Thursday 29 April 2010

The East Coast Sessions - Airlie Beach/ Whitsundays

12. Airlie Beach

With not being a drunk for an incredible length of two and a half weeks, i was left pining like never before for a proper night out. So needless to say, I was delighted when our driver Binks pointed out all the various bars, clubs and hostels as well as letting us know we had a table booked for Beaches with free drinks in tow, yessa. It was clear to see that Airlie Beach was set up for the sole purpose of having backpackers staying there so Tom and I made the instant decision to 'get involved' as soon as possible and smash it later on.
Tom checked into a place down the road named Beaches while I myself was at a rather busy Hostel called Magnums with the girls from our bus. I was so happy straight away, 8 TV's with a different sport on each, a bar, nightclub, drink area and all for just 18 bucks a night; ah how I'd grown to miss the insanity of Bedlam with the party atmosphere and here it was once again. I did soon discover how they managed to get away with the 18 dollar fee when it became apparent you basically had to pay fora the use of a pillow and linen...I can go without thanks.
We had a stroll around town before heading down to join the rest of the bus (this also included walking in on two buffed up Yanls "mid workout" which was rather funny, you'd never catch an englishman doing that). The majority of the group made an appearance which always makes for a good banter, as usual there was a catch with regards to the free drink and cheap food; you had to buy a drink to get a voucher and the 'pot' it camein looked to be about a quarter of a pint.Wank food too. A subway and goon would've done the job. There was a girl at the table that i've neglected to mention previously although i had intended too, she'd been on my bus about four times but i'd yet to speak to her at all thanks to her resemblance to one of the Muppets courtesy of her eyebrows. Initially she reminded me of  Bert of Bert and Ernie fame but i'm sure there's another green one with a mono brow, Tom referred to her as "D-Ball" thanks to her resemblance to the Dodgeball character.Yes, we are bastards.



 After the  meal the free drinks finally turned up with us getting a jug for every two people, so that wasn't too bad, with that not lasting long we headed off to do it like true backpackers with a case of goon at Magnums. The swedes in our room turned out to be Tom's friends from Fraser Island, we then saw Charlotte, Korina, Laura, Katie and Kerry so headed upstairs for drinking games and to meet the second Bill and Will of the trip. The games didn't last long before their roommates returned so everybody scattered with most hitting the bars but we still had goon to drink so got on that. Tom was getting talking to one of the Swedish girls from the bus while i got attacked by a Swede called Oscar who was off his face, he was a big time "Man United and Hammarby" fan and couldn't quite believe when i mentioned Kennedy Bakircioglu, how could i forget one of Football Managers greatest ever bargain signings though? I soon joined the rest of them quickly being asked by one of the Swedish girls "why are you playing hard to get?. Erm, what? I've never spoke to you before and you look a bit like a gypsy. Swedes are mad, quiet sober and never speak to anyone else except their own but that soon changes with a bit of drink in them. Soon we were well on our way after nearly 2 litres of goon so we picked up more stragglers and found the girls at beaches again. The night soon gets blurry from here on in, we all headed across the road to Momma Africa's where thankfully it was actually not so bad for a change with everyone getting on it. As standard drunken texts were sent, had a few shenanigans and then the bouncer tried to throw me out for what seems to be just going to the toilet. A simple conversation convinced him i was sober so i was allowed to stay but it turn out Tom got thrown out for exactly the same thing. As in Kings Cross fashion, i stumbled to McDonald's where i found om eating about three meals, even Skinner would be proud of that one in a single day never mind a single sitting.

I woke up the next day somehow in bed fully clothed and not the prettiest of sights at all, I didn't know what was going on at all. The Swedes in the room even informed Tom that they "felt sick at the sight of me laying with my pants hanging off my arse (i've lost my belt) and struggling to breath". Ah yes, I do love it. However i did find myself having a hangover for the first time in months and it was not good, i was hanging like never before. I'd randomly bumped into Leona the night before, saying i'd join her in going to the lagoon but when she came to my room i still didn't know what was happening and the only phrase i could mutter was "I'm fucked man". She was more concerned about why there was coins stuck to me and rightfully didn't hang about. I still had to check in for my boat trip which was the last thing i wanted really, i must've been sick about 5 times on the way and the girl in reception even commented on me looking like death. I was definitely out of practice and an old school nap was most certainly the only way to go.
As ever that sorted me out so we checked out the rather nice lagoon and spend the rest of the night just chilling before the early start the next day and off to the Whitsunday Islands.

