Category: Simon

Well there certainly was a lot of it, but less to see than you would imagine. The place is covered in thick forest (some of it rainforest), along with fifty odd lakes, an abundance of fresh water creeks and a couple of rocks thrown in for good measure too. There is enough sand to cover the Sahara, given that Fraser Island is over 600 metres deep in sand, and the sahara only 20 metres.
Our leisurely tour took us to the Maheno shipwreck, a lump of rust that was a ocean liner in the 20’s, until some Japanese sailors tried to tow it. The Champagne pools were about as close to a natural jacuzzi as you could get, huge waves crash over into rock pools, leaving a white fizzing foam behind for you to wallow in, although the best bit was getting caught unexpectedly by a huge white wave!
Camp for the night was pure luxury compared to our campervan, with a proper bed and wooden floors in the tent, the only thing tent-like was the canvas. We didn’t even need to make our own food, now that’s what I call camping!
The next day brought us lounging around in the warm fresh water of Lake Wabby, with little fish sucking dead skin off my legs, Catfish swimming past, and the occasional turtle sticking it’s head up in the distance. Final stop for the day was Lake Allom, with it’s little turtles swimming next to the shore, hanging around with their little ET like heads sticking up, until we got in for a swim that is!
With all the wildlife and lakes it’s easy to see why the aborignals call it the paradise island! It certainly feels like we’ve been in paradise for the last few days. Sure beats work anyway 😉

After a quick bodyboard to wake us up, we booked a trip to Fraser Island, and drove what must be our longest drive so far – 200kms non-stop. The only thing that did warrant a detour was the Big Pineapple, just as we left Mooloolaba. It has that 70’s kitsch about it, essentially a 3 storey plastic pineapple you can walk up the inside of, for great views over a couple of pineapple patches, and what has to be the most optimistically sized car park for said attraction.
Anyway, we’ve made it to Hervey Bay and are now raring to go on our little 2 day adventure to Fraser Island!

What better way to celebrate Australia Day with the Australians than to go to Australia Zoo! As signs proclaim everywhere around the zoo, it’s the home of the crocodile hunter, the late Steve Irwin. The title is well earned, going by the number of crocs there, and the fact that each one has a bit of background explaining where and when each was caught by Steve. The zoo definitely has a different feel to other zoos, it’s all about getting close and experiencing the animals, so that you learn to love them and hopefully help protect them too. Each of the keepers exudes the same enthusiasm and love for the animals, and it’s good to know that the animals come first too.
The first animals we see are huge tortoises, they used to have one originally caught by Charles Darwin, that lived to 175 years old! Around the corner were three elephants waiting to be fed by the crowd, including us. With my piece of carrot swapped for elephant snot, we moved on to the Crocoseum, a huge arena with snake, bird and crocodile shows, all done by those enthusiastic keepers!
To round off Australia day, we ended up having a barbie with some Aussies in our campsite next to the beach whilst watching fireworks off in the distance, now I don’t think it gets more Australian than that!

Our whistlestop tour of Brisbane was completed with a trip to Mount Coot-tha, offering views over the city and beyond, and more importantly a road all the way to the top. Next stop was the Glasshouse Mountains, a set of 9 or so steep peaks sticking up from the otherwise flat plain. Most of the peaks require mountain climbing experiene to attempt, which left us with Mount Ngungun, described as “easy” by the guide. Well, if that’s easy I’m glad we didn’t attempt the others as we still ended up on all fours during our ascent, but the views more than made up for it!

Mount Tamberine is home to a species of glow worm, which we did think about trying to find in the wild last night, but the lure of the camp fire was just too great. It’s a good job that we didn’t, as people fumbling around in the dark and shining torches trying to see them have caused numbers to decrease. So, taking the easy, and environmentally sound option we visited the glow worm caves of a local winery. Inside there were about 15000 glowing bottoms of a fly larvae, each trying to catch a fly or two. After up to 12 months feeding as a larvae, the fly has about a week to mate and lay eggs – that’s some preparation.
From a tourist perspective, the pitch black cave was peppered with tiny green dots, and as eyes adjusted it was like the night sky, which is a good thing as that’s what attracts the flies!
Photos weren’t allowed, so the true to life representation from the leaflet is attached, and I’ll leave you with the glow worm ditty:
I wish I was a glow-worm
a glow-worm’s never glum
‘cos how can you be grumpy
when the sun shines out your bum!

