c-e-d.net:Ced's blog

We woke up at 6.30am and arrived just on time at the appointment at 7.45am. We arrived at Fraser island at 9am. The island is listed as a world heritage because it is totally composed of sand, there is no soil anywhere on the island. Then we went to the central station, in the middle of it, which was the initial village of loggers. Here we had a walk in the rainforest, following the Wanggoolla creek, composed of pure water that we filled in a bottle. Then we went to the resort close to the beach for a 45mn lunch and headed off to Eli creek for a swim in a clear water with a white sandy bottom. After that we drove to the Maheno shipwreck, which was a ship towed by the Japanese wanting to sell the pieces in Japan. Then we drove along the 75 miles beach (a sandy national highway) to the coloured sands, which is a canyon made of 14 different colours of sands. The final destination of the day was Indian Head, called like this by Captain Cook discovering Australia at this place and thinking that aborigines were Indians. The place was a prominent rock with a good view over the beaches and just above the place where the sharks were breading. We saw some enormous stingrays and few sharks. It has to be noted that the island comprises 6 out of the most dangerous snakes in the world (including the taipan), as well as many deadly sharks on the east coast and small blue jelly boxes, also deadly. We came back at the resort at 5pm, saw a dingo on the beach and went to the convenience store to get bait. We went fishing just a bit before dawn – I got good bites even though it was surf fishing. The tide was coming in very quickly, the bag and cameras got wet. In the meantime Nozomi walked on a dead blue jelly fish, which made ma a bit panicking, the body reacting 6 hours later, I.e. in the middle of the night. After 30mn, at dusk, a dingo appeared behind us and stared at us for a moment, actually until I cut my line with the squid on it. It tried to eat it but hurt itself on the hook. Then it decided to go to the bag of bait and to check my bag at the same time. We had to wait that he finishes to eat before getting the bags back, otherwise we would have been more likely to be bitten by it. The dingos already killed few people on the island, even though they are originally vegetarian. Indeed, people feeding them make them aggressive when they meet other people who do not have any food. We had two other problems: the night was falling and we did not have any torch to see the dingo, plus the tide was still hitting in very fast. Finally I decided to come closer to it, turning around it without losing its sight. It paced a bit back to the ocean to digest, we took advantage and got the bags back. Nozomi was so terrified at the time. We ate at the resort and went to bed early.

Humm...

Drinking water

Cold

Sharks

We checked out at 10am, took a shower and ate lunch. We went for a 5 kms walk in the national park, departing from the camp site. We parked on the track leading to the camp and started walking in the sand under a heavy sun; the walk was hard and long. After 30mn we wondered about the distance remaining to the camp site. Fortunately we met a 4WD Ute which brought us there in its back, in the middle of tools. We realised that it was a fair distance and wondered if we should not ask the driver for another drive back. Finally we stayed to check the beach, deserted, beautiful. We cooled down, naked, in the ocean – we wanted to swim to the coral but it seemed farer than we expected. Then we took a fresh shower before starting a long and exhausting walk back in the heavy sand for 2hrs. Once arrived, around 5pm, we departed for the Wongi State Forest for a free camping before going to Hervey Bay. It was a 10kms drive in the forest to reach the camp where surprisingly three other campers were already settled down. We went to bed the latest, at 11pm.

 Wild turkey

 On the back of 4WD ute

After a second night in the camping surrounded by skyscrapers we checked out at 10am, we went for a swim in the swimming pool of the camp site, and went to Safeway in order to get ice and food for lunch. As we cooked we met some Australians who advised us to go have a look at Nimbin, a hippy town in NSW. Finally we headed off late and arrived at the caravan park at Woodgate (350kms over Brisbane) at 11pm. We chose the caravan park because the camp site in the national park was only 4WD accessible and Nozomi was exhausted after our 400kms journey. We were lucky that the manager in the caravan park was awake (usually Australians go to bed before 10pm!) in order to give us a good cabin for only $50.

Cairns, our final destination...

We woke up at 10am, packed up and were ready at 12pm. We went to the beach until 4pm. I tried to fish there but the current was too strong and brought my sinker back to the beach all the time. We walked up the Red Rock (called like that because of the blood poored during a massacre, giving at the same time the name to the town), played with the waves (very strong) and met an aboriginal woman who warned Nozomi that I should not swim too far because the under currents bring you far from the beach and smash you then back to the rocks close to the sea cliff. Indeed, Nozomi told me that I started to be dragged away before calling me. I took a shower and we hit the road at 5pm. We arrived at the Gold Coast at 10pm, under the rain. The camp site was difficult to find because the Gold Coast is mainly a resort, a city.

 Abo kids

We woke up at 11am, assuming that the car will not be ready this time! I called, nobody answered, we went then there at 1pm and were surprised to hear that the car was fixed. We exchanged the yens Nozomi brought with to pay the mechanics and came back to the motel. The car was doing a weird noise and water was still coming from the muffler. I went back straight to the mechanic who tried to make some adjustments but nothing changed: he just told me to clean up a part of the carburettor. We loaded the car and left at 6pm from Taree to settle down one hour drive away from the town and camped in Crowdy bay national park. The site was difficult to find but very clean and close to the beach. The air was very humid and everything was flooded on the way to the national park.