13.Whitsunday Islands

My bus picked me up at 8:30, with us heading straight off to Abel Port Marina and to meet the other 13 people on my trip Everyone seemed cool and it was a nice mix of nationalities, ages and 'types; they were two quiet swiss girls, Jan from Scotland, North Americans Jackie, Jazz and Samantha and a selection of Dutch, Kiwis, English and Aussies. The boat we would be commandeering was name the Southern Cross(like most things here) and it would be safe to say we didn't get off to the best of starts by going round the harbour in circles for ten minutes thanks to steering problems. It was sorted quickly enough though so we were on our way and it would the only problem we'd have over the next few days - it was allegedly caused by some kind of  'Banana curse on boats'. SureSureSure.

With regards to the weather we simply just couldn't have asked for it to be better at all, blazing sun, no wind or waves and it was all just perfectly serene. The surrounding landscape was incredible with the clear waters, surrounding islands and it wasn't long before we were dropping anchor off Blue Pearl Bay at Haymon Island for our first spot of snorkeling the reef. We all had to jump into stinger suits on account of the stingers and jellyfish, so once again just like surf camp i resembled a man in a gimp suit jumping in the water. Snorkeling way back in Koh Phi Phi was easily one of the most enjoyable experiences of Thailand but this was something all together different, the coral reef is a thing to see by itself but when you couple that with all the ridiculous amounts of fish and colorful plant life then it really becomes something to see. Yet again another experience that you're just not going to get back home. From there we jumped back on the boat to move on to a spot named Wrasse Bay for some grade A grub and a bit more of the same, this time the Coral was a little bit more shallow though so a bit more difficult to swim over. Once back on the boat one of the girls pointed out that my foot was covered in blood and i'd not even realized, i really do have the thinnest of blood it seems as it was only a small nick on the top of my foot. After cleaning that up the boat moved on leisurely to a lovely point on Border Island called Cateran Bay to drop anchor for the night and to feast on nachos and curry. It's impossible for me to articulate what it's like to be sat on a boat in a plice like that with the sun going down over the islands and what seems like a million stars right above your head, it sounds cheesy but you could just sit out there for days.

After the now standard early start we sailed down to Tongue Bay to the famous swirling sands of White haven beach which apparently is number two in the world only behind one from the Seychelles. I'd seen all the photos of the place from everyone who'd done the east coast themselves but is in an entirely different thing actually being there yourself, I thought Lake McKenzie was something but this just had the beating of that one and a many other. It was good to bump into some familiar faces there too. After soaking up the sun, playing a bit cricket and doing our best to take it all in we jumped back on the boat and moved onto Dumbbell Island for more snorkeling. The visibility at this place was not the best but it was nice going through the trenches like coral even if it was stinger central, i must admit i shit myself about 6 times with jellyfish suddenly appearing about 3 inches from my face. On the subject of crap I really must relay a lovely story Jackie told me, apparently Callum was avoiding jellyfish in the water just as i was emptying the toilet, so as he swam in the opposite direction he met my 'dirty water'. Ah how i wish i bore witness to that one, I had wondered why he looked so uncomfortable in the water too when i jumped off the boat later, now i know.


Up to now we'd just been using the engine to get forward due to the lack of wind so it was nice to get the sails up for just a bit in the afternoon as we very slowly sailed on seeing dolphins, turtle heads and yet another ethereal sunset on the horizon. I hear must people go on about getting smashed on the Whitsundays and Fraser but I don't know why you'd want to in a place like that, or maybe i just gotten soft since leaving the cross but i do know one thing. Me being on that boat off my face is a disaster just waiting to happen and death would be highly likely, i'd probably jump in the sea, fall over the deck or just knock myself out on one of the sails.

The last day was really just like putting the cherry on top of everything we'd done so far. Snorkeling in the morning again and i managed to come with in cm's of swimming into a massive Jellyfish, thank god Mick was there to alert me to that one or i'd probably have done a Francois and have to be airlifted to hospital. Next stop after was Longford Island that had a long strip of sand rising from the sea up to the bay and was possibly the hottest thing I've ever walked across, it was like steaming  hot coal. Despite the strong current it was a really nice spot with plenty of stingrays, lemon sharks and turtles. I wasn't that arsed when Amy pointed out the turtles but that soon changed when i swam up to them, they were about 4 foot long and just glided around care free in the water, a very cool sight. One final stop was had for us to act like kids and jump off the boat into the water like idiots and then we casually sailed back into Airlie beach with the job well and truly done.



