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After leaving Brisbane, we were looking for somewhere preferably next to water, perhaps even a beach-side campsite.  In Maroochdore we found what we were looking for: the campsite was situated on the banks on a huge river which conveniently ran straight into the sea round the corner, all part of the same beautiful stretch of coastline.  The waves were fairly strong on the sea side, but the river was excellent for taking a cool dip in when the sun got too much.

 

We’ve all now become accustomed to waking up around 6am, sweating like a baboon because the sun has already hit the tent/camper van and we’re beginning to cook ourselves to death.  The only thing to do in these situations is simply to get up and go about your day.  I make it sound like a chore, don’t I? Haha.  Honestly, if it wasn’t for the sun and the heat out here, you’d think you were in a campsite back home in England.  Things really do look familiar wherever you go in urban Australia – it’s when you get to the outback, onto the beaches, or out on the roads leading past thick National Park forests that you realise how lucky they are over here in terms of pure natural beauty to behold.  

Following a visit to the cinema to watch the latest James Bond flick Casino Royale, we were unfortunately reminded how important it is to keep an eye on your belongings at all time: Nicky had her mobile phone stolen by a pack of [Aussie] scally lads whilst it was left charging in a nearby laundry room.  We thought we’d caught the buggers red-handed at one point, but they claimed it wasn’t them, and with no mobile phone and no proof it was them (- this incident happened at night -), we had to let them go.  Bastards.  So the phrase ‘scum of the Earth’ really does mean the whole Earth then, eh? 

Our time here we spent either relaxing on the beach, stressing that we hadn’t yet sorted out anything with regards to where we planned to be for Christmas Day and New Years, or relaxing on the beach due to the stress of not knowing where we’d be spending Christmas and New Years.  Eventually we took the plunge and booked with a backpackers travel agency (which I won’t disclose in case their tours are crap, in which case I will anonymously slag them off on any given number of travel websites…) – our Christmas will be spent at Hervey Bay, on Boxing Day we embark upon a 3-Day 4-wheel-drive safari on Fraser Island, and we spend New Years… get this… aboard a racing yacht around the stunning Whitsundays Islands.  Life’s a real bitch, eh?

 

Following our departure from Maroochydore we headed for the town of Noosa, a place full of waterways and excellent scenery.  Ian and I decided to take a bike ride over to Noosa National Park to check out the views – we saw turtles in the sea from afar, a nudist beach laden with stinging jellyfish (I wouldn’t have swam in the sea there if you paid me… especially not naked!) and plenty of heavy waves.

The weather here has been hot to say the least.  You can burn so easily in Australia it’s no wonder they have a higher rate of skin cancer than most places in the world.  Even with Factor 50 on you’d still notice the redness on your arms at the end of the day, and that’s with cloud cover too.  My arms are a nice shade of brown now.  The rest of me just doesn’t want to change from a whiter shade of pale.

The journey continues….

J.

Tags: Australia, Random Stuff, Travel

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 20th, 2006 at 7:57 am and is filed under Australia, Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.