Don't go Troppo
It's bad for your health. And don't go to the wet tropics. It's wet and there's no surf. Only joking, Cairns is alright. Been here less than 24 hours and already organising moving on. The drive up here was cool. IT took five days. You could do it one if you booted it but there were many things to see on the way. Not least the Burdekin Dam which is at the top of the Burdekin river, in the county.... BURDEKIN SHIRE !!!!!!!!!
OH my, it's amazing to see such a massive concrete structure built in your name. Class it was. On the way back it was dark and the devil cows kept bloking the road.
Devil Cows? What be they?????
Honestly, no messing, these cows were satan in bovine form. Evil buggers. We got past them eventually though. And on into Ravenswood, a tiny goldmining town. Nice place though. Very rural.
After Ravenswood we went to Townsville in order to get across to Magnetic Island. Magnetic Island boasts a dry climate all year round. We hired an open top car and it rained. It rained all day. It only rains three days a year at most. The locals were ecstatic. We had an open top car. We were not ecstatic. Good laugh driving it though. It was like a souped up golf cart, about 1bph and yet 5 gears. Weird.
After the Magnetic Island adventure we moved on as travellers must. We aqua planed all the way to Ingham, which has nothing going for it really. IT was Anzac day the following day so the usually bustling hive of activity that is Ingham was deader than the cricket stuck to the car radiator. Not to worry, 'there's water in them there hills,' was the cry. And indeed, water there was. A walk through the rainforest (ahhhhhh, memories of Thailand) and we were at the foot of the highest single drop waterfalls in Oz, The Wallaman falls. Spectacular. Due to the conditions the air was full of mist with hints of sunlight finding their way through the dense, golden green vegetation. Makes you glad to be alive. The Jurassic(esque) plants also added to the meeting of a Cassowary. Click here.
Post Cassowary we stopped in Innisfail. Innisfail is famous because Andy banana picked there for a few weeks. Honestly, I think that's the only reason it could even think about fame. Finally we'd found a DVD player at the hostel so we could watch the last surfaris video that Tao has with him. Only one week until we return to that old favourtie... wooooooooo! The next day was more waterfalls and mad fid trees. Fig tree seed are deposited in the branches of rainforest trees by insects. They then start to grom way up in the canopy and drop roots down to the ground. As they get older more vertical branches grow toward the ground making a curtained effect, a bit like this.
So now I'm in Cairns. Someone please mail me to give me something to do whilst I'm here.
Monday, April 26, 2004
Tuesday, April 20, 2004
Aaaaar ye scurvy land-lubbers
Howdy howdy. I'm back from the pirating adventure that was the Whitsundays. Bloody good it was too. Got three rolls of film back today so you can find the pictures in the usual place (photographs, then public albums, then albums with the word Whitsundays in them). Here's a taster. Go peek, they're alright. In fact I took so many photos that my bloody camera's packed up again.
Onward and Upward
So following the Sundays of Whit we're now heading north to Cairns. Me Tao and Christine are hiring a car tomorrow. We'll be going through Burdekinshire (its got a dam and everything!) and then stopping off at various places (Magnetic Island, Mission Beach). Once we get to Cairns it'll be a case of fooling around up there for a while. Posst Cairns, the withdrawal syptoms of not surfing are starting to make me upset. Only one thing for it then, yes, at the end of the month Tao and I (and maybe Christine, but looks like she's gonna be a piker) are flying south to do yet another surfaris. Haha. Addicted.
Here's the three of us with our pirate bandanas on---> Aaaaaaaaaaaar!
Howdy howdy. I'm back from the pirating adventure that was the Whitsundays. Bloody good it was too. Got three rolls of film back today so you can find the pictures in the usual place (photographs, then public albums, then albums with the word Whitsundays in them). Here's a taster. Go peek, they're alright. In fact I took so many photos that my bloody camera's packed up again.
