Mission Beach - 2 al 5 de Junio
 Una pequeña ciudad muy agradable. Nos hospedamos en Mission Beach North, en un hostalillo muy tranquilo. Despues de los 2 ultimos hostels en los que hemos estado, se parecia un poco de tranquilidad. El sitio esta “plagado” de Irlandeses asi que Annemarie aprovecha para charlar con sus compatriotas.
De los diferentes senderos por los que uno puede patear, elegimos el Kennedy Track que sale de la punta de Mission Beach South. Son unos 3.5km de camino que inicialmente bordea la costa y luego penetra en el bosque, antes de llegar a Kennedy Beach. Teniamos varios kilometros de playa solo para nosotros, cielo azul y temperatura ideal. Que pedir de mas?? Anduvimos un buen rato por la playa ante de paranos a la sombra de una palmera para tomarnos el picnic. Que suerte tenemos de estar aqui, un Lunes, en vez de estar en el trabajo...Estamos aprovechando al maximo de nuestro viaje y de momento estamos los dos encantados con el resultado. 
Estuvimos unos dias mas por la zona, disfrutando de la playa.

Mission Beach
I loved Mission Beach!!!! We found a really cute hostel there with a lovely group of people. The atmosphere was very relaxed and chilled out so it was a nice change after the party hostels we had been in up until that. (Plus it was full of Irish which was an added bonus.) We had only planned to stay there for a night or two but in the end we stayed four nights, even at that we didn’t want to leave, with the sun shining and the beach right in front of the hostel who would blame us?? We did get active one of the days and went on the Kennedy Track, a 3.5km walk which takes you along the coast and then through some amazing rainforest, before arriving at miles of white sand on a deserted beach. Yes we had it all for ourselves, the only tracks that marked the sand were ones of wild kangaroos who had made it there earlier than us that morning. Just as well we brought a picnic as we were in no hurry to leave our little taste of tropical paradise…..white sand, crystal clear water, coconut trees, beaming sunshine and just us…what more can you ask for! It is definitely one of those perfect days that I will always remember, although I have no photos because the battery in the camera wasn’t charged. Duh! L

