Fraser Island

We woke up very early in Hervey Bay and met with the rest of our safari group in the bar of Beaches, the hostel we stayed at. It felt like we were back under restricted supervision again, because we were guided in making tons of decisions, like who would drive and what groceries we would buy, and then we were packed into the 4WD Land Rovers to drive to the 4WD company where we were instructed in all sorts of safety procedures and what not to do on the island. It basically went like this: “If you don’t do exactly what we tell you, you WILL die.” We were taught how to pack the vehicles, given our camping gear, and we drove off to the ferry.

It was a misty morning, and the ferry ride was rather cold and miserable. By the time we got to Fraser Island, it was raining quite heavily, and as we drove through the rainforest on bumpy dirt roads, it began to pour. On our first drive, we were supposed to make several stops: Eli Creek, the shipwreck, and the Pinnacles, but high tide was early, and we had to have the car off the beach (the road) by 1 o’clock. And it was pouring. So we just drove to our campsite at Cathedral Beach. There were eleven people in our car (Group B), and another eleven people in Group A. In addition to me, Steve, Eva, and Kelly, we also had Dilan from Germany; Maggie and Anita from Ireland; Paddy, Tom, and Scott from England; and Rob from Sweden. When we got to our campsite, the rain was bucketing from the sky, and we only had a small pavilion of 4 picnic tables to keep us dry. Tom made a genius comment as we huddled under the pavilion. Something like, “Great. Our group is mostly girls, and it’s going to take forever to pitch a tent with them, and the tents are going to get soaking wet.” So, what happens? Kelly, Eva, and I (with the help of Steve) pitch two of the 6-person tents in HALF the time that Tom, Scott, and Rob pitch the third. I put Tom in his place after THAT incident.

Basically we were soaking wet all afternoon, and as there was nothing to do other than hang out under a pavilion, everyone began drinking by about 3 in the afternoon. I was a little bummed about the situation, but after dinner, we discovered that three of the guys who had stayed in our hostel at Cairns were in the other group of 22 people who had arrived the night before, so we got to spend some unexpected time with them. A couple of dingoes came right up to our campsite, too, so it was cool to see them. We’d only ever seen them on the roadside as we drove past before. We were all really tired from waking up so early and from driving for so long the day before, so we went to bed early in our wet tents.

We woke up early, too. Day Two on Fraser was a bit more exciting. The sun actually peeped through the clouds, and we filled our day with seeing everything we were supposed to see that day, and everything we had missed the day before. We began by walking up Indian Head, a cliff jutting out into the ocean. The view was beautiful both from the beach and from the top of the cliff, looking out to sea. The sun came out and was shining on the wet grass, and everything was so bright and sun-warmed. After Indian Head, we drove to the Rock Pools. Lumps of rock broke the incoming waves enough that they protected the beach, but water from huge waves slid over the rocks and formed cold pools in the sand. I didn’t go swimming, but others did. I just laid on the rocks and let the sun warm me up.






After the Rock Pools, we made up for what we missed the day before. We stopped at the shipwreck (a steamship from the 1930s that crashed onto the sand island) to take pictures; walked through the freezing cold water of Eli Creek, past walking palms with aerial roots; and walked through the sand in front of the red-rock Pinnacles. We had to get our car off the beach again for high tide, so we drove back to the campsite, but I went back down to the beach with some of our group. We tried playing Frisbee, but it was very windy, so Kelly, Steve, Eva, and I went for a walk on the beach. The waves were very strong, and the sky was a mix of cloudy darkness and sunny blue that so much depth to it beyond the waves. It was a gray beach day, but it was beautiful nonetheless. Our night at the campsite was similar to the one before…a group dinner with lots of alcohol before, during, and after. Our tent wasn’t as wet on our second night though, and we got a good night’s sleep.






