Hello all,
Good news, I've finally found a great hostel that has free computers (though you pay for internet access itself) - this means I should FINALLY be able to start sorting through some photos, and hopefully have them all sorted through offline and then I can try yo stick a few hundred up tomorrow onto facebook (with links here obviously). Cause I know you're all just dying to see what I've been up to.
Mission beach is a pretty tiny quiet little place, in the middle of some very ancient rainforest here on the north queensland coast. Its the home of the famous cassoway, but I havcen't seen one yet (they are highly endangered, with only about 50 left here apparently). I'm fairly certian I heard on in the forest the other day though, so thats pretty good for me.
Tomorrow we are going to go white water rafting on the Tully River - apparently its one of the best rivers in the entire world to go on, so I'm really looking forward to it a lot - it should be pretty awesome ;) If not a bit wet and tiring I imagine ;P
So, suddenly I feel like I haven't really got a whole lot to say! Here's a link to some pictures from Fraser Island, taken with my old camera just before it died (hence the interesting colour scheme! Kind of works sometimes anyways). Ok hopefully post up a ton of pics tomorrow for you guys, adios
Wednesday, 29 August 2007
Sunday, 26 August 2007
Day 46 - Townsville
Well as ever there is never enough time to write!
So, in five mins i will try to update you all on whats been going on - since we last met in virutal space, I've driven a marathon 7 hour stint up from Agnes Water to the sleeply little mountain place of Eungella national park - we could only stay there a day unfortunately, because we headed down the road to Airlie Beach - a eal feature on the east coast stupid dumb backpacker circuit, but it had to be dne all the same - got to go sail the Whitsunday Islands! We had a great time, ratehr inspite of then because of the boat itself, but enjoyed it all the same. Airli, the perpetual party town, wasn't in much of a mood to let us go, but we finally escaped up to Twnsville via a day in Bowen a few days ago. Townsville may be the biggest city outside of Brisbane, but that ain't saying much. The shear vastness of Oz has become apparent here in Queeensland - its so damn big you wouldn't believe it. And there is just no one around. We came to Townsville to go to Magnetic Island - just across the water from the town - nice little place, very beautiful but very boring too (2 days is enough, not our 3 I think) - still, did a lot of walking, snorkelling, hit the nudist beach again (got a bit of a taste for it now i think!). Bugger, 55 seconds of internet left! OK, so leaving for Mission Beach tomorrow, will try to update you there! Adios amigos!
So, in five mins i will try to update you all on whats been going on - since we last met in virutal space, I've driven a marathon 7 hour stint up from Agnes Water to the sleeply little mountain place of Eungella national park - we could only stay there a day unfortunately, because we headed down the road to Airlie Beach - a eal feature on the east coast stupid dumb backpacker circuit, but it had to be dne all the same - got to go sail the Whitsunday Islands! We had a great time, ratehr inspite of then because of the boat itself, but enjoyed it all the same. Airli, the perpetual party town, wasn't in much of a mood to let us go, but we finally escaped up to Twnsville via a day in Bowen a few days ago. Townsville may be the biggest city outside of Brisbane, but that ain't saying much. The shear vastness of Oz has become apparent here in Queeensland - its so damn big you wouldn't believe it. And there is just no one around. We came to Townsville to go to Magnetic Island - just across the water from the town - nice little place, very beautiful but very boring too (2 days is enough, not our 3 I think) - still, did a lot of walking, snorkelling, hit the nudist beach again (got a bit of a taste for it now i think!). Bugger, 55 seconds of internet left! OK, so leaving for Mission Beach tomorrow, will try to update you there! Adios amigos!
Response to Anon: Day 8 - Coffs Harbour Comment
Hi Anon,
Sorry its taken a bit for me to get back to you on this one, not much time free and internet is surprisingly hard to find when you want it for big chunks of time. Well, first and foremost thank you very much! its great to have someone getting interactive with this blog, it is exactly what I wanted all along - so please keep them coming!
