Photogs Thus Far...

Dingo's, Danger and Didgeridoomsday for Brizvegas

Noosa, aaahh Noosa. A place of precisely scheduled year-round holiday making. 5 am sunrise in the summer, and you can count on at least fifty or so swimmers, surfers, and stand-up paddleboarders are already out on the water at first light. While I was there I stayed at the YHA hostel just about a block from Hastings street. Off of Hastings street is access to the main Noosa Beaches, the sand bar, river mouth, and Noosa Headland breaks - First Point, Tea Tree Bay, Granites, and Alexandria Bay. The point breaks didn't have too much going on, so I mostly was at Noosa Main beach. Stayed there for two nights and then up to Rainbow Beach. Along with Harvey Bay, Rainbow is a gateway town to Fraser Island: the world's largest sand Island. "Grains of sand... we're all just grains of sand!" - A Famous Quote. Yes, there definitely was a heap of sand on the island, and rain. We basically had a large amount of rain every day, with patches of sun. Fraser Island is also home to a very rare population of Dingoes, because of their isolation from the rest of the continent they have a very pure geneology. Fraser Island had some cool lakes, and we drank a lot of beer in a big tent, but other than that didn't do too much. Driving around in the 4x4's through the rainforest on an island made it feel kinda like Jurassic Park, minus the dino's, add dingo's.

After Fraser the rain had closed down parts of the Bruce Highway through Gympie to get back to Brisbane. But finally I escaped! Great success! On Jan the 9th I made it through from Rainbow Beach back to Brisbane. Just barely though, lots of the roads were flooded. The day after however many of the roads we had travelled on were completely submerged. Flew out of Brisbane and arrived in Melbourne on Monday, been hanging out in the city for the first two nights and made it out to Torquay last night. Met up with my pals from BC, Brett and Liza, who live in Wallington near 13th Beach.

Best wishes to all who have been affected by the QLD floods! Help is on the way. Anyone travelling north of Brisbane? Maybe not so advisable...

The Lingo ate my Baby...
Capsicum - Pepper (as in the Vegetable)
Mad as a cut snake - really really angry
Goin' Off - Really happening and exciting. ie. That house party is goin' off!
Goin' off like a bride's nightie - Really goin' off
Sam Kekovich - humorous spokesmen for Australian Nationalism and barbecues

Itinerary
Jan 16 - Fly back to Melbourne
Jan 17 - Feb 5 Brisbane, Gold Coast, Byron Bay, etc. all the way to Sydney

Boxing Day to New Years

G'day, Canadians!I am writing to you from the abode of my good pals David, Carolyne and Luca Hall who reside in Ferny Hills of the greater Brisbane area, Queensland. Today is day 8 of my Australian journey. Apologies for not getting this blog goin' earlier, I've been real busy muckin' about in the South Eastern Queensland area. So far I've gone on a few excursions into the main downtown area (Brisbane CBD), drives into the surrounding countryside of Samford, and good day of surf up at Dicky's Beach, Caloundra on the Sunshine Coast.

So far it's been pretty humid, and we've had a lot of rain (apparently QLD had its rainiest December this year in 150 yrs!) We have had some sunny days too, though. Average temperature has been btw 27 and 31 Celsius. The heat's been nice, wowever it has had its draw backs: the UV radiation is INTENSE. On the day trip up the Sunshine Coast I was at the beach from 11am to 3pm w/ hat, UV shirt, shades, zinc the whole gag and I still got wrecked from radiation: my ears were singed, neck toasted, and I felt like I went through the microwave. Bleh. Anyways, had to delay my journeys north by two days from heat exhaustion, but today's the day! I am going to get a bus up to Noosa and beyond (see below for itinerary)

    Useful Aussie Jargon
G'day: Typical greeting
Boot: the trunk of a car
Tomato Sauce: Ketchup
How ye goin?: Typical question to ask how someone "is doing".
Sultana: A sultana is what Australians use to call a raisin. What they call a raisin would be a very very small raisin.
Fairdinkum: "for sure"... ie. You goin for a surf today, Bruce? Fairdinkum, I am!
mate: | māt |
2 [in combination ] a fellow member or joint occupant of a specified thing : his tablemates.
• Brit., informal: used as a friendly form of address between men or boys : “See you then, mate.”
• Brit., informal: a friend or companion : I was with a mate | my best mate, Steve.


Travel Itinerary for January:
Jan 2-4 Noosa Heads, QLD
Jan 4-6 Rainbow Beach, QLD
Jan 6-9 Fraser Island, back to Rainbow, back to Brisbane, QLD
Jan 10-16 Melbourne, VIC
Jan 17-Feb 6 Bus Tour Starting in Brisbane, QLD and ending up in Wollongong, NSW

Thanks for reading my post! Will update more about my journeys on Jan 9th or 10th!
-Simon