14. Airlie Beach again

That wasn't quite the end of the events though as we had a table booked for the evening at Beaches, it was nice to bump into twelve different people I'd met up the coast just on the way back from the harbour too.
Leona, the Oz girls, London guys, Norwich boys and my "zoo mate". It's always cool. The night was a good one with our half a table making more noise then all the others put together, I hadn't been drinking on the boat so Marshall seemed to make it his mission to get me smashed but I just couldn't, it's odd but about twice a year no matter how much drink i just stay sober but still have the after affects the next day. I must've had five jugs to myself, seven bottles and they even made me neck four schooners in less than a minute but it all just bloated me. Good laugh mind and we all moved on to a place called Phoenix bar from there where everyone seemed to scatter off and the night dwindled down quickly so after a short stop at Momma Africa's I headed back to the hostel to send the standard drunk text.
I felt rough again the next day so just hung about the Lagoon and saw Leona, the cut from the coral had now suddenly turned into a massive club foot i noticed. Not a good look. The evening was a rather quiet one with my new roommates(whom i met while we all stumbled in  talking nonsense) Cara (Dave), Matt and Lucy joining me in trying not to drink or spend cash and it's always easier when those around you are doing the same.
The next day wasn't quite as successful, the only problem with areas like this is that when the weather's poor there's pretty nothing to do but drink. One lifesaver was in the form that Matt's friend had left his laptop wit us so we had a few films to watch but more importantly I had a chance to fill my iPhone with some different tunes after 3 months of listening to the same 80 tracks. Later as i took advantage of Domino's super Tuesday, Matt got a Maccas ad we went down to the beach for what he christened our 'Man date'. In our absence the girls must've got bored as by the time we got back they were very well on the way with jugs, obviously we had to join them and i met Aled and ''old Gary" for the first time with me now being "New Gary".
A few jugs were had at Beaches then we headed on down to Paddy Shenanigans for the rest of the night and it wasn't a bad spot at all really. A live band, good tunes, football on, four dollar pints and some amazingly odd locals. We did unfortunately get stuck into some rather nasty Tequila suicides - slam the shot, snort the salt and the squeeze the lemon right into the eye. The effect it has is that you don't register the Tequila but oh god the lines of salt were just nasty, i'd have lemon in the eye every day of the week before that one. From that one on it was all pretty random with everyone leaving one by one unannounced until all was left for Aled to fall asleep at the bar (maybe) and me to meet a guy who threatened to take a dump on the road. It happens.

Matt woke up the next day with a fucked up ankle to match my club foot so we headed to the doctors; 60 dollars to see him for 3 minutes and about another 45 for prescriptions. Hmmm i think i'll see how my foot goes thanks, at least the drugs made him exceedingly happy. Before all this happened the morning involved me stumbling out the room hanging like fuck to find Cara, Matt and Lucy playing with these parrot like birds. Next think you know and i've got one on each hand feeding them bread while being utterly, utterly confused by it all. Not quite your usual hangover experience With the rest heading off on their boat trip i finally booked my bus, got my camera back and then headed off to Magnetic Island......not before putting two massive moths in some dickheads wash bag though. I really do hold a grudge.



 Song For The Day - The Boss showing them how it's done - Candys Room (Live'78)




Monday 19 April 2010

The East Coast Sessions - 1770/ Krombit Cattle Station

10. 1770

1170 (yes that's the name of the 'town') was a compulsory stop on the East Coast road trip so off we were on the road again. I'm glad I only booked the one night there as it was yet another nothing town really, yes the hostel and beach were nice but after Brisbane, Noosa and Rainbow I was really craving a more lively spot. As you do. I checked in and then raced off to the beach, once there I went to do the usual thing of getting a few photos, so I reached into my bag to find an empty camera case and had instant flashbacks too showing Natalia a few photo's then dropping my camera on my bag.....but not in it. Fuck. I quickly ran back to the hostel in mild panic, emailed Fraser's, rang them about five times to no avail before finally finding a working pay phone and getting through. Thankfully i knew exactly where it would be so they quickly found it and couldn't have been more helpful in arranging for it to be sent on to Airlie Beach for me to grab there; apparently the bus drivers didn't want anything to do with it due to the "responsibility".
I only had a few hours in 1770 so just hung out in the hostel with a couple of people from Norwich and then met some stereotypical North Londoners who came in full of the big lad, I found out soon enough they were all alrigh individually but together it was all "girls, girls, girls, football, booze, booze", it's worth mentioning they were all in bed for 10:30. Hardcore.



