Goodbye Australia!!

The next morning we woke up a little worse for wear after a considerable amount of goon was consumed the night before! Well Charlie did, as Laura wasn't drinking! We had a quick breakfast and laughed about the night before heading to Eli Creek for a refreshing walk down stream. Half way down the creek a few people ahead stopped and shouted "SNAKE!" as a snake was swimming up stream towards us all. Our guide, Rango said "watch out guys, thats a red bellied snake, its poisonous" as everyone fled to safety. With hangovers, well and truly shaken, it was revealed that it was in fact a toy snake attached to someones leg by some fishing line. The greatest prank we have both witnessed in a while, it certainly tricked us both as well as our whole group! After the shock of everyones lives we got back in to the trucks and headed to the famous Maheno shipwreck, an old scottish ship and drove inland to Lake Allom , a tea coloured lake full of little fresh water turtles. The colouring of the lake was due to the oils, mostly tea tree, deposited in to the lake by the surrounding trees. We then convoyed back to the coast to visit the pinnacles, or coloured sands, a sacred sight for the native aboriginals, which is layers of different coloured sand showing part of the process of the creation of Fraser Island. We then finally stopped for a much needed lunch, consisting of more ham, lettuce and fake cheese. After lunch we continued further up the eastern coast of Fraser to Indian Head, a huge rock outcrop standing tall out of the sand. A short walk up was well worth the incredible views, both up and down the coastline, inland and out to sea, a very special place and we were lucky to spot a white bellied sea eagle. After a big group photo we carried on to champagne pools, a number of rock pools famous for their champagne bubble appearance when waves crash over the rocks in to them before heading back to camp via Eli Creek to have a fresh water rinse. On our way to Eli Creek Archie fell asleep, this was a prime opportunity for a bit of fun! We quietly co-ordinated that we would all scream and Joel would brake on the count of three. This worked perfectly as Archie was startled as we woke him, his face was priceless! To top off the long and amazing day we were pleased to see two dingoes on the beach and as we drove back they followed along side for a while, just messing around like domestic dogs! 

After an evening of bbqing and more drunken antics, we awoke after a comfortable nights sleep in the car. Well, slightly more comfortable than the previous night in the tent! We freshened up and headed to Eurong for a quick breakfast before heading to the beautiful Lake MacKenzie to conclude our Fraser Island experience. Even in the rain the colour of the lake was still amazing and we spent an hour or so playing games in the water as it drizzled. After a quick lunch surrounded by kookaburras we caught the ferry back to the mainland and made our way back to the hostel on tarmac roads. The evening was spent washing the sand off all of our clothes and stuffing ourselves with the "all you can eat" pizza deal. A comfortable bed was much appreciated as well!

We were booked onto the night bus up to Airlie Beach for our Whitsundays sailing trip so had a free day to chill in Hervey Bay with Archie, Chris, Will and Harry. It was a lovely day so we sunbathed, played in the sea and had a delicious lunch at a beach bar. Laura had a prawn and mango salad whilst Charlie enjoyed a steak sandwich. After what seemed like an eternity of waiting around, it was finally time to get the bus. It was a long, uncomfortable twelve hour ride all the way up to Airlie Beach and our hopes were high as we pulled into the bus stop to clear blue skies. We checked into our hostel to catch up on some sleep before heading into town to check in for our sailing trip. On our way back we bumped into a very hungover Neil who had been out the night before until the early hours. That evening we found Archie, Chris and Will for dinner before heading to Cold Rock for a yummy treat. We decided to get to sleep early as we had to be up bright and early to meet our skipper, but, at about four in the morning we were awoken by the noise of….RAIN!

The rain was still falling when we met our skipper Matt, chef Rod and the five other fellow sailors at the pier, ready to board the Iceberg. We were delayed by about an hour as one of the couples kept changing their minds about whether to come or not because of the weather. In the end we set off, with everyone on board wearing very flattering yellow rain coats. As we made our way in the light rain, we spotted an extremely long sea snake slithering along the surface of the sea. Finally, the rain eased off and the clouds began to part. The sails were raised but after a while Matt shouted that he thought we were about to get a little bit wet. This was the biggest understatement we had heard on our whole trip. From this moment, the rain barely eased off for five days. We huddled together on the deck of the boat, shivering as our faces were stung by the ridiculously heavy rain. After what seemed like hours, we reached our destination and they dropped us off to go for a wander along Whitehaven Beach, voted one of the top ten beaches in the whole world. We walked up to a view point where we could see the whole stretch of the beach. It was amazing to see the brown murky river water being beaten back by the powerful flooding tide. We took a long stroll along the beach, spotting many stingray and a couple of baby lemon sharks swimming in the shallows. Unfortunately, we couldn't venture in as we were not wearing our stinger suits, crucial for this time of year. Back aboard the boat, we headed to a quiet and calm inlet where we spent the night being rocked to sleep in our private cabin.

