Camp it up

Noosa Heads was the place I left you all at and at the time it was not a good place due to the hassle with trying to find somewhere to stay we did however have one big night out in the hostel and that redeemed Noosa in my opinion as it was an amazing night but we did have to say auf viedesan to Noosa and continue on our way.

We travelled backwards not normally the way to do it but it was to see Australia Zoo which was the zoo run and owned by the legendary Steve Irwin, you may remember him from such titles as Crocodile Hunter 1-8 and Top Deadliest Animals, the zoo was 55 bucks for entry and was worth every penny as we got to interact with the animals like feeding and petting the kangaroos who have the easiest life of any other kangaroo, they just lie there get petted and get fed, another interaction was touching a koala it was a bit like a velvet fur and he didn’t seem to mind being touched.

Next stop was a trip to Rainbow bay where we hung out on the beach for a few hours, the problem with Australia is that everything is so god damn far 3 hours is close 8 hours is the normal drive to the next decent place so unless we are going to bed down in a place we generally have to keep moving so from Rainbow bay we continued to Hervey Bay which was where we were going to bed down and book a tour of Fraiser Island………….

Fraiser Island was created by 800,000 years of drifting sands and is like no where else on Earth, it is also known as K’Gari or Paradise by the local Abbo’s. The island is rich with crystal clear lakes and rivers and is quite hard to imagine that it is atop of a pile of 120km of sand. The island does pose some hazards as people die and get injured there quite often, the swell around the island is brimming with Tiger Sharks and the rip tides are outright incredible so any entry into the water was at the persons own risk so I opted for ankle depth. The oceans are also full with jelly fish and you didn’t even have to get into the water for them to sting you as the stingers were all over the beach……so if Dr Pepper did trips to Fraiser Island ‘whats the worst that could happen?’ You go swimming a rip (under current) takes you out to sea you get stung by a jelly then you get eaten by a shark. Not all dangers were in the sea the island is populated by Dingos which are wild dogs which are sort of native to Australia but were in fact brought over hundreds and thousands of years ago I think from PNG but check Wiki as I could be wrong. The ultimate danger though is the human in the 4x4, due to the island being made of sand you need to hire a off road vehicle to navigate the island and many deaths occur from foolish driving which result in the jeeps being rolled but as you can tell from this blog I survived and I have a tale to tell.

The worst thing about booking these sort of trips is the group, a bad group can make even the most charming of places seem like hell, imagine paying to stay at the most expensive hotel in the world then realising someone annoying is there like Jordan or Kerry Katona it would ruin it but on the other hand a great group can make a crap place amazing. The groups were of 8 or 9 in one vehicle and in my opinion our group was made up of the best.

1. Me
2. John (Travel Buddy)
3. Tim (Also Travel Buddy)
4. Miriam (Attractive Swed)
5. Jo (As above)
6. David (Guitar man)
7. Victoria (Attractive Dane)
8. Sandra (As above)

From our group there were 3 other groups who also were of quality stock although they didn’t quite have the get up and go as our group. Room in the 4x4 was limited this was probably due to the 5 boxes of goon, bottle of Smirnoff , 15 cans of alchopop and the 90 beers that we needed to fit in. Once all our safety stuff was done we then had to go shopping for food which we let the girls do and this probably attributed in the weight loss I have suffered as a consequence, im sure all the celebs will be on the ‘Fraiser Island Weight Loss Diet (FIWLD)’ very soon basically its one full meal a day with the rest of the day being carrots or apples with lots of walking involved.

The company gave us a guide and the first day we went to Lake Wabby look out then down to the lake where we doned our boxers and took a dip in the refreshing lake, next was to the campsite where we had to all set up, when I say campsite I mean behind the dunes with no facilities so number 2’s were shovel in hand and find a spot to dig **please note the FIWLD is not good for stemming the flow of digestion**.

Night time approached and so did the Dingos but in all honesty after the talk from the company they made them out to be like Hound of the Baskervilles who would literally eat your face off given the chance in reality they are just scrounging dogs. The night also kicked off some drinking games and some sing songs………….

Next morning we headed off to Indian Head which we climbed and tried to see sharks or mantas but all I saw was a turtle. One of the girls decided to have a paddle in one of the pools there but a wave swept her around the perceived safeguard of the rocks and bang she was in a rip, lucky she recovered only slightly shaken. Next was to Champagne pools which are pools but as the waves come over they create a fizzing effect hence the name, I loved this part as the water was so salty it made me very buoyant and floating was effortless. This day we visited a ship wreck on the beach and also a creek but these were pretty boring in my view.

Night two and it was pretty much the same as number one but more drunk but an event did happen during the early hours of the morning while all were slumber, Tim was savagely attacked by a Dingo in the tent so how did he handle it? Like the safety video showed us (stay calm) NO he let out a ‘death cry’ from the pit of his stomach something akin to the end of the NZ hakka and lashed out with his feet at the foul beast (please note the prevailing screams were heard by David who was in the truck and all the other tents surrounding ours who made the split decision to do fuck all), it was a fight for life with the adrenaline soaring ‘fight or flight’ kicked in Tim still roaring from the belly crying out “DINGO” carried on kicking until he heard the Dingo speak “You pair of fucking idiots” it shouted at Tim, turned out it was the wet end of Johns sleeping bag that had touched Tims feet and in sheer terror he believed the Dingo’s wet nose was nuzzling at his toes looking for a tasty treat. Johns response to being kicked repeatedly in the chest was to accuse Tim and I of conducting a prank to scare the shit out of him which to be fair is quite likely, where was Chris I hear you ask when all this commotion broke out in camp, well I was 12 inches away sound asleep completely oblivious to the nights event.

Next stop Arlie Beach for the Whitsundays 3 day boat trip to some of the most beautiful beaches in the world, just hoping for an amazing group as before.