Friday, April 27, 2007

Steve Irwin's Australia Zoo

It's our one-year anniversary today! Hoo-ray!

It's been a tumultuous year, but today we celebrate the good time and the bad and all we have been through together to bring us to this day!

Jon told me that today was my day and we would do the things on the Coast that I have been really looking forward to doing together.

We started off our morning at the Eumundi Markets. For you kids back home in NJ, it is kind of like the Englishtown Saturdays with a real hippie vibe. We walked around and looked at handcrafted cheeseboards, soap, skirts, jewelry and it was all absolutely gorgeous.

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Jon really got into all of the different food vendors; he had heaps of different kinds of sausages, Lebanese food, crepes, and all sorts of other little tastes. It was a gastronomic day! We were at one of the fruit stalls and he bought a few of these fruits called "custard apples" just because he had never seen anything so odd looking =) It actually turned out to be quite sweet & yummy!

I ended up purchasing an gorgeous hand sewn brown suede wrap skirt and an amber necklace. It was a little freaky when the man who sold us the necklace made me hold it and feel it's energy, but it's a really pretty necklace all the same.

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Then we headed off to the Australia Zoo (where Crocs Rule!) Jon was like a kid at the candy store. His favorite part being the really huge crocodiles and the tigers. I liked the wombats best! They are so incredibly cute.I think we are going to adopt the wombat named "Meg" in honor of my sister =) Check it out at: secure.australiazoo.com .au/get-involved/adopt-an -animal/

The zoo was absolutely amazing! They tributes to Steve were really sad & quite moving. You couldn't help but get a little choked up. It's amazing the things that he accomplished in his life and how truly loved he was throughout Australia & the entire world.

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We caught the crocodile show at the "Crocoseum;" It is amazing the noise that the croc's jaw makes when it snaps shut. It makes your bones shudder! As we were leaving the show, we ran into a woman taking the elephants for a walk. Apparently, all of the animals get "walked" around the zoo for stimulation. It was hysterical to see two wombats waddle by with the same harness on that Bailey (the pug) wears!

Just like Lone Pine, they have a large enclosure where you can feed the kangaroos, but this one was much more crowded, as where the lines for the koalas photos & petting. The day was also much more pricey, but with all of the great education and conservation programs that come out of Zoo, it's easy to justify.

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Jon's favorite part of the day was right at the end when we got to see the two largest croc's, Agro & Acco get fed. They spend most of the day hiding in the water, so you can only really get your head around the shear size of these beasts at feeding time when the caretakers coax them out of the water with food for public viewing. Huge does not even come close to describing how big these two boys were; they make American Alligators look like toy poodles!

Sunday, April 22, 2007

Tangalooma Nights

One of the first things I really wanted to do when we got here was take a day trip out to Tangalooma Wild Dolphin Resort on Moreton Island and feed the wild dolphins. Finally, today, I got my wish!

We had to wake up so early and drive back down to Brisbane to catch a ferry over the Moreton Island. We got so incredibly lost and ended up missing our 7am ferry by mere seconds. To make matters worse, the area around the launch is very industrial, so pickings for a cafe for brekky were limited and we were even worse off because it was a Sunday at 7am! So, we went to the Airport which is right nearby and had Red Rooster Brekky rolls! (Red Rooster is the chicken equivalent to Burger King.) While we were at the Airport, Jon bought my stuffed koala, Nellie, a new friend; he's a wombat named Russell (I didn't name them, the tags on their tushies did!)

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We arrived with plenty of time to spare at the ferry the second time around and set off across Moreton Bay. Moreton Island is 98% national park with the resort making up the other bits. The water is gorgeously calm & clear and the white sand beaches are spectacular! Except, you end up with sand all over everything because it is a sand island just like Fraser Island and it is actually home to the tallest "sand hill" in the world (280m.)

