Day 28
We woke up incredibly early this morning, heading into the town of Agnus Waters at around 6 am to sign ourselves up for some early morning surfing. Agnus Waters is renowned for it’s beginner surfing, with several local stores offering incredibly cheap lessons. We went with a company offering $17 surfing lessons, which seemed like an incredible deal considering you get 3 hours on the water with all equipment included! We arrived at the store nice and early, and were the first people signed up for the day’s lesson. After the usual waivers and safety lectures (blah, blah, blah) we were finally on the beach ready to head into the water.
The surf shop/lesson are run by 3 men named Grom, JD, and Rory, so basically exactly what you would expect from an Australian surf shop. And just as cliche as their names are, they were typical surfing dudes, with long flowing blonde hair, and heavy accents. I always assumed some of these cliches were over-exaggerated, but after what seemed like the thousandth “Duuuuuude” and “Go, mate! Go, mate!”, I realized that these stereotypes exist for a very good reason. I was just waiting for a “Righteoussss” to finish off the set.
After briefly practicing the process of standing up on a board, we were thrown into the water with gusto, and we began to ride the waves into shore, attempting to stand whenever possible, and falling more than I care to admit. Still, we had amazing weather for it, and the waves were ideal for us, coming in slowly and gently, carefully lifting us up, and then pushing us forward while we flopped on top of the board. Of the two of us, Caroline stood up first as she balanced precariously on her board before tumbling back into the water. I stood up right after, riding quite successfully for some time, before colliding with another surfer and taking us both down. After roughly an hour in the first location, we moved up the beach towards the more “advanced” waves.
The first waves we rode were dumping waves; waves coming directly into the shore before crashing over. These waves I found to be incredibly easy to catch, however because they dump so quickly you can only stand up for a couple seconds before they come crashing down, taking out both you and your board. The waves we moved to were spilling waves; waves coming in at an angle that you can actually ride for quite some time, as they push you down the beach instead of onto the beach. These are bloody hard to catch, nigh impossible, and look like the more typical surfer wave.
Turns out surfing is incredibly exhausting, and after several hours trying to catch the spilling waves, our lesson was over and we laboriously dragged our boards back to shore. Carrying the boards back to the shop, we received dinky little certificates of completion (Yay, I graduated!) and then went to nap.
Surfing is exhausting.
After we had recuperated slightly, we bought some supplies for a delicious brunch, and headed to 1770 for a cook-up (Ha, “Cook”-up). 1770 was the date that Captain Cook did some pretty cool things, and they named this peninsula after the date he arrived. 1770. Cool stuff. It is also (and more importantly) just a really really beautiful place, with stunning parks, beautiful hikes, and stellar (correction, STELLAR) sunsets and sunrise, being one of the only places where you can actually see the sun rise and fall over the same ocean. Cool stuff.
After a delicious brunch, beachside hangout time, and an amazing sunset, we headed back to Agnus Waters to find caming. Camping in Australia has been an interesting experience, as unlike New Zealand it isn’t nearly as well established and maintained, but there are sooo many more free places. Until now, we had only paid once for a campsite, which is great! However, a lot of the free campsites are pretty horrid, often just a patch of concrete by the road. Near Agnus Waters there are no such campsites to be found. We hadn’t planned ahead, and were now frantically trying to find a campsite, even a paid one, that still had room for us. After several rejections, I found an advertisement for “Off the Grid Camping”, and gave them a call. They had room!
We pulled into the campground only to discover that it was actually someone’s house. They decided to rent out a portion of their land to campers looking for a spot to park a campervan overnight. The kicker: they had the most amazing facilities we have seen yet. From hot showers, two fridges, entire stove with cutlery, and even an actual hostel-style room with 4 beds, this place was unreal! Best of all, all water used was rainwater, and all power used was solar. Such an amazing find! We finally had light and power, so we took advantage by staying up late for the first time in ages and watching movies.
Day 29
Having so clearly mastered (lolz) surfing the day before, we decided to head back and take another shot at riding the waves. Waking up nice and and early, we grabbed a couple boards (“Have a chill day, bruuh”) and hit the waves. Repeatedly. With our faces. Surfing is painful.
