Down the Coast

I have left Cairns approximately 10 days ago and I have come across some very nice landscapes. I stopped for a 2 days cruise on the Whitsunday Islands, 2 "safari" days in Fraser Island, 2 more days in Noosa, Brisbane and now Coolangatta (see next post) where I am about to cross into New South Wales.

So far my highlight is the Whitsundays. We were 23 passengers on a sailing boat and that was my real first time there. Chilling out on the deck in the sunshine or watching the stars at night is simply awesome.

During this two days trip we also saw huge fish when we snorkeled (pictures are not mine, thanks Claire)

and we went to the famous Whitehaven Beach

I recommend anyone going to Australia to do such a cruise. If you do it at the right time you could even sleep on the deck, which we couldn't because it gets too cold at night (like 10 degrees, I did not know it could get that cold here).

Next stop was Fraser Island. Fraser is special in Australia because this is basically a big island of sand where a rain forest has managed to develop (because of the heavy rainfall apparently). Considering that there are no roads but just sands you need a 4*4 to drive around there. Our bus looked a bit like a tank:

During the two days my favourite things (except the jacuzzi of the nearby resort) were the famous Lake Mc Kenzie that has two beaches, one crowded with tourists (mostly noisy Germans) and the other one almost for yourself, very very nice and enjoyable.

and the Champagne Pools. Pity this is not real champagne but pretty cold water (apprx 20 degrees which is really cold after the 30ish in Thailand). However the really cool thing is to see the waves breaking just before the pools!!

Finally Noosa is a cute little town coastal town that has both a very nice beach where surfers come and enjoy the waves, and a national park where I saw my first koala (although I have strong questioning about the koala being put here for the tourists because we did not see anyother in the 7kms that followed). I really like Noosa simply because this is not a typical backpacker town which I find is a bit the flipside of the fact that Australia is so easy to travel.