Onward and Upward
So following the Sundays of Whit we're now heading north to Cairns. Me Tao and Christine are hiring a car tomorrow. We'll be going through Burdekinshire (its got a dam and everything!) and then stopping off at various places (Magnetic Island, Mission Beach). Once we get to Cairns it'll be a case of fooling around up there for a while. Posst Cairns, the withdrawal syptoms of not surfing are starting to make me upset. Only one thing for it then, yes, at the end of the month Tao and I (and maybe Christine, but looks like she's gonna be a piker) are flying south to do yet another surfaris. Haha. Addicted.
Here's the three of us with our pirate bandanas on---> Aaaaaaaaaaaar!
Thursday, April 15, 2004
For Jimmy's Eyes Only
Jimmy, sorry I didn't say bye to you today at the cafe. Nice to meet you though. By special request of our mutual, absolutely fabulous friend, please click the following links for a bit of a chuckle:
Christine 1
Kitty O'Shea
Hope you enjoy them pal.
Olly
Jimmy, sorry I didn't say bye to you today at the cafe. Nice to meet you though. By special request of our mutual, absolutely fabulous friend, please click the following links for a bit of a chuckle:
Christine 1
Kitty O'Shea
Hope you enjoy them pal.
Olly
Wednesday, April 14, 2004
Brisbane Blues
As predicted by the ever astute Glanville I'm still in bloody Brisbane. It sucks. Why I'm still here is quite a long story of various mishaps, let downs and laziness. It basically follows the South Park theory of blaming Canada. *sigh* if this wasn't a family web page I'd tell you in more detail about the problems with Canadians. However, I'm finally busting out tomorrow to go back to Noosa. Been there done that but it'll break up the journey to Airlie beach a bit. Instead of 24 hours it'll only be 20 hours from Noosa. Brilliant.
Why travel 20 hours to a beach? Well, that'll be the launch point of the ocean bound united nations (Canada, Yorkshire, Irish). We'll be on a yacht for about three days. Eye patches and all. It should be good so I'll let you know about it when I get back. Ooooooooh, and there'll probably be more pictures of folk you guys don't know, and if you're really really lucky so more beautiful beaches and blue sea.
As predicted by the ever astute Glanville I'm still in bloody Brisbane. It sucks. Why I'm still here is quite a long story of various mishaps, let downs and laziness. It basically follows the South Park theory of blaming Canada. *sigh* if this wasn't a family web page I'd tell you in more detail about the problems with Canadians. However, I'm finally busting out tomorrow to go back to Noosa. Been there done that but it'll break up the journey to Airlie beach a bit. Instead of 24 hours it'll only be 20 hours from Noosa. Brilliant.
Why travel 20 hours to a beach? Well, that'll be the launch point of the ocean bound united nations (Canada, Yorkshire, Irish). We'll be on a yacht for about three days. Eye patches and all. It should be good so I'll let you know about it when I get back. Ooooooooh, and there'll probably be more pictures of folk you guys don't know, and if you're really really lucky so more beautiful beaches and blue sea.
Sunday, April 11, 2004
A Family of Tomatoes is Walking Down the Road
It's time to catch up. Once again I've been super slack on the updates, but I'm travelling. Which means when the sun is shining I don't want to be holed up in some net cafe getting headaches from staring at a screen. Anyway, looking down at my last post it's only been a week or so, although it wasn't a really informative post. I just wanted you to check out my photos (but more on that later). So where've I been. Mainly in places with slow connections or no connections causing contact tensions. Aside from contact issues, the last time I posted I was in Brisbane. A quick synopsis of activity, I went up to Noosa (beach town) and then to Hervey Bay to launch into the 4x4 extravaganza known as Fraser Island. I'm now back in Brissy. I know not why but I shall not be here for too much longer (although the lure of seeing a live show by Steve Irwin may keep me here longer than intended.
A Quick Note
It's come to my attention that some folk are having trouble accessing my photos for numerous reasons. Getting lost in the lomo site, slow downloads, being in net cafes and not having the time/money/inclination to check them out. Fair does, I say, so I'm trying a new approach. Through my tales click on the links that appear looking like this and (fingers crossed) you'll magically be transported to the relevant picture. Good eh? That way you can choose what you want to see. Any advice on how to better this (thumbnails maybe?) in the comments thanks.
