Since my departure on the 6th of december, I have visited two big cities. The first one was massive, Hong Kong. Then I flew to Auckland, which was nothing compared to Hong Kong, but still a big city. After that I haven’t really seen any big cities in the mean time. I’d say Wellington doesn’t count and Christchurch was a ghost town.
Cairns wasn’t big either, and all the places in between have been quite small. So arriving in a proper city again, was good. I believe 1.8 million people live in Brisbane. Out on the street you mostly see business men and women. Everyone’s suited up and talking on their cell phone. But I liked it, had enough of these small towns.
So I met up with Marcel, who was on my Fraser trip. We headed down to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. It’s a place where they have a lot of Koala and other Australian animals. Took about 40 minutes with public transport. We made our way down to the Koalas, did I mention that they are super cute? You just want one. They are all chilling in the tree, hanging out, eating some leafs. Yeah, I’m pretty sure you want one as a pet. Unfortunately, you can’t.
What you can do though, is holding one. So you pay extra and get to hold them. So it was my turn, stand on a spot, and the keeper walks over with a Koala. His name was Scott, but he didn’t really like me. After three tries, he still wouldn’t sit/hang on me, so they got a replacement. I’m afraid I forgot the name of the Koala, but let’s just call him Mike. So Mike didn’t dislike me as badly and did hang on to me.
They are very soft and fluffy. Only thing that isn’t nice about them, are their claws. Long sharp nails which they use to hang on to stuff. Not very painful, but definitely far from comfortable. So my smile isn’t as broad as it was supposed to be, but still a very nice experience to hold one. Did I mention that they are super cute? I think they are the only thing in the world that will beat kittens on the official level of cuteness.
After admiring the Koalas we got to see the next cliche Australian animal. The Kangaroo. There was a field that was fenced off and for 2 dollar you could buy some Kangaroo food. So in to the gate, put some on your hand, and they will come. Which to be honest is quite frightening, especially the massive ones. Cause they want your food. I’m not a hero, but I managed to feed them anyway. At some point we got surrounded by four of them.
We’ve had enough of the local animals and made our way back to the city. Headed out for a couple of beers at the bar below the hostel which had some good deals. The hostel it self was pretty shitty. It was packed and not a nice vibe to it at all. But, apart from sleeping there I haven’t spent much time there anyway. But I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone really.
Every night I ended up meeting with someone I met earlier in my trip, which was nice. The last night I saw Ruth, one of the nurses on Whitsundays who told me to suck it up. We both made our way down to Surfers Paradise the next day. Last night went for some drinks in town, very busy. Unfortunately due to the lack of sleep the last few days, and the heat, I wasn’t feeling too well. Had a good night sleep though, it is better. But still the heat is something that is difficult to get used to.
I’m currently sitting on the balcony, in the shade. It’s about 28 degrees today. After posting this, I will make my way down to Surfers Paradise. it’s one of the suburbs of the Gold Coast, my hostel is a bit outside the area. I’m staying here for another night, then I might try to do some Couch Surfing here for a few nights. Haven’t sorted out an address in Byron yet unfortunately. Anyway, I’m off. Enjoy the snow back home!
It’s already the last day of January, time flies. Time flies especially on Fraser island, since we had such an amazing time on this big island off the coast in Australia.
At 4:00pm I had to be in the briefing room of the hostel. Arriving, there were 20 others gathered who were all getting ready for Fraser island. An hour of talk followed by one of the guides. We should bring swim gear, shorts, flip flops and plenty of food and alcohol.
We got divided into 3 groups. I ended up with 6 Germans. I was a bit anxious about it at first, but it all worked out fine in the end. We had to make a shopping list. The first question I got was “how many slices of bread do you eat for lunch?” So after some calculating the shopping fuhrer did not write down ‘5 breads’, or whichever, no there was ‘150 slices of bread’ on the shopping list. German efficiency all the way.
After buying enough food and booze, we headed back to the hostel. We got summoned into the briefing room again and got some bad news. The whole camp site was flooded and tents got washed away. The trip was either going to be cancelled, or we had to pay extra and stay in a hostel instead. There was a debate going on regarding the extra cost and such. In the end, we either had to pay or the trip got cancelled. Luckily, we decided to go for the trip anyway.
