Jun 2008

Looking out for cassowaries in Queensland, Australia

After our foray into all things sandy on Fraser Island, we made landfall again at Hervey Bay and continued our 1600 km/1 week slog up the Queensland coast of Australia. After passing through Rockhampton, the route became increasingly monotonous- albeit beautiful. Not much in landscape variation, save for the occasional cow, kangaroo, or train hauling sugarcane down to one of the numerous refineries which dotted the landscape. The drive was fantastic, though. We had really missed the freedom of the open road during our time in SE Asia, and it felt so liberating to be behind the wheel of our own vehicle- even an '87 Mitsubishi van that can't do over 65k/hour without violently rattling.

A view of the Queensland landscape from the car window

Piloting our van

Sugarcane fields

Australia is not without its Australiana... its own version of the eclectic, culturally quirky gems of Americana you'd find roadtripping through the forgotten roadside hamlets just off the highways our great coutry. In the pit-stop town of Bowen is the "Big Mango," a gigantic mango statue on the side of the highway. Apparently Aussies have a habit of taking everyday objects, building them on enormous scales, and then plunking knick-knacks shops next door and billing the whole shebang as a tourist trap. A full list of the "Bigs" can be found at this link: http://wikitravel.org/en/Big_things_in_Australia

Anyway, we felt we had to make the obligatory stop at Big Mango and take a photo:

Meg with the largest mango in the world

Sugarcane train crossing the highway in Queensland, Australia

Lorikeet bird at a campervan park in Queensland

Roadtripping Australia

Our typical lunch while on the road prepared out of the back of our van... at a rest stop

We continued north and visited wonderful Airlie and Mission Beaches. In Mission Beach, we stayed at the best campground/caravan park either of us had ever been to. It even had the obligatory northern Australian swimming pool, complete with fake rocks and waterfalls to boot. Blissful. The only problem when beach-going in Queensland if that as inviting as the blue-green water may appear, it is not safe to swim due to the presence of lethal marine stingers (jellyfish) for the majority of the year. The upshot is that because of this, the beaches are almost always stunning and devoid of people. We had the beaches at Airlie and Mission all to ourselves when we visited. Here's some more info on visiting beaches in Queensland:

From qldbeaches.com:

Dangerous Marine Stingers
The most notable concern when swimming at beaches in Queensland is marine stingers. All Queensland beaches north of Town of Seventeen Seventy (near Gladstone) can attract the marine stingers during the summer months of the year. Beaches in the northern section of Queensland have longer stinger seasons than beaches in the south due to the warmer water and greater prevalence of mangrove swamps.

Dangerous Marine Stingers are present at Queensland beaches during the following periods:
From Cape York to Townsville - October to June

From Townsville to Gladstone - December to March

Most popular beaches in areas prone to marine stingers have stinger-resistant enclosures so beach goers can enjoy swimming throughout the year. It is important to swim inside the enclosures as they are the only safe swimming zone on the beach.
The nets are constructed of a robust floating tube around the periphery of the swimming enclosure with a 25mm square mesh that descends to the ocean floor and is weighed down by a chain. The stinger nets are designed to prevent large box jellyfish and large segments of box jellyfish tentacles from entering the enclosure, thus keeping swimmers safe.

Stingers net at Townsville Beach

Knowing the buggers were in the water made it almost impossible to enjoy swimming, even when within the nets. It only gets worse when you read about what actually happens to you when you are stung by a box or irukandji jellyfish:

Watch out for the nasty Box Jellyfish. Found in shallow waters north of Gladstone, they can administer a sting that can inflict searing pain and leave prominent scares. A sting, if severe enough, can also be fatal.
Box Jellyfish breed in mangrove swamps and they are more numerous after rain, which flushes them out of river systems towards beaches. It is very important to swim in stinger net enclosures to avoid making contact with the Box Jellyfish.

Irukandji are much smaller than box jellyfish, and inhabit a large sea area that includes the Great Barrier Reef and beaches. At only 2cm in diameter, the Irukandji is most prevalent in northern waters of Queensland, such as beaches near Cairns. The sting is only moderately painful and scarring is minimal, but approximately 30 minutes after the sting the patient develops severe back and abdominal pain, limb or joint pain, nausea and vomiting, sweating and agitation.

Another feature at many Queensland beaches is that of the public lagoon, a shallow, inviting, aqua-blue swimming pool designed to fit in naturally with the landscape and usually constructed near the beach itself. We especially enjoyed the lagoon at Townsville. They're free, and usually have picnic facilities and change rooms nearby.

Velma the van hiding in the trees at Mission Beach Caravan Park

Railway crossing!