The following morning we poked our heads above the deck to see a low-lying mist that eerily hung over the channel that we had seeked shelter in for the night. We shared travelling stories below deck as the skipper Matt sailed us to our first snorkelling site in the pouring rain. The rain eased off for our snorkelling and we were astounded by the colourful and thriving corals. We met Elvis, a Napoleon Maori Wrasse nearly the size of Charlie, as well as parrot fish, zebra fish, fox-faced rabbit fish, rock cod, butterfly fish and jellysh galore! After a farewell from a school of batfish we headed for our second snorkelling site where we were guaranteed to spot a turtle or two or we would all receive a free chocolate bar from the skipper. We were dropped off half-way down the length of a sand bar and swam along with the current to the end, before walking ashore back along the sand to start all over again. Here, we spotted blue-lipped clams, six-banded angel fish, barracuda, bright purple and pink corals and, as promised, two turtles who we glided along with and got some great photos with! Laura's favourite moment was when she made friends with the elusive yellow-spotted box fish who hovered around amongst the coral. Once we were back on the boat, Charlie got some great videos of some batfish that he befriended. The journey home, as you can guess, was spent below deck as the rain continued to fall. Despite the hammering rain, not experiencing anything remotely dry for 36 hours and a moment of near-madness for Laura, it was definitely a trip to remember, not only for the weather but also the great times had. We only hope we can return and repeat this trip in the sun.

The morning after our sailing trip we woke up to…rain. We checked out of our hostel and locked our backpacks away in a locker for the day as we had to wait around until 2.30am to catch our overnight bus up to Cairns. We met up with Archie, Chris and Will in Maccy D's to catch up and share stories about our sailing trips. As expected, their's had been as rainy as ours. The boys were booked onto the bus before us (8pm) and so we spent the whole day crawling from bar to bar trying to stay out of the now torrential rain and pass the time. Several times, we rang the bus company Greyhound to check if the buses were still running and rumours that the roads could close were spreading like wild fire. They insisted all the buses were still running and so, after dinner, the boys headed off for their bus. We headed back to our first hostel where we found the password for the internet so passed the time by time-wasting on Facebook and watching Bad Boys 2. We celebrated as it was finally time to get the bus! However, as eight of us and our luggage huddled in the shelter trying to avoid the flooded floor, there was no sign of the bus. Three hours later and several phone calls insisting the bus would still run and that it was just delayed, it eventually showed up. The joy at seeing the red of the greyhound bus was indescribable! We grabbed our bags eager to jump aboard but the driver jumped down the steps and said "your not getting on here, not unless you want to get to the next stop (15mins down the road)". After greyhound insisting the buses were running, the drivers route was blocked by the flooding rain and he could go no further. We were gutted and not knowing what to do we asked the driver questions about our options, and to be honest he was the least helpful person we have met on our travels, pretty much rubbing it in our faces that we had been waiting so long and that we weren't going to get to where we wanted to! Rant over…We then headed back to our first hostel where we had previously camped out before going to get the bus but we had been locked out. After phone calls back home to our parents to let them know of our sticky situation and an hour or so kip on the streets of Airlie Beach the hostel finally opened. We found some flights from a nearby airport down to Brisbane, where our flight to Hong Kong was from in only a couple of days so decided to book that. We checked in to the Hostel and were upgraded to an air conditioned en suite. Due to lack of sleep, all we did was sleep, and watch films, trying to pass the time, praying that the rain would stop so that we wouldn't be completely cut off. We also felt rather lucky that we couldn't get a place on the 8pm bus as the boys got stuck in Townsville and ended up having to live on the bus for 72 hours!

After a strange 24 hours we eventually checked in to our flight to Brisbane. We found a Hotel near to the airport and passed time as best we could, looking forward to getting to Hong Kong. We had a delicious curry and amazing toblerone, mars and kinder flavoured ice cream that evening and spent the next day trying to entertain ourselves without spending to much money. A trip on the city cat to south bank passed the time, with an extra special treat spotting a dolphin along the way. We treated our selves to a visit to the cinema and it was soon time to head to the airport and check in for the next chapter in our adventure, a week in the lights and big smoke of Hong Kong! 

Sorry this post took so long!!