11. Krombit Cattle Station

The next drive was onto a cattle ranch and 13 hours was a bit of a killer, but all the girls from Fraser were on board, Tom joined again and a few other familiar faces were about so it was cool to have the group atmosphere going again. Krombit itself is basically a ranch set up for tourists here, it's all a bit Hicksville USA, horse riding, fake cowboys and quite a bit of dust. Unfortunately all the interesting activities cost more dollar and we didn't fancy paying on top of what we already had so the horse riding and quad biking were given a miss, so we just went off on a bit of a trek in the meantime. Unfortunately we had the displeasure of Stacy from Leicester's company, a rival to "the bitch" from Thailand if there ever was one. I'd heard her before i saw her as on the bus she spent most of the time being load, overbearing and constantly complaining about every single mortal thing. Total vibe killer. She spent the walk going on about how she wanted to go back to England as her idea of a holiday is "five star hotels and luxury". What the fuck you doing here backpacking then? Fuck off and let other's enjoy the experience; she was clearly a very open minded girl too with her tramp stamp tattoos and her feelings that all "Japs, Thais, Malaysians and the rest are all the same". Apparently Asia was too scary for her and brought up her friends experiences in Malaysia, I merely commented that "It's a bit different over there compared to the rest of south east Asia so I wouldn't judge the rest by that". A scowl and "erm, yeah1 I hadn't finished yet thanks" was her response. Nice girl. Tom got the verbal treatment too in being branded a "sicko for making a joke, what a hard faced cow she was. It baffles me how people like that make it here or even have any friends at all. As Georgie Boy would say in Burn After Reading "You are an incredibly negative person". Thankfully everyone else was up for a good time.
All the activities had something vaguely to do with ranching, we learned how to use a rope for lassoing cattle by throwing it over a stick in the ground with a skull on it, true story (Charlotte being a complete natural at it) and I surprisingly picked it up quite well once i figured out how to hold it right. I didn't fancy the clay shooting as it was a bit expensive per round but it didn't look like i missed out, the clay dissipated so much in the machine that the person was left shooting at particles until one of the workers decided to just chuck it.
The whole purpose of learning to lasso was so we could all take part in the "Rodeo" and try to catch a goat in teams of three with two using the rope and then once caught the third grabbed it, flipped it over, placed a knee on it's neck and then used a fake iron to "brand" it. It was all a bit wrong really with the goats clearly being in distress (especially a heavily pregnant one) and heavily crowded too, I really didn't fancy it so sat it out. The "hillbilly goats" won or something stupid and then we all got put in a circle for what initially looked like a game of spin the bottle. As soon as the tazer came out though i knew what was going on, it was just like when you get a cooker part as a kid, stand in a circle and you all get a bit of a shock. All pretty tame really but some were really shitting it in anticipation, Tom's face was especially classic. "I'd rather be kicked in the shin then that but i had to man up in front of the girls".







It was a pleasure to actually get some proper food on the evening with lamb soup and a classic roast being on the menu. With traveling you just find yourself eating crap all the time so it was a nice chance to get some "proper" food and some rare vegetables. On arrival at the camp we were told if we rented a hat and bandana for eight bucks then we'd get money off drink on the evening, this seemed a good idea as you got five bucks back but this soon changed once we found out the reductions. 20 cents off a can? Thanks for the generosity. Next up we learned how to crack a whip properly, the noise it makes actually comes from breaking the sound barrier not the ground so there's a very specific way to do it. I managed to do it pretty much every time and better than the guy showing me too (I have been cracking metaphorically for years though Harr Harr), he was from dirty the old rival school of Whickham though and i'm sure they still call people gay for wearing a bag on two shoulders there, that's there mentality.






After that one we all just had a few drinks and the group really came together to have a laugh on the mechanical bull. I gave it a miss due to my dodgy back and unnatural fear i'll snap on them but it was good to see everyones techniques, Katie's ballerina refinement compared to the girl whose tits kept falling out was a great comparison. We had an early night with the bar closing early and the early morning drive but not before i managed to get terribly vexed as usual. A random girl temping there popped up as i was talking to Youssef and his girlfriend asking them to just "smile" so she can say she was there to see it. Fucking idiot. We were in the middle of a conversation, people like that really need to be shot, there always the one's who have breakdowns too. Same goes for anyone who likes that "Don't worry be happy" song, they're all like the Maharashi after Brian Epstein died and the Beatles asked for his thoughts: "Ah smile, be happy". Moron.
The 6 am start wasn't the worst with a nice breakfast and on leaving we managed to see the awful sight of the massive splattered snake in the road too. After that it was a mere 13 hour drive to Airlie Beach and three days sailing on the Whitsundays!