Day Three on Fraser was mostly spent in the car. We had to drive back the way we came, through the forest to the ferry terminal, but we stopped at three lakes on our way. We only stopped briefly at the first two, to take pictures, but we stayed a while at Lake Mackenzie, the third stop. Lake Mackenzie was probably the most beautiful of the three, with a pure white sand beach and crystal clear water, but it was my least favorite stop because it was so crowded. I walked to the far end of the beach to get away from the noise of all the other people and the smell of cigarette smoke, and a little bit of a Zen moment by myself in the sand. The water was freezing cold, so I only went up to my ankles, but others swam there, because the sun was finally out for good. When we left the lake, we drove to the ferry, and had a much sunnier ferry-ride back to Hervey Bay.




Once we returned to the hostel, we unloaded everything we owned in the parking lot and repacked all our suitcases, cleaned out the car, and packed the car so well that we could actually see out the back window for the very first time. Steve started to drive south, and we ended up pulling into a caravan park at Tin Can Bay after buying groceries for the night. We set up our tents and cooked a Mexican feast in the picnic area, which was lighted AND had two burners. The bathrooms were amazing clean and spacious, and we were full and happy and decided to sleep in the next morning, happy to be in our own dry tents.

Townsville to Hervey Bay

Well, I wasn’t expecting to spend too much time in Townsville, but when we had stopped in Cardwell, I had tried to make lunch plans with Russ and Ian. Russell wasn’t free for lunch, so we had to do dinner instead, which meant that we spent the whole afternoon in Townsville. Steve drove down the mountain from Wallaman Falls, and then Eva drove into Townsville.

We hung out on the Strand for a little while, as we waited to try to get our car’s headlights fixed, but that was a failure. We looked at a few guidebooks to continue planning the next day or two. Andrew, Janni, and David, my friends from the Reef Lodge, came to hang out with us for a bit. At five, we headed to Flinders Street to listen to some live music at Monsoon’s, the bar that Sam, Geneveve, and I hung out at on our first night in Townsville. Sam’s music business, Humble Pine, was hosting the live music, so I got to see Sam and Ben, and I also got to see Sam perform for the first time. We just relaxed out on the deck, listening to music, watching the sky change colors over the harbor as the sun set.

At about six-thirty, Russ, Ian, and Graeme met us for dinner. It felt to us like our program hadn’t ended yet, but it was strange to be there all together without Tony and the rest of the group. Nevertheless, it was a great treat to spend some more time with Russ and Ian. They are the two people I will always miss the most about Australia and one of the main reasons I would like to return.

I was truly happy to be back in Townsville and to see everyone that I had already said goodbye to. Our whole road trip was like a short transition of saying goodbyes, because we did a few at a time. Saying goodbye to Russ and Ian again was easier this time than it had been the first time, because we weren’t saying goodbye in an emotional group of 14 Americans leaving a country they loved. It was just us, this time. Ian gave me the biggest hug ever; I don’t think I’ve ever had a bigger hug than that. Andrew, Janni, and David also came back to our car to say goodbye to me again. Ian led us out to the highway, with Kelly driving, and pulled over as we got on the highway and waved goodbye. I will always remember his face, waving out his car window, a smile on his face, looking regal in his cowboy hat and perfectly happy with his life.



Kelly and I tag-teamed that night to get us to MacKay, five hours south of Townsville. We got there at about two o’clock in the morning, when we pulled into a caravan park to camp for the night. Steve and Eva slept in the backseat so that we could get up early, at about 6:30 the next morning, to continue driving. We drove through the “horror strip” during the day, a strip of road that Russell had warned us not to traverse during the night. He even told us not to get out of our car while we were driving through this part, because people had left their cars to go pee in the bush before and never returned. We did stop at a bathroom on the way, but there were no casualties, other than the loss of Kelly’s favorite hat.

We drove all day; we were on a mission. We got to Hervey Bay in the evening, where we stayed at a hostel. The next morning, we were going on our 4WD camping safari on Fraser Island for three days.

