Snorkeling and Sandsurfing and Whale Watching and 4 Wheel Driving - Oh my!

After work on Friday, we each did our “training” for the upcoming race in Sydney, then went home, showered, packed, grabbed a quick bite to eat and headed to the airport for our 8:30 flight to Brisbane. After we’d boarded the plane, Ellyn leaned over to John and said, “You do realize we just boarded a flight and a) never took our shoes off, b) carried on a full bottle of wine and c) never showed any IDENTIFICATION!!” Crazy.

As we were leaving Adelaide it was cold and rainy. (Note – apparently, we’ve been in the coldest winter in Australia in 40 some odd years and the wettest August in 18 years. Great…glad we were here for that!) When we arrived in Brisbane, it felt like home…hot and humid! We headed out to get a taxi to take us into town. When we got in, we told him where we’d like to go and he seemed a bit confused. In hindsight, we should have told him to use the GPS that was hooked up and sitting proudly on his dashboard but instead, we were taken on the “scenic” route to the city. (Scenic = much longer than necessary, thus increasing our cab fare. From what we’ve been told, this can be a major problem in the big cities.)

Once we got all checked, we headed straight to bed as it was after midnight and we were to meet our tour at 7 am the next morning. We both set our alarms – we figured the more noise going off, the better our chances of actually getting up so early on a Saturday! The next morning, Ellyn woke up and realized it seemed to be pretty light outside to not even be 6 am (our alarms were set for 5:45 am). She looked at the clock and immediately flew out of bed: 6:48 am. Twelve minutes to get ready, packed and to the transit center where we were being picked up? Yeah right. Ellyn was frantically trying to figure out how to get the number to the travel company so she could call them and tell them we were on our way but would be a bit late or see if we could just meet them at the ferry. (She typically has all this information printed out and ready to go but our original tour was cancelled at the last minute and on Friday afternoon, we were booked with a new company). But John simply said, “They’ll wait a few minutes. Get dressed and we’ll run there.” Guess that’s why we’re a good match – Ellyn works best with plenty of time to plan, John better under pressure.

Regardless, we gave new meaning the phrase looks like they just rolled out of bed. The only thing that looked different from when we got out of bed was we did change out of PJs. Otherwise, hair going everywhere, teeth un-brushed, no contacts in, etc. Since we were going on a camping tour, we had backpacks and pillows. So we were literally running through the streets of Brisbane with our backpacks flopping around, carrying pillows and sweating like crazy in the humidity we are no longer used to! When we get there, we can’t tell if the bus has arrived yet or not so Ellyn goes up to a few other bus drivers and asks if the Goanna trip has left yet? He asked what time they were to pick us up and she said 7am. He looked at his watch and looked at her and said, “Its only a few minutes after. It’s a Saturday. Give ‘em a break!” Well okay then! So Ellyn went directly to the bathroom to at least brush her teeth!

Our driver came to pick us up in a 4-wheel drive SUV that had been modified to seat 10 passengers (plus the driver). All luggage went on a rack up top. We found out this would be our mode of transportation for the trip (aside from the ferry to the island). Our guide appeared to be about our age and definitely the typical “Aussie bloke”. Once on board the ferry, the sun came out and we could tell it was going to be a beautiful day. Crazy where a two-hour flight can take you.

Ellyn and John on Moreton Island.

The ferry docked on Moreton Island straight onto the sandy beach. There are no paved roads anywhere on the island and 4-wheel drive is a must. There are a few small communities and a small town, with a fancy resort, but for the most part, the island is deserted. It is the third largest sand island in the world. For an island to be made entirely of sand, it was huge. Our first stop was just down the beach at the “shipwrecks” for some snorkelling. There is a row of 15 ships that were brought to this spot to protect the island. We were in the first group to go snorkelling so after suiting up (wetsuits provided THANK GOODNESS!!), we headed out! The water was freezing! We had to swim across a channel that went fairly deep before reaching the wrecks. Obviously, touching the wrecks was not advised since they are metal and would slice you, Luckily there were a few sandbars under the water that allowed a little break from the swimming; but with life jackets in hand, it was nice to just float along. We saw lots of fish and a shark and some coral. John swam up under some of the ships but when Ellyn tried to do it, she obviously pushed too hard and got a massive cramp in her calf and did not make it very deep. John led the guys of the group through a few “new” passage ways that our guide had not done and they all said it was awesome. After a while of swimming out there, we headed to shore to let the other half of the group have a turn. When we got back on shore, Ellyn saw the guide had cut his leg pretty badly and was very concerned and kept asking if he was okay and could she get anything. Once convinced he was okay, she looked at John who was giving her a funny look and saw he was bleeding as well! Guess it looks a little funny when one is so concerned about a stranger’s cut and hasn’t even asked her husband if he was okay! Oops! After a rinse off of the cuts, it was decided he’d live. (Ellyn thinks he secretly enjoyed the fact that he’d been cut so he could have a “battle scar”!) We played footy on the beach and just relaxed for a while and enjoyed the beautiful weather. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3azi5kaQSdI)

Ellyn and John on Moreton Island in front of the Shipwrecks.

