Week 19: A Week to Remember
- Bryce Bozadjian
- Dec 3, 2017
- 8 min read
Nov 5-10
Part One: Fun on Fraser (Hervey Bay/Fraser Island)
The YHA hostel in Hervey Bay was more like a zoo than a hostel! There were ducks, cockatoos, fish ponds, and even peacocks. The hostel and campgrounds were spacious with a restaurant/bar and pool area on site. Très tropical!
I just stayed one night in an 8-person mixed room with surprisingly no bunk beds. The layout was very military barracks-y. It was neat! Thankfully I didn’t run into any creepy crawlers that I couldn’t handle.
Early the next morning I shuttled to the town center to get my ferry boarding pass, and then embarked on a 45 minute ride to Fraser Island. It was peaceful and I saw a seal and flying fish!
Once we hit land, I joined a group of 19 others and our tour guide/bus driver Sean on the two-day one-night Cool Dingo tour around Fraser Island. I volunteered to sit shotgun in the 18-ton monster bus, and I’m so glad I did! The panoramic views were amazing and it was much more a roller coaster ride than a bus.
Fun Fact: Fraser Island is known as K’gari meaning paradise to the native people, the Butchulla.
Much to my shock, there are only 200 dingoes remaining on Fraser. They are some of the purest Australian dingoes having no opportunity to crossbreed with regular dogs. Everyone knows I’m a dog person so I was determined to see at least one!
Sean was very informative and let us know that there are about 12 dingoes to a pack, with an alpha male and alpha female. They can run up to 40 KPH and you should never turn your back on one – they’re bold, wild animals. Fraser is also home to 19 venomous snakes, 12 of which are ranked in the most deadly category. One of them is literally called the death adder snake. Sadly, Sean’s own dog was killed by a poisonous snake a few months earlier. They also have the 5th most dangerous spider in the world, the funnel web. **Shudder** Luckily all of the scary stuff – spiders, snakes, scorpions, etc – mostly comes out at night, so I didn’t have any scary encounters.
We zipped around the island, and boy was I thankful to be in a big as bus with AC. 4WD is required for the island or you won’t make it very far. The narrow, one-way paths were made of loose, powdery sand and there were many times the puny cars had to stop and reverse to move out of our way. It was super bumpy so you had to just let your body go limp in order to avoid injury – my feet didn’t even reach the ground so it was pretty easy to do so!
Fun Fact: There is no record of koalas ever being on the island!
Some kangaroos and foxes swim over from Hervey Bay, but they end up as dingo food. Our first stop was a rainforest tour where we could see down to the bottom of a creek, saw an 800-year-old gum tree, and socialized with each other. We then enjoyed a nice lunch of chicken wraps, fruit, and orange juice before spending a few hours at Lake McKenzie.
Also known as Boorangoora meaning mystical waters, this lake was breathtaking! The sand is pure white and high in silica, so great for exfoliation. The water was warm and crystal clear. Because of the water acidity, it actually feels like you’ve showered once you come out of it – your hair is soft and your skin feels clean! It was a perfect cloudless day to relax on this stunning beach.
I met yet another British girl named Rachel and her friend Emma and we chatted throughout the trip. Before we headed back on the bus we had coffee, tea, and cookies. Sean let us buy alcohol at the cheapest bottle-o on the island, but I couldn’t justify buying a bottle of wine for $22 when I’ve been living off of $10 bottles.
We then headed back to where we got off the ferry, sat on a log, and watched the sun set. It was magical and I made friends.
We jumped back on the bus for a quick ride to our accommodation and dinner. I was mistakenly placed in an all-male dorm (because they thought I was a guy) but there was an open bed in the all-female dorm so I swapped to that. Thank god, because the guys I was going to stay with reeked!
Cool Dingo has a massive campus with about 10 lodges that can house I’d estimate about 30 people each and its own dining hall. The food was delicious and after a long day we gobbled it down.
Then we went back to our lodge and played card games and king’s cup, which was quite a trial since there were so many people from different places with different rules. All and all it was a great first day!
Day two started early as I rode shotgun again in the giant bus. We saw dingo tracks during our drive to 75-mile beach where we zipped along the white sand, dodging the high tide and other 4WD vehicles. It had a super Mad Max: Fury Road feel!
I spotted a dingo just chilling on the edge of the bush, staring at the ocean! We stopped and took pictures as it trotted down toward the bus (likely smelling the food we had on board). It was around a year old and a male, according to Sean. I made eye contact with it and it touched my soul.
We stopped for a swim at Champagne Pools, a unique pool-like area protected from the large swell by a natural rock formation. We then ate lunch before hiking up Indian Head, a cliff with amazing views where we saw turtles swimming below.