Beautiful Mission Beach

Townsville

By the time we stopped in at Airlie we were nearing the end of our roadtrip... soon we would be in Cairns, reunited with Meg's parents and no longer sleeping in the back of a van. It sure was fun while it lasted, though...

After our stint in Beerwah and at the Australia Zoo, we continued driving north up the Queensland coast towards the town of Hervey Bay, the main jumping-off point for one of Queensland's not-to-miss sights, Fraser Island, the largest sand island in the entire world. By some accounts, the whole of the Sahara Desert could fit within the sands of Fraser.

Us on Fraser Island, Australia

Only sturdy 4WDs can drive on Fraser (so our campervan hadn't a prayer, since she not only lacked 4WD capability, but often seemed to exhibit no-wheel drive traits. If such a thing is possible.) This meant we'd have to either rent a jeep, or join up with a tour in one of the 4WD buses that are ferried over each day. We arrived at the Hervey Bay caravan park, perched dead in the center of the seafront esplanade of town and checked in, hoping it wouldn't be too late to book an all-day tour to the island for the next morning. The caravan park proprietor was skeptical, but eventually found us a tour that wasn't booked. Great!

That evening after watching the most impressive exodus of bats over the holiday park that we have ever seen (it was really incredible- but where did they come from?) we walked to the internet cafe, did some grad school research, and chatted travel with an older couple also caravaning at Hervey Bay. He was an Irishman who spent 10 years in the US on business before eventually moving to Australia. She was originally from Chile. They raved about India to us- "either you love it or you hate it, but it's the heart of the world" and recommended some more stops for our drive up to Cairns.

The next morning we awoke to overcast skies and waited for our Fraser Island tour bus to pick us up. The tour was really amazing- although a little expensive for a day trip at about $80 each. The trip was worth it, though. Fraser is the largest sand island of the world, and features impressive diversity of habitats. In a difference of a mere three meters the environment can change from arid shrubs and bush to tropical rainforest. We took a 30 minute ferry across to the island and disembarked from the ferry onboard the bus straight onto the beach. There are no paved tracks on Fraser, so the bus simply powered its way, all 4WD, through thick sand which made for an extremely bumpy, but adventurous ride. It was pretty awesome.

Our Fraser Island bus on the ferry

Here is a little bit of background about Fraser, courtesy of Wikipedia:

Fraser Island, or Batjala K'Gari, is the largest sand island in the world at 1840 km². It is located along the southern coast of Queensland, Australia, approximately 300 km north of Brisbane. Its length is about 120 km. It was inscribed as a World Heritage site in 1992.

Archaeological research and evidence shows that Aboriginal Australians occupied Fraser Island at least 5000 years ago. There was a permanent population of 400-600 that grew to 2000-3000 in the winter months due to abundant seafood resources. The arrival of European settlers in the area was an overwhelming disaster for the Butchulla people. Documented aggression between the Europeans and Aboriginal Australians occurred when the officers of the 'Stirling Castle', including Captain James Fraser and his wife Eliza Fraser were shipwrecked on the island. European settlement in the 1840s overwhelmed the Aboriginal lifestyle with weapons, disease and lack of food.[7] By the year 1890, Aboriginal numbers had been reduced to only 300 people. Most of the remaining Aborigines, the Butchulla tribe, left the island in 1904 as they were relocated to missions in Yarrabah and Durundur, Queensland.

Initial European contact was limited to explorers and shipwrecks. The first European to sight Fraser Island was Captain James Cook who passed along the coast of the island between the 18th and 20th May 1770. He named it Indian Head after viewing a number of Aboriginal people gathered on the island. Matthew Flinders sailed past the island in 1799 and again in 1802. He mapped both voyages, but did not confirm it was separate from the mainland. In 1836, a number of survivors from the shipwreck of the 'Stirling Castle', including Captain James Fraser and his wife Eliza Fraser, lived for about six weeks on the island before being rescued

75 Mile Beach runs along most of the east coast of Fraser Island. While it may not be the best place for swimming due to dangerous currents and plentiful Tiger sharks, it is extremely beautiful and has a number of excellent highlights such as Champagne Pools, Indian Head (from where you can often see the sharks in the surf), the Maheno Wreck and Eli Creek. Eli Creek is strikingly clear and has its own unique and varied wild life.

The beach also acts as both a highway and a runway. The hard packed sand below the high tide mark can make for quite smooth driving, but care must be taken with speed; there are many deep wash outs and you can suddenly find yourself driving vertically into one if you're going too fast. Aircraft often land on the beach and if you can afford it, this mode of travel is a great way to see the entire island in a short space of time, with the obligatory beach landing, of course. The highway rules state that vehicles must give way to aircraft if they are oncoming.

