Oz part 3

So where are we up to? Today is a bus day, travelling north from Byron Bay to Hervey Bay, with a quick stop off in Brisbane to get lunch and change buses. Oh and to try and redo all our remaining flights over the phone with British Airways in order to save our ticket from being totally cancelled...

We'd come up with a set of dates, and hoped they could get the specific flights sorted out for us over the phone. It had all been such a mad panic both of us were stressed out and worried everything was about to go hugely pear shaped.

We made it to Brisbane on time and found an internet place to skype call to BA. After explaining that I was phoning back to check on the results of the mysterious manual process, the chap proceeds to apologise profusely that its all sorted out but they wont be able to offer a refund.

I sat there dumbstruck for a second or so... assuming that he didn't understand what was going on. After double and triple confirming everything, it appeared that the re-routing fee had mysteriously vanished, our tickets wouldn't be cancelled and we didn't need to go through all the remaining flights and change anything. Result!

It was a good thing we didn't have to go through anything else as we barely made it back to the station before the bus left. Neither of us could really believe it had all worked out so well at the last minute... (To be honest we should really call BA again at some point just to double check, but neither of us want to risk breaking the illusion that its all sorted out ha!)

So somehow that massive black cloud was lifted, giving us much more time to re-plan the end of the trip based on the new budget. The rest of the journey flew by, and we arrived in Hervey Bay and were picked up by our hostel (called "The Friendly Hostel", not sure what to make of it but it was well rated on hostel bookers!) Sure enough the people that run the hostel were very friendly indeed and we settled in for the night. We were due to leave for Fraser Island in the morning, and they let us leave all our bags and stuff in the room - without making us pay extra or anything! Its a miracle, full marks to the Friendly Hostel. Suddenly everything seemed like it was back on track and we could start really enjoying ourselves again.

Fraser Island is a bit of an odd one - its a massive long island off the east coast, but the trick is its made entirely from sand. The trees and bushes have grown on a thin layer of soil, and they lock the sand down so it doesn't blow away. It all makes for some amazing terrain and a really bumpy journey around as there are no real roads.



Because of this we booked a guided 4 wheel drive bus tour over the island with one nights accommodation. There was a choice to do a self-drive tour, but after some stories we'd heard from other travellers on the Ocean Road tour we'd decided against it - and it turns out that was a brilliant choice.

The ferry ride over from Hervey Bay took a while, I think we'd become too used to the speed boats they used in Malaysia. When we arrived we were met by our intrepid bus driver/tour guide - Dave. (He looked the spitting image of the CTU boss in 24 that dies of radiation poisoning, and sounded a lot like Adrian from CMC. The combination confused me for a long time.) Our bus was a fearsome piece of work too - everything on the island has to be full on 4x4 to make it through the soft sand. We set off up the road and it was bumpy going from the get go - and within minutes the bus had to stop because a self-drive rental jeep was stuck in the sand. This set the standard for the rest of the two days - Dave explained that as they hadn't had any rain for the last three weeks the sand had got so dry even the locals were having a hard time getting around without getting bogged in sand. For the tourists with no 4x4 or sand driving experience this meant they got bogged, then didn't know what to do so then got themselves totally and utterly stuck.

Dave was pretty helpful to these poor souls, giving them a crash course in driving on the island ("Low gear, high power - drive it like you stole it. har har har." Yes, he did laugh like a pirate) but we'd heard stories about the other drivers giving the tourists a right earful and telling them to get off the island! Charming... but we were on the bus so had nothing to worry about...and we weren't at all smug.

Dave was quite happy to keep us occupied during the forty minute drive to the first stop, and it become very clear he was of the no-nonsense school of Aussie humour. His anecdotes would have offended most of the annoyingly politically correct types you get back home, but to be honest you couldn't fault him as his heart seemed to be in the right place (despite his views on killer dingos and religion.) He was one those people that seem to know a lot about just about everything, so some of his stories were fascinating, some were hilarious and some were blatantly made up, but it kept everyone entertained for the entire two day trip.

The first stop was the first of several freshwater lakes, and we took a stroll around the edge of it. The scenery is amazing, with trees just sprouting up from sand:



The walk out from the lake took us through the rain forest, which was really thick in places, with little creeks running through it. (Some aspect of the metals in the sand reacting with the dead tree bits has caused hardened deposits to form, according to Dave, which keeps the water from sinking in to the sand.) This was a really nice walk, with great walkways build over the creek to prevent damage to the fragile natural balance.