The next morning I had to wake up at 5:30 to check out at 6:00am. We had to watch a whole training video regarding driving a 4x4 jeep on the sand. After watching that training video which contains very bad acting. We headed off to get our jeeps. All the groceries in the back. Beer in the blue fridge boxes, some ice on top and we were good to go. Off to the ferry.
After the 30 minute boat ride we arrived at Fraser island. We headed off to our first spot, a nice lake where we could go for a swim. Really blue water. It was still dry, which was very fortunate. It had been raining the day before really badly. The forecast basically said 3 days of rain.
After our swim it was my turn to get behind the wheel. A very heavy clutch paddle, the steering wheel and gear stick at the wrong side, but apart from that it was just a big car. Driving is a lot of fun, going through the small sandy roads, loads of bumps in the road, it definitely brought a smile on my face. I ended up yelling “more power” while accelerating through those windy roads. I felt a bit like Jeremy Clarkson. The germans started giving me names like Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel.
We headed to the hostel to fire up the barbie. (Aussies tend to shorten words, so they won’t say barbecue.) After dinner the serious drinking began. Around 11:00pm we were all in a good party mood. Part of our crew were 4 loud British girls. That’s how I’ve been describing them ever since. They sure do know how to get a party started. At our first swimming session they already gave everyone a nickname which started with the same first letter and was typical for Australia. We had Outback Ollie, Jungle Jess, Scott the Shark etc. I became Eucalyptus Erik.
So the 4 loud British girls started yelling skinny dipping. About an hour later about 15 of us were running towards the pool behind our hostel. About 40 people were sitting outside the pool, enjoying a drink. In the pool were about 5 or 10 people, they didn’t stay in long as soon as we’ve entered.
I must have had good karma cause I woke up quite fresh and not hungover at all. The second day involved more scenic stuff and loads of swimming. The best spot we went for a swim was the Champagne pools. It’s a little area at the beach which is covered by rocks. The waves crash on those rocks and it’s a beautiful sight. The rocks are covered in small sharp shells, so we were to avoid those rocks. Unfortunately when I tried to get out, I got washed over by a wave and ended up cutting my hands. feet and legs up. So I came out with a red track behind me.
Just like my Whitsundays trip, there were now even 4 nurses in our group. The 4 loud British girls. Again, no sympathy was given. As soon as I was diagnosed by light cuts, and nothing serious. I heard things like “man up”, “you’ll live” and “maybe we should amputate your hands”.
I managed to live through my injuries and we went off to see more scenic stuff along the island. Followed by another ‘barbie’ and a good night of drinking. The last day we headed for a big lake in the middle of the Island. Very blue water and it was a very refreshing swim. After the lake we headed back on the ferry to arrive in Hervey Bay again.
Fraser island was a very good trip. We had great weather, which was unexpected. I spent another night in Harvey Bay and made my way down to Brisbane today. Staying here for a few nights. Probably going to hug a Koala tomorrow.
After having a few days to recover in Airlie Beach, I managed to walk like a normal person again. I met a nice couple. Mike, the British, and Marta, the Spanish. We shared a few beers at the bar inside the hostel. With the best bar man ever, named Tom. He provided us with loads of entertainment in the form of stories, jokes and quizzes.
I decided to annoy Mike and Marta for a bit and travel down with them to Agnes Water to see the historic town of 1770. This meant that we had to take the overnight bus. So after annoying Tom the bar man for a while, at 11 in the evening we headed down to the bus stop. A whole bunch of backpackers was already waiting for the bus.
At 11:45 the bus, with the biggest dick of a bus driver I’ve ever met, arrived. So far all the Kiwis and Aussies I’ve met, are well laid back and very easy going. This bus driver was probably european, cause he thought he was running a school trip. He was warning us that if there was ‘drama’ about the seating, he would pull over in the middle of nowhere and reallocate seats. After having a few good laughs with Mike about this bus driver on a power trip, I’ve had an alright night which consisted of waking up every 30-60 minutes.
A good eleven hours later we arrived at Agnes Water. A small town on the east coast. We got picked up by a van which brought us to Cool Bananas. The hostel we were staying at the next two nights. The manager was a giant douche, again an unfriendly Aussie. Not sure if that’s the trend lately. But after checking in and getting my bed in the 8 room dorm, I headed out for some adventure.