As we were on the boat, they ran a video of all of the different things there were to do at the Resort & on the Island. Everything looked like so much fun that we were kind of bummed we hadn't made a weekend out of it. All of the big sand hills are great for "sand tobogganing" which just looked like SO much fun and there were some kayaking tours where you could go see some dugongs (manatees) in their natural environment, but they didn't fit into our timetable. The ATV trips & Blue Lagoon excursions were not running the day we came out, so that was out. There are also awesome whale watching opportunities for migrating humpbacks, but it was the wrong time of year. So what did we do you ask?

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We decided to go snorkeling the Tangalooma Wrecks. It's a group of about 15 different dredgers, trawlers, and other working ships that were sunk off the sheltered western side of the island that are home to myriads of reef fish and gorgeous corals. It was only about a 50 yard swim out to the Wrecks and for the early part of the day the water was absolutely beautiful, not too cold & no strong currents. We took heaps of pictures, but they didn't come out. Words cannot describe how gorgeous the afternoon turned out to be!

We watched the most amazing sunset and snacked on fish & chips at a beachfront cafe while we waiting for night to fall. As dusk settled in, we made our way over to the boat launch area where each night as the sun sets over the horizon, a group of Indo-Pacific Bottlenose dolphins swim in for a visit. There is a marine biology research station housed at the resort that does heaps of conservation and education about the dolphins, their habitat & eco-conservation in general.

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As the biologist is giving his chat, the dolphins arrive at their own place and just play around in the water. It was explained to us that they are still completely self sufficient in the wild.

The after all of the dolphins arrive and the marine biologist finished his talk, you walk down in pairs with on the marine biologists and get to hand feed the dolphin. The dolphins line up in lanes in pairs of two with certain biologists in each lane; they return in the same formation almost every night. You handed a fish and instructed to hold it like an ice cream cone, scales down not to injury the dolphin. On the count of three, you both bend down and feed the dolphins simultaneously or you might lose some fingers =)

You can meet the dolphins we fed here:
Tinkerbell: www.tangalooma.com /dolphinweb/dolphins /tinkerbell.asp
Shadow: www.tangalooma.com /dolphinweb/dolphins /shadow.asp

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What a weekend! It was such a great time! Jon and I can't wait to get back and spend a little bit more time exploring the island. It was far too much for just one day!

Saturday, April 21, 2007

Kangaroo Point

When we first arrived, Jon's Mum mentioned that a family friend's daughter was studying abroad for a semester at Griffith University in Brisbane. After exchanging heaps of emails, we finally got together this afternoon to check out Riverlife Adventure Center at Kangaroo Point in Brisbane. There are rockclimbing & abseiling excursions each arvo, so Jon and I asked Lindsey if she'd like to join us. We forgot to mention that abseiling meant jumping off a cliff until she was in the car with us, but she was fine with it ~ thank goodness.

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As we always do driving anywhere near Brisbane, we got lost. Finally, we found the campus and the area where we were supposed to meet Lindsey and realized we didn't know what she looked like & we didn't tell her what kind of car we were driving. After looking like complete jackasses wandering around the Uni quad, we finally found here and we were off. Except, the map Riverlife had on their website was less than descriptive. So, we accidentally drove over the Storey Bridge 10 times. Jon's head was about to spin off his shoulders he was so frustrated!! Finally, we found a ferry terminal that was a marker on the map, parked there and just walked along the river to the Adventure Center's office.

The riverfront is a gorgeous place to run, bike, rollerblade and Brissy is a gorgeous city. A lot of the other Yanks called it Bris-Vegas, but it completely reminds me of a very clean version of L.A. Everything is very new and clean looking with heaps of modern architecture.


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Riverlife is in such a strange place, right on the shores of the river across the way from huge skyscrapers is are these cliffs called Kangaroos Point. Beautiful sandstone cliffs, right in the middle of the city. We climbed up to the top of the cliffs (via the stairs) to go abseiling. As we were getting our instructions as a group of men in traditional aboriginal dress just walked by with didgeridoos. I'm sure they were on their way to some culture exhibition, but to see that with a City Cat Ferry whipping by in the background was hysterical.


