The Big Trip...

I spent my last day in Noosa going to the markets at Eumundi which was amazing...much bigger and a better variety of produce than a normal market. We spent around 3 hours there before heading back to Noosa and hitting the beach. It was my last night with Jo, so went out to the hostel club with some guys we met there the night before(ben, ben and Rod). Little did i know that these guys would end up on my fraser island bus (but thats for later).I also got Jo to give me a haircut (shes a hairdresser) so that was nice and cheap!

Anyway, I left Noosa and headed up the coast to Hervey Bay which is where you go to get onto Fraser Island. I spent the day just relaxing and catching up on some much needed sleep, so not much to report there.

FRASER ISLAND
WOW - what can i say...just amazing. Fraser Island is the largest sand island in the world, and what they do is get a group of 11 people together, throw them into a 4x4 jeep with some tents and food and a map, and then they get to go and explore this island.

Thats the basic gist...here's how it went for me...

The day before i was due to go on the island, i met with teh rest of the group, and lo and behold, 3 of the guys in my group i had already met in noosa. This was good cause they are nice people, so all was going well. Then there were 3 couples in the group (all lovely) (Kelly and Ollie, Jennie and Russell, and Gemma and Richard) and one annoying guy who got on my nerves every 2 minutes (Chris). We all went to the supermarket to buy our food for the 3 days, and then the next dat at 6am we were up organising everything together. Packing the car was intersting and took about 2 hours! Anyway, we got to the ferry on time to make it to the island and then the fun began. On day 1 we went to an amazing fresh water lake where the water is so pure you can actually drink it! (Lake Birabeen). After some time relaxing in the water we attempted to drive to another fresh water lake only to realise that after an hour we had been going round in circles and were lost. Great! We decided then to go and visit teh Maheno wreck, which is a massive chip wreck on teh sand in the island, and after that we headed to teh camp site. By the time we had put up the tents and made dinner, it was 8pm (that took 3 hours btw) and then we sat around with one of the other groups (where i ran into my friend Dean again from Byron Bay, and met another really nice couple - Simon and Kate) playing drinking games till about 11pm before we hit the sack.

Day 2 - up at 5am (because of the tides, you can only drive on the beach at certain times of the day) to drive to Indian Head. This is a massive rock formation with amazing marine life surrounding it - saw some sharks and stingrays and dolphins! after that we walked to the Champagne Pools but because of the tides, it was quite dangerous to swim there, so we did not stay for long. A trip to Happy Valley (little village on the island) was our final port of call for the day before setting up camp. I had a go at driving on this day and its actually extremely difficult to drive on sand and through rainforests...the tyre pressures are brought right down, so you feel as though you are driving with flat tyres. ALso, it hadnt rained for a really long time, so the sand was very soft. This meant that we got bogged into the sand quite a lot. Lucky for us, there were 7 guys in our group so lots of man power to push teh vehicle out of the sand! (and beleive me, this happened quite a few times). That night we camped alongside 2 other groups, and we saw dingoes for the first time as well. Disngoes are wild dogs that are really dangerous as they have ben known to kill humans. we were given strict instructuions what to do in case of seeing any, and luckily for us, there were 33 of us against 1 of them so he backed away quickly. Had an amazing BBQ and more drinks that night.

Day 3 - up at 5am again (really exhausted by this point as have had minianl sleep for teh past 2 nights) to drive toLake Mackenzie - this is one of the highlights of the trip. It is a massive fresh water lake (about 3 times the size of the one on day 1), with a bright white sand beach surrounding it. We spend the day sunbathing and swimming in the lake before we had to catch our ferry back that afternoon.
When we got back to the hostel we had to do an inspection of teh car - they check that you have not been throuhg sea water cause that can damage the vehicle and they check that you have not lost anything. we lost a couple of small things but the guy in charge said he would let us off it the guys gave him a couple of their beers - excellent!

After sorting everything out and having a well deserved shower, i had to dash to get my night bus up to Airlie Beach (where i am just now) to do teh Whitsunday Islands. The night bus was as fun as usual - mininal sleep and interruptions every few hours to get off the bus. lets just say, i'm very excitied to sleep in a bed tonight!

Thats all the news for now, I'll update soon

xxx

Hey

Spent my 1 and only day in brisbane taking in the sights (didnt take me long!). I walked down to Southbank which is an area by the river with loads of market stalls and a man made beach. Was a nice walk there, through the botanical gardens, and i got the ferry back along the brisbane river. I went for a wander around fortitude valley (The night before i had met some people including someone from brisbane, so we all went out to some bars there)and bumped into my friend Jo, who i met in Surfers Paradise. She was staying at the same hostel as me, so we just chilled out together in the hostel bar at night, before goignt o china town at around 11pm for a late dinner.