Road Trip: Sky Diving and Wallaman Falls

So, Steve drove us to the airport in Tully, where we would be boarding a small plane, only to jump out of it once it reached 14,000 feet in the air. We were to sky dive on Mission Beach: we would jump out over the ocean, overlooking the reef, and land on the beach. When we left Eddy Bay, it was a little bit cloudy, and we were nervous about whether the weather would be nice enough to dive or not (after all, Tully is the other “wettest” city of Australia). As we drove, the sky cleared up, and it became a beautiful sunny day.

At the airport, as we signed our lives away, we met Lauren and Avery, as well as Avery’s sister, and another friend, Tom. The eight of us were going to jump out of the plane together. There was a bit of confusion, which involved Kelly, Steve, Eva, and I driving our station wagon about 20 minutes to the landing site at Mission Beach, then taking a bus back to Tully. We were supposed to hang out at the beach and have lunch there, because the rest of our group was taking a bus there to hang out, but we accidentally went right back to the airport and just had to sit around hungry for a few hours, and we didn’t have any food or anything because it was all in our car at Mission Beach.

But finally, we were all harnessed up and sent to board our plane. There were no seats in the plane, so we had to sit in two rows, basically straddling each other. The diver that I was attached to was named Ben, and he was very friendly and laid back. I wasn’t very nervous at all to begin with, but I’m sure Ben’s personality helped with that. When the plane took off, the divers left the door to the plane open! It was a little bit disconcerting. The air coming in was cold. Ben had a watch on his wrist that showed the altitude, and it was crazy to watch how high into the air we climbed. 4,000 feet in the air seemed extremely high, but we went all the way to 14,000! When we finally reached 14,000 feet, the scariest part was watching the first couple of people jump out of the plane. Avery’s sister, Kelsey, was first, and I just remember seeing her face as the pair fell out upside down. I was also amazed at how quickly it all happened: each pair jumped right after the other! I was the fifth person to jump out. Ben and I tumbled out of the plane for a little bit before he pulled the tiny parachute that stabilizes you. I may have had my eyes closed for the first part, or maybe it was just too disconcerting to realize what I was seeing, but I’m sure we were upside down at one point. We then proceeded to fall for a full 60 seconds—from 14,000 to 4,000 feet—before Ben pulled the parachute. I was really calm for the whole fall. I had bet Steve that if I didn’t scream, he would have to buy me dinner. Well, he bought me dinner. I didn’t even have an adrenaline rush! It was just the sea air soaring into my lungs and the ocean coming close and close. I guess it took my breath away a little at first, but as soon as I got used to the falling feeling and began to settle into it, Ben pulled the parachute. He began to make turns with it, but I asked him to stop because I get motion sickness. A benefit of not turning was that we got to be up in the air much longer, just gliding down to earth. (Turning the chute makes you come down faster.) At one point, Kelly sailed by, right below me. It was so strange to be in the middle of the air and close enough to talk to somebody. I felt like I could put my feet down on top of her parachute.





I was glad that I got to stay up in the air longer. I was the last person to land. When we jumped, I had been told to look toward the horizon instead of straight down so I could see more, but I had completely forgotten to do that. This extra time allowed me to really soak in the view—mostly the ocean, but also the beach and rainforest. It looked like we were going to land in the ocean, but we swung down onto the beach where everyone was waiting. We all hung out on the beach in the sun for an hour or two before we said our goodbyes to Avery, Lauren, and the rest, and hopped back into our station wagon.

When we left Mission Beach, I drove for the first time. It was easier than I thought it would be. The main thing to be careful about is hugging the left side of the road, but we all put on our wipers instead of our signal a couple of times. I drove into Cardwell—the same place I had stopped at to and from Townsville on the Greyhound bus. The sun was setting behind the forest, and the sky was absolutely beautiful over the water and Hitchenbrook Island. I walked out onto the pier to take some photos, and called Russell and Ian to make plans for the next day in Townsville. We bought a few groceries for dinner, and then continued driving to Wallaman Falls.