The photos corresponding to the following words are all a bit of an experiment. The experiment being cross processing. That's why they all look bleached and a bit weird. Pretty good though I reckon.
<
It's time to catch up. Once again I've been super slack on the updates, but I'm travelling. Which means when the sun is shining I don't want to be holed up in some net cafe getting headaches from staring at a screen. Anyway, looking down at my last post it's only been a week or so, although it wasn't a really informative post. I just wanted you to check out my photos (but more on that later). So where've I been. Mainly in places with slow connections or no connections causing contact tensions. Aside from contact issues, the last time I posted I was in Brisbane. A quick synopsis of activity, I went up to Noosa (beach town) and then to Hervey Bay to launch into the 4x4 extravaganza known as Fraser Island. I'm now back in Brissy. I know not why but I shall not be here for too much longer (although the lure of seeing a live show by Steve Irwin may keep me here longer than intended.
A Quick Note
It's come to my attention that some folk are having trouble accessing my photos for numerous reasons. Getting lost in the lomo site, slow downloads, being in net cafes and not having the time/money/inclination to check them out. Fair does, I say, so I'm trying a new approach. Through my tales click on the links that appear looking like this and (fingers crossed) you'll magically be transported to the relevant picture. Good eh? That way you can choose what you want to see. Any advice on how to better this (thumbnails maybe?) in the comments thanks.
The photos corresponding to the following words are all a bit of an experiment. The experiment being cross processing. That's why they all look bleached and a bit weird. Pretty good though I reckon.
<
A Story in Pictures
So where to begin. At the start I suppose. As you know I was on surfaris prior to Brissy and they dropped us off at The Arts Factory. After three weeks of surfing there had to be a lot recuperation in the form of sitting around or just shuffling around Byron.
Byron can hold it's own for only so long (hey Tao?) and then it gets just a touch tedious. So, as you all know, it was time to move Northward. Brisbane to be precise. Only trouble is that Brisbane is a bit limited on the activities and so more sitting around ensued. Good thing was the backpackers had a pool so a relaxing time was had by all. The pool also had a window in it which gave me the opportunity to get some underwater shots which came out pretty well.
All this talk of pools reminds that they had a pool competition in the bar there. It was killer until the last four (out of twenty nine) remained, and then full matches for the semis and finals. Phil, I did you proud and got to the semis. Should have been best of three like but only one match; what can you do?
After Brisbane I knocked on up North to Noosa, a small beach town with not much going on apart from the Easter holidays. Yes that means it was pretty busy. I had a bustastrophe there but that's a story for when I get back.
Following the bustastrophe it was up to Hervey Bay to meet up with the ditherer (Glanville) and do a three day 4x4 self drive excursion to Fraser Island. Hervey Bay pretty much exists because it's close to Fraser Island, i.e. there's bugger all to it. It's full of red necks with the most nasal Oz accents (and stereotypical Oz male attitudes to life and women, and machoism) I've encountered yet. The briefing was designed to shit us all up into thinking that we'd roll our vehicle and all die or become paraplegics in the process unless we crawled around the island. True, it has happened in the past, but as the rednecks would put it, you'd have to be a dickhead to do it.
Fraser's the biggest sand island in the world. 100kms long and not very wide. It's a really beautiful place and, being made of sand, particularly delicate in terms of erosion and conservation. As a result, I didn't feel that environmentally sound jumping into a three ton vehicle and tearing it up. I swallowed my morals though and did it anyway. Glad I did too.
Unfortunately my camera was on the roofrack for the first day and I couldn't be arsed to take it down. We went to a lake though (freshwater) called Lake Wabby. Following that we just drove around a bit really and then set up camp. (I love camping... nothing better!)
Day two was full of stuff to do. First pack up camp. We made a bit of an error there. You see, the beach is a registered highway. It's got speed limits and you can be breathalised etc. It's also impassable at high tide. So we packed up and were ready to go an hour before the tide dropped enough. Then it rained. I suppose at least we didn't have to pack up in the rain but we were confined to the truck. Uno was played and bible readings given... ?! Yes, four of our group were in Oz to go to bible school. Bit weird but they were nice enough.