There were heaps of rock climbers and abseilers already there when we got there and the area is lighted, so I am sure they stayed long after we left. Donning our sexy helmets and harnesses, we prepared to jump off a cliff for the hell of it! Jon gave the belay quite a fright when he went flying down first off! He dropped so quickly he burnt a hole in his glove straight through to his hand. I followed doing pretty well if I do say so myself considering it's been a few years since I've done anything like this! Lindsey did AWESOME for her first time & only actually finding out what it was we were doing when she got in the car. An absolute natural!

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After a few runs down the cliff, it was time to go up! A very zealous Jon went up first & I was his belay (hehehe.) I had HEAPS of fun with that one! It was harder to your way up than it looked, but he eventually preserved and reached the top. Lindsey flew up and back down & enjoyed a fabulous view of the city. I made it half way up, but couldn't negotiate my way around one large overhang. I was Miss-I-Have-No -Upper-Body-Strength-And -When-I-Got-To-The-Point -Where-I-Couldn't-Use -My-Legs-I-Was-Screwed. Plus, we were all starving and someone was having a sausage sizzle on one of the public bbq's on the river.


After an esoteric discussion on the fact that there is no such thing as "shrimp on the barbie," because Aussies call shrimp "prawns" and you never hear anyone say "prawns on the barbie," we drove down to Brisbane's West End to find a restaurant or cafe where our grubby-selves would be allowed to eat. We really wanted to go down to South Bank because there are so many good restaurants, but there was no way with the way we looked. The West End has lots of nice places we could dine al fresco, which was key considering the way we smelled and lots of different ethnic cuisine to choose from. Jon wanted Indian and there was no changing his mind, Lindsey was up for anything, so I just went along with it because Jon was "reminding me" that I did promise to try one new food a week. Caught on a technicality. Bugger. Indian food it is.
We order a feast, which was amazing. Both Lindsey & I were really happy that we gave it a go! It was absolutely delicious. She even liked my trying one new food a week idea that she resolved to do it as well!


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Exhausted and stuffed, we dropped her back off at her dormitory and drove back up to the Coast for a well deserved sleep!






Monday, April 9, 2007

Fraser Island Finale

By Monday morning, I was never so happy to be headed home! I missed Jon terribly and I was baffled at how some of the guys from the UK managed to stay drunk straight through our trip. Silence on the car drive home would be a welcome sound; the Scottish blokes hadn't stopped with the banter in three days and through their thick accents you could really only understand the obscenities, which was more than likely 3/4 of what they were saying. Fookin' Nobs they were.

Photobucket (While I was on Fraser, The Easter Bibly brought Jon lots of chocolates!)


We were all excited to be visiting another freshwater lake on the island since Lake Wobby was so beautiful. It was really hot and we were advised not to swim in the ocean by the tour operator, so the lake was looking good. The downside was today would be another day of inland track driving which is so bumpy & uncomfortable for the passengers and stressful for the driver. We had all been on the grog the night before, so it was a wonder that no one tossed their cookies in all of the jostling!

We left nice and early from our campsite to beat the traffic (yes, we are on an island with no roads and there is still heaps of traffic) and take much sought naps on the shores of Lake MacKenzie. It was quite lovely, but cold & quite frankly at that point all anyone wanted was to not have sand on every square inch of their body, their belongings, the truck. We really just wanted to get off this effin' sand dune & have a shower.