Mission Beach to Magnetic Island
Since we were due to arrive in Brisbane to my family around the 13th June, we had to say goodbye to Mission Beach and continue with our challenge of hitch-hiking the whole way to Brisbane. Our next stop was going to be Townsville, where we planned to get a ferry over to Magnetic Island to enjoy a few more beach days in the sun there. Starting that morning in Mission Beach we had no idea of the crazy day that lay ahead of us! A lady from the hostel was our first lift, although she only took us about 10 minutes down the road to get further to the Bruce Highway, the one we needed to head further south. So after saying thanks to her we got our “Highway” sign ready and our thumbs out. Since we were a good bit away from the highway and on a not so busy road we were getting a bit anxious when after about 15 minutes no one stopped. (Being spoiled hitch-hikers the max we had to wait up until that had been 10 minutes!). However our beginners luck seemed to be still working as not long after that a guy in his 30´s called Albert, in a nice Jeep stopped for us. He looked more or less normal, seemed to be loaded as he enjoyed boasting about all his recent purchases (houses, boats etc) so we got in and felt pretty at ease. There is always a few minutes of unease at the start while you try to figure out if you have just got into the car with a psycho or not! Albert seemed ok on first impressions but he did give us a bit of a scare when he stopped by his house and insisted we come up to see it. Since he didn’t really give us much of a choice we had to follow him and found ourselves looking at each other in the sitting room of a complete stranger wondering if he was going to pull a gun or something on us. I could tell that Antoine was feeling very uncomfortable too and he made the wise decision of staying near the door and leaving it open just in case! However in the end it turned out that Albert was just a big spoiled kid in an adult’s body, who wanted to show-off how much money and fancy things he had. In the end I think we also gave him a scare though, Antoine got his English mixed up and told him we were “Hijacking” instead of “hitch-hiking”!!!! Albert finally left us off at a small town called Tully, not wanting to waste mush time there we got straight back on the road again and before long got a lift from Michael, a young navy guy who was heading off for the weekend with his boat. He took us a few hours further down the road to Ingham, we really enjoyed this part of the trip as he was a funny guy and really sound, not to mention normal! Yipee! He was however drinking beers AS he drove, he offered us some too but we refused, somebody in the car had to be sober even if it wasn’t the driver! Once we got to Ingham we were once again tempted by KFC for lunch, so we enjoyed a nice KFC picnic lunch in the sun not knowing then, the mad afternoon that lay ahead of us. Once we had munched down our burgers and chips we walked a few minutes to the other side of town where the road headed in the direction of Townsville. The sun was roasting so we were very happy to see a guy stop for us not long after, and on seeing a child seat and some nappies in the back of his car we immediately thought he was a safe family guy and got in happily. Well they do say appearances can be deceiving and in this case it was certainly true.  He was the craziest lift we had got so far and I think at least more than once along the journey with him, Ant and I both thought about what to do if he took a turn off the main road! He told us how World War 2 never really ended and that the Nazis all took off on UFO´s and are now roaming the planet?! He also reckons that all evil in the world is caused by vampires so he keeps meat knives and swords at his house to protect himself and his family. Oh and did you know that vampires don’t actually go after blood like everyone thinks, they actually eat human glands, because human glands are very tasty?! HOW DOES HE KNOW HUMAN GLANDS ARE TASTY!!!!!!!!!! Although he did also say that he was god, so perhaps that’s how he knows?! I could write a book on the stuff he went over to us but I think Ive wrote enough already to give you an idea of the level of maddness we are taking about. Also the fact that the police are after him for ripping off gas stations, added to the fact that he was drinking rum while driving didn’t make us feel very comfortable.  Eventhough he pretty much left us off in the middle of nowhere, where there was nothing except an old roadside bar we were glad to get our feet on the ground again. Once he left Antoine and I just looked at each other, wondering…..did that just happen! Our new found peace didn’t last long though as once we were on the road again to continue hitch-hiking, the local drunks in the bar decided to use us as their afternoon entertainment. Numerous shouts and comments were directed in our direction and most of them to me to tell me to either take my clothes off or get my txts out…their words not mine! Just when I was starting to get rather red faced a couple who were also drinking in the bar came to our rescue and told us that if we wanted to come into the bar and wait on them, they would take us to Townsville after another few beers. So we had the option of watching our next lift get drunk before driving us to the next town or standing on the road taking more abuse and baking in the heat….we opted for the first option and decided to have a well deserved beer ourselves while we waited! In the end the couple were really nice and although they did have some beers before jumping behind the wheel, we got to Townsville safely and on time to get the ferry over to Magnetic Island. We were hoping that Magnetic Island was as beautiful and relaxing as our guide book made out as we more than deserved it after the crazy day we just had. 

Magnetic Island
Despues de una buena noche de sueño, decidimos alquilar una motito para poder recorrer la isla. Asi que fuimos explorando los distintos puntos de la isla. El antiguo fuerte que ayudo a defender Australia de los ataques Japoneses durante la segunda guerra mundial. Nos tiramos gran parte de la tarde en una playa tropical. Cena tranquilitos y a la cama prontito. Nos levantamos a las 6.30 de la mañana para ir a dar de comer a los walabies de Arcadia Bay. Que monos son los cabritos. Vimos a un par de madres con sus pequeños metidos en su bolsa. Que majos.
Por la tarde ya estabamos saliendo de la isla. Pillamos un carrito de la compra para llevar nuestras mochilas hasta las afueras de Townsville y poder hacer stop. Un tio nos llevo hasta la autopista y segun nos dejo y estabamos buscando una hoja de papel para escribir nuestro proximo destino, un trailer se paro para preguntarnos donde ibamos. Y asi acabamos subiendonos a la cabina de un camionero para nuestro primer viaje en camion, tanto para Annemarie como para mi. Una experiencia bien grata. Jon, de unos 45 tacos, compartio con nosotros su vida cotidiana como ciudadano australiano. Es lo bueno de viajar asi, que conoces a gente fuera del circuito turistico. Por lo que uno se puede hacer una idea de como es de verdad Australia. Este pais no es solo el Opera House de Sydney, o la gran barrera de coral, es tambien un pais con problemas graves de alcol y drogas.  Un Domingo por la mañana a las 10 es mas facil encontrar un bar abierto con gente tomando cerveza, que una cafeteria para tomar el desayuno.
Enfin, para volver a nuestro conductor de camiones a quien caimos muy bien, quiere que al acabar nuestro viaje volvamos a Australia para trabar con el. Sinceramente, creo que decia eso mas por Annemarie que por mi... :- )