The first stop was Indian Head. A big rock outcrop (but I thought this was a sand island???) where you could climb up and look down to check out shadows of sharks munching fish. Knowing the shark population existed, why the hell Andy and I went for a swim in the sea on day three is a question still begging an answer. Here's a shot of the rest of the group shark spotting. (left to right, Orin and Roi (israel), Morten (denmark), some goon, Maria and Annika (germany)).
We were then onto champagne pools. Beautiful spot and my favourite bit of Fraser without a doubt. Next was the Maheno Shipwreck. Pretty cool. Got some good shots there. Also watched a plane land. The beach is not only a highway but a landing strip too. Madness. Then it was camp again and much revelry as we hooked up with the two other groups. Any envi sci peeps remember Ho Down?... Urgh, leathered.
Day three was Lake Mackenzie. This place was gorgeous. Fresh, turquoise water, white sand... and loads of people. Ahaaaaaaa, enter the role of the second beach. For some reason no one had gone to it (apart from Morten invading the far right of my picture).
And so that was Fraser Island. Top times in a four by four. On the day we left everyone had a plan but me. Only solution, play rock, paper, scissors to see whether to go north or south. South it was so now I'm back in Brissy. Where to next? Who knows?
End Note
Man that was long. Hope you could hack it. Hope it loads up alright. There's more pics in the public album, 'adventures in x-processing' on my lomo home page (click photo's at the top to get to it).
So where to begin. At the start I suppose. As you know I was on surfaris prior to Brissy and they dropped us off at The Arts Factory. After three weeks of surfing there had to be a lot recuperation in the form of sitting around or just shuffling around Byron.
Byron can hold it's own for only so long (hey Tao?) and then it gets just a touch tedious. So, as you all know, it was time to move Northward. Brisbane to be precise. Only trouble is that Brisbane is a bit limited on the activities and so more sitting around ensued. Good thing was the backpackers had a pool so a relaxing time was had by all. The pool also had a window in it which gave me the opportunity to get some underwater shots which came out pretty well.
All this talk of pools reminds that they had a pool competition in the bar there. It was killer until the last four (out of twenty nine) remained, and then full matches for the semis and finals. Phil, I did you proud and got to the semis. Should have been best of three like but only one match; what can you do?
After Brisbane I knocked on up North to Noosa, a small beach town with not much going on apart from the Easter holidays. Yes that means it was pretty busy. I had a bustastrophe there but that's a story for when I get back.
Following the bustastrophe it was up to Hervey Bay to meet up with the ditherer (Glanville) and do a three day 4x4 self drive excursion to Fraser Island. Hervey Bay pretty much exists because it's close to Fraser Island, i.e. there's bugger all to it. It's full of red necks with the most nasal Oz accents (and stereotypical Oz male attitudes to life and women, and machoism) I've encountered yet. The briefing was designed to shit us all up into thinking that we'd roll our vehicle and all die or become paraplegics in the process unless we crawled around the island. True, it has happened in the past, but as the rednecks would put it, you'd have to be a dickhead to do it.
Fraser's the biggest sand island in the world. 100kms long and not very wide. It's a really beautiful place and, being made of sand, particularly delicate in terms of erosion and conservation. As a result, I didn't feel that environmentally sound jumping into a three ton vehicle and tearing it up. I swallowed my morals though and did it anyway. Glad I did too.
Unfortunately my camera was on the roofrack for the first day and I couldn't be arsed to take it down. We went to a lake though (freshwater) called Lake Wabby. Following that we just drove around a bit really and then set up camp. (I love camping... nothing better!)
Day two was full of stuff to do. First pack up camp. We made a bit of an error there. You see, the beach is a registered highway. It's got speed limits and you can be breathalised etc. It's also impassable at high tide. So we packed up and were ready to go an hour before the tide dropped enough. Then it rained. I suppose at least we didn't have to pack up in the rain but we were confined to the truck. Uno was played and bible readings given... ?! Yes, four of our group were in Oz to go to bible school. Bit weird but they were nice enough.