Now, in case some of you don't know, I talked about the Bundugen 'alternative' community that I visited, and how I was disappointed that it wasn't so much alternative, as 'not in my backyard'. In response, Anon posted the following:
'I read your bit about the Bundagen alternative community, it is typical that you would call it a cop-out, I used to say that too about people that left the big city to live in harmony with nature. That was before I lived my life and got smarter. I need to let you know that being one who loves nature and intends to go visit this community, I see these people as heros because they decided not to live ina manipulatived society, they are free thinkers and decided to live the way that nature intended before we became reliant on the media to to give us all the information we supposedly need. Solar panels: I think an ulternative thinking person actually designed them. Maybe you should think again before putting down a communty and speading your profound wisdom.'
Sadly Anon, I think you've perhaps missed the point, or misunderstood my post. As someone who has actually been to this community, (as opposed to yourself), I can assure you that these people are not 'living the way nature intended'. There not primitavists, hell, they aren't even Amish. They're using mobile phones, 4x4 land cruisers, satellite internet connections and laptops. There houses are made from industrially produced cement and processed metals, there cars run on industrially extracted petroleum, their laptops from industrially mined iridium, their fridges run on electricity produced from coal fired power stations, the solar panels are made from industrially produced silicon, and so on and so on. That isn't living an eco life, thats living a selfish life - I want all the tools and conveniences of modern industrial life, but I don't want the mess and pollution in my backyard where I can see it, and I want to escape the nagging guilt from the hypocricy of it all.
I'm in no way putting down the community in terms of its beautiful surroundings, chilled out atmosphere, healthy community spirit and local democracy, respect for their surrounding enviroment, organic farming methods or liberated artisitc community. What I am saying is that this is not an eco community, it is not individually sustainable and any assertion to the contray is bullshit. Pull the plug of the modern industrial world and this place would crumple and vanish.
But please, throw the ball back at me with this one ;)
Sorry its taken a bit for me to get back to you on this one, not much time free and internet is surprisingly hard to find when you want it for big chunks of time. Well, first and foremost thank you very much! its great to have someone getting interactive with this blog, it is exactly what I wanted all along - so please keep them coming!
Now, in case some of you don't know, I talked about the Bundugen 'alternative' community that I visited, and how I was disappointed that it wasn't so much alternative, as 'not in my backyard'. In response, Anon posted the following:
'I read your bit about the Bundagen alternative community, it is typical that you would call it a cop-out, I used to say that too about people that left the big city to live in harmony with nature. That was before I lived my life and got smarter. I need to let you know that being one who loves nature and intends to go visit this community, I see these people as heros because they decided not to live ina manipulatived society, they are free thinkers and decided to live the way that nature intended before we became reliant on the media to to give us all the information we supposedly need. Solar panels: I think an ulternative thinking person actually designed them. Maybe you should think again before putting down a communty and speading your profound wisdom.'
Sadly Anon, I think you've perhaps missed the point, or misunderstood my post. As someone who has actually been to this community, (as opposed to yourself), I can assure you that these people are not 'living the way nature intended'. There not primitavists, hell, they aren't even Amish. They're using mobile phones, 4x4 land cruisers, satellite internet connections and laptops. There houses are made from industrially produced cement and processed metals, there cars run on industrially extracted petroleum, their laptops from industrially mined iridium, their fridges run on electricity produced from coal fired power stations, the solar panels are made from industrially produced silicon, and so on and so on. That isn't living an eco life, thats living a selfish life - I want all the tools and conveniences of modern industrial life, but I don't want the mess and pollution in my backyard where I can see it, and I want to escape the nagging guilt from the hypocricy of it all.
I'm in no way putting down the community in terms of its beautiful surroundings, chilled out atmosphere, healthy community spirit and local democracy, respect for their surrounding enviroment, organic farming methods or liberated artisitc community. What I am saying is that this is not an eco community, it is not individually sustainable and any assertion to the contray is bullshit. Pull the plug of the modern industrial world and this place would crumple and vanish.