There is a so called ‘Scooteroo’ tour available. Which doesn’t sound awesome, but trust me, it is! You get on these small motorcycles and get to drive towards the old town of 1770. Not just that, you get to wear a leather jacket with flames on them and a cool helmet. My first test run wasn’t the best, they actually made me do the test track again. Once I got the hang of it, it was all good. Cruised in a big convoy, like a proper motor gang, towards the harbor of 1770.
It was all good fun, these things even went quite fast. On a flat piece of road I managed to take it to 75 km/h. which is quite alright for not even needing a motorcycle license, your ordinary license will do. Even though they only asked me while I was booking if I had one, I never had to show it to anyone.
After riding those bikes I felt macho enough to sign up for my first surfing lesson. The next morning we headed over to the local surf shop. In true Aussie fashion we had to wait for 45 mins before we’d actually make our way down to the beach. We got our surfboards and surfing shirts on. These shirts are against ripping your skin on the board and getting a severe sunburn.
A good half an hour tutorial was next, this was all quite hard to follow due to the heat. I just wanted to get into the water, to cool down a bit. Before we could do that, we had to practice getting up on our boards in the sand. This was exhausting in this heat. As soon as we’ve done 20 of those, we could get into the water, I figured after 4 tries I was ready and hit the ocean.
So down here, in Agnes Water, it’s the first place where you can swim in the ocean without a stinger suit. Which. Is. Awesome! So done with all the nets, suits and horror stories. Just get in there and enjoy the sea. With my surf board I headed into the ocean and made my way to the spot the instructor told us to go.
I was quite psyched for surfing, so the first good wave I saw, I was on it. Paddling like a shark was chasing me I managed to get onto the wave. But the nose of the surfing board was going under which meant I got a nice nose dive into the sea and my first mouth full of salt water. Not a nice experience. After three more of those I managed to do it a bit better and at least get up a bit.
After two hours of intense surfing I managed to get up on the board around 6-7 times, fully standing. Even did some posing for the photographer. With enough salt water in my lungs and feeling quite manly, I went to have a quick lunch. To compensate for this badass morning we went on a electric bike tour to 1770.
First off we got to make a test ride on the bikes. The expectations were really low, the guide basically told me I was doing amazing after one circle around the car park. It’s a normal bike with a battery, basically for lazy people. He then started bragging about doing 40 km/h with the battery on. I told him I was dutch, so that wasn’t an impressive figure. Also one lady didn’t join the tour, she couldn’t even cycle for 4 meters without falling off.
We set out to see some kangaroos. I did see three in the end, unfortunately I wasn’t able to take a good photo without them hopping off. Also a lot of tasting fruits and information about the location plants was provided. It definitely balanced out my bad ass surfing morning and biker tour before, but at least I learned some stuff about the history of Australia.
To celebrate our surfing adventure we headed to the local sport bar. It was pissing down with rain, fortunately we got a drop off by the hostel to the bar. Had a few pints and walked back through the rain. The next morning we were supposed to take the 9:45am bus from Agnes Water to Harvey Bay, but it was delayed. In the end it showed up 2,5 hours late cause of some flooded roads a long the way.
The weather isn’t the best at the moment. Loads of rain which results in flooded roads. My backpack got quite wet in the loading bay of the coach today. But it’s all sorted now. Currently staying in a 6 bed dorm in Harvey Bay.
Later today I will have my briefing for the Fraser Island camping trip. It will involve some 4x4 jeeps and seeing some amazing lake. After Fraser I will head down to Brisbane, see if I can get to experience the local music scene there.
Eleven hours on a bus, not one of my favorite things. After a very long day I managed to get to Airlie Beach. A small town at the sea which is the gateway to Whitsunday islands. On thursday we got to meet the Condor. Which is a sailing ship with a history. Apparently it has won every big sailing competition at least twice. Now it’s retired and only does trips to the Whitsunday Islands.
So, you hand in your shoes once you get on board. There were only 16 guests on board, it can hold 29 guests. And there were 4 crew members. Then you throw your bag downstairs and start off with a safety briefing and more boring stuff. First half hour we used the motor to get out of the harbor, then we set sail. I’ve never been sailing before, so that was quite an adventure.
I didn’t really put that much thought into it, I only heard from people it was an amazing trip. So to actually get sailing, the sail has to be hoisted. That wasn’t just the crew’s job, we were to participate in this event. Which involved tugging a rope with three guys at the same time. Thank god there was a strong Canadian guy involved, so I could just act like I was helping out.