Magnetic Island
Yes Magnetic Island lived up to our expectations and eager to see as much as possible we decided to rent a scooter to go exploring. We did learn some historical stuff as we visited a lookout point which was an army base to protect Australia against the Japanese in Wold War 2. However I must admit that we did spend 90% of our time on the island lazing around one of their many tropical beaches. Hey hitch-hiking is tough work, we deserved lazy beach time J  We also got up early (6.30am) on our last morning there to go feed some wild Rock Wallabies in an area of the island called Arcadia Bay, it was well worth getting up early for as we got to feed loads of them and even see mother wallabies with their little joeys in their pouch. Very cute! We got the ferry again to leave the island and arrived back at Townsville. There isnt much to see in Townsville so we grabbed a nearby shopping trolley, piled our backpacks in, and made our way towards the highway. On realising that the higway was too far away to walk we stopped on the outskirts of town and in less than 5 minutes got a lift by a young electrician out to the Bruce Highway. Once we got out of his car we could not believe our luck when we saw a big truck stopping for us, we hadnt even started thumbing yet, we were standing writing where we wanted to go on a piece of paper! I had always been hoping that a big truck would stop for us as neither of us had ever been in one before. So we said hello to John, our new trucky friend and jumped in or should I say up…those things are high! Antoine was in the passenger seat and I was sitting in the middle on the bed in the back of the cabin. We spent the entire day travelling with John, who was telling us all about his life and about current problems/issues along the coast. Something we both love about hitch-hiking is that you get to interact with real Australians and not just the smiley faced hostel receptionist or your friendly tour guide. It really gives you an insight into what this country is like and you learn that it is much more than just The Great Barrier Reef, The Sydney Opera House and Home and Away!!! Australia is actually a country with a lot of social problems, not to mention heavy drug and alcohol abuse. We saw this especially in the small country villages, further away from the tourist hubs, where it is easier to find somewhere to buy a beer at 10am on a Sunday morning than a coffee! After making a few stops, enjoying a trucky lunch and spending the day talking to John, we finally said goodbye to him when he dropped us off in Proserpine. It seems like John took a shine to us as he was trying his best to convince us to stay in Australia, saying he wanted to sponsor us and that I could work for him in the office, while Antoine went to the mines. We said we would think about it! Proserpine is a small non touristy town just 30 minutes from the very touristy Airlie Beach which was our real destination. However we arrived late at Proserpine, the turn off for Airlie Beach so we said we would stay there for the night and get to Airlie in the morning. Seeing as it was not at all touristy the only place we found to stay was a very run down and not so clean hotel. After a pizza dinner we watched a dvd and tried not to wonder how many people had slept in the same sheets that we were about to sleep in. Yuck!