But please, throw the ball back at me with this one ;)
Saturday, 11 August 2007
Day Something Else - Agnes Water & 1770
Hello all! Hope your all good - let me start by saying that i'm in a great mood at the moment after my little low a few days ago. As I suspected, I think I was pretty exhuasted from the Fraser Island leg, and its taken me a few days to get back up to speed.That said, we've been busy. From Rainbow Beach we drived a few hours further north (ever north, ever north it seems) to the dreaded Bundeberg - home of the chain gang worked slave dwelling backpacker army that picks the fruit around here for a pitetence. Just ask Emilie about it some time (I didn't even go near it from the very start)/ Anyway, it was actually pretty good fun to stay there - tiny little hostel, we were the only non asian people there, got dinner and a conversation from a Korean girl Emilie met when working here, and the next day we hit up the Bundeberg Rum Factory tour before encountering a bizarre - but utterly captivating - old Russian man named Igor who was born in South Africa and fought in the cold war proxie/ wars of independence/ civil wars/ mercenary armies of Africa in the 1960s. To top it all off we ended up with a local delicacy, battered fish with yes, battered chips.From there we headed north still further to a tiny little twin town area called Agnes Water and The Town of 1770 (the place of Cook's second landing in Australia). Fantastic little place, best backpackers I have ever stayed at I think (certainly in terms of facilities and services) and the craziest thing is the town is set in something like 200km of coast national park, with just 8km for the towns - they only got the dirt road sealed 3 years ago! So yesterday we went to 1770 and did a fantastic 3 hour sunset sea kayak tour, which was awesome (drank goon on the beach and ate ginger bread cake) and today we went out the Lady Musgrave Island, the southern tip of the Great Barrier Reef - just absolutely amazin - easily one of the very best things I've ever done, without a doubt. And joy of joys, I've finally had a chance to look at my pics and the camera lense is fine, and the photos are frankly fucking awesome. They're also massive, so I'm going to have to figure something out so I can actually share them with you guys. I'll stick just the one or two up for now.So whats next? Well, tomorrow I'm going on a 1.5 hour flight around the bay and over the national park and coast, landing on a beach and having some fresh oysters! In the afternoon we're leaving to do a big big drive in a convoy up to a national park to go platypus watching with some friends we've made along the way - two irish guys, a french guy and a dutch girl - looking forward to it a lot!Well, its getting late, I've been up since 6.30am, and I'm pretty tired (plusthis is about $5 an hour online) so I'm going to shoot - speak to you soon!
Hello all! Hope your all good - let me start by saying that i'm in a great mood at the moment after my little low a few days ago. As I suspected, I think I was pretty exhuasted from the Fraser Island leg, and its taken me a few days to get back up to speed.That said, we've been busy. From Rainbow Beach we drived a few hours further north (ever north, ever north it seems) to the dreaded Bundeberg - home of the chain gang worked slave dwelling backpacker army that picks the fruit around here for a pitetence. Just ask Emilie about it some time (I didn't even go near it from the very start)/ Anyway, it was actually pretty good fun to stay there - tiny little hostel, we were the only non asian people there, got dinner and a conversation from a Korean girl Emilie met when working here, and the next day we hit up the Bundeberg Rum Factory tour before encountering a bizarre - but utterly captivating - old Russian man named Igor who was born in South Africa and fought in the cold war proxie/ wars of independence/ civil wars/ mercenary armies of Africa in the 1960s. To top it all off we ended up with a local delicacy, battered fish with yes, battered chips.From there we headed north still further to a tiny little twin town area called Agnes Water and The Town of 1770 (the place of Cook's second landing in Australia). Fantastic little place, best backpackers I have ever stayed at I think (certainly in terms of facilities and services) and the craziest thing is the town is set in something like 200km of coast national park, with just 8km for the towns - they only got the dirt road sealed 3 years ago! So yesterday we went to 1770 and did a fantastic 3 hour sunset sea kayak tour, which was awesome (drank goon on the beach and ate ginger bread cake) and today we went out the Lady Musgrave Island, the southern tip of the Great Barrier Reef - just absolutely amazin - easily one of the very best things I've ever done, without a doubt. And joy of joys, I've finally had a chance to look at my pics and the camera lense is fine, and the photos are frankly fucking awesome. They're also massive, so I'm going to have to figure something out so I can actually share them with you guys. I'll stick just the one or two up for now.So whats next? Well, tomorrow I'm going on a 1.5 hour flight around the bay and over the national park and coast, landing on a beach and having some fresh oysters! In the afternoon we're leaving to do a big big drive in a convoy up to a national park to go platypus watching with some friends we've made along the way - two irish guys, a french guy and a dutch girl - looking forward to it a lot!Well, its getting late, I've been up since 6.30am, and I'm pretty tired (plusthis is about $5 an hour online) so I'm going to shoot - speak to you soon!
