Letho's Blog

August 15, 2011

Having arrived in Brisbane quite late in the evening before, we now had a fews days’ time ahead of us to start exploring the city in full daylight. After driving into the CBD we started walking. Only a few minutes away we found Cathedral Square:

On the other side of the street we spotted St. John’s Cathedral and walked in. It’s a fairly new cathedral, judging from the window paintings it is quite modern as well. We tried to catch some of the great ambience in it:

Right next to the cathedral we found St. Martin’s House. We started to grasp how historic buildings and shiny new skyscrapers form an interesting contrast throughout the whole city.

We found sculptures like the above and other forms of art everywhere on the streets. Continuing our walk we passed the “Shrine of Remembrance”, one of so many war memorials in Australia. Literally every community regardless of size has one.

King George Square is the heart of the city, with the City Hall located there as well as the Uniting Church, again in front of much more modern buildings.

We strolled further along the streets, catching impressions with our camera. Moreover we bought a really cheap tripod for it. It seems we get more and more interested in photography as we’re always on the lookout for good motifs!

With the daylight fading and after a snack we were still curious and resumed our exploration. Along Eagle St Pier and St. Stephen’s Cathedral we headed for Queens Park and the Treasury Building.

At the Brisbane River we made a few steps onto Victoria Bridge where we could see the South Bank located on the opposite side, famous for its vibrant atmosphere including pools, museums, cafes and boardwalks.

We stopped for a last time to take some shots of the Kurilpa Bridge, a pedestrian bridge over the Brisbane river. It is greatly illuminated and constantly changing its lighting.

August 16, 2011

We found accommodation at a CouchSurfing place, this time with quite a few fellow couchsurfers. Besides us there were up to 6 other couchsurfers, not to forget the people living there as well. They call their place the ‘funny farm’ which is derived from all the chickens, ducks, lizards and a dog living there. And they are growing their own herbs and crops as well. Here are a few impressions:

We decided to head into the city again and to take a ride with the ferry on the Brisbane river. Stopping at South Bank we hopped onto the ferry called “CityCat”. The council operated a few engine-powered catamarans, and these things really have a lot of power!

Exiting from the ferry at Eagle St Pier we walked all the way back to South Bank along the Brisbane river. In the afternoon we attended a brewery tour at the Castlemaine&Perkins brewery where the well-known “XXXX Gold” comes from. After all it’s what I drank most while being in Australia.

Later in the evening we drove up to Mt Coo-Tha and enjoyed the scenery with a great view over Brisbane at night.

August 17, 2011

This morning we packed up and left the funny farm. Heading into the city again, we took a walk through the Royal Botanic Garden where we could observe a few big lizards at the pools showing territorial behaviour and chasing the ducks away.

We quickly looked at the Parliament House and the Old Government House ..

.. before walking to the South Bank to get to the “Gallery of Modern Art” (GOMA). There we mostly enjoyed the contemporary art sections and found a few amazing exhibits.

On our way back we came across the Big Wheel and the Nepalese Pavillon, nicely illuminated again.

We stayed a final night in Brisbane with another CouchSurfing host, having a bicycle ride. The imprint on the bikes’ tyres has nothing to do with me, though – hopefully.

August 14, 2011

On our final way to Brisbane were only a few stops left: the Blackall Ranges with the Mapleton Falls and the Koondalilla Falls. Thus we left Noosa, not without going at least to the Sunshine Beach:

A steep drive up into the Blackall Ranges brought us to the Mapleton Falls. At the end of the walk we saw this:

Although the view of the Blackall Ranges is nice, the Mapleton Falls were a major disappointment. Whatever, the rainforest walk was still entertaining, although we’ve done fairly many of those now.

Next stop were the Koondalilla Falls which had a bit more to offer:

Here’s a full view from top to bottom:

That made almost up for the lame Mapleton Falls. We headed further down south and reached the Glasshouse Mountains area, where suddenly a few volcanic peaks tower above pine plantations, eucalypt forests, open fields and the leveled plains around.

At the Glasshouse Mountain Lookout we enjoyed a good overviewof the area, the sunset as well as a few cute rock wallabies roaming the area:

Time to go to Brisbane at last. We arrived there after a few hours driving in the evening and met our next .. you guessed right: CouchSurfing host.

August 11, 2011

We left Hervey Bay for Fraser Island once more after failing the day before when we basically did only sight-seeing in the pittoresque Maryborough and had to return to Hervey Bay late in the afternoon. Our way led via Rainbow Beach to Inskip Point to take the car ferry to Fraser Island. Although there exist ferries in Hervey Bay as well, we wanted to enter Fraser Island from the south to make our way up north on the eastern beaches.

Preparing for Fraser Island we deflated the tyre pressure a lot right at Inskip Point. However, it did not even take 10 minutes until someone showed up and got bogged down in the soft sand. Using our shackles and snatch strap we recovered them within minutes. An interesting start – and we’re not even on Fraser Island yet!

See here how the recovery went – well done, Inka!