Song of The Day.


Classic!

Wednesday 14 April 2010

The East Coast Sessions - Rainbow Beach/ Fraser Island

7. Rainbow Beach

My arrival on Rainbow Beach marked an incredible ten days without drinking even the slightest drop of Alcohol and i couldn't overstate how much better i felt for it. Much more energy, a normal sleeping pattern, colour in my face for a change and all round just a feeling well. While cleaning my teeth a random thought popped in my head that it was a year to the day that the series of events begun that led me to going travelling occurred. It's quite frightening how fast a year can tick over but i did take great delight about how much better things are on 1/4/10 compared to 1/4/10, can't complain with the surroundings either. Maybe it all had to do with just my massive Lennon phase at the moment and especially the words in his Lennon Remembers Rolling Stone interview (everyone really should get that podcast from iTunes), I could listen to him repeat 'I remember what it's all about now, you fuckers, fuck you all.' That's what I'm saying, 'Fuck you all. You don't get me twice!'" all day long. Tremendous bitterness.
Our bus hit Rainbow Beach and it's not going to take me long to talk about what's at the place. There's the standard lovely long beach, two Bakeries, one cashpoint, no phone signal, a surf club very much like the one in Home and Away (so i'm told) and a few shops, that is pretty much it. Surely nobody could actually live here, except maybe holiday homes and all the backpackers who use is as a point to jump off to Fraser Island. It is an enjoyable place though if you want to do nothing (or 'chilling' as people say to justify achieving nothing), I bumped into a few familiar faces, played pool, finally bought some flip flops that actually fit (two weeks later and they're still shredding my toes) and spent an inordinate amount of time on the beach cooking in the sun and reading. Too much fucking time it seems, to the point i then managed to get sunstroke and couldn't be arsed to move. 4 x 4 driving on Fraser Island was on the cards for the next day though to finally get some activity on the way.












8. Fraser Island

It was yet another six am start as we were to briefed for the next three says events at seven o clock; the latest i've gotten up since leaving Sydney is 8:15, that has to be yet another record to add to the collection going back to the paperboy days. The briefing entailed us watching a DVD of the most blatantly obvious safety information with regards to driving around the island, most people are complete idiots though so you can't begrudge them stating the obvious from time to time. My favourite bit was in regards to if you encouter a Dingo at some point - "Stand still and cross your hands over your nipples" is the basic grasp of it, erm no thanks mate, i'll be taking other action I think. The bloke given the talk was an Aussie named Luke (although he did seem rather English) and for some reason he found it completely necessary to talk in rhymes. Idiot. Nice guy though. These people recite the same patter day in, day out like Jude Law's character in Huckabees, I think i'd be driven to madness. We quickly got placed into groups with mine including The Danish couple Monica and Daniel, Germans Katerina and Veronica and the English in Steph, Claire and myself. Not a bad ratio there at all i must say, everyone was "spot on" though so it seemed like we'd have a good trip. After making sure we had all our food and equipment we moved on to see the Notorious mechanics.



I'd heard much about them from an Essex girl in my room, I forget her name as I've almost given up on attempting to retain information like names, you just meet too many people every day, it's like a mind fuck. The word on the street was they were backwards, aggressive, lacked social skills and were just a bunch of pricks really. Needless to say they made a big attempt to keep their reputation up, every little thing had a fine to it. Lose a fork? Fine, Shovel? 60 dollars, Drive through saltwater? 500, return the car in 4 wheel drive? 1000, and so on. They even tried the old trick of given people dodgy equipment so when it was returned they could claim it, thankfully everyone was on the ball and checked the stuff before hand. Unfortunately on a Rock N Roll Thursday i lost my driver's license (coincidentally Lee has just text me a month later saying he's found it) so this left me being unable to drive the car for insurance reasons. Bummer. As the other drivers didd their tutorials i was given the task of going round the car with one of the guys and noting any dents, bumps or general damage to the car. He clearly wasn't a Royal Tenenbaums fan as when i started walking round the car going "that car has a dent, and another....and another dent", he just looked at me like i was an idiot. Some may agree with him on that one. He was an arsehole mind, I asked if he had marked a bump down and his reply was "yeah i fucking see it mate, pretty hard not too". Just mark it down ans shut the fuck up son. With all the checklists completed, all lectures given (including not to do as the video says on dingos) and with everyone ready we jumped in and headed off to Fraser Island.