Airlie Beach: 8 al 10 de Junio de 2008
Despues de media hora de coche con una pareja de ingleses, llegamos a Airlie Beach. Enseguida se percibe el ambiente tan turistico que caracteriza esta ciudad. Hay muchisimos jovenes pululando por las calles y las tiendas son basicamente de regalos y sitios de restauracion rapida. Despues de investigar un poco, decidimos alojarnos en Magnums, the Party place! La media de edad de los hospedados debe de ser unos 20 años asi que hacemos parte de los abueletes del sitio, con solo 28 años!
Despues de hablarlo decidimos no ir a navegar por las Whitsundays (conjunto de islas) ya que es bastante caro. Resulta que si nos quieres ir a navegar ni tampoco salir hasta las mil, no hay ningun motivo real para venir a Airlie Beach...Ya que estamos aprovechamos para pasear por la zona pero tampoco tiene nada de especial. Decidimos bajar mas hacia el Sur, a ver si estamos de suerte para hacer dedo.

Airlie Beach: 8 - 10 June 2008
After surviving the night in Proserpine and eventually finding somewhere for a coffee the next morning, we got on the road and in less than 5 minutes we had a lift from a nice English couple who lived in Melbourne. They took us straight to Airlie Beach, the minute we arrived there it was evident it was tourist heaven, touristy shops everywhere, internet cafes, travel agencies, hostels, bars and lots of backpackers. Not surprising since this is the main spot to leave from to go visit the famous Whitsunday Islands. After checking out a few hostels we ended up staying once again in the party place, this time called Magnums. The only difference here was that for once the guys out numbered the girls (shielas as the Aussies say), unlike the rest of the east coast which is over run with girls, it was normally Antoine and 6 girls to a dorm!  This was something some Irish male friends of ours who we met there were not to happy about however J In the end we decided not to do the Whitsunday trip as it was very expensive,  also we had already been to a few islands and were going to go to Fraser with my family from Brisbane. So after a few lazy days strolling around Airlie we decided to move on again. It’s a fun place, but if you don’t want to get hammered every night or go to the Whitsundays, then there isn’t really much to do there.

Mackay: 10 al 12 de Junio de 2008
Llegamos a Mackay a medio dia. Segun nos deja el automovilista que nos llevo, entramos en un local para comer. Despues de repostar, dejo Annemarie charlando con la encargada y salgo a buscar un sitio para dormir. Solo queda un hostel con un dorm de 8 camas, situado justo encima de un bar. Como no queda otro remedio, ahi es donde pasaremos las proximas noches, en Mc Guire’s Hotel. De vuelta a donde comimos, resulta que le han ofrecido curro a Annemarie, de camarera...si es que en esta zona ni siquiera hay que buescar curro. Por la tarde vamos al Space Art, un museo con entrada libre. A la mañana siguiente nos vamos andando hasta la Marina, son unos 6km para llegar hasta ahi, el tiempo es excelente asi que es agradable. Despues comer el tipico Fish & Chips, nos volvemos hacia el centro. Por la tarde, vamos al cine a ver Black Water, una peli Australiana basada en echos reales, sobre unos jovenes que se encuentran cara a cara con un cocodrilo que tiene bastante hambre y bastante mala leche...Mañana del tercer dia, nos toca un dia largo para ir al menos hasta Rockhampton, lo ideal siendo llegar a Bundaberg. Despues de un primer viaje desde la ciudad hasta la autopista, nos ponemos dedo arriba con nuestra pancarta y a esperar...Despues de unos 20 minutos se para un joven con un 4*4 viejete pero grandote. Va hasta Brisbane asi que subimos con el. Annemarie, te das cuenta que nos esta llevando un chaval de 17 años??!! Al final el tio es super majo y las 7 horas de viaje con el resultan divertidas. Nos deja en Bundaberg tardecillo por la noche. Que suerte hemos tenido!