Moreton Island Shipwrecks.

Once the other group finished, we packed everything up and headed to the “Desert” for some sandboarding! We drove down the beach and through the middle of the island. Surprisingly, it was full of trees and grasses (surprising because its soil is sand). The driver drove really fast (according to Ellyn) and did not slow down for bump, hills or curves but had great music pumping! Before he started to speed up though, he said, “If I say ‘hands up’ put your hands on the roof to brace yourself. There have been people that have really injured their neck by hitting it on the roof.” Oh fabulous! John was grinning from ear to ear the entire time (Ellyn was a bit more reserved at first but started to enjoy it more as we went along). As we were rounding one of the last turns before the Desert, the sand was super soft and we kept getting stuck. We literally tried for about 10 minutes to get around this one turn. We would rock forward and backward and then back up and try again. We were considering everyone piling out to try and lighten the load when our guide, Josh, decided to give it one more try. And he succeeded! Ellyn did announce that she thought he staged the entire episode on purpose so we’d realized why we were on a tour as opposed to driving ourselves!

We got to the Desert and ate a picnic lunch before climbing to the top of the OH SO steep sand dune. We were given very brief instructions on how to sandboard (really, unless you are standing, it isn’t that hard). Everyone that wanted to go was allowed as many turns as they wanted. But after a few climbs up the sand dune, you couldn’t do too many. Ellyn tried a few sitting down and then a few lying down on the board, face first. John tried one sitting down and one lying down face first before he decided to brave it and go down standing up. He did really well on his first try – he made it half way down the dune before falling off. He tried a few more standing up but never made it down the bottom without taking a tumble. According to Josh though, this takes a lot o practice to get it down. Josh tried to go down standing and fell as well. (Ellyn thinks this made John feel better!) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5Vc9Zl7UGo)

Once we were all tired from the sandboarding, we headed to the north side of the island, where our campground was. We made a few stops along the way and did a few short hikes to some scenic lookouts. It was really interesting to see the different make up of the island plants as the middle and south part of the island were taller trees and rainforest type plants but the north part was very much “bushland”. We stopped at a little “community” (if you can call it that – there was a very small store and a few houses). Ellyn asked if there was restroom she could use and the woman behind the counter said not here, you’ve got to drive up to the helicopter pad and there’s one there. Ellyn wanted to ask where did she go – surely she doesn’t drive every time she has to go! And we decided they don’t put prices on anything in the store so they could just charge whatever they were feeling was appropriate on that day.

Ellyn and John on Moreton Island (5 Hill Lookout).

We made one more stop before getting to camp…a fresh water lagoon! John dove straight in and swam around looking for wildlife while Ellyn was a bit more timid. The water was pretty cold but she did make it in about half way (just enough to rinse off the sand and salt water! From there, we headed to camp and got all set up (tents were already set up for us…very nice!).

On the last stretch of the trip to camp, one of the girls kept saying she heard a rattling noise under the vehicle but Josh said “oh it’s just the luggage up top”. But when we got to the campsite, Josh looked under the car and saw that the metal strap that held the primary gas tank had come detached on one side. So John decided he needed to help him! They finally got the strap fixed (well, not fixed, but remedied for the moment!) and we all grabbed some drinks and headed to the lighthouse! We climbed to the top and were getting positioned to watch the sunset when we saw a few large splashes in the water out in the distance. It was humpback whales! They were everywhere. It was difficult to see the whale itself as they were moving around quite rapidly but we did see the whales themselves a few times. Once we saw the sunset, we climbed back down and loaded up into the vehicle.

John helping Josh fix the car.

Ellyn and John in front of the North Point Lighthouse on Moreton Island.

Josh turned the key and nothing happened. Nothing. Didn’t even sound like the battery was trying to do anything. So we all climbed out and everyone started looking under the hood. Long story short, the battery was dead, but luckily, Josh had forgotten to take out the battery charge/jumper like he meant to so we jumped ourselves off and headed back to camp! Once there, Josh started cooking. One would think, since food was included in the tour price, the meal would be a bit on the skimpy side. WRONG! First, he made a huge batch of spring rolls; then salad, garlic bread, sausage and onions and finally steak! It was all delicious and very “Australian” feeling. Ellyn loved it when Josh seriously referred to the grill as the “barbie”. We had some wildlife (a bandicoot) come up to the campsite and John bonded with him and was SO close to feeding him out of his hand but some crazy girl on our tour was trying to take a picture of it and scared the bandicoot away! After dinner, we played cards and hung out. Josh even put on a show, rapping for us! (Video of Josh rapping - please cover young people's ears and we apologize in advance for the language! - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wxPcnfz1Ms)