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On the drive back, we had heaps of time to kill so we stopped at Central Station, which is an information center that is one of the first places you pass coming onto the island from the ferry. More notably, it is the only place you can fill your water jugs from a spigot with drinkable water according to our tour operator =)


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We had the traditional "end of camping trip" smorgsboard when you eat everything that is left over. It yielded some pretty nasty results. It has always made me laugh that when you buy cheap store brand cheese, it is just labelled "Australian Tasty Cheese." It doesn't pretend to be imitation cheddar, swiss or any other type of cheese. It is what it is, generic cheese, but it's not tasty. It's pretty damn gross. Paired with the remainder of the "backpacker's meat" package we tried to make spaghetti with bolognese sauce. I still don't think the "backpacker's meat" package had any real meat in it other than roadkill. Shudder. While we were lunching, a hungry goana emerged into our little picnic grove. It was crawling into our packs and pots looking for food. It clearly had lost all fear of humans and simply saw us as a meal ticket. Hysterical.


Photobucket (Can you believe that outlook is made of compacted sand?!?)


We spent a few quick minutes reading the information kiosks and left knowing more about logging and sand mining than I think any of us ever cared to know! We wanted to get in line for the ferry to be sure that we would be able to get on the 2:00 one and be back on time. We got in line and waited and waited. It was touch a go there for a bit, but good old Rollie, was the last truck to fit on the barge. We waved goodbye to the heap of sand and set off for home sweet hostel.


We did a quick gear unload & I was off like a shot. I couldn't wait to get home and shower with soap in my own shower and see Jonathan. I rang him from the road and he told me he was finishing heaps of cleaning and you could hear in his voice he was obviously rushing around and flustered. I was so excited and thought it was such a sweet gesture considering he worked such long hours over the weekend, and I get home to find him flustered, but the apartment still in the state I left it in on Friday. When I asked Jon what he meant, he just gave a big smile and sheepishly said he had to do heaps of cleaning to tidy up the big mess he made to bring the unit back to status quo. I don't think I've laughed that hard in a long time!

You can see all of the photos on webshots:



Fraser Island Trip

Saturday, April 7, 2007

D-I-N-G-O and Dingo was his name-o

The plan for the day was to drive as far north as Indian Head and park the truck to hike to the Champagne Pools, about 40 minutes north. We'd have the morning to wait for the tide to be conduicive to beach driving and we would visit Eli Creek on our way to go find a campsite for the night.

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At 6am, it was a warm day, the sun was shining and we hadn't been eaten by dingoes, yet. We packed up our tents and piled back into our cramped quarter and set off with great ease compared to yesterday, except for the fact that we had no water and had being drinking the night before. Super. We filtered some water through the bottle to brush our teeth, but after that we were pretty much screwed. Until we remembered that the someone had told us the little streams that ran down the beach was some of the freshest water on earth. Apparently the massive sand dunes act as a filter when the rainwater up top and hundreds of years later it has trickled down through the inner workings of the sand dune and emerges as a pure fresh water stream. Whether this is true or not, I am not sure, but it was our best option & no one died, so all and all a good day, but quite a sight.

When we arrived at Indian Head, at 9am, it was hot and only going to get hotter & their were heaps of other backpacker groups camped out there. The tour operators advise you not to go in the water in this area because it is a tiger shark breeding group. Fabulous. As we are sitting their weighing out the pros and cons of risking a shark attack to get momentary relief from the heat, a couple dingos appear around the trucks. Poor little guys look like they are starving; I know they are supposed to be skinnier than domesticated dogs, but these guys look gaunt compared to the dingoes we have seen in documentaries & the zoo. Fortunately, we never had to use our dingo defense training.

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We climbed up to the top of Indian Head, which is a pretty impressive sight, since it is made entirely of sand. These formations that appear to be boulder-like, but when you scratch at them they crumble like sand. It's pretty amazing. Once at the top, I have to say I was a little disappointed, the trip we had done with Terry a few months ago, had just as many beautiful sights & it was half the dramas to get there and back. We did see some sharks swimming in the waters below and decided we would definitely wait to go swimming until we reached the Champagne Pools.