The next stop was a much bigger freshwater lake that we could swim in. This is a real treat in Oz, because you can't really swim in the sea because of the risk of jellyfish and sharks. So this was great, we both dived into the crystal clear water and had a great time. Alex had been practicing her croc impression since the Singapore zoo:



We headed back to the main resort complex to check into the hostel they have built a little bit away from the nice hotel section - they definitely make sure the unwashed backpacking types are kept away from the conventional holiday makers. The accommodation was pretty basic, we shared with another couple who didn't talk much English so we didn't get to know them much. The evenings food was provided down at the Dingo Bar, which we thought was going to be rubbish but turned out to be great - decent buffet (mmm chicken wings) and a bar. We got talking to a couple of English girls we'd be chatting to during the day, and ended up sharing stories over beers and cocktails until late (well, late-ish, we had another 7am start!)

The second day was quite different from the first, as the bus headed straight out onto the east facing beach. Through some trick of the wind this beach runs the entire length of the island, and is wet enough throughout the day that the bus can drive flat out down the beach. Its so flat that they have a small plane that takes off and lands alongside the buses, as they tear up and down at 60 mph.

The first stop was a lovely fresh water stream that we walked down to the sea. It was high tide at the time so the fight between the sea and the river had built high sand banks on each side.



The second stop was a wreck that washed up and is steadily falling to pieces, it felt like we should have been diving to see it - it looks strange as it had washed so far up the beach, but I guess that the sand must have built up around it since it ran aground year ago.



After lunch we climbed up onto the top of a headland which overhangs nicely so that you can see the sea life wandering by. With the sun above you, the white sands and you looking vertically downwards you can see pretty much everything swimming by. We managed to spot a sting ray, three sharks and a turtle. Sadly the pictures dont really do it justice, as they are just shadows under the water, so all we have is the view from the edge...



That was it for the sightseeing, and Dave headed back to the ferry port for a goodbye to the people we'd met on the tour.



We headed back to the Friendly Hostel again for another night, before hitting the Greyhound the next day for our biggest mission yet - a 17 hour epic overnighter to Townsville - to get the ferry to our next destination, Magnetic Island. After our previous rants about overnight travel we were suitably worried about loosing vital days due to sleep deprivation, but we were reasonably confident we'd get two seats each on the coach so we could sleep reasonably. Our luck was in, and the coach was pretty empty when it picked us up. We played doggo (this might be a Shaw family expression, meaning "to lie down and pretend to sleep") sprawled across two seats each time the coach stopped to pick people up, so by 10pm we had ourselves two seats each and managed a pretty good sleep.

We arrived in Townsville at lunchtime and arrived in Magnetic Island shortly after - the weather had turned nasty and the ferry crossing was a stomach churning 20 minutes. Another fairly packed out local bus took us across the island to Bungalow Bay - which turned out to be a hostel rather than an actual bay. The chap that had arranged the trip for us swore blind we'd have the option of upgrading to a private room when we arrived, but the place was jam packed and we ended up in an 8 bed dorm. This was a bit of a disaster as we'd got a bit fed up with dorms and were really looking forwards to spending a couple of nights with some peace and quite and personal space. They were a strange bunch, all brits - a slightly older very quiet couple, a strange softly spoken scouser, two typical backpacker girls and a strange chap who only seemed to come into the room to have a shower in the mornings. We had vague chats with them but didn't really hit it off, so we spent most of our time doing our own thing.

We decided to explore the island by bike, its so small it looked like you could get most of the way round in a couple of hours so we set off on our mission. We hadn't quite taken into account the huge hills though which turned our little bike ride into a bit of a tour de france. Inevitably we soon decided to cut it short and have a picnic by the next bay we came too. This was our first bit of exercise in a while before this so were pretty tired that evening and decided to treat ourselves to fish and chips on the beach before settling in with a jug of beer we got free at our hostel (they know how to snare in the backpackers.)



We have to mention the crazy wildlife we came across whilst staying in Bungalow Bay - each day we'd have a close encounter with a different kind of creature. Whilst eating dinner one night we watched a lazy fight between a small stork shaped bird and a possum, and the next night a Kookaburra perched right by where we were sitting. Every evening hundreds of large bats would swoop between the trees. But the most colourful encounter was with these parrots, which had flocked in for a feed at the campsite.



We said our goodbyes and headed back to the mainland the next day, for the final stage of the epic bus route - Townsville to Cairns. This looked like a walk in the park, only 6 hours, and it flew by. As we've spent so long on the bus in Oz, we thought we'd capture some of its Greyhound glory:



Only a few days left in Oz now which we'll be spending in Carins for the Great Barrier Reef, but more on that another time, hopefully one day we'll be up to date again!