surreal experience. We soon headed back to the boat for some lunch and then head off to Whitehaven beach. We were dropped off by a speedboat on a nearby beach and took a short walk to Whitehaven Beach, It was stunning. It's hard to explain so ull have to see the pictures! It was amasing!!!
After this spectacular visit we went anchored up for the night and played a few on the boat games such as Eat the Box, involving a box and a cricket bat and alot of flexibility. One to play in freshers week with the rugby team when i get home. The rest of the evening was spent socialising with the rest of the passengers on the boat, most people were from Australia, Holland or Canada. It was good fun.

The following day we took the day to relax and recover from the following early mornings and then went out in the evening for St Patricks night which was great fun. We went to san Irish Bar called Paddys, There was an amasing cover band playing. It was a good fun.
Another day to recover we spent by the Airlie Beach Lagoon, chilling out in the sun and swimming. In the evening we cooked a BBQ and said goodbye to a few friends we had met along the way, Joe and Emma. We may see them again, maybe in New Zealand. And for once headed to bead early for our 5 o clock rise for our bus journey to Kroombit Cattle Ranch.

Kroobit Cattle Ranch was a typical Australian Ranch (about 10,000 hectares) we arrived late in the evening and we all learnt how to crack a whip. I attempted to ride the mechanical bull and failed miserably, (chris has a great video about 1 second long), Chris was much better and didnt fall off until it started turning.

Now we are in Rainbow Beach, we have a tour booked for tomorrow and a 4x4 with a group of 10other people ready to go to Fraser Island. I'm really looking forward to it, something completely different. We will be camping and cookung on stoves just like the good old times at cadets.

Theres soo much to write about, but so little time, Internet here is rare and expensive. Uploading as many pictures as possible atm so keep your eyes out. Cya in 3days.

Alex.

Mission Beach to Magnetic Island to the Whitsundays

So where do I start.... It's been a while since I last updated, most likely due to the great weather and the expensive internet on Magnetic Island.

So we had one more final night at mission beach which consisted of stu and I making the BIGGEST spaghetti bolognaise for the guys, was great if i may say so myself, we were proud. Mums and Dads we are learning well. In the evening we chilled out with our new friends from the hostel and learnt a couple more drinking games....

So the following morning we awoke about 10am to check out and laze by the pool for a couple of hours before getting on the Oz Experience bus to Magnetic Island. This is the sunniest place on the East Coast, which sounded good to us so chris and I booked 3nights and a ferry (all part of a savers package) whereas Stu and Mike decided to only stay one night and head down ahead of us towards brisbane to see the world famous Blues and Roots festival. So Chris and I (quite reluctant to rush down) stayed for a couple of days with the people from our room (Team 122!) who were lovely. Australia is a great place for meeting new people, we all got on pretty well and everyone is pretty laid back, all except chris and I were uni graduates. We had a good laugh tho. So what exactly did we do on Magnetic Island I hear you ask... Umm not much during the day It was waay to hot to do anything so we sat in the shade chatting and playing cards, a bit of well needed relaxation. In the evening the hostel had a quiz night, we teamed up with our new found friends to try and win the 150pounds worth of Diving Vouchers. We unfortunately came second to last however Chris' team came second and managed to wangle free breakfasts for the morning. So after the win we decided to turn in early as we were leaving the following morning.

In the morning I awoke early to take a walk along the beautiful sandy beach and then packed my bags to check out for 10am. We all had our breakfasts and jumped on the coach, then ferry, then oz experience bus to our next destination - Airlie Beach.

So here we are now. In 'Peterpans Travel Office' where we now have free internet woop!! We booked ourselves onto a boat leaving tomorrow for 3days cruising around the stunning Whitsunday Islands (the third national park of the trip). We're really looking forward to it. Our boat is called the Atlantic Clipper and we leave at 3pm tomorrow, food etc. All included. We got a pretty good deal with free meals and hostel nights all the way down to Brisbane.

Airlie Beach is great (no beach tho which is confusing), a couple of nice bars, a supermarket and a post office with a couple of tourist shops a nice little town know for as the gateway to the Whitsundays.

I will update you on this trip on our return, it could be a while. Hope everyone is well back home. I hope to get thje pictures uploaded asap.

Australia - Daintree, Cape Tribulation, Cairns and Mission Beach

Hey from Mission Beach, Australia.

