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).