Also exhausting.
I really don’t have a lot to say about today. Like any sport, surfing takes time to master, and we spent all day attempting just that. I have no stories of crazy waves or tricks that we performed. We just surfed!
Getting back into the van, we decided to make the drive all the way to Bundaberg. So in the dying light, we wound our way down the road south towards Bundy. We found a beautiful campsite by a river walk, and hid from all of the loud, obnoxious backpackers having way too much fun on the other side of the park.
Day 30
This morning started off with a dose of work, so we pulled up to our trusty Maccas for some free wifi. Fast-forward 3 hours, we hit the road to figure out what there was to do in town! As usual, we were there in the wrong season and couldn't do half of the epic stuff around Bundaberg. Still, we picked a handful of cool things to do, and set out.
Not all travel days are as successful as others, and this day was about as bad as they come. First we attempted to climb a mountain, only to find out that we couldn't access the trail. Then we went to explore lilac fields, only to find that they weren’t in flower. From there, we travelled to Bargara which is a beautiful retirement village frequented by gorgeous turtles. However, there were no turtles present while we were there, so we headed back to the campsite early.
At the campsite we met some lovely travelers from Western Australia, who were busy travelling their country. The coolest part, however, is that while travelling south of Sydney, they fell in love with, and subsequently bought, an adorable dog! The concept of raising a dog on the road is a little mind-boggling to me, however it brought us so much joy to snuggle this tiny creature, and watch as it ran around pouncing on leaves and finding bits of food everywhere. I don’t know if I could do it, but that backpacker couple were rocking the whole dog thing!
After an evening as part of the rambunctious backpacker circle, spent chatting and telling stories, it was time for us to retire and prep for another day of Bundaberg Exploration.
Day 31
Our second Bundy day, we started with a quick hike to the Sharon Gorge (not to exciting), then drove into town. We visited “The Barrel” first, the barrel shaped factory that produces Bundaberg Ginger Beer, a delicious local product that is bought and sold nationwide. The barrel shaped building is pretty cool, but other than that there wasn’t much to see. So we headed to our next stop: Bundaberg Rum Factory. We spent most of the day exploring the museum, learning interesting facts about the rum making process, and watching movies about rum-tasters and polar bears. The highlight of the afternoon, however, was definitely the two free drinks that came with the tour. Now since Caroline was driving, that ended up being 4 free drinks for me. It was a good afternoon.
First we sipped on 100 year old rum, which we then added coke to because it was nasty. Then we tried Bundaberg Black, the “Black” portion signifying the expensiveness of the rum. We also added coke to this one. We then got to try their liqueurs, both the chocolate and coffee liqueurs, and the banana toffee one. We sipped each on their own, before trying them in various concoctions. To the chocolate and coffee liqueur we added cream and ginger beer, otherwise known as a Whale Tail for obvious reasons (I don’t understand it either). To the banana and toffee liqueur we added cream and Lift, a combination invented by the bartender that ended up being the best thing ever. So good!
Now I don’t think I have written about this yet (if I have, please forgive me), but Ol’ Bessie is an old, creaky, manual van. Before we bought it, either Caroline or I had ever driven stick before, resulting in me teaching myself via Youtube videos while driving on the wrong side of the road. Up to this point, I had done all the driving. Now, I was slightly intoxicated, and it was Caroline’s turn to learn. And to be entirely honest, she wasn’t half bad! (She made me write that; it was actually awful…) So, after numerous stalls (and being stuck on a hill for about 10 minutes while she struggled to put it in gear), we were on our way south towards our next campsite.
Day 33
Waking up ridiculously early, we headed into the town of Childers without any expectations or intention of stopping, but after seeing how amazingly cute the town was, we couldn’t help but to stop.
Childers is an adorable vintage town with beautiful old buildings, and a ton of history. Because it was so early, everything was still closed, so we ended up just walking up and down the streets peering through windows. Finally, towards the end of our exploration, things started opening and we were able to actually enter the shops for a change. Our first stop was a stunning vintage movie theater, where the chairs were made out of canvas and the walls were covered with cracks letting light into the otherwise dark theatre. Simply stepping into this building was enough to strike anyone with awe, as the history is so clearly present in every plank and nail of the structure.
