Beach Bum Life in the Fast Lane

Hey folks,
So unfortunately, I tried to post some pics this morning but it's not working. So it'll have to wait again. I do have some awesome pics that I'd like to post.

I think I last left everyone in Surfer's Paradise. Last Friday, I headed north to Brisbane with these two cool Israeli guys that I met at the hostel. But not without making a quick detour south first to a little hippie town called Nimbin. Nimbin is well.... in short... Disneyland for potheads. It's a small little town. We wandered through what was the local "museum" - essentially a psychedelic house and I was offered a good dozen times "cookies" and "hash." Fear not, I didn't have any. ;) But it was a rather surreal experience.

Then we drove up to Brisbane. There really isn't much to see in Brisbane. It's a nice city to live in. But not much by way of tourist destinations. I did go clubbing on Friday night. I went to this place called The Beat Megaclub. There's like a few clubs attached to one another. There was this one club called "Wrecker" that played the most hardcore industrial trance/electronica - or whatever you want to call it. I loved it! At one point though, the bass was so loud that my rib cage was vibrating and actually shaking. I had to step out briefly. It must have a small subculture following b/c the people there were wearing these crazy massive flare pants.

I spent most of Saturday just walking around Brisbane and taking it the sights. Like I said, not much to see. I wasn't too sad to leave on Sunday and head north again to Hervey Bay.

Hervey Bay is a small beach town - mainly a transit point for those going to Fraser Island. Now Fraser Island is pretty freakin' amazing.... It's an island made entirely of sand. It's a world heritage site. But the coolest thing is being able to camp on the island and drive around in 4WD down the beach.

So on Monday morning at 6:30am - the earliest I'd be up for in over a week. We were put into groups of approx 10. I volunteered to help do the shopping. (I like to take charge). I messed up real bad though when I forgot to buy lunch meat for our three day of sandwiches. Thankfully, we did pass a supermarket on the way to the barge that would take us over to the island. Essentially, we're given a big 4WD SUV, camping gear, a map, and some other guidelines - including specific instructions not to feed the dingoes.

For three days (Mon-Wed) , we drove around the island, sailing down the beach at 80 km/h. It was CRAZINESS!!! Spectacular beaches and views. We climbed up to this lookout point and saw sharks, schools of fish, turtles. We visited a number of inland lakes. And these lakes were gorgeous. White, white sand, and crystal blue waters. (well, at least when it was sunny). It rained buckets the first day and I really wanted to go home. No one like camping when it's pouring. It was a very bouncy ride to the say the least, espeically when we were driving through the forested area. I'll need to post some pictures soon so you get a feel for what I'm talking about. I had LOTS of fun w/ the people that I met. We got absolutely trashed the first night but ran out of alcohol the second night, so it was bit tame so to speak.

Anyway, I'm headed north again today to a place called Rockhampton. I'm just staying over to sleep before spending another day on the bus again tomorrow. Meh.... two days on the bus.... oh well.... I'll try to catch up on some sleep.

Rock on Oz!