To get to the Champagne Pools, it was a 40 minute walk up the beach and by the looks of it, it would be crowded. Heaps and heaps of people were trekking up the beach in search of some relief from the heat. When we arrived, the pools are actually just depressions in the rock where water pools after the waves crash. In most places, it's only knee deep until a really big wave comes and then it's like being in a washing machine. In a few places, it's too deep to stand. The general consensus was we were not impressed. It was so crowded and for such a long walk, we really did expect more. We jumped in and out of the freezing cold water in all of five minutes and headed back in a crazy sunshower to the van to make sandwiches and start the trek down to "Happy Valley" campground's campstore to get water, ice cream & meat pies. It truly would be the happiest place on Earth.

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We got water, hot crossed buns for Easter, soda, meat pies & ice cream. A gross combination for lunch, yes, but a meal has never tasted so good. We heard from other groups that had just come through Eli Creek that it was freezing & crowded as well and not worth the hassle. I figured, I'll be back with Jon, so I really didn't care if we skipped spots, so we went ahead to find a campsite early before we lost daylight. After much searching for a spot, we found the place were all of the backpacker groups were congregating and in the nick of time we got the tents pitched and it started to rain, and rain, and rain. We were all huddled in the leaky, pink SUV for 2 hours drinking goon until the weather finally broke around 10pm. We were all wandering from campsite to campsite having a really good time. I ran into one of my RBC schoolmate's little brother, who is studying abroad over here. Very random. I decided it was time to go to bed when the boys decided to bury one of the Candians that passed out in the sand and were pulling tent stakes out and being the Godzillas of our tent city. Yes, that's definitely my cue to get to bed.

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Comedy of Errors

We set off early in the morning in our bright pink 4x4 that was ominously named, "Rollie" for the Fraser Island Ferry. Our first stop was Woolworth's were the 9 of us each pitched in to buy food & grog for the weekend. Possibly the most painful grocery shopping experience of my life & the occurrence of our first big mistake. We sent 3 guys from the UK to go to the bottle shop to get alcohol for the weekend. As we emerge from the parking lot, we see them victoriously standing over 20 boxes of goon. It's like boxed wine, except on further inspection, it does not claim anywhere on the box to be wine; it simply said "chablis." It's cheap, it's gross, it's nasty and apparently made from fermented fish bones. But, it does the trick if you are looking to get silly on the cheap. It tastes about as good as it sounds. Ick.

Armed with heaps of goon and the Aussie equivalent to Raman Noodles, we set off for the ferry launch. We only stalled the car 7 times in 10 kms! =-)

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We set off for the barge, completely unaware of what lie ahead. None of us had any real 4WD drive experience, most people couldn't drive a stick shift on the road, never the less in sand. It was all very unnerving. At least on the ferry ride over, we could relax and enjoy the weather ~ for at least part of the way. It started to pour down rain halfway through the ferry ride and didn't stop until late that afternoon.

The first day of driving was to take us on inland tracks to Lake Wobby, one of the fresh water lakes on the island. The inland tracks are tricky to drive on because it's all soft sand and unrelenting hills. Plus, obviously it's not a two lane highway, so if you are driving along and someone is coming the opposite direction, it gets a little tricky. Downright scary when these monster vehicles (think massive four wheel drive tour busses) from the Kingfisher Resort on the Island come whizzing by with no patience for weekend warriors. The island was packed because of the long weekend and the "traffic jams" we got in were pretty amazing.

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You also have to realize that we were driving an old beat-up Toyota Land Cruiser manual transmission that had the seats ripped out of the back and benches down the sides like a paddywagon with three people up front & 7 people in the back plus all of our gear in the main part of the truck because roof storage units made the vehicle top heavy and more prone to tip over. We were doing a pretty good job of almost tipping quite often; the added weight up top would have just put us over the edge! It was close quarters to say the least!

It started to rain harder and harder and good ol' Rollie started to leak. It was hot & humid and now we were wet. Screams of "Get me off the effin' sand dune!" quickly began. I truly think the guy who was driving the truck was on a verge of a nervous breakdown between the conditions and having 9 back seat drivers is enough to make anyone moody.