There’s few things better than camping next to an open fire. Beyond proving my manly instincts to create a fire, and the smoke keeping insects at bay, nothing beats having your legs slowly toasted as the embers burn.
Simply put, it’s not so bad to be returning to camping after our wee escape yesterday. We’ve edged slightly north in the Queensland hinterland to Mount Tamberine, and have been surprised at just how cool it is, given that we’re closer to the tropics than before. The rainforests are still there, as are the numerous waterfalls, with one even hinting that the elusive platypus were to be found nearby, although we settled for spotting a koala dozing up a tree.
Anyway, the embers are smouldering now, and the moon is poking out between the clouds, time to get to bed!

I’m sure something is trying to tell us not to go inland, the last two attempts have ended up with heavy rain, and us scurrying back to the coast. So, with a spring in our step after our relaxing day yesterday (Caroline wasn’t happy until she went to the doctor who said her thumb was fine), we made for the hills to Springbook National Park, site of many waterfalls and rainforest.
The Purlingbrook Falls were all you could ask of falling water, including a walkway going behind the falls (look for the blue dot on the picture), which were so tall that the fall was spray by the time it reached the bottom. A short walk further on promised water pools, and just as we reached about as far as you could get from the car park, the heavens opened, rainforest style. Within 30 seconds we were soaked through, but the fun kind of soaked where the rain is warm. After the 5km squelch back, we were changed into nice dry clothes, but noticed there weren’t any campsites nearby, not that the thought of camping in such rain again was that appealing, so a with Caroline haggling the price down, we retreated to a mountain chalet complete with spa pool. Bliss doesn’t begin to describe the comfort in comparison to the van, although I’m sure just the sofa would have sufficed…

Well, it turned out to be a little wet for us to climb Mount Warning (i.e. we’re scared of a bit of mud), so instead we ended up in Tropical Fruit World. As we were repeatedly told, they grow over 500 varieties of tropical fruit (I didn’t know there were that many types of any fruit), and after a quick tour via tractor, boat and minature steam train, we were treated to a fruit tasting show by the fastest talking human alive. Suffice it to say, most of the valuable information has now been forgotten, but Papaya (also incorrectly known as Paw Paw) is very good for you in so many ways, grapefruit interferes with many medicines, white sapota is a good relaxant, and black sapota tastes a bit like chocolate.There’s also Jakfruit, the largest tree born fruit with an unusual taste of bananas, chewing gum and cream. Overall the message was eat more fruit, and with a conveniently positioned fruit store just outside, we stocked up.
The Captain Cook memorial at Point Danger marks the boundary between New South Wales and Queensland, and at the moment a different timezone However, it’s not that easy to work it out, with just a line in the ground with QLD and NSW on each side, and people frantically adjusting clocks as they walk over it.
Point Danger is also an excellent viewpoint to see the tourist mecca that is the Gold Coast, a sprawl of high rises and theme parks with a touch of Vegas style that Tweed Heads marks the start of. We’re already looking forward to booking a few nights in a hotel to soak it all up, not that we’re tired of camping!

It’s the little rest stops that make the journey, and with signs proclaiming “udderly fantastic coffee” at the Moo Moo Cafe, there just isn’t a reason to not stop. So we emptied our bladders (udders?), had a coffee and sat next to cows wandering through banana plantations, which I think is actually an experiment to make banana milkshake.
Moobar is in the Tweed Valley, and whilst there are some similarities to the original – green hills, trees, river – that’s as far as it goes, as I don’t remember seeing banana trees near Peebles! The centre point of the valley is Mount Warning, named along with Point Danger by Captain Cook when he ran aground, I think I would have named them Point Stupidrocks and Mount Dammit.
Mount Warning is a huge volcanic plug, and can be climbed by walking 9km through rainforest (yes, with leeches, I’m a sucker for punishment), with a scramble to the top. Unfortunately/fortunately we arrived a little too late to do it today, but there’s always tomorrow!
Finally, the tropical Sesame Street that is our trip was brought to you today by the bite of a huge ant to Simon, and the sighting of a tiny (think 5p coin) green frog.

Ok, so walking barefoot around the wet campsite probably wasn’t the wisest thing to do, especially considering the fact we were only about 5km from those leech warning signs from yesterday. However, there’s nothing quite like a leech attached to your ankle to wake you up, really give you the willies, make you scream like a little girl then never be able to look at wet grass the same again. Before you wonder, no I didn’t cut it off my leg (the knife wasn’t handy at the time), several determined flicks finally detached it from it’s dinner, and a photo of it on my leg would’ve been good, but even I sometimes have other things on my mind.
With that excitement over, the route continued north and back to the beaches, taking us through miles of forest and grazing land, and even though we’ve only scratched inland a little, it starts to make you realise how big a country Australia is. En route was the little village of Maclean, an oasis of Scotland next to the huge Clarence River. Each lamppost had a tartan painted on it and the butchers sold square sausage, now that’s something Caroline just can’t pass by!