Surfers Paradise

We only had one night here - the word on the street was that the place is too commercial. So we arrived in the morning - had a full day and then left the next day!

The beaches were quite fabulous - but as you can see very crowded also.

The waves are really massive - they start so far out to sea and roll in for ages, excellent for top body surfers like myself!


This time of the year is also when the college guys finish school and they all head to the beach for the surf and nightlife - it's great for them but a complete nightmare for everyone else - it's known locally as 'schoolies' week. Best avoided! So when the 'schoolies' arrive, the clever people head off to Byron Bay where all the old hippies hang out. That was our next stop - not that we were ever 'soap dodging' hippies mind you.

Brisbane

I have to say, we were pleasantly surprised by Brisbane. It's a great city with lots of parks, river walks, gardens and a great cake/coffee culture. Lots of places to eat out too. It's also the first City we've seen getting ready for Christmas (see the tree picture below)

This is the main City as seen from the other side of the river












The gorgeous Christmas tree at the end of the bridge (it still doesn't feel like Christmas to us - it's too hot).






























Some 'light refreshments' in one of the local bars - Note Elvis drinking pints, she'll have the budget blown in no time!











Elvis posing by the river


















This is an Iibis (pronounced eeebeee) I know what you're thinking, if there's an 'eeeebeee' there should be a 'geeebeee', but we haven't seen one of those yet. That super long bill comes in very handy for getting the rubbish out of bins - I've seen them do it. It's quite funny because the sea gulls all look on watching the Ibis getting the chips and stuff out of the bin - you can see the sea gulls are thinking 'now how come we can't do that'.

This is Chinatown in Brisbane






















Susana and Suzanne - this may be the last time we see Susana for a while - unless of course we ever visit Madrid - again!



Susana was off to see Ulhuru (Ayres Rock), we were off to Surfers Paradise - but that's the sublect of another blog!

Hello to Fred, Betty, Marion and Auntie Lily, thank you for your comments and Christmas wishes. We both hope you all have a Merry Christmas and a great New Year.

Ps - The free cup of tea goes to Sister Ginny, who managed to comment about 45 seconds after the blog was published - you have to get up early in the morning to beat her!

Noosa and North Shore

This is gorgeous Noosa. The beaches are fantastic and the waves are excellent for 'body surfing' - something that I (Keith) have perfected over the years on account of not being able to surf with a board. I even taught our good friend Andy how to body surf once in Greece. I don't think he ever properly thanked me for those free lessons!



This is a picture of Suzanne and our Spanish friend Susana - if you've been observant looking at the blog you will have seen Susana before. Susana was heading down the coast at the same time as us so we met up initially at the Whitsunday's and then again at 1770, Fraser Island, Noosa and again in Brisbane (but that's a subject of another blog!)




This is part of an amazing walk along the coast - one of the best we've done. It goes up through the hills, through lush forest in the Noosa National Park and every now and then joins the beach, which as you can see was deserted.





















More scenes from along the walk

This is the end of the beach walk before it heads back into the forest and just after the 'nude' beach! (Eyes straight ahead Elvis!) Fortunately, this guy fishing had his kit on! There were a few guys who were fishing with more than just their fishing tackle on show!

This is Main Beach towards the end of the walk.























This is Sunshine beach just down from our apartment. The Noosa area was very affluent - lots of big houses, boutique shops etc - very nice, but no good to your 'backpacker' types. This is also a favourite haunt for the rich and famous - but no matter which hotels they stay in they have to share the beach with the 'soap dodgers'.

More gorgeous beach!




























This is a view from the Laguna lookout point.




















Entertaining in our apartment. Elvis cooked dinner (only kidding - some things never change!) - I cooked dinner and Susana cooked desert (well she said she cooked them, but they looked too good for home made).

After dinner we went for drinks and to see who won the 'Movember' competition. In Australia the month of November has been changed to Movember and all the guys are supposed to grow a ridiculous moustache to raise money for charity. Unfortunately, I didn't know about it until it was too late, as you can see by my pathetic effort - nothing to compare to the winner here!






A sulphur crested cockatoo - just sitting there at North Shore, minding its own business.

The beach at North Shore - quite a wind blowing!

I just told this Kangaroo one of my favourite jokes - as you can see it was cracked up laughing!

A free cup of tea goes to the first person to comment on this blog!

Just Info

There's a new Blog named 'Fraser Island' - you won't see it straight away because it has appeared BEFORE Agnes Waters. Also did anyone see the nature blog.