Fraser Island is also notorious for the dingoes that inhabit the island, though there numbers have decreased considerably due to culling efforts in the past ten years. During Aboriginal occupation, the dingoes were used as companions to man, but after the Aborigines were driven off the island (see above,) the dogs became wild and increasingly aggressive and wary of human contact. The dingoes on Fraser are some of the last remaining pure dingoes in Eastern Australia, and there was no recorded history of attacks on humans until the '90s. In 2001, a little boy who wandered from his family was discovered dead, "with indications of a dingo attack." Subsequent to the attack, approximately 40 dingoes were rounded up and killed by rangers. The "dingo issue" is still somewhat controversial on Fraser. Incidentally, Fraser Island is not the source "the dingo ate my baby" story. For those of you who do not know it, click here for a full read of the story.

Here are some pictures from our tour on Fraser Island:

Approaching Fraser

A strangler fig on Fraser

Coloured Sands Pinnacles on Fraser Island

One of the most interesting and atmospheric spots on Fraser Island is on 75 mile beach at the shipwreck of the Maheno. The S.S. Maheno was originally built in 1905 in Scotland as a luxury passenger ship for trans-Tasman crossings. During the First World War, the ship served as a hospital ship in the English Channel before returning to a luxury liner after the war. In 1935, the ship was declared outdated and in June 1935 was being towed from Melbourne when it was caught in a strong cyclone. A few days later, on July 9th 1935, the Maheno drifted ashore and was beached on Fraser Island. During the Second World War the Maheno served as target bombing practice for the RAAF. The ship has since become severely rusted, with almost three and a half storeys buried under the sand. Our tour guide actually showed us some pictures of a couple who were married on the Maheno earlier in the 20th century. They held their reception there as well, but everything was on a slant (tables, drinks, etc) due to the pitch of the ship from sinking gradually into the sand. It is no longer possible to climb over the wreckage, but it has been left undisturbed on 75 mile beach.

The wreck of the Maheno

While on 75 mile beach our bus experienced mechanical issues, but a replacement bus was brought right away. We re-boarded and were taken to the interior of the island where we visited Lake McKenzie, one of the cleanest lakes in the world and believed to be sacred by the Aboriginees. Per our guide, the beach sand of Lake McKenzie is nearly pure silica and it is possible to wash hair, teeth, jewelry, and exfoliate one's skin. The lakes have very few nutrients and pH varies, though sunscreen and soaps are a problem as a form of pollution.

Megan in Lake McKenzie

All in all, our trip to Fraser Island offered a fascinating glimpse into a completely unique landscape, Aboriginal folklore, and the history of some of the early European settles in Australia. The company, Fraser Island Safaris, was excellent. We only regret not camping there overnight. If only it had been sunny!

By now we should have been used to it all. We'd ridden motorcycles through mud-sludged farm tracks in Laos, trekked with elephants in the bush in Borneo, dodged crocs, warded off cheeky macaques in Indonesia, and hunted with gun-wielding strangers under a midnight electrical storm in Malaysia. But we hadn't driven on the left side of the road. And we hadn't met a special van named Velma.

Megan driving Velma

Velma's 'Just say Yes to Drugs' mantra

Our chance encounter with Velma, especially during the Christmas/high holiday season in Australia, was pure serendipity. We woke up one morning at the Bunk hostel in Brisbane and realized that if we wanted to travel in Australia, we had to actually work for it. Gone were the days of Asia when we could simply book a $2 bus the morning of our adventure. Not only was Australia booked... it was expensive. Luckily the backpacker information highway came in handy: call around to rental car companies and see if anyone needs a relo (relocation) on a vehicle from your Point A to B. Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef was in our sights, so we rung round to see if any campervan companies or hire car places needed to move vehicles north up to Cairns. We struck gold when we called wicked campers- they had a van, "the most colorful van in their fleet" that needed to get up to Cairns in a week... for $1 per day. A remarkable deal, really, considering that these vans normally go for $60/day or more. Even more shocking when you see the state these vans are in, but that comes in later.

Campervan culture is big in Australia. The average campervan isn't exactly like an American RV. It's more of a spiced-up utility/minivan, seats taken out of the bed and a foam mattress put inside for sleeping. Under the foam mattress are cabinets and compartments for linens and miscellaneous storage. At the back (accessible by opening up the rear door) is typically a small hand-pump operated sink, a tiny basin, plates, cups, a pan, a chilly bin (a delightful British/Aussie term for cooler), and a gas stove. Backpackers rent the cheapest ones from a company called Wicked, which has spiraled into a sort of alternatraveller culture of old- almost dead- VW and Mitsubishi vans, splashed with graffiti-style, pop-art drawings and PG-13 tags (one example, "I lost my virginity, but I still have the box it came in.") Yes, mildly to moderately offensive to holidaying Aussie families, but when a van's cheap, can you say no?