Claire was first up in the drivers seat and did a rather good job in setting the standard for everyone else. It wasn't too long before we were on the barge taking us over the water and then onto the largest sand Island in the world. Due to the high tides we weren't permitted to drive up the initial stretch of Beach so had to turn into the inland track, the other group went first and we took great delight in watching them get stuck in the sand straight away. Watching their attempts to clear the tracks did give us a false sense of smugness until of course we did exactly the same thing. That'll teach ya quickly, the soft sand really proved to be a nightmare, thankfully that stop didn't last long and we were both on our way.
If the soft sand is troublesome then the inland track is like some form of endurance test. It was impossible to get any speed at all, and the suspension is none existent so you're bouncing all over the shop; the bumps in the roof clearly aren't off people drunkenly jumping on it but heads bashing it inside. It took what seemed like hours to travel about 20km but there was nothing that could be really done to speed up events, I was rather worn out but thankfully as soon as we hit the beach again we moved on with great haste. We'd been given an itinerary to follow but priorities first so we all stopped for wraps first. Very much needed.









The main point of the schedule (as we would found out later) was to avoid the tides and our first set stop was Eli Creek, and it wasn't a bad little place really. Not much going on there except a stream and it was just a bit of a plodge (not a "paddle!"). The only true event came in the form of Claire's massive over reaction to a se snake, she clearly wasn't a fan, although an Englishman did manage to greatly annoy the shit out of me by playing the fool and flopping down the water pretending to be a crocodile or something, fuck knows. It really is a constant battle for me (as you can tell from my rants) not to tell the general public to sort their shit out. After that it was a short drive up to the shipwreck on the Island, I can't really add much to that other than it was nice to look at, rusty and had sea growth on it. No other information was given, no year, how it ended up there, any survivors etc.  That's another typical Aussie thing, they really don't give a shit about much.
We needed to get off the Beach for about six thanks to the tide and light issues so we debated whether we should chance getting to the top for Indian head or not. The general consensus was we're only going to be here once so we may as well chance it, so there we headed off. Sadly we did manage to get caught out on the way back, our instructions for setting up camp was "just south" of Happy Valley; well thanks for that sherlock, How do you define "Just South?". We couldn't find any camps anyway and the sun was down with the tide heading in fast up the beach. We headed inland to the Valley for info but found nothing at all, I asked a guy and he told us to drive fifteen minutes down the beach and the campsites shuld be marked on our map. Certainly not on ours though. We headed off but by now it was pitch black, the tide was in and panic was setting in with some too. We came up to a section where rocks were pretruding out into the shore with the waves crashing up and moving up fast. The first car managed to luckily go straigh throuch wit the ebb and flow of the tide but the waves were just too much when we got there. We didn't know whether to rick it or not as a potential 5000 dollar fine was too be had, the other cars swiss section were getting arsey too and told us they'd see us later. I was getting up too as we really needed to make a decision NOW, my other concern was that the tide was going to come right up to us anyway. Thankfully as me and Claire tried to time it right, Daniel just took it upon himself to floor it and went right through. We witnessed the massive spray though, leaving Claire just a bit concerned about that fine.