Hello Peter Harrison - it was great to hear from you. It was a back swinging kick by the way - not a round house!! You've lost a grading for that!!

1770 and Agnes Waters

Well what a little find this was! We 'stumbled' across the secret of the isolated towns of 1770 and Agnes Waters and had the most peaceful time enjoying the tropical bush and beautiful beaches!

We stayed at a fabulous backpackers called Southern Cross (although Keith kept referring to it as Southfork!) What about that for backpackers accommodation eh! No 'roughing' it here.


There was even a meditation area where you could chill just listening to the chimes and the swaying of the palm trees!








The bikes however were not up to the same standard as the resort and we had an 'interesting ' ride to the beach. Keith was riding a bit of a wreck and he could only manage to salvage one brake! I was riding a bike suitable for a eight/ten year old although Keith had managed to fix both brakes before we went. The gears were rusted 'stuck' so I could only cycle in a low gear which meant that I whinged just about the whole way there!!

As a reward for all that fruitless pedalling we decided to rent a 'proper' bike the next day. We joined a tour - called Scooter Roo, of mechanical 'choppers' and scooters and toured the town. As Keith had ridden a bike before he ended up with a 300cc which he loved and spent the afternoon reliving his youth and the days of his old Yamaha!

We saw our first 'real life' kangaroos here, there were loads of them just lazing around 'eyeing' up the crowds.

Born to be wild eh! Not to bad and with no hint of a motorbike licence!

The finale of the day was watching the sunset with a tray of potato wedges in one hand and a sweet cider in the other! Keith is still watching his weight and on rations so he allowed himself a glass of water!!

Fraser Island

This was a strange concept! About 30 people meet in an office early in the morning, we then organise ourselves into groups of 8, watch a video about how to drive four wheel vehicles in sand, then we are given an itinerary and you're off! The first thing is straight to the supermarket for three days supplies because there's nothing but very basic stuff on the island. Fraser Island is the worlds biggest sand island - in fact (guess who has been reading the guide book) there's more sand on this island than the entire Sahara desert. Beautiful white sand too! There are no 'real' roads on the island, so only 4WD vehicles are allowed. The first picture is the ferry on the way to the island.

This little beauty is Lake McKenzie - the water is fresh and so clear you can drink it - what is unusual is that because the entire island is sand, it has this beautiful beach area.

This is us driving along the beach - only the over 21's could drive, so Elvis and I just made it!!!

This is a wreck of a passenger liner, Maheno that was converted into a hospital ship in WW2. When it had finished 'serving', its days were done and on the way to the knackers yard it broke free during a cyclone and ended up on the beach.

The four girls walking along, 'nattering' and using up more than their quota of air! We were on our way to Eli Creek. The water is crystal clear and again drinkable. If you walk all the way up the creek (remembering to take your paddle of course), you can hop on an inflatable and the creek will 'float' you all the way back to the sea - very relaxing as demonstrated in the next picture.

Beautiful beaches - miles and miles of white sand.


The next shot is from a lookout point called Indian Head - it's nearly the most Northern point of the island and during the migration season whales can often be spotted from the top of the headland.

This is Elvis at the wheel driving down the beach - it's a superb feeling, the vehicle almost feels like it is floating. Maximum speed on the beach is 80 kms (that's about 60 mph)


This is all the members of our group, we had a great bunch and had a great time. For our own records they are: Me, Marta (from Italy), Susana (from Madrid - Spain), Elvis (from Blighty), Verena (from Germany), Ben (from Sweden) and Natalie and Dave from Ireland.

This was our camping spot on the last night - just far enough back from the beach to miss the waves! We slept in three big tents and sleeping bags - the sand had to be moulded into the shape of your body - else your back was in agony in the morning!

This is the enormous sand dune (up to 220 metres tall) on the approach to Lake Wabby - if you click on this picture and zoom in you'll see how big it is - those tiny specks on the far side of the dune (just below the tree line) are people walking down towards the lake

This is the same lake from the lookout point. Our group had a swimming race across the lake - I came second! Ben from Sweden won - but he is only nineteen!

The lake is surrounded on three sides by eucalypt forest and the massive sand dune on the other.

Fraser Island has lots of these little predators. The infamous Dingo. They may look small and scrawny but we were well warned about them. Anyone with small children have to be very care full - when you're not looking they'll snatch a child or baby. This one was hanging around our camp trying to get into our cooler box.