Friday, December 18, 2009

round a small world

Hey folks. Checking in from Brisbane. Just about to leave actually. I spent three nights here and now I'm off to Surfer's Paradise for two nights before heading down to Sydney for the holidays. Brisbane is a nice city. Very clean and compact. I walked around the entire city last night and it took me about two hours. There's not much to do here besides walk around. I went to a couple museums to kill some time but that was pretty much all Brisbane has to offer in the way of tourist attractions.

The past two weeks have been fairly hectic. The three day sailing cruise around the Whitsunday Islands was incredible. It was relaxing because all we did was sail around, lay out on the deck, drink, eat, snorkel, and check out sandy beaches. At the same time it was tiring because we would be up past midnight, and I couldn't sleep in past six. Ever try sleeping on a sailboat? Getting to sleep wasn't bad, but once you're awake, you're awake for good. Anyway we had a good group of 25 other backpackers who were all looking for a good time. The best day was when we visted Whitehaven beach. Definitely a location rich in postcard opportunities. You could wade out into the water and see baby reef sharks and stingrays swim right past your feet. At night we moored up next to a sandbar in the middle of a cove. It was a little strech of beach in the middle of the water. We got dropped off (with enough supplies to last a few hours) played a little rugby and watched the sun go down. Great day.

After leaving Airlie I headed for Rainbow Beach where I stayed for a night before heading out to Fraser Island. There were six groups of ten people, and each group had their own 4WD vehicle. It was really more of a tank than a SUV, but we needed every bit of strength it had. Driving in deep sand is no picnic, and Fraser is the world's biggest sand island. We never got dug in too bad, but all became pretty skilled at pushing a car out of the sand (Think Little Miss Sunshine).

Fraser was an exhausting trip. Again, the cycle of staying up late and getting up early took its toll on all of us. We were always driving, setting up or breaking camp, cooking, or drinking. Deinitely worth every minute though. We stopped at a couple lakes that provided a nice afternoon break from traveling. After a memorable three days, I must admit it was a good feeling to get back to civilization and have a shower and sleep on something soft. Plus, after living on the world's largest sand island for three days, you can imagine how much sand we all had to pick out of our ears, noses, hair, etc. I've found that I need to add sand to my food since I've grown so accustomed to it. Nothing like a little extra crunch.

Well I need to get going. I feel like I've overstayed my welcome in Brisbane and Surfer's is just around the corner. One thing I will say, though, is how small a world the backpacking culture is. I keep running into the same people. It's pretty cool to randomly run into people you met hundreds of miles away and thought you'd never see again. It makes you keep your eyes open.

Hope you're all doing well back stateside. I probably won't check in again until after Christmas, so have a great holiday everyone. Watch some xmas movie marathons and have some egg nog for me.

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