After that we still couldn't find this campsite, after twenty minutes of driving down too, leaving us at a bit of a loss. The only thing was to flag a car down and thankfully we got lucky with it being the guy i spoke to prior, he let us follow him to camp and it was soon job done. Surprisingly we got our tents up quickly despite the darkness, got the cooker on and just relaxed after all the running about. We all got on really well and had a pretty good night, played a few drinking games (big fan of the horse racing) and had a luagh before hitting the sack. I was a bit disturbed by Claire's claims to me snoring, only Alfie has claimed this despite sharing a room with hundreds of people and this was a disturbing accusation for me. Maybe it's just I sleep so little i never realised.
The next days 6am start coupled with my first night of drinking in ten days really hit me hard but i soon managed to man up before going off to Lake McKenzie. We stopped off at Eurong where we bumped into Charlotte and Katie's group, it seemed they had a worse night than us, they didn't get set up till about 9:30 (us 7), couldn't find a campsite either so they had to sleep in someone's garden up in Happy Valley haha plus they were so rattled they didn't cook anything leaving them to live off jam sandwiches. It's all experiances in the end and you can soon laugh at it.
The "road" to McKenzie wasn't that too terrible and Katarina continued the good track record of driving, we got there within the hour, strange to here the others timed it at 1 hour 40 despite us going together. Maybe they were delirious after the night before. I wasn't too familiar with Lake McKenzie but it turned out to be one of the most incredible things i've ever seen. Just the whole surroundings were magnificent, clear water you can drink, sandy beach, amazing skyline and just one of the places you really need to step back in and appreciate how luck you are to see it. This all led us to taking some Wish you were here esque  photos. Had to be done. Just a shame we couldn't have spent a bit longer there but we couldn't risk a repeat of the previous night.
Thankfully this night we got our camp set up straight away in a rather nice spot with daylight to spare. After the burgers of Lunch and the night before we were left with noodles, mixed veg and chicken so we just threw it all in. More drinking games were introduced with "King of the Jungle" being the latest entry and everybody happily humiliating themselves with "chomp chomps", tree frog noises and all the rest, it turned out to be a good laugh though. A dingo or three did manage to stealthily enter the site sending Steph and Veronica into bouts of fear, it was quite strange how little they cared about our presence and just casually went round us. Obviously i wasn't into the arm cross thing but i made sure not to corner it, it was quite happy there so we really needed to do something to get it to leave. I managed to find a fuck off stick and as soon as I raised it, it ran off, obviously i got told off for doing so. Two more followed but they didn't hang around long at all so nobody had to hide in the van.








The night sky was one of the clearest i'd ever seen and i'd not witnessed anything like it. Stars seemed to appear out of nowhere and it was almost like viewing one of those old 35 pictures when you relaxed your eyes. Somehow we got on about Solar systems, planets, stars and the Milky Way. I stated that the sun was our star, the solar system was our planetary collection orbiting the sun and all the other ones together formed a galaxy with ours being the Milky Way. Nobody else seemed to agree with Claire stating it was an astroid belt next to Jupiter or something., obviously I was right as standard and she later blamed it on goon. All in all another great night but Steph did confirm my snoring the next day, terribly gutting when i always feel like i'm better then others in the dorm for not doing so. This must be a recent event though and i just hope i don't ened up like me Da, you can hear that fucker down the street.







Our last day on Fraser brought a drive to another lake, this one being Lake wobby or something and another unique sight. It was like a mini desert leading town steeply into a freshwater lake, no Lacke McKenzie but it's never going to be that. We finally got a bit unlucky when it started to rain but all was well n good so we just jumped i the water to find some rather sizable catfish swimming about. With that being our last event we headed off back to Rainbow to meet the mechanics and their potential fines. Thankfully they were a bit more jovial and we avoided any payments, they did whinge about the radiator being overheated before finding it was a circuit problem. No apology of course. Apparently we one of the last to do the self drives as from here on in it's all going to be tag alongs and guided tours, a bit of a shame but it'll keep the Island clean and away from being vandalized.





9. Rainbow Beach (Reprise)

Back on Rainbow it was shockingly jam packed, being the Bank Holiday weekend all the Aussies must have flocked there to hit the beach and the rest....not there's much else except the beach of course. Daniel and Monica had to say farewell quickly so the rest of us had dinner on the evening and witnessed some amazing Karaoke. The two women organising it all were amazing tragic characters, one had definitely experianced a lost love only singing songs of despair. Jason the pop up pirate was my pick of the bunch though, really getting involved with some classic song choices, others were just a bit too intense singing Pearl Jam and Bon Jovi. Big fan of the Grease mega mix and Cyndi Lauper making appearances though. The next day was just a nothing day to recover and i just spent the evening talking to a girl from York called Natalia for hours. Somewhere in all of this i managed to lose my glasses and leave my camera....i really am useless.

