great barrier reef and fraser island

i feel like i've been in the wilderness for weeks. have had a mega-backpacker-thon, doing tours back-to-back so haven't had chance to keep up with things. this is going to take me a while...

firstly, the whitsundays. i had a panic the day before i got on the boat cos two absolute bints were staying in my dorm the night before. it hadn't crossed my mind previously but it then dawned on me that there was a strong possibility that i could be stranded at sea with a load of nobheads. and pay for the privilege aswell. so after spending the day finishing my book on the beach at airlie, i met the rest of my crewmates for the big sail-off at 6pm with some trepidation. thankfully, they all turned out to be relatively normal. there was a nice mix of young and older people, singles and couples and they were mostly interesting, apart from a woman from adelaide in her (at a guess) early 40s who seemed to think that we were all deserving of random and frequent shows of her 'personality'. she used to be in a circus, you see. but, luckily, there were about 30 of us aboard so there was enough people around to avoid the irritating ones. we all bonded quite well and it was nice chatting in the dark up on deck and drinking copious amounts of tea, watching the stars and getting used to the nonstop rocking and tilting. we 'parked' in a bay that night so that we could head straight for whitehaven beach, which is the best of all beaches anywhere ever, apparently, due to it being 95% silica (and normal sand is only 5% silica). the sand was ultra white and of a kind of floury, icing sugar kind of feel. not at all like normal sand. it squeaked under foot. we had about 10 minutes on the beach the next morning before it started to rain. i'd been hearing from everyone up the coast that it had rained on their whitsunday trip so i wasn't really surprised and we just steamed on for another bay in order to go snorkelling and diving.

i decided that i wasn't going to dive and would just limit myself to attempting to conquer this snorkelling thing. with memories of nearly drowning in nz fresh in my mind, i took to the sea once more. but it was a sheltered bay so there weren't huge waves and i demanded a noodle thing which you put under your arms to keep you floating. well, i couldn't concentrate on swimming AND breathing at the same time now, could i? and it was amazing. i spent a little while getting used to breathing under water and once i actually started to see the coral i just forgot about the weird breathing thing. it was amazing. so much life under there that you can't see above. saw lots of different colours and types of coral and loads of fish that swam so near to your face. stunning.

i paid a bit extra to go on the ship that goes out to the outer reef and not just around the whitsunday islands so we started early the next day to get out there. the crossing was special. the waves get larger the further out you get and there were people being sick left, right and centre. i wasn't sick but i did get covered in coffee when the spanish guy was being a bit too confident in bringing his drink out on deck. the div. but it was all fun and the canadian lass i was talking too got covered aswell so we all laughed heartily. i'm really glad i got out to the outer reef - the 'proper' reef. we stopped in the middle of the ocean and you could see the different coloured water where the reef was. it was a little windy and the waves were a bit rough but i figured i hadn't come all this way to just stay in the ship and not attempt to snorkel again. so i armed myself with an even bigger noodle and got out there.

i lasted about ten minutes. it was well choppy and it was difficult keeping your head at the right height under the water and water kept coming in my funnel thing. i saw a little bit of the coral but soon got that familiar feeling of almost drowning so decided to head back to the big ship and have a look from above water. so i didn't quite get the idyllic great barrier reef experience but i had a bluddy good go, anyway.

had another snorkel the next day in a quieter bay. the canadian lass i was hanging around with took me by the hand and showed me a giant clam under the water. it was quite cool being whizzed about by someone else. so much less effort. we then sat on the coral beach and chatted. our ship, the anaconda, was in the distance. this was my view. saw lots more fishes of all colours but i liked the coral the best. so other-worldy and freaky as it sways with the current. some was a sparkly purple, others a neon greeny colour. just not what you expect from underwater stuff.

it was a nice sail back to the mainland. there was that nice relaxed we-all-know-each-other feeling amongst us. i'd gotten to know the crew quite well aswell cos i ended sleeping in their cabin. the ship was overbooked but i still wanted to go on it, being the one that goes to the outer reef , so steve said i could have his bed and he'd sleep in a swag on deck. i believe a swag is a sleeping bag/tent thing all combined but i've never seen one yet. they're distinctly australian so i shall have to call in a camping shop to see one before i leave. but i thought it was nice of steve to give up his bed. and all the crew were well fit in a sundrenched, bleached hair aussie surfer kind of way so i wasn't complaining about the view.

i stepped off the boat at 3pm, got on the greyhound at 6pm and then arrived at rainbow beach at 10am the next day for my fraser island camping extravaganza trip. was well knackered as i'd not managed to sleep very well. they have newer buses on the east coast which don't have the broken chairs of the old ones in the outback so they're not as comfy to sleep on. i sat in a daze for most of the day but we had a meeting in the afternoon to meet the group i was to camp on the island with. again, i was a bit worried about the nobhead ratio at the hostel and also the sheer number of 18 year olds about, and we did have a lot of young'uns on our team - only four of the eleven were even old enough to drive the 4wd, as you had to be 21. but us old'uns grouped together and the young'uns weren't actually annoying so we all got along well. phew.