Mackay: 10 -12 June 2008
Thankfully our trip to Mackay was less entertaining than our hitch-hiking adventures to Townsville, we got picked up by a friendly normal (yipee!) local guy who was going to Mackay for work. We arrived there around lunch time so the firs thing we did was go to a café for some food. It turned out that the Manageress of the café was an Irish woman so within an hour of arriving in Mackay I had been offered a job working with her. This was the second job Id been offered in the last week, I hope finding a job is going to be as easy when we move back home! The crazy thing about it (or should I say annoying) is that I could earn more money in an unskilled job here than I do working in Marketing in Spain?! However unfortunately Australia is just too far away from home for me, yes I would miss my Mum, so a move here is not even something I would consider. While I was chatting away to the Irish woman Antoine went in search of a hostel but everything was booked up except Mc Guire’s Hotel. Don’t let the word “Hotel” fool you, it was a run down room over a bar with about 20 dorm beds in it! Although it worked out well for us as we had it all to ourselves and due to the state of the place it cost peanuts. We spent a few days in Mackay and really enjoyed it. We walked around the town, visited their Space Art Museum, and walked 6 km to the marina where we treated ourselves to some fish & chips in the sun. We also took advantage of the cinemas in Mackay and went to see an Australian film called Black Water, it was about a crocodile attack on three holiday makers in the Northern Territory…..yes it was scary and no I won´t be going within 100 miles of an creeks or rivers when we get to Darwin. As always the time came to move on, we checked the map and realised that we were still a long way from Brisbane, a long way from succeeding in our challenge to hitch-hike 1700km of the Queensland east coast. We decided that we needed to get at least as far as Rockhampton that day (3.5 hours away) and if possible to Bundaberg, but we thought that was going to be difficult seeing as it was about 7 hours away by car. The day got started when we met a really nice guy in Mackay who took us out on the highway. We weren’t even thumbing but when he saw us walking down the street with our backpacks in the baking sun he felt sorry for us and asked us where we were going. Then he went out of his way to leave us to the highway. He also told us he had a beach house nearby so if we wanted to stay a few more days we could stay there for free!!! Sound or what, sometimes the kindness of complete strangers really surprises me, yes hitch-hiking has shown me that there are a good few crazy people out there, but also a large number of genuine good hearted people out to lend a hand. Thankfully we found some shade under a tree and from there we put up our sign for Rockhampton. Just around 20 minutes later (the most we had ever had to wait!!!) a young guy pulled up in a 4x4. Turns out he was heading to Brisbane so what a stroke of luck for us, instead of going to Rockhampton we were able to go with him the whole 7 hours to Bundaberg!!!! He rang his sister along the way who used to live in Rockhampton and she said that there was nothing to see there so we continued on without remorse. We actually couldn’t believe how lucky we got and apparently this was the first time this guy had ever stopped for hitch-hikers. It turned out he was only 17, after only having his licence 8 months he only had one point left!!! However he drove ok and we had good craic with him during the whole trip down the coast. I still can´t believe how lucky we got, one lift to take us 7 hours to where we wanted to go!

Bundaberg: 12 al 14 de junio de 2008
La ciudad en si es tranquilita, y al final mas moderna que lo que nos habian pintado. Lo malo es el hostel donde estamos. Como no habia sitio en otro lado, hemos acabado en el Dingo Blue y somos los unicos “turistas” ya que el resto de los ocupantes son jovenes que trabajan en los campos recolectando frutas. El ambiente es un poco raro, el sitio una porqueria. Eso si, hemos pagado la mitad de los que nos suele costar hospedarnos.
La mañana del 13 vamos a visitar la distileria de ron Bundaberg. Es una referencia aqui, aunque no lo exportan demasiado. Pertenece a Diageo asi que Annemarie es un poco reticiente :-(  La visita muy chula, como somos los unicos durante el tour que recordamos el nombre de la levadura que utilizan en el proceso de fermentacion, nos regalan una pegatina...Pasamos el resto del dia tranquilos. A las 5 de la mañana nos despertamos con una alarma y las luces que se han encendido: Fire alarm! Somos los unicos que salimos de la habitacion para ir fuera. Annemarie se rie de mi, pero al fin y al cabo, para que sirve una alarma anti incendio?? Al final no era nada, algun c-----o que habra encendido un pitillo en una habitacion... Pocas horas despues nos levantamos para emprender el viaje a Brisbane. Una vez ahi, estaremos al menos un par de semanas en casa de familiares de Annemarie. Nada de mochilas ni de literas, comida casera y la oportunidad de ver como vive una familia australiana.