Sink and "kitchen"

We picked up Velma the next morning from the Wicked Van depot in downtown Brisbane. She was definitely colorful. Loud marijuana leaves, in all shades of green floated in a sea of orange and purple on her side doors. The back simply stated "We do acid to make the world seem normal." The inside was something out of a psychedelic nightmare- huge red and orange polka dots adorned the ceiling and interior doors. Her radio, A/C and power locks (plus some windows) were all broken. Great. Velma was a stick shift, so Megan, not Catt would be doing the driving. Driving on the opposite side of the road is hard enough in a new, functioning automatic rental. Shifting gears with your left hand is tricky business, especially in stop and go traffic, especially when the car you're driving has a broken 5th gear, reverse, and ignition barrel that's thisclose to breathing its last. Several angels worked overtime to ensure that we made it out of Brisbane and onto the freeway north towards Beerwah and the Glass Mountains in one piece. In the end, though, it was a great adventure. The first of many great vehicle adventures we would have in Oz, and later, New Zealand.

Our first stop that morning was the Glass Mountains, about 70 kms north of Brisbane, and Steve Irwin's famous Australia Zoo. Per Lonely Planet,

The Glasshouse Mountains are 16 ethereally shaped volcanic crags which emerge from the humid green surrounds in sporadic and Jurassic Park style. Towering over 500 m, with sheer rocky sides, these peaks were believed by Aboriginees to be a family of mountain spirits, the most distinctive of which is the father Tibrogargan.

We found a slightly sketchy looking caravan park with a spectacular location, perched right under the peaks, and... parked. There was no setting up of camp to be done, since we just sleep in the car. We are avid tent campers, so this was a sort of strange style of travel to get used to. The proprietor of the park gave a thinly disguised smirk of dismay as she assessed our van's paint job ("I hate those things.") It's true; we were a rolling "just say yes" advert to the youth of Queensland. Oh well. We ventured out into the mountains and investigated some walking paths. No one was around; the country in those parts was breathtakingly beautiful.

Glasshouse Mountains

Inside our campervan

That night as twilight neared, we made supper in the communal kitchen and encountered a very tan Dutch couple who'd just come from a sturdy looking 4WD; the only other campers that night in Beerwah. They had just capped off a four week driving tour through the outback. They were having steak- "something special every few days"- and we, the classic jar-sauce spaghetti. From every travellers' tale I've ever heard, there is nothing quite like the Australian outback- vast, dusty, dangerous, sun-baked, and empty. Many tourists venture into the outback unprepared, and many succumb to its heat, its venomous creatures, its challenges. This couple in particular had blown 3 tires on their 4WD in one day alone- and thankfully they had been travelling with 4 spare. We chatted with them in the communal kitchen until long after dark, swapping stories over our spaghetti and iceberg lettuce salad under a bowl of sparkling stars that punctuated a velvet Australian night sky, the Glass House mountain spirits a silhouetted black ridge against the inky blueness. The stars that night were so clear that between them we could easily see the Milky Way, thousands of stars sprinkled between the brighter points like shimmering powdered sugar. Enveloped in all of this beauty, we retired to Velma's foam mattress and caught some shut-eye.

The next morning we awoke, set up lawn chairs, and had our breakfast as the sun crested the top of the mountains. We were pumped to visit Australia Zoo, the late Steve Irwin's interactive park that played host to hundreds of various Australian animals, most notably, crocodiles. We decided to make a full day of it. Here are some pictures of the animals we learned about and met at Australia Zoo:

With Steve Irwin poster

The Irwins and and Catt... where's Wald-Oh?

Otters... these guys were extremely quick and animated. They were waiting for lunch in this picture.

Komodo dragon from Komodo and Rinca, Indonesia

Giant Tortoise. Australia Zoo was home to Harriet the famous giant tortoise until she passed away.

Tigers. Seeing them from behind a high walled fence and glass exposure gave us a new appreciation for the audacity of our tiger encounter at the Tiger Temple in Kanchanaburi, Thailand

A croc getting fed at Australia Zoo's "Crocoseum"

Camel

Our favorites

A cassowary. These amazing creatures only live in Queensland and Papua New Guinea

Dingo

Tasmanian Devil... he was remarkably shy

I LOVE wombats.

Eclectus Parrot

Red parrot

Rainbow colored parrot

Black-necked stork

Echidna

One of the most touching aspects of a visit to Australia Zoo are the many tributes to the late Steve Irwin, "wildlife warrior" and national hero of Australia.

Unfortunately I had inadvertently left the lights on all day and Velma's battery had died by the time we got back out to the parking lot. A friendly car park attendant gave us a jump, though, and soon enough we were on our way... to Hervey Bay, and Fraser Island.