We've had a couple of really busy, exciting days here. Since I last wrote to you we had jus planned to head up into the rainforest of the Daintree and Cap Tribulation. We booked a tour and promptly left the following morning at about 7am, not a pretty sight for the sleepy heads. We were concerned about getting there due to the recent amount of rain that had accoured as there was flooding all over cairns. (They have had half a metre of rain since January) Our first stop was a Mossman Gorge where there was water pumping through the greeny banks at really fast speeds, seemed like a great place to do white water rafting. Maybe a bit too dangerous. After this we were taken for a walk along a rainforest trail where we saw many spiders and other insects and some larger animals such as bats! I got a few great pictures which i'll hopefuli load up soon. We were told a few stories and learnt quite a few facts about the rainforest and mangrove area (mangrove is where the rainforest meets the saltwater). We were told about a tree in the area named by the aboriginals as the GimpyGimpy tree (also known as the stinging tree) If you were to brush past it you would have glass rods inplasnted into your pours of your skin for months resulting in pain every time you sweat or had a shower!! Not nice, we stayed clear from all plants for the rest of the tour. Although we did try tasting some nice green ants which were quite tasty.
We were then taken to a local wildlife sanctury where we were shown kangaroos (stuart managed to stroke one), a couple of crocodiles, some pythons and even a cassowary! It was good fun. We were later taken to our accomodation at PK's Village where we were put in a hostel room for 4.
In the evening we decided to go out on a night walk of the rainforest which was an organised tour to see if we could catch any more of the wilfife in the area. We saw many frogs, tree dragons and lizards. No snakes unfortunately. Although a few spiders named Golden Orbs. They seemed to be popping up alot all over. \
The following day we were taken to the river for a river cruise to find some crocodiles, we saw a couple up on the banks looking after their eggs which was reali good but we didnt get to close. We did manage to see a couple of snakes sitting on the trees as we went by.

We're now in Mission Beach staying at a hostel names Sonny's, we took the Oz Experience down here today who took us to visit innisfal along the way and another gorge and crocodile farm. It was a great day. I will keep you informed on how we get on down here on Mission Beach, I dont think we'll be staying for too long tho.

Speak to you all soon.

Alex.

xxx

Kuala Lumpur to Singapore to Australia

So we left Kuala Lumpur having seen the sights looking forward to our short time in Singapore. We caught our night train at 9.10 for Singapore, it was really confortable and I slept most of the journey whereas, Mikes Ipod ran out of battery and was blessed by the sounds of a woman snoring very loudly on the lower bunk. When we arrived Singapore we hadnt boooked anywhere to stay so we took a taxi to Little India, the backpackers part of town to find no hostels couls take us as they were fully booked. We eventually found a Hostel called Sky Orchids which was located above a couple of shops. We spent the day travelling around Singapore's train network exploring City Hall, Raffles Hotel and Orchard Road. Along the way we managed to stop for an expensive Singapore Sling at the Raffles Hotel. In the evening Mike and I decided to hit the town (while the sleepy heads were boring and stayed in bed on their saturday night), we were told to head to a place called Clarke quay which was a bunch of different clubs along the riverside. We had good fun, completely not our scene with rappers and dance offs but a funny night out never the less. The following day we had a mission to find a new hostel to stay in so we looked on the map and traveled 4 stops down to a place called bugis, where we found a nice little backpackers hostel for a small price located fairly close to city hall, that evening we decided to head out on Orchard Road to go to the Cinema. We decided to do this because to be honest in singapore it is too expensive to do much else. It was good fun tho we watched a film called 'Jumper' which was ok.. not much more to say about that just another film with a pretty bad story line. Trailer made it look better.
The following day we decided to have a much more productive day and packed our bags and headed out to Singapore Zoo for the Day which was sooo goood. We saw soo many animals up close such a White Tigers, Various Monkeys, Snakes and Kangaroos. I took thousand of photos which are now uploaded, if youd like to have a look. Singapore zoo was a great zoo to visit, none of the animals were caged as such, jus secluded on their own little islands withing the park surrounded by water and ditches so they couldnt escape their seemingly happy little habitat. It was a really good day out. However we managed to get quite carried away resulting in us having to head back to the hostel quickly to pick up our bags and head off to the Airport bound for Cairns. We arrived 30mins before the gate opened at Changhi Airport and were put onto a plane with a company named Jet Star with all of the quantas passengers to Cairns via Darwin. We had no idea this was going to happen.
I once again found the flight extremely quick as I spent the majority of it sleeping whereas Mike and Stu didnt even manage to shut their eyes. I think I have an ability to sleep wherever when i'm tired enough. I didn't even know we'd taken off as I fell asleep before take off.

So here we are now in Cairns, the boys have been counting down the days to Australia whereas I think I would have probably liked to have spent a little more time in Thailand and Malaysia. On the other hand I've always wanted to visit this beautiful country and I really look forward to see what it has in store for us. I think I'll have to do Thailand again sometime.

We're rite in the middle of a tropical storm right now, so were stuck inside the internet cafe. It's meant to clear up by friday so I may head up north for a day trip into the rainforest. I really look forward to it. I will keep you all updated.

Hope everyone is well back home.

lots of love.
Alex.
xxx