Bundaberg: 12 - 14 June  2008
Bundaberg is actually quite a pretty city to look at although apart from the famous Bundaberg Rum Distillery there isn’t much to do. That was fine with us though as the main reason we stopped there was to visit the distillery. Although it is owned by Diageo so I probably shouldn’t have, being from the competition! The tour lasted a few hours and it was really interesting, ending of course with some rum sampling J The only bad thing about Bundaberg was our hostel, Dingo Blue. Apart from us two the rest of the people staying there were backpackers who were working in nearby farms fruit picking. The place was a mess, mud and dirt everywhere from the workers boots and clothes, and the atmosphere was strange also. My romantic ideas of how it would be fun to do some fruit picking in Australia were quickly erased when I saw the reality of it….5am starts, treated like animals, paid badly, living in dirt…basically the people doing it would get up super early and slog in the sun all day, then come back to the hostel and drink the night away complaining about how much they hated fruit picking, before getting up with a hangover the next morning to go the same thing again. No thank you! On our last night there we also had an early start as the fire alarm almost scared the life out of us when it started wailing at 4am!!!! In the end it wasn’t a fire, just some idiot who had been smoking in his room. Seeing as Antoine and I were the only ones to actually evacuate the building I´m guessing it was a regular occurrence! Then that morning it was time to finish that part of our east coast trip and arrive in Brisbane to meet my family. I had been to Australia and met my family when I was 6 years old, so I was excited to be able to meet them again and curious to see what Id remember from when I was just a kid.

Brisbane: 14 de Junio al 2 de Julio de 2008

Estamos como a media hora del centro de Brisbane, en casa de Heather (prima de segundo grado de Annemarie), Mickael (su pareja), y los hijos Thomas, Jannice y Daniel. Segun pasamos por la casa nos acogen como sus propios hijos y realmente nos hacen sentir como si estuvieramos en casa. Han planeado pillar sus vacaciones mientras estamos con ellos para asi poder llevarnos a descubrir Frazer Island y The Gold Coast. No podiamos pedir mejor.

El primer dia que fuimos al centro de Brisbane, nos sorprendio lo tranquilo que es. El centro de la ciudad es relativamente pequeño y tranquilo, no es como en la ciudades donde normalmente siempre hay sirenas de ambulancias, gente pitando, ...no aqui parece que las cosas se hacen con mas relajacion. Y se agradece pasear por la ciudad sin sentir el estress de la ciudad. Tambien es verdad que no hemos estado en el trafico en las horas punta... Aun asi, Brisbane debe de ser una ciudad bastante agradable para vivir. Segun nos comenta Mick, hay unas 1000 personas por semana que se instalan en la region, tanto extranjeros como Australianos.

Despues de una semana de relax, toca ir a descubrir las maravillas que ofrece The Sunshine Coast y The Goald Coast, al Norte y Sur de Brisbane, respectivamente.

