Stradbroke Island and the Sunshine Coast

Last weekend I went on the day trip to Stradbroke Island I was talking about. I really enjoyed it and felt like I was seeing the real Australia for once, rather than city life. We had an aboriginal guide for the day, who was genuinely one of the most interesting people I've ever met. He had so many stories to tell. He told us not only about the dreamtime stories and beliefs of his tribe but about the persecution the aboriginals underwent right up until recently. Up until the 1970s they were still considered to be animals. It seems so ridiculous it's hard to understand how that could happen. He told us stories of how he ended up in a young offenders institute and his teeth would be pulled out, basically as a punishment, and how the police have attempted to murder him on multiple occasions. He told a story of how they were holding the gun to his head but then they saw a small white child therefore could not go through with it in front of her. His story's were so shocking, it's difficult to comprehend how these things went on. He told us stories of aboriginals lining up to be shot, and the mass murders that occurred in the 'Secret War'. For a long time they were forbidden to practise their culture and had to do it in secret. At least now they are starting to receive equal rights. Although a lot of their land has been taken from them.

On a lighter note, I painted my own boomerang and at the lookout point saw dolphins and a mother and baby whale! Stradbroke Island is very beautiful, not quite Fraser Island standard but a really nice place.

This weekend was lovely weather so we spent Saturday going to West End Market in the morning and then heading to South Bank for a swim and some sunbathing. On Saturday we went to Sunshine Coast for the day with our friend George. We started out at Coolum beach where me and Louisa sunbathed while George surfed and Guy attempted. A couple of George's friends were there one of whom had a 4WD. We all piled in and headed up to north beach past Noosa where you can drive along the beach and climb up the sand dunes. It was very beautiful there but oddly there were hundreds of dead birds along the shore. We were thinking they were probably migratory birds that died during their journey and have been washed up as they were all in a line parallel to the shore. We climbed up a sandbank to a lookout point. My legs thought they were going to die! Every step you take you fall halfway back down. Not lovely. The view was pretty though. And going down was a lot more fun. We tried sliding down on a lid we had but it didn't go so well and I just ended up covered in sand. It's fun to jump down the dune though.

We then drove along the beach a bit more to get to a 4WD track that took us across to Rainbow Beach. This was a lot of fun but Rainbow beach is a long way from home. We then had to spend 3 or 4 hours getting back. The worst thing was we drove into the most horrible storm I have ever experienced. The lightening was coming every couple of seconds and the rain was torrential. We could not see the road only feel our way along by driving on the catseyes. I was very scared but obviously it all turned out alright and we all got back safely. Apparently storms get much worse than that though and every summer they have a couple of megastorms. Not looking forward to that- especially if we're in a campervan!!

So that's what I've been up to lately. I don't have much planned because exams are looming. But in a month today I will be on a flight to Cairns to start my adventures!!

Miss you all,

Claire

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RSPCA, Fraser Island and Whale Watching

I just got back from walking Hercules the husky. He is so, so nice! I don't understand why he would ever be at the RSPCA. Actually all of the dogs I've met there have been so lovely, it's hard to understand why anyone would give them away. I'm really enjoying my voluntary work but I keep finding dogs to take home. Hercules would be ideal for you Laurie! I ended up just walking him for about 45mins as he was so amazing. He was moulting ridiculously though, bits of fur were flying off as he ran along. I brushed him a bit and ended up with a huge ball of hair but he was still all tufty looking where he was losing his coat. I walked some some other lovely dogs as well but Hercules was definately my favourite.

So lately I havn't got up to that much as I've had loads of deadlines. But in midsemester break I did go to Fraser Island on a field trip. It is really, really beautiful there. The lakes are amazing and wierdly all have different coloured water -red, green and clear. My favourite part was definately sand dune jumping. We had been trekking for what seemed like hours and then we're told to climb up a huge sandy bank. When we got to the top you could see huge sand dunes it was so beautiful. We walked along to the edge of the dune, where it suddenly drops off steeply. The idea here is to just run and jump off the dune. Scary, huh. So I was feeling pretty nervous as it looked like it was gonna hurt when you thudded down on the sand. But me and Louisa conquered the fear and jumped together. I think I was the one of the only ones that screamed. Flying through the air is pretty scary to be fair though. It was so much fun though, and did not hurt at all. Everyone had a few more turns and then the whole class jumped together! I'm not sure if the photos are up yet but I'll try to put one in when I find it! From there we trekked on a couple of km to the first lake we went to. It was a huge red lake in the middle of a forest. The swimming was so good there because it was so humid and after trekking you just feel disgusting.

I really enjoyed Fraser Island. We spent the mornings doing field work but then in the afternoons we would go to a lake or creek for swimming. One morning I even got up at 5.45am to go tracking. This is where you look for, and try to identify animal tracks in the sand. We saw loads, including snake tracks, dingo tracks and even tiny millipede tracks.



There were so many dingoes there! One of them came right up to us on the beach and was only a couple of metres away! There pretty tame because tourists feed them. But this is bad because then if the dingoes attack people they get put down. When it is really the peoples fault for trying to play with wild animals! There were the cutest dingo pups on our campsite though. The campsite was fenced to stop the dingoes getting in but the puppies are small enough to fir through. They are so sweet! We also saw a couple of snakes, a huge spider, a little scorpion and many, many bugs.



Another really fun thing about Fraser Island is driving on the sand! I would love to drive there but I'm sure I would nearly definately get stuck. You get bounced around like crazy in the back of the 4WDs. It was v.v. funny.

Everyone was really nice on the trip, and we all ended up going to Down Under on the tuesday after we got back :).

So, the weekend before Fraser I went Whale Watching down at the Gold Coast. It was AMAZING, literally the best thing I've done here. The whales were actually really close and we saw loads of them, like maybe 20+!! And they were jumping out of the water, slapping their fins and blowing through their blow holes. It was amazing to see, and something I think everyone should do if they ever have the chance.



While we were at Surfer's Paradise I somehow managed to lose a shoe in the sea. I'm not really sure how this happened but it was nowhere to be found. So if you go to the beach, please look out for my shoe. It is a grey lace up dap in size 4.

I think that is all of my news....On Sunday I am going to Stradbroke island though, which should be exciting :D.

Lots of love xxx