The boat got to a nice angle and we had to sit on the safe side. The high side is the safe side, the low side is the suicide. So, legs out, receiving an occasional refreshing bit of sea water. The weather wasn’t the best at the harbor once we left, but it’s still a good 30 degrees. Just some clouds.
After a good amount of sailing we lowered the anchor. A nice dinner was cooked for us and we enjoyed it on the deck. It was now time for a party, and there was plenty of booze on board. It get’s dark quite early here, like 7:30 I think, made it a cozy scenery. After a few beers and cheap wine everyone was enjoying themselves. We had a nice mixture of nationalities. From Canada to Denmark and Turkish to Finnish. I was the only flying dutch man on board. But to be fair, I think I’ve met about two dutch guys so far during my trip.
A good amount of alcohol helped to get us to sleep in the cozy lower deck. It was quite warm and not as comfy, but I didn’t have that much trouble falling a sleep. Just to be rudely awoken at 6:30 cause the crew was preparing breakfast. I’m not a morning person, so I didn’t enjoy that. But once you’ve made your way upstairs and see the beautiful islands around you, the insane blue water and blue sky, then not even I can complain.
Spent a good hour hanging on the deck, then we got in the dingy. (that’s the small rubber boat). We got dropped off at the beach and made our way to a lookout post overviewing the Whitehaven beach. It was high tide, but still very impressive. We made our way down to the beach and got into our sexy stinger suits. Went for a swim, bit of sun bathing on the beach. The sand is amazing, really fine sand. We got warned a couple of times about our electronic devices, drop it in the sand and it will be destroyed. The sand is so fine, it will get everywhere. So I decided not to drop my camera.
We got back onto the Condor and had some nice lunch on the deck and set sail to our snorkeling spot. Now when we arrived, the front sail had to come down, so again volunteers were required. I didn’t mind helping out. While getting the sail down there was a lot of wind and I got pulled forward about half a meter and managed to hit my toe on a roof. The deck of the boat is filled with stuff you can hurt yourself on. Didn’t hurt as bad at the start, but after 20 mins I couldn’t walk anymore. As some of you remember, I went frisbeeing at the park last summer. I didn’t wear any shoes and managed to badly bruise a toe. This time I bruised the toe on my left foot, next to my big toe.
So we got some ice on it. The skipper told me not to and just walk. Good thing there were two nurses on board who took care of me. It turned purple pretty quickly. I still went snorkeling, which was beautiful. Saw a lot of fish, way more fish around than at the reef. But the coral was more impressive at the Great Barrier Reef. And I didn’t see any turtles, I did see some jellyfish which I stayed away from.
After a good snorkel we got back on the boat, me limping around. We made our way to our next overnight spot. I didn’t have to volunteer anymore, since I got injured on duty. As soon as one of the nurses did a diagnose on me, that it wasn’t broken, the sympathy stopped from the nurses. They weren’t impressed by my war injury. Good thing the rest of the girls made up for that and kept asking me if I was alright.
Another dinner on the deck, and it was time for a party again. Music on, alcohol was flowing. Which definitely helped my toe out a lot. After hearing the same playlist of (bad) music for the third time, I decided to stumble downstairs and find my phone to take over the deejay booth. A lot of appreciation was given once we got some classics like the Who and the Kinks blasting through the speakers of this great sailing boat.
The next morning I was awoken again by the preparation of breakfast. After breakfast we headed to a second snorkeling spot. The tide was high, and I just showered. I didn’t want to put on the stinger suit again and get in, but I did join the crew on the dingy. I even got to drive it. Which was a lot of fun.
Back in the harbor we got our flip flops, or as the locals say ‘thongs’, back on. Mario, my new German friend, was nice enough to drop me off at my hostel. Really enjoying the amount of space I got again. Weird experience, being stuck on a boat with 20 people. But it was very good, met a lot of cool people on the boat. At night we went to a bar on the strip. The whole crew was there, and almost all of the guests as well. We abused happy hour and got clubbing. Crowded, bad music, overpriced alcohol but a lot of fun regardless.
Today I’m recovering. My toe is already much better, I can walk in flip flops with it, so that’s all good. Just have to give it a few more days. Big thanks to my two private nurses on the boat, Nicola and Ruth, who put up with my whining and complaining. Today I’m going to figure out what my next stop is going to be. I have to be in Hervey Bay at the 27th of january for my camping trip to Fraser Island.