Brisbane: 14  June - 2  July 2008

Arriving in Brisbane was very exciting as I was going to get to see family that I had only met once when I six. I was interested to find out just how accurate my 6 year old memories would be. Since we arrived into Brisbane almost an hour earlier than expected, instead of calling my Aunt Heather as planned, we asked for directions and surprised her by knocking on the door. It was amazing to see her again and meet the rest of her brood, Michael her partner and her two sons Thomas and Daniel. Daniel was 3 the last time I was over and since he is now over 6ft I can´t say I would have recognised him! We also met Heathers daughter Janice a few days later, seeing as she was only 1 the last time I saw her, we didn’t recognise each other either! Heather and Michael really made us feel at home and spoiled us rotten during the whole time we were there with them. They really treated us like part of the family and Antoine wasn’t slow to take advantage of this by enjoying all Heathers tasty home cooked meals! We also got the chance to catch up with more of my relatives and spend time with them when we were there. Yes there was lots of photo taking and chattering, Antoine proved his English has improved tons here as he was able to keep up with all the conversations and almost chat more than me! (and that’s not easy!!). It was a very special trip for me also as I got to see my Granmother´s brother Billy, although he is 81 years old he is more active than any of us!! As far as sightseeing goes we did lots of that also, that was the great thing about our stay in Brisbane, we got to be part of an Australian family and also do the tourist haunts. The centre of Brisbane surprised us as it felt quite calm and relaxed, it is great as you have the advantages of a big city but without all the horn beeping and crowded streets. The centre is also very pretty with a river running right through the middle of it all, definitely somewhere I could live. The Australian Zoo was also on our list of stops and we had a lovely day out there with lots of my relatives. We got to get up close and personal with lots of the typical Australian wildlife, including a baby crocodile which we touched. Might sound brave of us but the crocodile trainer was holding its mouth shut so it wasn’t that brave of us really!!!! After relaxing at Michael and Heather´s house for a while it was time to do some roadtrips, Heather and Michael both took holidays from work when we were there to show us some of the sights, Fraser Island and The Gold Coast here we come. Heather and Michael thank you both for everything you did for us, you really made our trip unforgettable and we really appreciate the fact that you took time off work to be with us.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX FOTOS BRISBANEXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Frazer Island: 22-24 de Junio de 2008

Nada mas y nada menos que la isla de arena mas grande del mundo! 1840km2 sin carreteras y llena de fauna y flora. Solo se puede circular en 4 por 4, y los paisajes son icreibles. Aguas cristalinas en los lagos, sobre todo el lago Mc Kenzie en el que pasamos una tarde bañandonos. Tuvimos la suerte de ver Dingos, perros salvajes tipicos de Australia. De echo, algunas zonas donde los turistas pueden hospedarse, estan rodeadas por vayas para evitar la presencia de dingos dentro de estos recintos.

Pasamos un par de dias pescando, circulando en coche por playas interminables...todo un lujo para los ojos. Hace demasiado frio para poder bañarnos en el mar pero aun asi nos llevamos un recuerdo fantastico de este lugar de encanto.

Nada mas volver a Brisvegas (asi llaman a Brisbane por aqui), pillamos ropa limpia al pasar por casa y salimos hacia el sur con destino a “La Costa de Oro”.

Fraser Island: 22-24 June 2008

Ok let me make this clear, Fraser Island is amazing and definitely not to be missed if your on the east coast of Australia. It is the largest sand island in the world, 1840km2 of beautiful scenery, tons of flora and fauna and here is the best part…not one single tarred road! Yes the only way to get around the island is in a 4x4 on the sand tracks. SOOO much craic! Not only does the island have miles and miles of beach but it has lots of crystal clear water lakes with white sand beaches. One of the most spectacular is Lake McKenzie, it’s the perfect place to chill out for the afternoon, swimming in the transparent water and running your toes through the most silky white sand Ive ever seen. Another feature of the island, one you probably won’t want to get to close to, is the many wild dingo packs that roam around. I was hoping to spot one and I wasn’t disappointed as we saw lots of them, not to mention a fight between a few of them and a cheeky one that was looking in the restaurant door as we were having dinner! They actually don´t look that scary but after hearing stories about how they kill people I certainly didn’t want to meet one in the dark of night. Although there are lots of areas for camping on Fraser Island, we got to forget our low budget backpacking lifestyle and instead sleep in the luxury of a lovely apartment that Heather and Michael rented out. When we were sitting on the balcony at night sipping some drinks and enjoying the aperitif, I was more than happy with their decision not to go camping! After getting the ferry over to the mainland again and leaving the sand roads behind, we made our way back to Brisbane for a quick stop by the house to leave Thomas off before hitting the Gold Coast.