Day Something Else - Agnes Water & 1770
Hello all! Hope your all good - let me start by saying that i'm in a great mood at the moment after my little low a few days ago. As I suspected, I think I was pretty exhuasted from the Fraser Island leg, and its taken me a few days to get back up to speed.
That said, we've been busy. From Rainbow Beach we drived a few hours further north (ever north, ever north it seems) to the dreaded Bundeberg - home of the chain gang worked slave dwelling backpacker army that picks the fruit around here for a pitetence. Just ask Emilie about it some time (I didn't even go near it from the very start)/ Anyway, it was actually pretty good fun to stay there - tiny little hostel, we were the only non asian people there, got dinner and a conversation from a Korean girl Emilie met when working here, and the next day we hit up the Bundeberg Rum Factory tour before encountering a bizarre - but utterly captivating - old Russian man named Igor who was born in South Africa and fought in the cold war proxie/ wars of independence/ civil wars/ mercenary armies of Africa in the 1960s. To top it all off we ended up with a local delicacy, battered fish with yes, battered chips.
From there we headed north still further to a tiny little twin town area called Agnes Water and The Town of 1770 (the place of Cook's second landing in Australia). Fantastic little place, best backpackers I have ever stayed at I think (certainly in terms of facilities and services) and the craziest thing is the town is set in something like 200km of coast national park, with just 8km for the towns - they only got the dirt road sealed 3 years ago! So yesterday we went to 1770 and did a fantastic 3 hour sunset sea kayak tour, which was awesome (drank goon on the beach and ate ginger bread cake) and today we went out the Lady Musgrave Island, the southern tip of the Great Barrier Reef - just absolutely amazin - easily one of the very best things I've ever done, without a doubt. And joy of joys, I've finally had a chance to look at my pics and the camera lense is fine, and the photos are frankly fucking awesome. They're also massive, so I'm going to have to figure something out so I can actually share them with you guys. I'll stick just the one or two up for now.
So whats next? Well, tomorrow I'm going on a 1.5 hour flight around the bay and over the national park and coast, landing on a beach and having some fresh oysters! In the afternoon we're leaving to do a big big drive in a convoy up to a national park to go platypus watching with some friends we've made along the way - two irish guys, a french guy and a dutch girl - looking forward to it a lot!
Well, its getting late, I've been up since 6.30am, and I'm pretty tired (plusthis is about $5 an hour online) so I'm going to shoot - speak to you soon!
That said, we've been busy. From Rainbow Beach we drived a few hours further north (ever north, ever north it seems) to the dreaded Bundeberg - home of the chain gang worked slave dwelling backpacker army that picks the fruit around here for a pitetence. Just ask Emilie about it some time (I didn't even go near it from the very start)/ Anyway, it was actually pretty good fun to stay there - tiny little hostel, we were the only non asian people there, got dinner and a conversation from a Korean girl Emilie met when working here, and the next day we hit up the Bundeberg Rum Factory tour before encountering a bizarre - but utterly captivating - old Russian man named Igor who was born in South Africa and fought in the cold war proxie/ wars of independence/ civil wars/ mercenary armies of Africa in the 1960s. To top it all off we ended up with a local delicacy, battered fish with yes, battered chips.