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Finally, we arrived exhausted & hungry @ Lake Wobby. After a 40 minute walk down this long trail, we came to this massive canyon of sand with a small lake in the middle of it. Families were taking sleds and sliding down the sand dune which was almost a kilometer long and a straight 45 degree angle like it was snow! It really was an impressive sight! The lake was emerald green in color and against the yellow-orange tones of the coloured sands made for a lovely sight. We all got down the the bottom, inspected for crocodiles (which don't even live on the island, but still, you can never be to cautious) and went for a swim. The catfish kept nipping at our toes, but other than that it was lovely. The sun finally came out and we all sat in the shallows of the lake, had a beer and for the first time really starting having fun. That is, until we realized, getting down the the lake was the easy part! Now we have to trek back up to the top of this sand dune and back along a trail that was completely uphill. We would sleep well tonight!

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When we got back to the truck, we decided we should go to one of the established campgrounds to get water & use the barbeque and facilities their for dinner and washing up. So, we set off further north passing the Maheno shipwreck which has been a landmark on Fraser Island since the 1930s if I remember correctly. We stopped to take some quick pictures, get some use out of our tentinus shots playing on the rusty ship & hurried up the beach to get to the campground before dark & the tide came in. Once the tide comes in, there is virtually no beach to drive on and you're in basically stranded where you are =)

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Since we had such little time, we broke into two groups, the girls made dinner while the boys went down to pitch the tent on the beach. We did not have the permits to stay in the campground because the hostel figures that a bunch of backpackers will never obey the 10pm quiet hours and they are probably right. All was going well until darkness fell and we found out that they only provided us with a torch that had to be hooked up to the car. Sh!t. After digging in my pack for a bit, I found my headlamp, thank goodness. But cooking by the light of one headlamp was not fun. But, goon makes everything a little bit better.

Then we ran into our second problem of the night. We went to go fill our big water jug and the spigot has a big sign on it saying "Not Potable Water." Apparently, for potable water you have to drive back down to Central Station (a good hour or so away on those inland tracks) to get drinking water. We were screwed. We had no water. Luckily, I had my filter bottle, but it was slow going. We stocked up on the ground water to use the bottle for the night and figure the rest out tomorrow.

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As we are freaking out about that, the boys come back, defeated with tents and poles strewn all over the back of the 4WD. It's too windy to pitch the tents down on the beach; it just can't be done. What to do? If we illegally camp in this permit, we face a hefty fine from the rangers and the hostel and will get kicked out way after the tide is up and will be forced to drive through salt water, which means we have an additional fine from the hostel. We scarf down our nasty "backpacker's special" sausage and steak (using those terms loosely) and head down the beach, with the tide encroaching and everyone kind of freaking out of the prospect of having to sleep in the truck parked in the dunes.

We eventually found a sheltered area where we can pitch the tent if we use the van as a windshield and all 10 of us pitch each tent 1 at a time. It was that windy and ridiculously difficult, but we did it thank goodness. We all gathered around our one headlamp and drank goon and ate "Home Brand" (store brand) cookies that were disgusting, but we were so hungry it didn't matter.

The stars above were absolutely amazing. We kept seeing shooting stars and the sky was unlike anything you've ever seen before. It was like being at the planetarium, but in real life!
After some silly uni drinking games, we all went to bed knowing that we had limited windows due to the tides to get where we needed to go. Early to bed, up at 6am to beat the tides. We all went to bed happy to know that tomorrow had to get better and worried that the dingoes would kill us in our sleep!

Friday, April 6, 2007

Flying Solo to Fraser Island

Jonathan was rostered for very long hours over the Easter weekend & it seemed silly for me not to take advantage of the long weekend from work to travel a little bit. Since I was travelling alone, I didn't want to drive too far, so I settled on joining a group excursion to Fraser Island out of one of the hostels in Hervey Bay.