The ferry cost 100$ return, quite a lot for a 5 minute ride. They usually wait at the beach until enough cars have entered the ferry before they leave and cross the water. Generally, this takes only a few minutes, there’s a high amount of traffic arriving at and departing from the beaches on both sides. That’s how it works:

After a few minutes and a calm ride over the water we finally arrived – Fraser Island, here we come!

Fraser Island is the biggest sand island in the world, so don’t expect to find a lot of rocks. It’s famous for offroading and fishing as well, thus we started our adventure and drove along the “75 Mile Beach” and found the “roads” to be better than in most other parts of Australia. The tide reshapes ad grades the beach every few hours over and over again, and we could easily hit the 80 km/h limit going north. Along the beach lots of fishermen had parked their cars and stepped into the sea for the most popular activity on Fraser: fishing. Every now and then you will not only encounter other cars, but road trains and buses as well.

After 60 kilometers which is roughly half of Fraser Island’s length we sighted the Maheno wreck and stopped. It lies directly on the beach and is rotting away so fast that it will be only a matter of time until it completely disappears. It’s still a fascinating view!

Here’s a nice clip from the next day when we returned to the wreck to go back south:

Another few kilometers further north we took a quick look at “The Pinnacles”. As Fraser Island is completely made up out of sand and has been undergoing long-time geological processes for a few ten thousand years  you can have a good view into its past here: many layers of multicoloured sands are stacked upon each other forming pinnacles in the sand dunes.

When we arrived at Indian Head and Waddy Point things got a bit tougher. To take the bypass roads (as there is no more accessible beach around these locations) we had to climb a few steep slopes. Here and there we struggled a bit, our tyres really don’t function very well in soft sand, but with a bit of momentum and skill we finally passed these obstacles.

Passing Orchid Beach we rushed up to Sandy Cape, the northernmost tip of Fraser Island. We wanted to get to the Carree campground, but the tide rolled in quicker and quicker. Of course we had a tide times table with us, still it was getting too late to get up there. We did what we could but at one point finally had to give in to the tide.

Feeling increasingly threatened by the tide we decided to get back to the nearest safe campground called Diray. Otherwise we would have had to abandon the car somewhere on the beach and stay on higher ground, hoping the tide would not catch it. We set up camp at Diray and had diner when the skies began to blacken and rain began to set in ..

Suddenly a massive hailstorm came down on us and we quickly fled into the LandCruiser, totally wet after only moments of rain. Unluckily our tent did not survive this weather condition: after a few seconds of really strong winds and rain it broke down completely, was ripped into pieces and rain flooded the inside. I finally recovered some blankets and sleeping bags to have at least some cover for the night. Having no other options and being unable to go anywhere else, we spent an uncomfortable night on our car seats.

August 12, 2011

The next morning we investigated the mess and cleaned it up.

Well, we’re here for some exploring, not whining, right? We drove the way back to Sandy Cape and walked all the way up to the lighthouse. This time the beach path was perfectly accessible.

We expected the lighthouse to be open for inspection, but as it is still an officially operating facility these days it was closed to the public. Going south again, we had more time for stops on the way and made another one at Waddy Point.

After that we stopped at Champagne Pools, a place where rock pools filled with sea water and located directly towards the water  allow for a nice bath. As sharks might roam the area around Fraser Island, this is one of the safer places to swim. Not mentioning all the great inland lakes, but we’ll come to that later on.

Our next stop was Indian Head. We had quite a bit of trouble yesterday passing here, but today and with lower tide we could easily drive through the rocks on the beach. We walked up Indian Head, an Aboriginal site. They wish no people walking up here, but we weren’t really aware of that, and honestly it would not have stopped us from doing so.

Further down south we encountered a plane on the beach. Gives you an idea of how good the beach is for driving, eh?

See for yourself what beach driving on Fraser Island is all about:

After that we stopped again at Eli Creek, a very popular spot. Busloads of daytrip travellers arrived (here as well as on other spots) to go up the boardwalk and wade through the creek out onto the beach in the crystal clear water. So did we.

We wanted to do the Northern Forest Scenic Drive following Creek, but after having entered the trail and after a few kilometers we decided to skip it: it was neither interesting nor worth the bumby ride, we reckoned. So we went down the beach again and re-entered the inland again to follow the Lake Garawongera scenic drive.

And of course we made it there, although the sand was really boggy at times and the ride a quite bumpy one, too.

Finally we hit the beach for the last time today and reached the Comwells campground. We set up camp with our second tent, that one being far smaller than our broken one, but still better than another night in the car. After our probably last camp cooking in Australia we crawled into our tent and quickly fainted away.

August 13, 2011

Today would be our last day on Fraser Island and we wanted to spend it mainly driving in the inland. The weather was a bit greyish and cloudy, however that did not stop us from going onto the Central Lakes Scenic Drive. Our first stop was at Lake Wabby, the deepest sea on Fraser Island, and the close-by Hammerstone Sandblow.

We hit the trail again and bumped our way all along to Lake McKenzie, the probably most beautiful inland lake on Fraser Island and filled by rainwater only. Although the weather was very unsteady and rain on and off again, I decided to jump into the water at least for a short swim. With the water being cold, it actually resulted in a really short swim.

