Scuba Dive Master
Location: Airlie Beach
Weather: Hot n'Sunny
Left Rainbow Beach and got a lift with Russ and Corinne to Hervey Bay. This place is where most people go to Fraser Island from, I don't quite know why. Fraser takes 30mins from Hervey Bay instead of 8mins from Rainbow Beach. Also Rainbow looked a much nicer place. Anyways, then got the bus to Bundaberg. Checked into the "Bundaberg Backpackers and Workers Hostel of the Union of Soviet Socialistic Republics". I was not impressed with this place or the atmosphere there, it was ok, but just for fruit pickers really, those present during the day(I'm guessing they had a day off) just seemed to watch TV all day.
BUT as it happened, across the road I discovered Aqua Scuba a dive school offering very cheap 4 day SSI diving course - so I ended up enrolling on that. I was joined by 3 others on the course - Sylvain & Aurelis from France and Sebastian from Germany. Our teachers - Marcus and Julian were top blokes and Aqua Scuba have their own shared house which was a very pleasant place indeed. The 4 of us, along with the other housemates and divemasters all got along very well and I found it a true shame to leave that place to be honest. After a day of theory and a day in the pool we went diving in the sea. If you've never worn it before, Scuba gear weighs a ton and to makes matter worse the 1st dive was awful, the sea was extremely choppy and visibility was about 1m! the 2nd dive was a bit better though and I managed to see about 2 fish! But the next day the conditions were wonderful. Saw a sting ray, sea snake, plus lots of fish and coral. It also now means I am a certified Scuba Diver and can go on dives anywhere in the world!
The day after finishing my dive course I did the Bundaberg Rum Distillery tour (99% of visitors ONLY go to Bundaberg to do this tour [or to pick vegetables, I suppose] - Bundaberg Rum is one of Australia's most famous drinks). I then got the bus to Agnes Water and Town of 1770 - alone (I was the only person on the bus!). Town of 1770 is the place where Captain Cook landed at in 1770 and it turned out to be remarkably nice and relaxed. I only went there because Aurelis said it was such an amazing place and recommended "The Escape" hostel - so I checked in there and met Nick, the most laid-back host and best hostel cook I've ever met. Did a bit of swimming, had another surf lesson, went on a sunset tour, saw a dead echidna and monitor lizard on the road and lots of kanagaroos and that was about it.
By JamesReed on 06.10.04 @ 05:46 AM GMT [As Web Page] [Archives]
Fraser Island
Location: Airlie Beach
Weather: Hot n'sunny
Next stop was Rainbow Beach, which I only went to because apparently is had some good surfing. But I
found it to be a very nice and chilled out place. Checking into Dingoes hostel and borrowing a surf-board about the minute I got there, strangely I found half the beach to a lane for 4WD vehicles, still dunno where they were going or coming from.
Anyways after being convinced by this Israeli bloke called Guy who was the resident entertainer and fire dancer I did the inevitable Fraser Island 3 day self-drive 4x4 trip from Dingoes - every backpacker in the world does this trip. Basically groups of about 11 take a 4 wheel drive Land Rover (ours was a Toyota Landcruiser) to Fraser Island for 3 days. Despite being only made of sand, Fraser is the world's biggest sand island, it has a surprisingly diverse terrain eg. rainforest, hills and freshwater lakes. You drive on the beach and tracks, dodging the wash-outs from the lakes. Our group was 5 Germans, 4 English, an Israeli girl and Kiwi girl, which I found quite amusing because there was quite a lot of difference of opinion shall we say. The Germans were kind of bothered about the time a lot and well, the rest of us weren't. Attractions we saw were Lake Mackenzie (a crystal clear freshwater lake), Indian Head (a hill where you can see Tiger sharks, fish and turtles from - we saw all 3), Eli Creek (a river running to the sea), the Pinnacles (some sand rocks) and the Champagne pools (some rock pools by the sea you can swim in - you cannot swim in the sea anywhere on Fraser, there are serious undercurrents, rips and it's shark infested).
You camp on the dunes at night - the women cooked the food and us men drank beer, which wasn't a bad set up! It was quite funny, but we lost our firelights and I stupidly let the amateurs take over instead of a true pyromaniac like myself, so the camp fire took hours to start the first night, they had to use the gas cooker to start it! but the 2nd night, me and English Russ were in charge so it only took a short time...actually we were both pretty impressed with our work!
The other famous thing on Fraser island are the dingoes. They are the purest in the world because it is an island and most others have inter-bred with domestic dogs. But I only saw one and that was in the day, the Germans did see a group on the last night and there were tracks outside our tents at night!
By JamesReed on 06.10.04 @ 05:46 AM GMT [As Web Page] [Archives]
Brisbane and not-so-good Noosa
Location: Airlie Beach
Weather: Hot n'Sunny around 29degs C - 86
Got the train from Sydney to Brisbane on the last day of my rail pass. Stayed there a few days and had quite a few free pints at the backpackers there. Went to the best wildlife park so far - Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary - this place had lots different animals and birds - emus, echidnas, snakes, lizards, a Tasmanian Devil, talking parrots and over 100 Koalas and these ones actually moved and stuff instead of just sitting there asleep in the tree. Then caught the bus to Noosa, which many rave about, but I'd rate as a 2nd class Byron Bay. The people aren't friendly at all and the beach and national park aren't that good either. Had a very good surf lesson though - even managed to stand up for a bit this time 
By JamesReed on 06.10.04 @ 05:45 AM GMT [As Web Page] [Archives]
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