Oh god, this is going to be a massive one. I suggest reading half of it, go out for a stroll and punch a baby, then returning for the second half. Here it goes:
We drank with a bunch of people the last night before we left the hostel. We made some new friends and we had a really good time.
The next day me and Henrik left the wonderful flashpackers in Hervey bay, and walked a couple of hundred meters to Palace. Now, don't get me wrong, the place was okay. They had no free wifi though, and no free breakfast... and sort of a small cramped kitchen... ...
Later that day wet up with the two dutch and german guys we met in Gagaju bushcamp called Melf (pronounced almost as milf for you fine tasters out there) and Joop (dutch people have weird names). We have the exact same things planned on our trip up to Cairns, so we decided to book them at the same dates so we know people were we are! Besides, both the guys are pretty awesome and frickin' helpful.
After we got the key to our room we started talking to one of the girls staying there called Jessica (crazy drunk canadian) who later joined the same group as we did. The briefing was at 06:00 the day after, but that didn't stop me, Melf and Joop from goin' to town. For you guys at home, I am now officially able to drink beer again. However, during the evening I started to feel sore in the throat. After a few glases of goon (and some Captain Morgan, and beer...) I didn't think much of it. Then the morning came.
I woke up a couple of hours before we set the alarm, and my throat was killing me. It hurt everytime I swallowed and so I just stayed in bed swallowing for like an hour. I was sick as a motherfucker. Piss poor timing if you ask me. Also Ben, if you are reading this and this was your doing, I will have my revenge.
At the briefing we quickly formed a group with Melf and Joop, and met Tim and Mierta who also joined our group. During the morning I had heard that Jessica didn't have a group so I invited her to our car and voila, we now had our seven people for the ride.
After an extensive (read boring and sometimes ridiculous) movie about safety on the island and driving in sand, we left for the cars to start the journey. Oh and what a journey it was. We were really looking forward to this since we payed quite a lot of money for it. We started to drive, and soon it was pretty obvious. Our camp for the night was a fixed location, and there were no toilets there.
None at all. You had to dig a hole (man this is worse than the bushcamp!). We had at least one visit to town per day though, which helped a lot... Let's go back to the trip. (By the way, that's Joop in the middle and a nice guy named Tim at the far left. Henrik is photobombing in the back)
We got to meet our guide and he turned out to be a real baller. He was a really cool guy with a great sense of humour, and I am almost sure that the trip wouldn't be nearly as good without him. Thank you Tony if you ever read this.
After everything was packed and ready to go we drove to the ferry which took us and our cars to Fraser Island, the biggest sand island in the world. On the island there are cool animals like the dingoes, a bunch of snakes and turtles, and you can also do some whale-watching from one of the cliffs. We even saw some dolphins on the way to the island. There was also these big freshwater lakes that were ice cold. They are there because the rainwater has no way of "escaping" into the ocean. They are REALLY deep though, and one of the last lakes we visited was deeper than 35 meters. Tony told us about this japanese guy that tried to swim down to the bottom of the lake, and ended up drowning himself in the process.
The first day we spent driving across the island to the other side, so that we could work our way back down the coast. We saw Indian head, which is a volcanic rock cliff with an amazing view. We went down to a natural pool just beside the ocean, but I was feeling really cold and feverish (word?) so I didn't go in. We went looking for turtles in one of the freshwater pools as well, and we found the little buggers. The last place we visited was a stream of freshwater that was really shallow. Joop challenged med and said that we had to do it, just for the experience, and so I went to the top of the stream and swam all the way down to the ocean. It was really, really cold.
Melf, Mierta, Jessica and Henrik
We headed back for camp and Tony talked to us about safety in numbers. In camp you always needed to be two, even if you were going for a shit in the bush. The reason being that dingoes could come, and if you were by yourself, a pack of dingoes could do some serious damage. We didn't think he was being that serious until he also told us to not leave anything open. We had seen one dingo since we arrived to the island, and it didn't look dangerous at all. Then the night came, and suddenly they were everywhere around the camp. We played some drinking games and we pretty much all got drunk.
We visited another camp during the night and they were playing this game called "zumy zumy". They played it as a drinking game, but later it turned into a strip-game instead. It looked really weird, but awesome at the same time. I'll show you guys when I get home.
The morning of the second day came and we suddenly realised there were dingo-tracks everywhere in the camp. Like just outside our tent, in the big tent that was sort of the common room/kitchen. Everywhere. It was awesome.
We headed for a bunch of lakes this day aswell. At the first lake we arrived at, there was another group. They just stood in ankledeep water and huddled together. I don't know if it was the first day's swimming in the river or the fact that I'm a little retarded, but I just thought "fuck it, I'm going in", and so I just took off my T-shirt and ran straight out and dived. It was pretty cold. On second thought, it was really cold. As soon as I was in, about half of our group (we were 17 by the way), jumped in after me and we played some volleyball.
We drove around on crazy looking sandroads in the middle of what seemed to be a thriving jungle (remembering that it's winter here) and saw shipwrecks, other lakes, and cool environments. When the night came we were kind of tired so we just chilled. Just kidding. We partied hard. Me and my group had practiced the zumy zumy in the car on the way to camp, so when the game came we were prepared.
Let's just say I wasn't super good at it, and that the night was kind of cold when you were naked.
The third day, we headed back for palace but before we left we went to one last lake.
In the bush just near the water a pretty small, grey and black striped snake was lying half buried. Tony said it was a Death adder, and that we should keep out distance. We were standing about two metres away from it taking pictures when Tony told us that it's one of the fastest pouncing snakes in the world. It was also very poisonous, and you'd be dead in about 40 minutes. Near a town or city that wouldn't be so much of a problem, but out on fraser, you were pretty much screwed.
We drove home, ate pizza with the whole gang, said goodbye to a lot of awesome people, and got drunk. Am I drinking to much? Nooo... Right?
This morning when we were leaving Palace, Melf and Joops car was broken into and they had taken everything of value (fucking scumbags). Lucky for me and Henrik, we had taken our backpacks the day eralier. Dodged a bullet on that one.
The rest of the day we've been in flashpackers again, with the free wifi and the free breakfast. We washed our clothes (boring) and met up with Melf and Joop again. Tomorrow we are going further north, and we are thinking of stopping by 1770 (yes that's the name of the city).
Signing off for this one.
Someone needs to teach Mr. Carrot some manners.
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