Travelling Post 47 - The largest sand island in the world.

Heading South from Agnes Water, as I closed in on my end destination, I stopped off at Rainbow Beach for a self guided tour of Fraser Island; the blog title indicates why it is a place of significance. These self guided trips are an oddity on the backpacker trail, the company I used arranges the 4*4, food and camping equipment then stuck me with a bunch of strangers to journey up and down the island. They gave us a menu and a possible itinerary for out journey and off we went, driving ourselves to and around the island.

The island scenery is not as impressive as you'd hope from a World Heritage listed area, we travelled all the way to the top of the island at Indian Head and whilst the views were good I've seen better in the Lake District. What is impressive are the lakes much more impressive than those in the Lake District. We visited two of the Lakes on the island, Lake McKenzie and Lake Wabby, both spectacularly colourful. The edges of Lake McKenzie are this wonderfully clear-blue colour which gradually changes to a wonderful Turquoise before suddenly dropping off into a deep ocean coloured blue about ten metres from the shore. I saw Lake McKenzie on a cloudy day and the colour was still brilliant, I'd love to return when the sun could show me all its colour in full glory. Lake Wabby, whilst smaller, was also brilliantly coloured but not blue like its neighbour but superbly green. It is a shame I forgot to take my camera to Lake Wabby, you'll have to settle with photos from Lake McKenzie.

Travelling Post 46 - Lady Musgrove Island

Travelling Post 45 - Sailing the Whitsundays

Travelling Post 44 - Townsville

Townsville is a city very much like Bangor, just bigger. The centre is situated in a valley but it has outer valley areas and is a University town, OK so that's about where the similarities end but it is also where I met up with a friend from the newly named Bangor University. He showed me the er.. highlights of Townsville, which are as limited as Bangor and then we went swimming in an open air swimming pool in the next town along.

The pool was decently sized and brought up the question why we don't have these free facilities back home? Yes the weather is often too bad for swimming pools but what about sports facilities as well as the often poorly kept parks we do hav? On that pondering note this post ends.

Next Stop: Airlie Beach and the Whitsundays

Travelling Post 43 - Magnetic Island

Was ok, nice beach anyway.

Next Stop: Townsville.

Travelling Post 42 - Rafting that white water

Its been 8 or so years since I last went rafting, and that was in Austria. On Thursday of last week I rectified this time gap and went rafting on the Tully River in Northern Queensland. Reputed to be the best spot in Australia for rafting, it was a must do activity on my East Coast tour. My memory of rafting 8 years ago is obviously a little hazy but I don't remember it being that much fun, I also remember it being much harder. There was some stopping and starting in the morning but post lunch we really got going, the main problem of the day was the sheer busyness of the river. The company I was with had around 9 boats on the river so it was a bit cluttered, aside from that it was a great day.

The day started off with a bit of a worry, with me slightly concerned the 7 crew members of the boat would accidentally cause each other severe head injuries and concussion throughout the day. On our first rapid a former US Navy officer lurched forward as a young English girl fell backwards and their heads collided. More accurately the Navy officers cheek collided with the girls helmet and left a nice 'u' shaped gash on his face and a blood soaked life jacket. Oh the perils of rafting, but fear not worried readers I was left unharmed throughout the day, much to the chagrin of our guide who constantly tried to tip us all into the water but failed miserably.

The most amusing part of the day was the names of the rapids, but as my parents are reading this I shan't go into that, lets just say you can tell it is a male dominated sport.

Of the week I'd been on the East Coast by that point it was the best day so far and all I can say is bring on more rafting when I get to New Zealand (and Wales when I return home.)

Next Stop: Magnetic Island (which I've already done I just have to post about.)