So, Friday late morning, I set off on the 2 and a half hour drive up the Bruce Highway. The drive takes you through the beautiful Mary Valley, which is the proposed sight of the much debated Traveston Dam. It's a real hot button issue here: the government is planning on building this massive dam to help alleviate the water crisis. The down side being is the scenic, picturesque farm land is going to be under water & farmers are going to be driven off their land. But, they aren't going down without a fight! It's always on the news & there are signs lining the road as your drive through indicating how deep the reservoir will be at given points, some only being knee deep. It's absolutely unbelivable that anyone could not see this is a bad idea. But that is Queensland for you! Read all about it here: http://www.savethemaryriver.com/

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I arrived in Hervey Bay far too early and since it was Good Friday all of the shops were shut. It was a bit too hazy to relax on the beach, so I consulted the "Lonely Planet" Queensland guide that Berit & Mike gave us for Christmas. Apparently, my prospects were bleak being that it isn't whale watching season, the other reason people flock to Hervey Bay. The town is wildly popular as a jumping off point for Fraser Island & heralds fabulous whale watching in the spring months (Sept, Oct, Nov.) My choices were: The World Famous Shark Show, "the world's most informative, educational & thrilling video on sharks" that plays in a building with plaster sharks all over the outside or King Neptune's Reef World Aquarium. I opted to check out the aquarium before I had to head over the hostel for our debriefing on Fraser Island.

When I pulled up, I couldn't have been more disappointed. The buiding was a one story cinder block pile right on the water: half function room /restaurant, half tourist trap. But, what the hell? I had nothing else to do for the next few hours and I truly did not want to have to spend anymore time in the hostel than I had to and I had to pee, so how bad could it be? Well, if you are judging books by their covers, then this was pretty terrible. There were a few Japanese tourists inside the aquarium that was literally the size of our apartment.

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The young man who worked at the front desk walked around an explained to me that the way that they've structured the aquarium is completely natural. The light is natural sunlight, no artificial light is used and all of the water is constantly being pumped from the sea, so there is no oxygenation mechanism. They even grow their own microrganisms in one tank; let me tell you it's one of the most captivating tanks (totally sarcastic.) Now, I'm sure this is all quite impressive, but the place still was kind of dark & dingy and falling apart.

It was absolutely worth going to see though; there we animals in the tanks that were unbelievable. The colors on some of these fish looked like they were painted by a maniac toddler with Crayola finger paints! There were tanks of these gorgeous sea apples & sea cumbers the likes of which I have never seen. One tank has sea horses that look like they were alien species. Absolutely amazing and it was mind blowing to see a placard that stated that all of these fish, including the tank of poisionous sea snakes, lion fish & stone fish all live in the waters this area, extending up to the Great Barrier Reef. I now have an unhealthy fear of said sea snakes, lion fish & stone fish. Sometimes, ignorance is bliss.

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I actually learned a lot & the owner of the aquarium came around and explained more about his little ecosystem and the symbiosis of the fish species in the displays. Quite intriguing.
I had saved the best part for last. Outside of the aquarium is a large tank with little baby sharks and big loggerhead sea turtles that you can pat. Now, normally, I'd think sticking my hand into a tank with sharks is a bad idea, but they were just little babies. The sea turtles are just so graceful and beautiful to watch swim around and the sun had finally began to peak out, so I spent quite a while sitting their enjoying the day playing with the turtles. It was fabulous because I was the only person there!

Sunset at Torquay Beach Hervey Bay Queensland Australia

Time got away from me and I had to rush over to the hostel to meet the 8 other people that I would spend the next 3 days with crammed into a bright pink 4x4 on the world's largest sand island. Everyone seemed nice enough & we got the "safety briefing" on how to defend yourself from a dingo which was in itself hysterical and agreed to meet up at 7am to get off to the grocery store to get food.
After a few drinks to make the hostel bed bearable, I turned in to get ready for our early morning departure!