Sailing Whitsunday Island, Australia

VIDEO OF WHITSUNDAY ISLAND

It's been a good couple months since I did this trip, but I finally sat down and put together a video about the Whitsunday Island trip. 

The boat is called Tongara and it is a catamaran. I think there were about 25 people or so on the boat, and we sailed around the island and reef, snorkled, drank lots of good, got naked, and had an amazing time. The trip was three days, two nights, and every night we slept on the deck of the boat. It was pretty epic. Definitely worth doing if you ever get around to Australia. 

The boat leaves from Airlie Beach, which is located in central Queensland. It's a pretty cool little town and a lot of tourists and backpackers go though it. 

We went to Airlie Beach after leaving 1770. At one point the road was closed, for whatever reason, and we ended up going on a detour that probably cost us about three hours. When we were about 40k from Airlie Beach, the Van blew a tire and we didn't have a jack. Luckily, within a few minutes a girl pulled over and let us use the jack in her car, but when I couldn't get my spare down because I didn't have any tools, she drove 20k to the next town and picked up a wrench and came back. Once I got the spare down I realized that it didn't have any air in it, so again, the girl drove back to town with the tire, filled it with air, and drove back to us. I was pretty shocked that she went that far out of her way to help us, but I was glad she did otherwise we would have been stranded on the road for a very long time. 

We ended up getting in to Airlie beach much later than expected, and all of the hostels were closed so we ended up sleeping in the van and in the morning we booked a hostel. 

It's been a few months since that happened and as I write this it feels like it was so long ago. So much has changed since being on the Tongara. So much.. 

 

Video: Gopro Hero 2 Backpacking Australia, Fraser Island Tour with Dingos

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEzRCLodimY&feature=plcp

Fraser Island is a small, remote, island off the coast of Queensland Australia. The island contains one a large concentration of Dingo, which are a species of wild dog native to Australia. Comedic ads can be found all over the internet about how “a dingo ate my baby,” due to the fact that on several occasions throughout the years, families who have been camping on Fraser Island have had their small children taken and killed by packs of Dingos.

The tour I was on was through the hostel named “Dingo’s,” which is a hostile located in Rainbow Beach, Queensland. The tour consisted of three days and two nights on the island and camping was allowed on the Aboriginal land near the middle of the island.

Primarily the trip was rather basic, and consisted of driving around in four-wheel-drive vehicles through the sand, stopping at different points to see amazing lakes, view points, and other popular destinations. The nights mostly consisted of consuming large quantities of alcohol and marijuana, and running around naked with the other backpackers on the trip. Mornings usually involved a solid hangover, which was easily overcome by jumping into the ocean, or a lake.

Besides how amazing the trip was, the best part was easily the people that were involved. Making new friends and then getting entirely drunk with them was by far the best part.

Backpacking the East Coast of Australia - Town of 1770

I had no intention of visiting the town of 1770 when I initially embarked on my trip up the East Coast of Australia, but when I was booking my tickets for Fraser Island and Whitsunday I was convinced to come by the travel agent. He didn't get anything from it, so his motivation was purely out of love for the town that he "meant to visit for only a week and got stuck there for six months." He recommended the backpackers hostel called Cool Banana's, which as far as I'm concerned was the best recommendation I've ever had. The hostel is by far the best hostel I've been in since being in Australia. The town is small, and there is only an IGA grocery store and a gas station, or "servo," as it would be called by the locals. There are also quaint little restaurants random shops, but there are no commercial food chains, and no massive shopping chains like Wal-Mart or Home Depot. The beaches are amazing and it is in fact the last place that has surf on the way north (coastline north of here is blocked by the Great Barrier Reef).

From what I have been told, the town of 1770 in Queensland, Australia is the 2nd place where Captain Cook stopped after discovering Australia in the year 1770. Hence the name.


After arriving at Cool Banana's, I parked my van and was only charged $10 a night to use all the facilities, including the amazing kitchen, and sleep in my van. To get an 8 room dorm runs anywhere from $23 to $27 a night, which is still a great price.

At night there is a fire pit burning and all the residents sit around smoking cigarettes (or other things), and drinking while listening to music and chatting about the random things. Some people are heading south, some people are headed north, but everyone is usually amazing. Last night a Canadian guy drank half a bottle of Tequila without stopping. It was as though he was dying of thirst and needed water, though he was neither dying or needed water. About forty-five minutes later the alcohol bagan to work and he could hardly stand, which was expected. The whole ordeal was extremely impressive and I commended him for his ability.


Cool Banana's report  

Pros - Extremely Clean, Very Friendly staff, fun owner, very nice kitchen ($6 dollar nightly meals can be purchased, which are amazing homemade meals with fresh ingredients), walking distance to the beach and grocery store and bottle shop, bringing your own alcohol into the hostel is allowed and/or encouraged.

Cons - NONE!!!

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times"

As my time here in Moree begins to get closer to an end, I wondered what this town really has that might be considered "interesting." Lo and Behold, I found something. At least something that I consider interesting. A connection to the author Charles Dickens who wrote Oliver Twist, and A Tale of Two Cities to name a couple.

Edward Bulwer Lytton Dickens

Charles Dickens had quite a few children, the youngest being Edward Bulwer Lytton Dickens and for some reason he was nicknamed "Plorn." From the brief research I did, Plorn was spoiled and wasn't really very good at anything and failed to impress his father, which was a concern to Charles as it was suspected that Plorn was his favorite child, hence the fact that he was so spoiled. "A shy boy with no idea of what he wanted to do in life, he had been taken out of school at fifteen and was sent to an agricultural college in Cirencester." As pointed out by Claire Tomalin, the author of Dickens: A Life(2011).

Around that time Plorn's older brother Alfred had been living in New South Wales Australia and owned or ran a sheep station. Charles decided to send Plorn here and wrote Alfred asking if he would take care of him, with hopes that maybe Plorn would become something impressive.

From the time Plorn arrived in Australia until his death, his life was filled with business failures and gambling losses. He did hold public office for a brief time as a member of the State Legislature, but was quickly overtaken by a member of the Labor Party. At one point, Plorn borrowed 800 pounds from his brother Harry and for eighteen years he never made any attempt at paying the debt. Just in case you were wondering, 800 Pounds in 1880 would have been worth roughly 40,000 pounds today, which is about 60,000 US Dollars. Some historians expect that Plorn gambled the money away with hopes of bolstering up his failing business dealings.

In the end, Edward Bulwer Lytton Dickens died with nothing, no money, no children, no property, and was buried right here in Moree, New South Wales.

Another Interesting thing about this town is the Natural Artisan Hot springs. Artisan means that the water from the ground comes to the surface naturally without needing to be manually pumped. Over the years Moree has been famous for these hot tubs, and people come from all over because they think the water will heal them from something. Usually when my roommate and I go it is early in the morning and the pool is filled with old, fat, deteriorating Serbians, but the pool is still hot and relaxing. 

Aisling and Me at the Moree Artisan Hot Pool