The Moheno shipwreck was something I was super eager to see, and it did not disappoint! The ship was built in NZ in 1905 and famous for sending injured soldiers home from the battles in Gallipoli during WWI.
We ended the day with tea and biscuits before tubing down the cool, clear Eli Creek. On the way back from the beach to the base camp, we spotted two puppy dingoes and I just about died of happiness!
After dinner we were shuttled back to the ferry and snoozed on the way back to the mainland. We of course saw some roos in a pasture on the drive back to the hostel and an echidna cross the street! Fraser Island was an incredible adventure in a pure place that really wowed me.
I stayed in the same YHA hostel in Hervey Bay that night. It was so funny to hear Christmas songs in 80-degree heat! I checked out the next day, chilling there for a while before heading to the bus stop for another fun 12-hour bus ride from Hervey Bay to Airlie Beach. This wasn’t as bad and I slept more and had two seats so I could stretch out a bit.
Part Two: A Pirate’s Life for Me (Airlie Beach/Whitsundays)
I arrived in Airlie, a beach town with cute cafés and shops and checked into my hostel. I prepped for my two-day one-night cruise through the Whitsunday Islands. Siska was a small sailboat and the group of 24 of us started by placing all of our shoes into a bag, which we would see at the end of our adventure.
Getting out to the islands was a wet and cloudy ordeal, and we used the motor to get a ways offshore before unfurling the sails and zipping along. It was a great day for sailing – super windy and we were covered in salt in minutes.
Actually, it was almost too good a day for sailing as the boat tilted basically vertically and the front sail ripped in half because of the strong winds! Down below in the kitchen area plates even fell!
Our three-person crew consisted of Jamie, the Aussie skipper, Nicole his Canadian first mate, and Anake, the Kiwi chef. They were all super nice and Jamie was hilarious.
We jammed to the Red Hot Chili Peppers and other great music (the boat had Bluetooth speakers installed!) on the way out to Whitehaven Beach, our first stopping point. We took a tiny dinghy to shore and I was slightly terrified for my camera, but it didn’t fall in, so that was a relief. I also had a waterproof phone case for underwater photography, which was a smart purchase.
Already soggy from the sea spray, we waited for everyone to get shuttled over via “Baby Siska” before taking a rainy, windy walk through the bush and finally down to Whitehaven. It was slightly uncomfortable being wet and trudging around the island and honestly, Whitehaven Beach – supposedly the top-visited beach in Oz and one of the top five beaches in the world – was underwhelming. It was tiny! Plus, the crappy weather made it less beautiful. Also I fell down some slippery stairs on the way down and gashed my heel and knee.
I did see heaps of stingrays and a few little lemon sharks in the water, and I was thankful for the stinger suit (even though it had several holes in it) providing me with a little extra warmth and of course protecting me from the two super dangerous jellies in the area.
I was happy to be back on the bigger boat as we made our way to where we would stay for the night. I started drinking my goon then because I needed the alcohol blanket. Jamie caught the attention of an eagle and fed it Weetbix practically out of his hand!
The food was incredible and definitely shifted the energy of everyone on board from soggy and exhausted to chatty and energetic. I yarned with Brits, Swiss, Dutch, Germans, and many others including a guy who goes to Northeastern Uni in Boston! He, Anastasia this Russian girl, and I were the last ones awake. I did vodka shots with a Russian – how cliché is that!
My “bed” was the seating area beside the buffet table but I fell fast asleep and got a solid five hours before an early rise. We loaded up on tea and yummy breakfast. Coming up from below deck, we were overjoyed to see that it was a gorgeous day! We started out by doing a small hike to see Aboriginal cave paintings, which was only marred by the giant march flies giving us hell.
We then went snorkeling, and although it wasn’t the best of conditions, I had a blast! And just like that we were on our way back to the mainland, coasting downwind without any major swells or splashes, listening to tunes, soaking in the sun, and having a great time.
A few people throughout the trip were feeling seasick, but to our skipper’s surprise no one spewed. On our way back into the harbor we saw penguins! We said goodbye to our awesome crew and went our own ways.
Mine was back to the hostel where I washed the salt off of me, brushed the crap out of my windblown hair, and relaxed for a bit. There was a music festival happening in Airlie and I watched an impromptu performance out of my hostel balcony by a lady with a banjo staying across the way!
Two of my hostel roommates and I (one of whom goes to Duke and is from Houston!) went bar hopping that night and heard some other live music which was fun. The next morning came quickly and we bid adieu as I caught a bus to Townsville.
Up Next: KOALA CUDDLE!!!
תגובות