The roads to Wallaman were long, empty, and dark. Twice while I was driving, the headlights on the car went out completely when I had the brights on. The first time, when I turned the brights off, the headlights went back on immediately, so I decided to just drive with my hand on the signal so I could turn them off immediately if it happened again. However, the second time it happened, the lights remained off for a good six seconds after I had turned the brights off! It was super dangerous, so we decided to just not use them. I had to drive up the windy mountain to the top of Wallaman Falls without them. At one point, Kelly shone her flashlight out of the window, and it shone further ahead than our headlights did!

We set up camp in the dark again. The sky was very starry and absolutely beautiful, but it was cold on top of the tablelands. We cooked pasta in the dark and went to bed. In the morning, there was dew everywhere. The sun began to warm things up when it rose over the trees, and we had breakfast and packed up the car. We did a short walking track through the rainforest to some granite rock pools, then drove to the lookout point for Wallaman Falls, the tallest waterfall in Australia at 268 meters. The gorge was immense. We felt like we were at the Grand Canyon, it was so big. We didn’t have time to walk to the bottom of the falls, which would have been nice, but the view was still amazing. It was nice to just relax and be in nature for a little while after being in Cairns and doing work for so long.







After enjoying the falls, we got back in the station wagon to continue our journey. Next stop: Townsville.

Road Trip: Babinda Boulders and Eddy Bay

I am posting this entry a little bit after-the-fact, but I decided it wasn’t fair to inform everyone of all my adventures with SIT and not write about my independent adventures.

After the program ended, Steve, Eva, Kelly, Lauren, and I planned to complete a road trip in a camper van from Cairns to Sydney. We planned to pick our Camperman camper up on the 14th (after saying good-bye to the five people who left on the group flight, and others who were leaving on their own travels), and head out that day. We went to pick it up at noon ($20 taxi ride) but it wasn’t yet ready. Kelly and Eva went back at 3:30 to pick it up, only to find that the van was a manual…which none of us knew how to drive. This was frustrating to us because the man who booked it for us, Andy, had promised us an automatic vehicle. It turns out they don’t even manufacture these campers as automatics. (That guy clearly knew what he was doing.) Kelly tried learning to drive it in the parking lot, but decided she was way too uncomfortable to be driving a huge van on the other side of the road in a foreign country in manual.

SO, Plan B. We booked another night at the Greenhouse in Cairns, (which was actually nice, because we got to spend a little bit more time with the people still there: Anders, Avery, Sam, and Geneveve). We booked a station wagon with camping gear to pick up the next day. Lauren decided to back out and get a bus ticket down the coast instead, because the station wagon would be extremely cramped and she has a bad back and didn’t want to camp the entire trip.

On the fifteenth, we went to pick up our vehicle. Now, Andy had told us that this car would NOT have a tape deck, only a CD player. So, we went to the trouble of buying a radio adaptor for our i-pods, even though we already had a tape-deck adaptor. Of course, we get the car and find out that it does indeed have a tape deck, and no CD player to be found. We also went through a lot of trouble filling out the paperwork to rent the car. They would ONLY accept a credit card for some insurance thing, and none of us had one. They wouldn’t take debit, cash, check, anything. So Kelly had to call her parents (even though it was after midnight at home), and they had to scan their passports, driver’s licenses, and credit card number, just so that we could get the car. Kelly was the first to drive on the left side of the road, and we drove our new pal, a red Ford Falcon, back to the hostel to pack it up. The station wagon was COMPLETELY packed. We couldn’t have fit anything else if we tried. At some points in the trip, when we packed it extremely well, we had about three inches to look out the back windshield. Eva went to return the i-pod radio adaptor, we did some food shopping, packed the car, said goodbyes, and left Cairns around 4:00 in the afternoon.

