Oz Adventures II

... continued from Oz Adventures, Part I ...

One little laundry room visit later and 2 Canadians offered us a ride to Surfers Paradise (the visible delicates probably had nothing to do with this). We don't think they had any idea what they were getting themselves into .... cut to the next morning at the gas station when they were filling up the air in their tires to accomodate all our baggage. No kidding, they didn't know their stylin' 1978 blue toyota corolla was a low rider until we got in :) (Safety Sidenote to parents to avoid lectures: we were confident we could overtake them in a crisis situation + they're Canadians, we knew we could outsmart 'em) We had a 24-hour pub crawl through Surfer's Paradise and dragged ourselves to the bus station the next afternoon (it's amazing just how far your train pass Doesn't get you during Australian School Holidays) to head up to Hervey Bay.

Hervey Bay's just the stopover point for Fraser Island, the largest sand island in the world, aka 4x4 Fantasy Come True for Scotty. The first day we met the group we'd share our LandRover with: besides us three American Ladies (you wish, mom, we didn't shower for three days,a nd we drove the truck better than any of the guys), there was 1 Irishman (Crazy uncle Aiden), one Englishman (Princess Jim), one of the Canadians from Surfer's (who promptly told us that "ay" is really spelled "eh" according to their dictionary), and 2 great Danes (Baywatch Mads and Camera Guy Neils, who liked to call Josette Big Sister). We all got to know each other that night at the hostel drinking competition where Josie and Scotty took the hotbeefinjectioncafe team to the finals.
Aiden kept us in stitches the whole weekend with comments like "My personality is my greatest contraceptive" and his description of toilet graffitti written on the bottom of mens bathroom stalls to read "Beware of Homosexual Pygmy Limbo Dancers" - evidently that's a common problem in Ireland and they have their own Pygmy Patrol and a website to report any sightings (do you want to check it out Alan? Or maybe you've seen one) ;)
Turns out Scotty's not the only girl on our trip with a 4x4 fantasy, they had to peel Frik and Frak off the steering wheel because they were having so much fun after they found out they they were finally not a danger behind the wheel and you can't get lost on a beach on a 2 mile island. It was a 3-day, 2 night camping trip where we all utilized our girl scout skills. Scotty was instantly appointed Mom, as was apparent when in the first afternoon Princess Jim piped up from the back of the truck, "Scotty, there's sand in the mustard, what do we do?!"

... excerpt from a letter written in Bali ...

Australia is so user-friendly, it was as though we never left home. Melanie, you and Dave will have a blast!
As long as you're sticking to the East coast, I highly recommend going to Hervey Bay and doing the 4x4 trip - - I know Dave has a truck, but this is different.Rainforests and clear, freshwater lakes (you can drink the same water youswim in and the creeks are sweeter and better tasting than bottled water on the mainland) -- it's WHITE (I have never imagined sand the color of snow like this was), with dunes that stretch forever with the wind-blown ripples like in Lawrence of Arabia - and turquoise blue water that comes crashing down in waves on the eastern side. Everyone that we've met travelling that's gone - including ourselves - say it's the highlight of their trip so far. We had So Much fun!! And Josie and I are more determined than ever before to own 4x4's!!! But Baja doesn't even compare to this...

The same night we hit the mainland from Fraser, we got on a 24-hour bus ride (which gave us 24 hours to detox) to Cairns (pronounced Cannes for all you Yankees). First day was spent with Uncle Brian, the eco-master of the rainforest with his bus Gus (Noooo kidding). We trekked through the rainforest, swam under a waterfall, and hurled ourselves into the pond on a tree swing, and "surfing" the winding mountain road, dancing to the Beach Boys, covered in flourescent sunscreen (don't ask, it's on video). Next day was the Great Barrier Reef. No sunshine and no calm seas, as was evinced when Josie, in a lovely shade of green, involuntarily fed the fish from the side of the boat. We're sure that the Reef is outstanding when you can see it, and we did se a lot of marine life, and a grouper fish the size of the rescue boat (appropriately enough it's actual name is the Giant Queensland Grouper, you can look it up if you don't believe us, but we took pictures).
We sailed out to the dive site on a turn of the century three-masted catch (sailboat for all us landlubbers) called the Falla with a group of sailors who fancied themselves pirates. Frik and Frak attended Reef Teach with Crazy Hyper Paddy O'Reilly (guess which country he's from) while Scotty went gambling at the Reef Casino (and finally she won some money). Next morning we were off to Indonesia for a little culture shock.

... continued in Bali ...

Excerpt from another letter home from Bali....

in Australia we crammed in so much since we last wrote in Melbourne: we saw an opera at the Sydney Opera House (it was phenomenal and we still can't believe we were there), Julz hanglided in Byron Bay (Josie and I were too tired and missed our chance, but we did eliminate a few tan lines if you know what I mean), got a ride from 2 Canadians up to Surfer's Paradise (a place we were planning on skipping because it's like LA by the Sea), partied with them, and one even met up with us just north where we went 4x4ing on this large sand island called Fraser, just off Hervey Bay. We got landrovers and were paired with 4 randoms that turned out to be hysterical! One of them even travelled with us up to Cairns afterwards. Cairns was mostly overcast, so diving the reef, while still amazing, was not as great as I expected. We did see mantas, sharks, lionfish, and the biggest Grouper (a fat, ugly, biiiiiiiiiiiig brown fish) I think in the world (not really, but no joke, it was as big as the lifeboat - wait until you see the pictures, it's like a huge, wide, submersible tank). I'm excited to dive here in Bali because we're back in the sunny tropical weather and the reefs will be much easier to see. We did trek through a rainforest and swim underneath a waterfall and "surf" in a bus - that was a blast, and definitely a story for later....