After a while, we decided to turn in and headed to our tent. We feel asleep rather quickly but Ellyn was woken up a few hours later with the rain POURING down. Now, Ellyn enjoys camping and doesn’t mind sleeping in a tent but this was really coming down and the wind was blowing like crazy. We’d left the sides open (with the exception of the netting) to let some air in, so Ellyn woke John up to help her put the sides down. John went right back to sleep but all Ellyn kept thinking about was water coming into the tent (when we arrived at camp, there were a few tents that had water in them from a rain the night before, luckily ours was not one of them). She finally went back to sleep and didn’t wake up until she smelled fresh pancakes being made the next morning! The pancakes were delicious and Ellyn got to feed a wild Cookaburo that was just hanging out some leftover pancakes out of her hand! The plan was for everyone to get surfing lessons in the morning but, according to Josh (who won some amateur surfing competitions when he was younger, so we figured he knew what he was talking about), the surf wasn’t right and the currents were too strong so he said we’d spend most of our energy fighting off the currents. Given the water temperature from the day before, Ellyn was okay with no surfing, but John was a bit disappointed. Instead, we hiked over to Honeymoon Bay, a beautiful sandy cove, and then up to Moreton Point, which is where the only rocks on the island are located. They are what created Moreton Island (sand from the Eastern Australian Current, think Finding Nemo, gathered around the rocks). After making it to the top, we hiked back down and while the others went swimming, John and Ellyn walked around and explored a bit of the island. (We got in to our knees but it was really cold and we decided, we live near the ocean, we don’t need to go swimming just to go swimming in an ocean!) View from the top of Moreton Point - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVxyXZKsi6I.

We then headed over to the Champagne Pools, but the tide wasn’t right, so there were only a few of pools. We walked around the COMPLETELY deserted beach. All you could see for miles was beach and there was no one else around. It was amazing. Once we got back to camp, we had about an hour before it was time for lunch. John and Ellyn grabbed their books and headed to the beach to relax for a while. There were kayaks and surfboards we could use but given the overcast weather and cold water (with no wet suits this time!) we decided to stay away from the water! After lunch, we packed up camp and headed to the eastern side of the island. Once through the sandy roads and bush, we emerged to what seemed to be an even more deserted beach. We headed south to the Blue Lagoon, the second largest fresh water lake on the island (the largest is not really accessible as it is between some hills/mountains and does not have any beach access). It was incredible to see such a large freshwater lake so close to the ocean and on a sand island. We then hiked up the largest coastal sand dune in the world. It was quite a hike, especially in the humidity. (The trail was actually closed due to some maintenance on the stairs at the top but Josh said we’re only here once and we needed to do it. Plus, he “reckoned” it was a Sunday the workers or park rangers wouldn’t really be working…he was right!)

We got back in the vehicle and continued south on the island. We passed a massive sea turtle and manta ray (both dead) on the beach before stopping at The Mittens, a historical Aboriginal eating ground. (There were layers of shells from where the Aborigines have gone to this same location for millions of years to eat. They always went to this location and always ate a certain shellfish, which is what the stacks of shells represent.) We continued on the beach to see an old WWII barracks situated on the southeast side of the island. Unfortunately, the weather was getting worse and the tide had started to rise…so much so that Josh seemed a bit unnerved when we were on the way there (judging by the speed of the vehicle). On the way back to the ferry, we were speeding along the beach when some of the others in the tour, as well as Josh, started to feel a lot of heat rising through the floorboards. Needless to say, Ellyn started getting a bit nervous. John seemed to love the extra element of adventure and Josh’s remedy to the situation? Speed up – the faster we get to the other side and where the ferry is, the less chance we have to be stranded on a beach with a rising tide.

We did make it back to Western Beach and got on the ferry. From here, the trip was fairly uneventful, which is probably a good thing – to be uneventful when travelling. At the end of the day though, we did note that we had travelled by 4 wheel drive car, ferry, taxi, airplane and bus all in one day. We felt like such well-seasoned travellers! (We documented out trip in a "summary video". Ellyn did not want to post it based on her appearance, so please disregard that! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cayWbmZbPe0.)

Ellyn, Josh the tour guide, and John on Moreton Island in front of the Shipwrecks.

This week at work was pretty good. Our hours were better and John started working on the Adelaide Zoo audit! One day he was sitting at his desk in the Zoo when a girl walked in and sat down at her desk with something on her shoulder. John looked over to get a closer look…and it was a KOALA! Just hanging out on the shoulder of the administrative staff! Awesome!

We’re off to Melbourne, Australia’s stylish and artsy city, next weekend!