Song of the Day

Monday 12 April 2010

The East Coast Sessions - Noosa/ Australia Zoo

6. Noosa

Next stop Noosa. The bus driver from Brisbane was certainly no competition for Disco at all, he started out an hour late then just got more hapless from there, he didn't have a clue how to take the bags off the bus properly added an easy 45 minutes on, it was fucking baffling watching him go round in circles. It was cool to see some familiar faces on the bus from Byron and Surf Camp, shame the majority were getting off at other drop points in Brisvegas but Katie was at least joining me onto Noosa. I'm getting blinder by the day so wasn't quite sure if the girl who asked to sit next to me was the same one from my room in Base who was very quiet, i'd tried conversations there but it was all mega fail and pretty much the same again, she even moved onto a free seat after the first stop off, fair play. However at lunch i was in Subway and she was all "Hey I know you", so I sat with her and she was suddenly incredibly chatty, it was like being with a different person.Strange, strange, strange. She did basically say that in Brisbane she couldn't be arsed at all and was having one of those periods where you just don't want to make any effort with people at all which is fair enough, as it does get mentally tiring being "on" all the time and we all do get them phases. I think Lee and I couldn't be arsed with any new people the last few weeks in Bedlam unless they brought something special to the table, this rarely happened.
It didn't take long to arrive in Noosa and what i told would be standard for the rest of the coast up to Cairns it was a pretty small place, albeit rather nice. The bars do shut at ten though (the few that they are) but the beautiful beaches more than make up for that. My hostel was a bit out of the way from them but the shuttles ran frequently and for free so that was no biggy. My room was an eight bed dorm and thank god a lot more sociable then the prison system that is Base. There was a guy there who'd stayed at Bedlam, some english who were all spot on and a guy from Canada who was a massive tosspot. Massive. The Canadian girls are fine but everyone else from North America are just the most annoying pieces of shit on the planet. This guy was a bit older then most and I noticed he'd had his face smashed in by someone but didn't bother prying. Making conversation I mentioned that Alfie was going traveling and skiing in Canada, Wisla was the only one i could think of so i said that. he then spent twenty minutes going on about how he shouldn't go there, the work is terrible, everything is expensive (he started listing prices for everything) and that Colarado and others were so much better and then i got why that was too. I couldn't get the fucker to shut up and just wanted to say mate i'm not even going and i don't know for sure if he is either. Thankfully Ben saved me with an invite to go to the bar for a bit. Unfortunately, this didn't last long at all as the Canadian followed five minutes later, boring everyone with the tale of how he got knocked out and how he was hanging around to go to court, wanting the book thrown at the guy. I mentioned that I have to go to court when i get home for a similar reason so he asked me what happened, I began to oblige before he stopped me ten seconds in saying "Oh wait, I haven't finished yet". Okaaayy. More boring crap followed and when i compared Aussie rules football to British Bulldog back home he wanted to know what it was, so i entertained him again before he stopped me mid sentence to say "The French have some Southern Comfort, lets go there" and stood up. Rude cunt. It took every fibre of my being not to say no wonder you got you're head smashed in you fucking idiot and then elbow him but i'm not in Sydney anymore and must behave so I just walked off. Some people. The mong even asked me if he could join me at the Beach but i was left with no option but to tell him straight that i'd rather sit in solitude then spend five minutes with him. I don't think he was used to hearing that one.
The main reason for heading to Noosa was to visit Steve Irwin's Zoo so off I headed there the next day with an 8:10am pick up time at the bus stop. The couple from my room Sam and Rachel were going too and i met a nice German girl at the bus stop too called Lisa so the two of us just hung around together all day. I'm sure zoo's would be very boring on your own if not with any company whatsoever. I'd also very much doubt i'd spend any period of the day with someone back home who i mer at the metro station or the like, that would be very strange, they'd probably just shout "pervert" if you said hello. It would be awesome if that were possible though.
Straight away you could grasp that this wasn't like Sydney Zoo at all, they did their best to recreate a part of their habitat rather then just wandering about looking at animals going manic in tiny cells. The workers there were all incredibly passionate preaching education, conservation, awareness and activism., you could tell these people would do it for free and genuinely cared. I'd bet they'd be a nightmare down the pub though gan on and on. It took all of the day to see everything and it was a rather enjoyable experience all round i'd say. Watching them feed the crocs is mental though, you can't be sitting on the ground 4 feet away from them taunting it with a dead bird. I fed some elephants which was an experience in itself and just had a pretty good day. Its the usual things, Tigers, fucked up birds, elephants, alligators and all the rest.
I thought Steve Irwin was crazy but his family are worse, the daughter will shill anything from clothes, dvds, cooking shows, dance workouts and just can't get enough of the spotlight. The younger son is definitely going to get jealous and take one of two routes, either be more crazy than his Dad jumping all over the shop or he's going to hit the crack pipe. My money's on the latter. To be fair the majority of dollar they do make does go back into conservation or various charities around the globe and it is too easy to be cynacil. That Bindi needs taking down a peg or two mind.
After the zoo i din't have time to do anything but managed to hit Nossa beach the next day and as standard bumped into Tom who was about 20 metres from me. Another idyllic spot but there's so many you don't miss it.













Song of The Day



I do like George.