I got up really early the next day to catch my bus to Noosa. Noosa is a gorgeous wee town, set amongst a national park. My hostel is about a 10 minute walk to the beach and park, which is not too bad, and the hostel itself is basic but has a good atmosphere. Noosa is quite an upmarket place...loads of nice restaurants along the seafront and very upmarket shops. I had a wander around teh main street (Hastings St) yesterday afternoon, before coming back to the hostel. Last night there was a mexican night at the hostel - $7 for a big slap-up mexican feast which is pretty good going (around 3 pounds) - and i had a few drinks with some of my room mates before getting an early night.

Today i went for a walk through the national park which was absolutely beautiful but its sooo hot today so it was hard work!
Going to go to the beach this afternoon, and I think i'll hit the Australia Zoo tomorrow for some croc shows!

Hope everyone is well at home
Love Danielle xxx

Hey everyone!

So, I've left Surfers Paradise and am now in Brisbane. I really didnt like surfers p. that much, but there was a nice beach so i managed to spend most of my time there. I stayed in the 2nd night there, as i was so tired and desperately needed to catch up on sleep. Last night was another good night though - met a few people, and one of them happened to be a chef, so he cooked us up a massive BBQ which tased amazing. Then we headed out to a few bars which was fun. Hopefully i;m going to be meeting up with one of the girls, when i get to Noosa.

I got the bus to brisbane this morning. The city is very like Glasgow...seems like a nice place to live but there is not that much to do/see. I only have today and tomorro here and that is plenty! I went for a walk around the city and chinatown and I'm probably just going to spend some time at the hostel tonight. The hostel is massive!-its got a restaurant, bar, 5 floors of rooms - feels like a hotel (even has air con which is a huge luxury!). Its really clean, but seems to be a bit clinical...i prefer the more homely, small hostels as they are better for meeting people. Anyway, i met a girl in Surfers called Jo (from Wales)and she is joining me in brisbane for my second night and possibly up the coast for a bit.

Anyway, thats all the news for now

xxx

Hey

Final night in byron bay was another good one! Started off by having dinner with everyone around the courtyard and then there was a power cut in our hostel arount 8pm...so we decided to head straight out to the club for a marathon night. Was planning to go to cocomangas but their power was also off, so we headed back to cheeky monkeys for another night of dancing on tables, and i didnt get back to the hostel untill 4am. I had to get up really early to pack and check out of byron as i was leaving for surfers. I spend the day just chilling with the people from the night before (Karen, Dave, Luke, Dean and Ben) before leaving to catch my bus at 4pm. It was only a 2 hour journey to Surfers Paradise in Queensland. On arrival i was a little dissapointed. I'd left the most beautiful little town, with friendly people where everyone knows everyone, for a much bigger town with high rise buildings, that is overcrowded and full of traffic.

My hostel is not as nice as Aquarius in byron, but it serves its purpose and the staff are really friendly. I tried to make an effort with the other folk in the hostel last night by going on a major pub crawl with them, but by midnight i was so exhausted from all teh pervious nights of partying that i called it a night and jumped in a taxi home.

Today i'm going to wander around the town and then hit the beach. Its sucha strange town - really tacky buildings surrounded by gucci and prada shops - all a bit strange.

Anyway, will have more news soon

xxxx

Hey

I think last night was one of the best nights that i have ever had. I met a really nice group of english lads at dinner last night and after chatting to them and others that i had met the previous night, it seemed apparant that everyone was heading to a club called Cheeky Monkeys that night. After dinner, a few drinks, and a hostel 'pub' quiz (which we surprisinly did not bad in!) we(me, karen, Dave, Luke, Dean, Ben and some more than i cant remember their names) headed to Monkeys.

It is probably the strangest club i have been in - there is no dance floor, but instead, there is a whole room with large steel picnic tables and everyone dances on the tables. Had such a good time with all my new friends and one of them is going to email me pics of the night so i can post them on here at some point.

Anyway, managed to make our way back to the hostel around 4:30am, and was awake this morning at 8. Was so exhausted i decided to give the trip to Nimbin a miss, and instead a bunch of us took a walk to the Byron Bay Lighthouse which is at the most easterly point of australia. Its about a 2.5 hour walk in total, so was a great cure for the hangovers that we all had.

Having a lazy day today and think we're going to head out to another club tonight - Cocomangas - which should be another awesome night.

xxx