Kelly drove out of the city and we headed south on Route 1, the Bruce Highway. It was a beautiful day, and we drove past the rainforest-covered mountains of the area and the sun-lit sugar cane fields. Our first stop was at Babinda Boulders, a place Tony had recommended. (Babinda competes with Tully for the “wettest” place in Australia… the two cities have the highest rainfall each year.) We walked along a path through the rainforest at dusk. The path ran alongside a heavy-flowing creek, where huge granite boulders caused the water to churn and froth. The boulders formed really pretty rock pools in some places. We were going to camp at the boulders, because it was free, but all of the free campsites were taken and we didn’t want to risk getting caught, so we kept driving south to Eddy Bay.



It was a good thing, too! The caravan park we camped at was right on the beach. We could hear the waves from our tent. We set up camp in the dark, then went down to some picnic tables by the beach to cook our first dinner on our propane stove. It was late, so we didn’t want to get too extravagant; we just made cous-cous with some spices and things, then tea. We went to bed soon after. We woke up in the morning and began to pack away our campsite. It was about 8 o’clock, and we had about a two-hour drive to get to Tully, where we were going to go sky-diving. We had to be there by 11 o’clock. So we’re packing up our tents when out of the bushes pop…

TWO CASSOWARIES! Eva heard a rustling in the grasses, and we all looked up to see a large, brownish bird step out of the bushes. I wasn’t sure what it was at first—it resembled some combination of goose or stork—but then its father stepped out of the grasses behind it: a full grown male cassowary. They approached us slowly. “Keep something between you and the cassowary,” Steve calmly reminded us, and we got behind the car or inside of it to take photos. Now, for those of you who don’t know what a cassowary is, just keep in mind the fact that they have a huge talon that could gut a human being in one swipe. So we’re safe behind our car doors, taking photos. At one point, the father separated from his baby. Each was on the opposite side of our neighbor’s car. I thought the father was panicking because he couldn’t see his baby—he began to jump and attack the car, leaving a foot-long scratch on it—but he probably just saw his reflection in the tinted window.



I was standing behind the car and looking out over the top when I noticed a second father cassowary with a baby further down near the beach! I was super surprised to see a second pair (though we were surprised to see the first! These birds are rare!) because the birds are so territorial. I was right: as the second father approached our part of the campsite, the two began to get very angry with each other. We crouched in our car to watch them fight. Once, one of the babies attacked one of the fathers. He basically ran and jumped on him, and the father ran off. Other times, the baby nearest us would just plop down on the ground to wait. “Come on, Dad, I’m bored. Let’s move on. Get this fight over with already.”



One pair of cassowaries climbed up onto a small ridge while the other pair stayed below. Each patrolled back and forth, neither willing to go up or down, but neither willing to sacrifice their territory. After crouching in the car for so long without the cassowaries leaving, we decided we had to get our tents packed away so we could get on the road. It was an interesting few minutes as we began to take the tent down, then ran back to the car as the cassowaries came nearer, then back to the tent, back to the car… Eva and Kelly were in the middle of the lawn, when they had just finished putting away Eva and Steve’s tent, when one pair of cassowaries charged! I was safe in the car, but shouted “Guys! Look out!” in a most frightened voice. I’ve never seen any two people look more terrified in my life. Luckily, the cassowaries just charged past them, chasing a car up the drive.

Eventually, we made our way out of Eddy Bay and headed toward Tully for our sky-diving adventure. Steve drove this time. Our road trip was off to an excellent start – seeing those cassowaries so closely was probably the coolest wildlife experience we’d had. Their black feathers, fluffed up when they were angry; the large scales on their thick legs; their bright wattles; their prehistoric helmets and large beaks… We were truly lucky to experience those moments. Before, we had only seen a fleeting glimpse of a cassowary, about 100 yards away, on our rainforest trip. This was so much more amazing.