Anyhoo.
We were last in Airlie Beach and that is when The Great Storm of '13 was about to hit (otherwise known as Tropical Cyclone Oswald). Kate had been due to fly to her next destination and, if memory serves, either had to get to the airport earlier than planned, or her flight was cancelled - either way, there was a sense of unease in the air that a big old dump of rain was on its merry way. However, optimism prevailed and the full extent of the rain hadn't quite reached us at Airlie, so I wasn't too worried about the odd drop or two. After all, it was technically rainy season, and we hadn't felt so much as a drip.
I hopped onto the overnight Greyhound from Airlie to Rainbow Beach. This was my first, but certainly not my last, overnight bus. Overnight buses are a total ballache. The thinking is that you save on a night in a hostel - which is true, but you trade in a night of proper sleep in a horizontal, if not completely comfortable, actual bed. As we trundled down the Bruce Highway (yes, that is its actual name), I kept waking up to the driver's 1000 decibel destination announcements and rain beating mercilessly against the window - but given we were driving in the dark, I still didn't quite appreciate the level of storm we were experiencing. After about 11 arse-numbing hours on the coach, 4 of which were half-sleep, I was unceremoniously ditched near Pippie's Beach House Backpackers Hostel and blearily wandered over to check in.
Pippie's Beach House Backpackers Hostel is a name that conjures up images of liberal, sun-kissed youths in the prime of their life spending their days bronzing their taut hides on the beach, and their evenings surrounding a campfire and talking about the magic of travel and what character-enhancing experiences they have had. I chose to stay at Pippie's in order to hopefully experience some of this bounty, before going on a pre-booked tour of Fraser Island with Fraser Island Discovery. The tour booking cost an arm and a leg, but I had been reliably informed by several people that Fraser Island (which is entirely made of sand by the way) was both 'unmissable' and 'amazing', so I did what I always do in these situations: closed my eyes after I entered my credit card details and clicked 'Pay Now'.
I don't actually recall my day or night at Pippie's - unfortunately this isn't down to some wild and debauched boozing session, just a poor set of notes for this part of the trip. I can just about remember doing some emailing after re-mortgaging my non-existent mortgage for some wi-fi credit, and going for beers in a nearby bar under a giant tarpaulin as the rain raged on.
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| Carefree days on Rainbow Beach (image credit / disclaimer: Pippie's Beach House Hostelworld page. I don't actually know any of these people) |
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| What it actually looked like. Could be Bognor Regis |
The next morning, things were continuing to look wet. I called the Fraser Island Discovery customer service line to see if the tour was still on and they assured me everything was still going ahead as planned. I wasn't sure what to make of that, but decided that perhaps Fraser Island had its own special microclimate that circumvented the storm and, light of heart and wallet, left Pippie's to meet Rick, our driver and guide for the experience. What kind of a guide was Rick? Well, I think this photo speaks for itself:
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| Here's Rick after a few quaffs of goon, whipping up a traditional Aussie barbie for tea |
After gathering the rest of the group, we battled through a picnic lunch under a verandah-type structure and jumped into the 4-wheel drive monster truck that was Rick's tour car, which got us onto Fraser Island via a brief ferry trip. Needless to say, Fraser was a bit of a washout. Rick valiantly battled the wind and rain to drive us down the usually-breathtaking sands, and after a few stops to get out and take photos at the top spots (Maheno Shipwreck, Champagne Pools, Lake McKenzie), we were informed that we had to cut the outdoor portion of our trip short as the storm was actually a cyclone. Exciting! So we did what all good backpackers do when they can't actually go anywhere and cracked out the beers and goon.
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| Paradise |
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| Cyclone Crew '12. Shout out to Rick, Connie, Ness, Julie, Billy, Lucy and Marcus |
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| Champagne Pools - this is what it is supposed to look like |
If you read this far, I love you. Next instalment - Noosa!