The first stop was Indian Head. A big rock outcrop (but I thought this was a sand island???) where you could climb up and look down to check out shadows of sharks munching fish. Knowing the shark population existed, why the hell Andy and I went for a swim in the sea on day three is a question still begging an answer. Here's a shot of the rest of the group shark spotting. (left to right, Orin and Roi (israel), Morten (denmark), some goon, Maria and Annika (germany)).
We were then onto champagne pools. Beautiful spot and my favourite bit of Fraser without a doubt. Next was the Maheno Shipwreck. Pretty cool. Got some good shots there. Also watched a plane land. The beach is not only a highway but a landing strip too. Madness. Then it was camp again and much revelry as we hooked up with the two other groups. Any envi sci peeps remember Ho Down?... Urgh, leathered.
Day three was Lake Mackenzie. This place was gorgeous. Fresh, turquoise water, white sand... and loads of people. Ahaaaaaaa, enter the role of the second beach. For some reason no one had gone to it (apart from Morten invading the far right of my picture).
And so that was Fraser Island. Top times in a four by four. On the day we left everyone had a plan but me. Only solution, play rock, paper, scissors to see whether to go north or south. South it was so now I'm back in Brissy. Where to next? Who knows?
End Note
Man that was long. Hope you could hack it. Hope it loads up alright. There's more pics in the public album, 'adventures in x-processing' on my lomo home page (click photo's at the top to get to it).
Friday, April 09, 2004
A Family of Tomatoes is Walking Down the Road
It's time to catch up. Once again I've been super slack on the updates, but I'm travelling. Which means when the sun is shining I don't want to be holed up in some net cafe getting headaches from staring at a screen. Anyway, looking down at my last post it's only been a week or so, although it wasn't a really informative post. I just wanted you to check out my photos (but more on that later). So where've I been. Mainly in places with slow connections or no connections causing contact tensions. Aside from contact issues, the last time I posted I was in Brisbane. A quick synopsis of activity, I went up to Noosa (beach town) and then to Hervey Bay to launch into the 4x4 extravaganza known as Fraser Island. I'm now back in Brissy. I know not why but I shall not be here for too much longer (although the lure of seeing a live show by Steve Irwin may keep me here longer than intended.
A Quick Note
It's come to my attention that some folk are having trouble accessing my photos for numerous reasons. Getting lost in the lomo site, slow downloads, being in net cafes and not having the time/money/inclination to check them out. Fair does, I say, so I'm trying a new approach. Through my tales click on the links that appear looking like this and (fingers crossed) you'll magically be transported to the relevant picture. Good eh? That way you can choose what you want to see. Any advice on how to better this (thumbnails maybe?) in the comments thanks.
The photos corresponding to the following words are all a bit of an experiment. The experiment being cross processing. That's why they all look bleached and a bit weird. Pretty good though I reckon.
A Story in Pictures
So where to begin. At the start I suppose. As you know I was on surfaris prior to Brissy and they dropped us off at The Arts Factory. After three weeks of surfing there had to be a lot recuperation in the form of sitting around or just shuffling around Byron.
Byron can hold it's own for only so long (hey Tao?) and then it gets just a touch tedious. So, as you all know, it was time to move Northward. Brisbane to be precise. Only trouble is that Brisbane is a bit limited on the activities and so more sitting around ensued. Good thing was the backpackers had a pool so a relaxing time was had by all. The pool also had a window in it which gave me the opportunity to get some underwater shots which came out pretty well.
All this talk of pools reminds that they had a pool competition in the bar there. It was killer until the last four (out of twenty nine) remained, and then full matches for the semis and finals. Phil, I did you proud and got to the semis. Should have been best of three like but only one match; what can you do?
After Brisbane I knocked on up North to Noosa, a small beach town with not much going on apart from the Easter holidays. Yes that means it was pretty busy. I had a bustastrophe there but that's a story for when I get back.
