Surf's up!
Hey dudes, I have to speak a bit different now i'm a surf chick, Eoin and I have decided that we couldn't leave the East Coast of Australia without learning to surf. We had a 2 hour lesson yesterday and one today...did I say lesson? I should have said boot camp, I'm aching all over and my fingertips , knees and thighs are all red raw! Still it's brilliant fun even though I seem to drink gallons of salt water every time and most of my surfing attemps end with a scream and an undignified topple into the surf. Still, I can stand, only for a few seconds and so can Eoin.
So right now, we're in Noosa, not too far north of Brisbane, we only meant to stay here for a couple of nights but it's so lovely and we're tired out from all our tours and bus journeys so we've beached ourselves here for five days.
Sharks and crocs
We started at Port Douglas, hundreds and hundreds of miles north of here, we took a trip out to the Great Barrier Reef from there for diving and snorkelling - we saw loads of fish, coral and clams and Eoin even saw a shark. (Not a man-eating one, don't worry Jo!). We had to wear extremely unglamourous stinger suits for this excursion (jellyfish protection) which were blue lycra, body hugging from toes to fingers, including a hood. Sorry folks, no photos of these, too humiliating.
From Port Douglas, we also took a trip to the rainforest where it duly rained which actually made it even prettier because it created so many waterfalls (pretty serious rain, everything seems to be bigger in Oz, the rain is no exception). Luckily, it held off for our croc spotting cruise but they are so hard to spot we only saw one biggish one and a few little uns. Speaking of crocs, we touched one at a wildlife centre we visited. As a guy there said, it feels just like a handbag. Don't worry, it was just a wee freshwater one, they don't eat people.
LIke proper backpackers, we took an overnight bus journey from PD down the coast. It wasn't too bad but i did feel like we were the oldest people on it (bar the very smooth talking driver). We've actually done two overnighters now, how hard core are we?
Whitsunday Islands
The other two highlights of the East Coast have been trips to Islands - the first was the Whitsunday Islands - whch entailed visiting the extremely beautiful Whitehaven Beach and some snorkelling where we swam with shoals and shoals of fish and I had a good laugh at Eoin struggling to switch from diving to snorkelling and drinking half the ocean, ha ha.
Fraser Island
The other trip was to Fraser Island, the largest sand island in the world. We were driven around in a 4x4 bus by our guide Steve who talked non-stop about two subjects: Fraser Island and himself. It was a great trip but he really could have done with a mute button. The rest of the entertainment was provided by six posh, English, gap year teenagers who were horrified to find themselves on a tour with old fogeys like us and after Steves 45 minute intoductory monologue on the Eucalyptus species on Fraser Island, were plotting to go back to their travel agent and shave her hair off. They did cheer up when Steve (who fancies himslef as a bit of a Crocodile Dundee) screeched the bus to a halt, leapt off and picked a huge snake up by the tail. They also liked the poisonous spiders that sat in their webs above us as we ate our dinner. A preying mantis was up there too, til it fell on me, ughh, i never moved so fast in my life. Had to laugh when the six boys who were whinging about not being on the party bus sat there at 9 o'clock with their cups of tea playing cards while the grown ups drank beer and chatted.
So, tomorrow another surf lesson / boot camp session and then off to Brisbane....