we were up early the next day to hear merv from the tour company tell us how to drive 4x4s and also how to camp and avoid dingos. v informative. and then the heavens opened. we got the ferry across to the island and driving in the sand on the beach was a little tricky in torrential rain. but then it all cleared up and we cheered. we had lunch by a shipwreck and the plan was the head up to the top of the island and camp in the campground up there. except we missed it somewhere and the tide was coming in. this would be when it was my turn to drive and i had to get nearer and nearer to the soft sand to avoid the tide and the thousand dollar salt damage fee on the truck. we ended up finding a random spot on the edge of the beach and we started coming to terms with the idea of proper camping - i.e. no showers, toilets or anything. crikey. luckily, merv had informed us of the art of digging holes to wee in so we were equipped enough. and it was actually lots of fun. we cooked steak for tea and all mucked in, putting up tents and sorting out the beers. it got dark early. as did the start of the drinking games. we had a right laugh. and i was in charge of the alarm clock that went off every 1.5 hours to remind me to start the truck so that the battery didn't go flat, what with the stereo and lights being on. i thought i coped with this role very well. amy, the other older lass, was the mother figure. i'm not very good at that role. she organised the cooking and all that.

and we saw loads of cool things. we got up early cos it got light fairly early, washed our pots in the sea, and then headed up to indian head where you could climb a cliff and look down into the water and spy sharks and turtles in the clear water. was v exciting. you got good views of much of the island, which apparently is the largest sand island in the world. it was beautiful in a raggedly-wild way. we then dodged the showers to head down to lake mckensie, where it miraculously cleared up again and was ultra sunny for a good swim (and wash) in the lake. idyllic. the oldies ended up getting out and drying off on the beach and we all laughed fondly at the capers of the youngsters throwing balls about in the water and diving about and all that. it made me feel about 90 at times.

we fought our way through the muddy sandy track in order to camp in another place to have a proper camping experience. a few of the other teams of people that had set out from the hostel joined us and this is where it all got a bit weird. we cooked tea as normal, and sam the english lad demonstrated his unique ability to chop veges really finely, and took about an hour to do it. such stamina and dedication. and then we settled down to playing games and 'goon of fortune' which involves tying some boxed wine on a branch and spinning it round so that whoever it hits has to drink the goon. the young canadian lad was so eager to play this game that he set it all up in the pouring rain, thus forcing him to have to wear the silk dressing gown he'd brought with him afterwards (!). it was all fun and a bit drunken until later on. i'd gone for a walk on the beach and had a lay down, watching the stars, which was lovely and relaxing. but then i went back to the other camp where a few teams had congregated. amy told me that someone had ripped our tent and so i headed back to our camp with her and someone had indeed ripped our tent and also hidden all the pegs from all the tents and all kinds of other crap like chucking food all over our truck. it all began with the young canadian lad in our group who had nicked another team's fluffy pink dice from their truck the previous day and so this was their revenge. but it really wasn't funny cos it was raining and my bed for the night was getting wet. so i actually went a bit mental. i stormed back to the camp where everyone was, with amy hot on my heels, and went off on one to everyone there. this is one of the great things about getting old, i've found, in that you don't care about letting everyone know if you're pissed off. so i gladly informed them all, in a move straight from the 'how to make friends' manual, that they could 'all get fucked' and stormed off again to go sleep in the truck next to the stinking rubbish bags that you have to keep in there away from the dingos. i felt much better after that outburst, even if i did have to sleep with my knees in the air, cramped between the binbags and the chilly bin. fucking kids.

the camp the next morning was a scene of total devastation. there was chili sauce all over the truck, we'd had the tarpaulin and our shovel nicked and one of the legs of our table had gone missing. there was still the bag of goon hanging off the tree, as a prime dingo-attracter, and random shoes were everywhere. everyone looked and felt like shite. bluddy hell. it took ages to put the scene back together again and set off for lake wabby. no-one felt much like doing anything and the walk out to the lake was a bit of a killer in our dehydrated state. but it was actually a really pretty lake and the soaking of my feet did much to improve my mood. we had lunch then headed all the way back down the island in order to make the ferry. luckily, merv didn't notice that we'd returned with a few table legs short and a ripped tent so we didn't get charged for anything - there was much moral debate on the way back over whether we should tell merv about it or not. it was right big brother-esque. but, in the end, we didn't have to because it was all a confusion of everyone arriving back so no-one could tell. phew.

amy and i we went for a pizza with the irish lads, once we'd had the best shower in the world (three days away, we were all the most stinky we'd ever ever been). the young'uns all headed out of rainbow beach that night but we were staying so we played cards until 9pm, when we felt it was almost an acceptable time to be going to bed. we were sooo knackered.

and today i got the bus to noosa, which seems to be the beverley hills of the sunshine coast. it's all plush apartments and speed boats on the river. very nice. i'm off for a walk in the national park tomorrow and am looking forward to being on my own. it's been full-on people for the past week, what with the boat and the camping. it's been nice but i definitely need just my own company at the moment. recover from the kidfest of fraser island. and then i might go to australia zoo, though it won't be the same with no steve irwin. boo.

so now i'm going to go sit in a darkened corner and recover from events of the past week. crikey.