Following the bustastrophe it was up to Hervey Bay to meet up with the ditherer (Glanville) and do a three day 4x4 self drive excursion to Fraser Island. Hervey Bay pretty much exists because it's close to Fraser Island, i.e. there's bugger all to it. It's full of red necks with the most nasal Oz accents (and stereotypical Oz male attitudes to life and women, and machoism) I've encountered yet. The briefing was designed to shit us all up into thinking that we'd roll our vehicle and all die or become paraplegics in the process unless we crawled around the island. True, it has happened in the past, but as the rednecks would put it, you'd have to be a dickhead to do it.
Fraser's the biggest sand island in the world. 100kms long and not very wide. It's a really beautiful place and, being made of sand, particularly delicate in terms of erosion and conservation. As a result, I didn't feel that environmentally sound jumping into a three ton vehicle and tearing it up. I swallowed my morals though and did it anyway. Glad I did too.
Unfortunately my camera was on the roofrack for the first day and I couldn't be arsed to take it down. We went to a lake though (freshwater) called Lake Wabby. Following that we just drove around a bit really and then set up camp. (I love camping... nothing better!)
Day two was full of stuff to do. First pack up camp. We made a bit of an error there. You see, the beach is a registered highway. It's got speed limits and you can be breathalised etc. It's also impassable at high tide. So we packed up and were ready to go an hour before the tide dropped enough. Then it rained. I suppose at least we didn't have to pack up in the rain but we were confined to the truck. Uno was played and bible readings given... ?! Yes, four of our group were in Oz to go to bible school. Bit weird but they were nice enough.
The first stop was Indian Head. A big rock outcrop (but I thought this was a sand island???) where you could climb up and look down to check out shadows of sharks munching fish. Knowing the shark population existed, why the hell Andy and I went for a swim in the sea on day three is a question still begging an answer. Here's a shot of the rest of the group shark spotting. (left to right, Orin and Roi (israel), Morten (denmark), some goon, Maria and Annika (germany)).
We were then onto champagne pools. Beautiful spot and my favourite bit of Fraser without a doubt. Next was the Maheno Shipwreck. Pretty cool. Got some good shots there. Also watched a plane land. The beach is not only a highway but a landing strip too. Madness. Then it was camp again and much revelry as we hooked up with the two other groups. Any envi sci peeps remember Ho Down?... Urgh, leathered.
Day three was Lake Mackenzie. This place was gorgeous. Fresh, turquoise water, white sand... and loads of people. Ahaaaaaaa, enter the role of the second beach. For some reason no one had gone to it (apart from Morten invading the far right of my picture).
And so that was Fraser Island. Top times in a four by four. On the day we left everyone had a plan but me. Only solution, play rock, paper, scissors to see whether to go north or south. South it was so now I'm back in Brissy. Where to next? Who knows?
End Note
Man that was long. Hope you could hack it. Hope it loads up alright. There's more pics in the public album, 'adventures in x-processing' on my lomo home page (click photo's at the top to get to it).
It's time to catch up. Once again I've been super slack on the updates, but I'm travelling. Which means when the sun is shining I don't want to be holed up in some net cafe getting headaches from staring at a screen. Anyway, looking down at my last post it's only been a week or so, although it wasn't a really informative post. I just wanted you to check out my photos (but more on that later). So where've I been. Mainly in places with slow connections or no connections causing contact tensions. Aside from contact issues, the last time I posted I was in Brisbane. A quick synopsis of activity, I went up to Noosa (beach town) and then to Hervey Bay to launch into the 4x4 extravaganza known as Fraser Island. I'm now back in Brissy. I know not why but I shall not be here for too much longer (although the lure of seeing a live show by Steve Irwin may keep me here longer than intended.
A Quick Note
It's come to my attention that some folk are having trouble accessing my photos for numerous reasons. Getting lost in the lomo site, slow downloads, being in net cafes and not having the time/money/inclination to check them out. Fair does, I say, so I'm trying a new approach. Through my tales click on the links that appear looking like this and (fingers crossed) you'll magically be transported to the relevant picture. Good eh? That way you can choose what you want to see. Any advice on how to better this (thumbnails maybe?) in the comments thanks.
The photos corresponding to the following words are all a bit of an experiment. The experiment being cross processing. That's why they all look bleached and a bit weird. Pretty good though I reckon.