The Gold Coast: 24-26 de Junio de 2008

Nada mas y nada menos que 35km de costa en la que se concentran rasca cielos para albergar turistas, centros comerciales del tamaño de un aeropuerto y atracciones para turistas. Estamos en Las Vegas de Australia, en la que acuden mas de 2 millones de visitantes al año...Tenemos la suerte de estar en una de las pocas casas de un solo piso que dan directamente acceso a la playa. Esto es un privilegio y la casa en la que estamos, por su ubicacion , esta tasada en varias decenas de millones de dolares. Estamos aqui de prestados, vaya, esto de tener relaciones con gente adinerada no esta mal del todo...La primera noche nos lo tomamos con relax, charlando en casa y aprovechando de las vistas al mar. Al dia siguiente empezamos prontito la visita a los alrededores. Surfers Paradise, playa emblematica de la zona, y las calles peatonales del centro. Tarde mas playista, pesca para mi y los primeros pasos de Annemarie con una cometa. Por la noche vamos los cuatro a cenar Sushi y luego fuimos al casino. Bueno, hasta la entrada de este, ya que no tenemos nuestros pasaportes y con su cara de niña buena, Annemarie se ve rechazar el acceso al casino...Asi que nos fuimos a otro mas pequeño en el que estuvimos casi un par de horas. Balance: Ganamos 20 dolares, suficiente para un par de tragos. Despues de eso fuimos a echar unas partidas de bolos. Yo de observador ya que todavia no estoy bien del todo de los hombros...

La vuelta a casa al dia siguiente la hicimos por las tierras interiores. Un cambio radical respecto a la sobrepoblacion de la costa!

Aprovechamos de nuestros ultimos dias en Brisbane para ir al Australian Zoo, famoso por sus cocodrilos, reptiles y marsupios. Un buen sitio para pasar el dia. Nos preparamos para la vuelta a Sydney y las ultimas dos semanas en tierra Australis.

The Gold Coast: 24-26 June 2008

Less than an hour from Brisbane you know you have entered the Gold Coast as you see large sky scraper hotels pop up around you, huge shopping centres and every kind of tourist attraction you can imagine. Yes the Gold Coast is 35km of tourist attractions and endless beaches. It really is the Las Vegas of Australia, especially one area, the most famous, known as Surfers Paradise. We are lucky enough to be able to drive past the sky scraper apartments and stay in one of the last standing houses right in front of the beach. Michael´s Uncle owns the house and even though it is worth millions for it´s location he won’t give it up for anything, and who would blame him as it really is a top spot. The first night after a drive down the coast we decide to take it easy and relax at home with the sound of the sea in the background. The next day we got up early and went sightseeing. We saw all around the coast, right down to the border with New South Whales, and also went for a walk around the famous Surfers Paradise. After taking in all the sights we decided to head back to the house and spend the afternoon on the beach. Antoine tried his hand at some beach fishing with Michael, while I tired to get to grips with flying a kite…it is way harder than it looks so thankfully Michael´s kites aren’t too fragile!!! On our second night there we decided to try our luck at the Casino, not before going to a sushi train for dinner though to get our energy back from all that running around on the beach. However our night didn’t go as planned as Antoine and I got asked for Id at the Casino and since we didn’t have any with us we couldn’t get in!!!!! (It was a pity not to get in but it did feel good getting asked for Id! Haha). However all was not lost as Michael came up with a plan B and we went to another casino down the coast a bit just over the New South Whales border. Here our luck changed and we won 20 dollars, ok its not much but it did pay for some drinks! After a few hours in the casino we ended the night with some bowling, Michael was the unbeaten champion and Antoine was the audience as he couldn’t play with his sore shoulders. The following day we headed back to Brisbane (or BrisVegas as it is called in some guide books) by an inland road. This was great as it was such a change from the coast and there was hardly a person or a house in sight. Back in Brisbane we said goodbye to Heather and Michael as they were heading off for a week and we stayed another five days in their house with Daniel. Staying in Brisbane with my family was really like a holiday from backpacking, it completely recharged our batteries and got us ready to hit the rambling road again.