From there we headed north still further to a tiny little twin town area called Agnes Water and The Town of 1770 (the place of Cook's second landing in Australia). Fantastic little place, best backpackers I have ever stayed at I think (certainly in terms of facilities and services) and the craziest thing is the town is set in something like 200km of coast national park, with just 8km for the towns - they only got the dirt road sealed 3 years ago! So yesterday we went to 1770 and did a fantastic 3 hour sunset sea kayak tour, which was awesome (drank goon on the beach and ate ginger bread cake) and today we went out the Lady Musgrave Island, the southern tip of the Great Barrier Reef - just absolutely amazin - easily one of the very best things I've ever done, without a doubt. And joy of joys, I've finally had a chance to look at my pics and the camera lense is fine, and the photos are frankly fucking awesome. They're also massive, so I'm going to have to figure something out so I can actually share them with you guys. I'll stick just the one or two up for now.
So whats next? Well, tomorrow I'm going on a 1.5 hour flight around the bay and over the national park and coast, landing on a beach and having some fresh oysters! In the afternoon we're leaving to do a big big drive in a convoy up to a national park to go platypus watching with some friends we've made along the way - two irish guys, a french guy and a dutch girl - looking forward to it a lot!
Well, its getting late, I've been up since 6.30am, and I'm pretty tired (plusthis is about $5 an hour online) so I'm going to shoot - speak to you soon!
Tuesday, 7 August 2007
Day Something - Rainbow Beach
OKay so sper quick as I only just 8 minuttes left on thsi machine - basically, in Rainbow Beach now after Noosa - just got back froma a 3 day/ 2 night camping trip over to Fraser Island. Quiet an intense experience actually, as with a lot of these kinds of camping great oputdoors things, the imagine in your head is usually a bit more romanticised then the reality - the sand, the damned sand, nearly drove me insane :) Seriously it just gets everywhere. The island was pretty interesting, but trecking out with 10 strangers and camping out was pretty intense, along with the 4x4 in the sand etc. But hey, glad i did it even if I am totally shattered. Managed to get one big stratch in my camera lense, which did bum me out a fair bit - but it doesn't seem to make any impact to my eye. Kind of thinking maybe I should have jsut bought a good point and click to be honest, I miss the convenience and useability of my old one :( Anyway, done now, so I guess i'll just have to get on with it. We're off tomorrow, but no real ideas where but we'll see where we end up. Feeling really tired out to be honest, could do with a rest! :) Not sure when I will be back in the UK, but could be pretty soon actually, I'm thinking of seeling the car in Cairns in a month or so, and then flying from Cairns to Perth, stay for a few weeks, then fly to Sydney and then home (via HK). Damn its going to be good to see home again!
Wednesday, 1 August 2007
Day 23 - Noosa - PICTURES!
Hola from Noosa! We're currently at a Travel Bugs backpackers place online, so I thought it best to update you - and yes, I've finally got some pictures up, from Sydney to Bellingen (I'll try with the others in a moment, and all links will be at the bottom!)
So yes, we left Brisbane and drove another few hours up to the little town of Noosa - right next to a big national park on a coastal headland, lovely beaches and great walks. Plus its hot again! So the tan is coming back, and its been nice to just lie around on the beach and not do much. From here we are planning to go up north to Hervey Bay, and from there do a few days on Fraser Island - the largest sand island in the world! more sand then the sahara! woo hoo!
man alive, its annoying to upload photos onto facebook from my new camera - doesn't like the 10meg images, obviously! Anyway, the trip continues to go well, though Le Tank has had to be fixed a few times - main thing was fixing up the reverse in the gear box, can't remember if I mentioned that already - but it seems to be pootling along ok. Anyway, I think the photos are done so here is the link - enjoy!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=3296&l=0b472&id=508109359
So yes, we left Brisbane and drove another few hours up to the little town of Noosa - right next to a big national park on a coastal headland, lovely beaches and great walks. Plus its hot again! So the tan is coming back, and its been nice to just lie around on the beach and not do much. From here we are planning to go up north to Hervey Bay, and from there do a few days on Fraser Island - the largest sand island in the world! more sand then the sahara! woo hoo!
man alive, its annoying to upload photos onto facebook from my new camera - doesn't like the 10meg images, obviously! Anyway, the trip continues to go well, though Le Tank has had to be fixed a few times - main thing was fixing up the reverse in the gear box, can't remember if I mentioned that already - but it seems to be pootling along ok. Anyway, I think the photos are done so here is the link - enjoy!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=3296&l=0b472&id=508109359
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