From the Central Lakes Scenic Drive we now turned to the Southern Lakes Scenic Drive. See what inland driving on Fraser is like:

The next lake on the way was Lake Birrabeen, here the sky was grey which turned the landscape into a sight that really looked like back home in Europe.

And on to the last stop on Fraser Island ..look at a typical scene from the inland trails:

Arriving at Lake Boomanjin we could not really get to the lake, but only to its shore. Really, there wasn’t much too see. And to be honest – after seeing one lake on Fraser Island the others all look alike.

That was Fraser Island for us already! We exited from the trail onto the beach and drove all the way down south to catch the ferry to Inskip Point again. Slowly rolling to Rainbow Beach on sealed road (we still don’t have a compressor and had to treat our still deflated tyres with care) we took the beach track along the Cooloola area all the way down to Noosa. Now that’s almost a 50km drive along the beach, but it saved us a big detour via Gympie and of course was much more exciting.

We stopped for some “Coloured Sands” along the way again and were astonished as to how much people had set up their camps on the first 30 kilometers of the beach. Almost in Noosa, we gave our LandCruiser an undercar wash to get rid of all the sand and salt, a scary procedure which hopefully did more good than damage to our sensitive, precious car:

Then we caught the ferry over the Noosa river and arrived in Noosa Heads. Phew – Fraser Island: check!

August 10, 2011

Our original plan was to leave Hervey Bay to get to Fraser Island today. It turned out a bit different, though. We started with a relaxing bath in our host’s hot tub, a private mini pool at 36°C on his balcony:

Now that did wake us up! Afterwards we took a few last looks at Hervey Bay, searching for an sculpture depicting a sea monster based on Aboriginal tellings along the Esplanade. When we found it, we noticed we had already been there the day before. Clever, eh?

We also found the Skark Museum and went to the Urangan Pier:

Shopping in Australia at the East Coast suddenly made us feel very much like home – we hadn’t been to an Aldi for about 8 months!

Then we made our way to Maryborough, known for its numerous historical buildings and pictoresque atmosphere. However, I made the mistake thinking that the Heritage Trail along a few important local buildings and sites could easily be done on foot. How wrong I was .. after a few kilometers I had to quit walking and got back to the car, leaving me rather frustrated. Another fine example of Australian misinformation by some crappy brochures and information centers! Apart from that a few of the items are not really worth going to at all like the first settlement of Maryborough, the Village of Wide Bay – there is absolutely nothing there!

By now it was so late that we would not get to the ferry to Fraser Island on time, or being able to drive along the beach due to the incoming high tide. And by coincidence we met our CS host in Maryborough – after he offered us to stay another night we happily agreed! We then flocked around a few selected spots in Maryborough to make the best out of the rest of the day.

We came across the Mary Poppins statue which is located directly in front of the novel author’s birth house:

Some shots in Queens Park before we left Maryborough and returned to Hervey Bay:

Fraser Island, we’re coming another day.

August 09, 2011

During our time down under we had managed to miss the whale season wherever we went, either being too early or too late. Be it the Head of Bight on the Nullarbor Plains, Sydney or Western Australia – we were always out of luck. This time we wanted to make it better and booked a whale watching trip in Hervey Bay, that being the primary reason for us to go there at all! Will we be more successful this time?

We decided against a boat with too many people (some bring up to 120 whale watchers out at once!) and booked a 3/4-day trip as that would give us more time out on the sea, therefore hopefully increasing our chances.

We were picked up (almost missed our ride!) in the morning and brought to Urangan. After checking in on the boat, a catamaran called “Freedom III”, we soon left the Sandy Straits Harbour and were headed for the Platypus Bay close to Fraser Island.

The trips in the previous days had been quite successful, always spotting a number of humpback whales, which kept our spirits high. And this time we weren’t disappointed. At maybe 11:00am we had the first sightings! It didn’t take too long until an amazing thing happened: right next to our boat a humpback slowly ascended to the surface, swam along for a short time and then dived back under water .. wow!

We managed to shoot a video – it’s amazing:

The rest of the day we spent watching out for more whales, and the boat tried to cross the whales’ paths a few times in order to get as close as possible. We had quite a few more sightings:

In between we were served great snacks and lunch. A dolphin played with us on the way as well, trying to outrun our boat right before our bow, and he had no trouble keeping up with the speed – awesome!

We could see the whales blowing out, surfacing and diving several times. We were even lucky enough to see them jump (called breaching) a few times. To take a picture of that you have to scan the whole area fully alert, we could rarely get a good shot:

We saw a pair of two humpback whales swimming along a few times:

And here again:

We weren’t lucky enough to attract further humpbacks and make them come straight beside our boat, they always kept a distance of a few meters. However, we had seen quite a few today and returned happily to the harbour.

In the end of the day we took a walk along Scarness Beach close to our homebase. There we found a sculpture of the Moha-Moha, an ancient sea creature known to the Aboriginals. If we hadn’t known better we had considered it to arise straight from Loch Ness!