A Story in Pictures
So where to begin. At the start I suppose. As you know I was on surfaris prior to Brissy and they dropped us off at The Arts Factory. After three weeks of surfing there had to be a lot recuperation in the form of sitting around or just shuffling around Byron.
Byron can hold it's own for only so long (hey Tao?) and then it gets just a touch tedious. So, as you all know, it was time to move Northward. Brisbane to be precise. Only trouble is that Brisbane is a bit limited on the activities and so more sitting around ensued. Good thing was the backpackers had a pool so a relaxing time was had by all. The pool also had a window in it which gave me the opportunity to get some underwater shots which came out pretty well.
All this talk of pools reminds that they had a pool competition in the bar there. It was killer until the last four (out of twenty nine) remained, and then full matches for the semis and finals. Phil, I did you proud and got to the semis. Should have been best of three like but only one match; what can you do?
After Brisbane I knocked on up North to Noosa, a small beach town with not much going on apart from the Easter holidays. Yes that means it was pretty busy. I had a bustastrophe there but that's a story for when I get back.
Following the bustastrophe it was up to Hervey Bay to meet up with the ditherer (Glanville) and do a three day 4x4 self drive excursion to Fraser Island. Hervey Bay pretty much exists because it's close to Fraser Island, i.e. there's bugger all to it. It's full of red necks with the most nasal Oz accents (and stereotypical Oz male attitudes to life and women, and machoism) I've encountered yet. The briefing was designed to shit us all up into thinking that we'd roll our vehicle and all die or become paraplegics in the process unless we crawled around the island. True, it has happened in the past, but as the rednecks would put it, you'd have to be a dickhead to do it.
Fraser's the biggest sand island in the world. 100kms long and not very wide. It's a really beautiful place and, being made of sand, particularly delicate in terms of erosion and conservation. As a result, I didn't feel that environmentally sound jumping into a three ton vehicle and tearing it up. I swallowed my morals though and did it anyway. Glad I did too.
Unfortunately my camera was on the roofrack for the first day and I couldn't be arsed to take it down. We went to a lake though (freshwater) called Lake Wabby. Following that we just drove around a bit really and then set up camp. (I love camping... nothing better!)
Day two was full of stuff to do. First pack up camp. We made a bit of an error there. You see, the beach is a registered highway. It's got speed limits and you can be breathalised etc. It's also impassable at high tide. So we packed up and were ready to go an hour before the tide dropped enough. Then it rained. I suppose at least we didn't have to pack up in the rain but we were confined to the truck. Uno was played and bible readings given... ?! Yes, four of our group were in Oz to go to bible school. Bit weird but they were nice enough.
The first stop was Indian Head. A big rock outcrop (but I thought this was a sand island???) where you could climb up and look down to check out shadows of sharks munching fish. Knowing the shark population existed, why the hell Andy and I went for a swim in the sea on day three is a question still begging an answer. Here's a shot of the rest of the group shark spotting. (left to right, Orin and Roi (israel), Morten (denmark), some goon, Maria and Annika (germany)).
We were then onto champagne pools. Beautiful spot and my favourite bit of Fraser without a doubt. Next was the Maheno Shipwreck. Pretty cool. Got some good shots there. Also watched a plane land. The beach is not only a highway but a landing strip too. Madness. Then it was camp again and much revelry as we hooked up with the two other groups. Any envi sci peeps remember Ho Down?... Urgh, leathered.
Day three was Lake Mackenzie. This place was gorgeous. Fresh, turquoise water, white sand... and loads of people. Ahaaaaaaa, enter the role of the second beach. For some reason no one had gone to it (apart from Morten invading the far right of my picture).
And so that was Fraser Island. Top times in a four by four. On the day we left everyone had a plan but me. Only solution, play rock, paper, scissors to see whether to go north or south. South it was so now I'm back in Brissy. Where to next? Who knows?
End Note
Man that was long. Hope you could hack it. Hope it loads up alright. There's more pics in the public album, 'adventures in x-processing' on my lomo home page (click photo's at the top to get to it).
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