Surfers Paradise
to Fraser Island
October 28, 1998
Running Down the Road...
Getting up early, we said "goodbye" to Surfers Paradise and
began our long trip up the coast to Fraser Island. Before we
hit the road, I took the time to do a quick errand: grab another Hard Rock pin from the
Surfers Paradise store. With my business trip to Nashville included, this made for
three pins in two weeks! Along the way, we stopped to pick up some additions to our
trip (now we had a TOTALLY full bus).
Koalas and all Manner of Wild Things...
Our next stop was the Forest Glen Sanctuary, where we had our first real
close-up look of koalas and kangaroos! we were even able to hold the koalas while our picture was taken: apparently
that was the only place in Australia where you are allowed to do that!
They had a system to let you send an e-mail (Adobe
Acrobat required) of your picture back to all your jealous friends,
too.
We also went
down to see a capybara (looking fat and happy), and
also a few different species of kangaroos. We fed
them (bland stuff, I had a taste) and played with them a bit. I was really
intrigued by the shape of the kangaroos foot.
Then we piled back on the bus for the rest of our trip to Frasers Island.
New Friends
We stopped in Brisbane, Australia for a lunch break and to do a little
window shopping. I spoke to Ildi (one of our new
friends) for a while up in the front of the bus: she was from Hungary and was out here for
the tour up the coast. She wrote a message in my book that I've still not
translated: anyone from Hungary out there?? :-)
I think it was about this time that Nicci held a trivia contest: her
theme, "T.V. Themes". She divided the group into the left side and the
right side of the bus, and had us come up with names for the group: I was lucky enough to
have my name picked: "Left Hand of Darkness". Our side won! I think
Nicci questioned my sanity, though, because she asked a bonus question after the
"Superman" theme played:
"What year did Superman first appear?"
That I got RIGHT. (Answer: 1938). She looked at me as if I had
a tree growing out of my head or something...
We also watched an Australian film "Muriel's Wedding". It
was suprisingly good, I thought! Apparently it was responsible for a resurgence in
"ABBA" music for a while. We stopped in Noosa briefly to take a look at
the beaches: there was a guy there making a really amazing sand castle, but unfortunately
my picture did not come out!
Fraser Island
We had to pack only a small bag when we went to Fraser Island: it was a
small boat and we couldn't take our main bags with us. Unfortunately I didn't pay
attention, so all I brought was my bathing suit and toiletries (oops!) I had to make
an emergency shirt purchase at Hervey Bay Marina so I would at least have at least *one*
dry shirt...
The lodgings at Frasers were great! Big multi-room cabins for both
men & women, and a big screened-in porch area for us to sit & jam in. Only
one other roomate this time (Eric) but Simon was lodging in another room and Jacqueline and Nancy
were just down the hall. The only problems: it was a *long* walk from dinner to the
cabins, so you don't want to get lost... and also we had an unexpected visitor that me & some of the guys had
to remove from the premises. I spoke to my lodge-mates for a while before we all
took the shuttle down to dinner.
That evening we had buffet dinner at the main lodge, and then went to the
bar for karaoke! About this time, I had almost
totally lost my voice, and no amount of Coca-Cola was helping. So I looked for a
song in a low octave with a short range, and found "Achy Breaky Heart". My
debut performance went over rather well, I thought! I got lots of blackmail pics of
the others, too...
Off to bed: see if I can get my voice back...