From there we went to the information center, an old converted hotel in which 15 backpackers died in a deliberately set fire. A sad memorial, the building now serves an amazing purpose, bringing life, information, and art from the ashes of the old hotel.
From Childers we headed into Hervey Bay, the gateway to Fraser Island. Fraser Island is the world's largest sand island, and is supposed to be an absolutely stunning spot to spend a couple days. Unfortunately, we didn’t have the money required to spend time on the island, so we decided to skip it. Instead, we went to the nearby Discovery Sphere to learn about the island and surrounding waters.
After absorbing the information in the sphere, we drove along the Hervey Bay esplanade until we reached the jetty. The Hervey Bay jetty is insanely long, taking us approx 20 minutes to walk one way. As we walked along the jetty, we saw fish teeming in the water below, being scooped up by a couple cormorants from time to time. All of the sudden, the fish scattered and we saw a small shark thrashing through the water, grabbing at fish left and right a they flew from his jaws. Even though this shark was tiny, watching it hunt was incredibly terrifying, as there was so much power and speed in it’s actions.
From the jetty we went to the marina to hug a giant whale sculpture, and then headed out of Hervey Bay to Maryborough, home of Mary Poppins. Or at least, home of the lady who wrote Mary Poppins. Arriving in town around supper time, we decided to pick up some groceries from Woolies before finding the statue of Mary Poppins. We headed into the store, grabbed some food, and then got back into the van. Turning left after exiting the parking lot, we were immediately stopped by a red light. As we waited for it to turn green, the engine stalled. And would not start.
“A fuel intake problem” said the gentleman who helped us push the van out of harm’s way “I know a guy.”. 15 minutes later, we had a mobile mechanic come to look at the van. As usual, this “fuel intake problem” magically disappeared once the mechanic arrived, and we payed the man for simply showing up despite the fact that he barely looked at the car as the problem wasn’t replicating itself. Grrr…
We made it to the Mary Poppins’ statue, took some awesome photos, and then headed to our campsite. Looking back on the day, we had a massive day and did so much. You really do have good travel days and bad travel days. I’m just not sure which one this one was.
Day 34
From a campsite south of Maryborough we headed over to Rainbow Beach, the southernmost tip of Fraser Island and a place I had heard ton of amazing stuff about. We pulled into town to find a small, quiet town center very reminiscent of Agnus Waters. I fell in love instantly, despite the fact that the town didn’t have a lot going on. It was just one of those places that had a compelling charm about it, and I really enjoyed the atmosphere.
The first thing we did in town was head to the beach, where we confronted with massive rolling waves. Though by local standards, these waves were actually tiny, to us they were huge. Averaging around 8ft tall, they would come crashing in, giving you a hearty smack if you didn’t duck dive fast enough. We spent a couple hours simply hanging out in these waves, enjoying the thrill of wrestling with the ocean, often losing. At long last we pulled ourselves away and went to see what else the town had to offer.
Our next stop was known as “The Sandblow”, which seemed vague and non-descript until we arrived. And arriving itself was a challenge, with the drive being mostly steep hills with tight curves making it impossible to build momentum in our chunky van. At one point we even had locals laughing at us as poor Ol’ Bessie struggled so much to make it up a particular stretch of hill that we had to reverse and try again with a running start.
We eventually made it, and it was definitely worth the effort. The Sandblow is a huge valley of sand leading in from the ocean and coming at least 700m inland before dropping off into tree again. There is no lead-up to it, as you will be walking through forest before it suddenly drops into sand. Clearly the sand has blown in from the ocean, however it seems nearly impossible when consider the sheer amount of sand in the valley; with it’s steep ridges and deep curves. The Sandblow is one of those places where you just have to take a step back and marvel at how crazy the world is.
From the Sandblow we decided we didn’t have enough time (or energy) to visit any other Rainbow beach attractions, so we continued down the road southwards. We decided to stop at a Mcdonalds to charge up our devices and reconnect with the world. So stop we did, and we spent the dying hours of the day enjoying air conditioned paradise and 50 cent ice creams. That’s when Ian called about the boat.
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