The next morning it was off early towards Lake Mackenzie – a freshwater perched lake.

We passed by Cathedral Rock

And the wreck of the Maheno (a liner that ran aground on its way to be decommissioned)

We left Mhairi at the walk in to Lake Wabbi, and drove on to Lake Mackenzie without her. She’d been really irritating all day and no one wanted her in the van an… No, actually, she needed to stretch her legs, and so ran most of the 14km between the two lakes. You’ll have to check her weblog for the pics (I don’t like stealing all her good shots!)

The rest of us got to lake Mackenzie,

chilled out for a while, and then set about making lunch – at which time Mhairi arrived back to the group. Perfect timing.

4 of us decided to walk from Lake Mackenzie to our campsite for the evening at Central Station. It was amazing… I think it was my favourite part of the trip actually.

In this pic you can see L->R Ben, Alero, Carine and Mhairi. You will see they’re all holding sticks and looking menacing. This is ‘cos we were told that if a dingo is attacking you that it’s best to have a stick handy!

We passed by Basin Lake – another perched lake – but this time tannin sands, it was absolutely special though, really peaceful, and just the four of us there.

There were also some pretty funky trees that I do not know the name of I’m afraid. Sure were purty though.

That evening we cooked up the snapper (a fish) that the fisherman had given one of our sister groups – and Alex (a girl from the group) and another had gutted them. Mhairi cooked it, and we all tasted. It was – definitely fishy, and could have been de-scaled (if we knew how) but all in all good.

After arriving late into Rainbow Beach from the glasshouse mountains, and finding that the tour we wanted didn’t start for another day, we were left with a day to kill around town.

So headed to ‘rainbow beach’. So called because there was an aborigine princess-type (beautiful of course), who was promised to an older man (boo) whom she didn’t love. In fact, she had fallen in love with the rainbow spirit (Yiningie). Now, when the evil older man (jealous no doubt) heard this, he went along to kill the lass with his evil killing boomerang, which was full of evil spirit. Fortunately, just as the girl was about to be killed, her rainbow lover threw himself in the way, and killed the evil boomerang, but was destroyed in the process – and his spirit infused the cliffs at rainbow beach with the colours of the rainbow.

I did not, however, get a pic I was happy with.. so you’ll have to make do with the story :)

So yes.. off to Fraser Island then, our group was 1 Irish, 1 Scot, 1 French and 6 German.. And it was lots of fun.

We had a pre-safari talk, Mhairi and I missed the part about how to stay Dingo Safe.. but caught the parts on how to dig your car out of sand (dig a bit, and then *reverse*).. how to let your tyres down a bit to that you have more grip?! and many other tips. After each of us had signed our firstborn away, we were given the keys to our van..

SO yes, on Friday morning we loaded up the vans, and off we started along the beach…

to get the barge across to Fraser. Mhairi had the first go at the wheel… and did a fine job getting through the deep sands at the bottom of the island, I think all of us were happy she was keen to take the first go.

We were heading Northwards towards Indian Head (the most northerly point we were allowed to drive to) and we took in a short walk to Rainbow (lots of those) Gorge on the way.

By the time we got to Indian Head..

.. the tide was coming in again, so our group headed off quickly to the champagne pools (so called ‘cos the surf smashes about in them and makes a hissing noise). Mhairi and I jogged back just in case we needed to move the car.

There we saw why our maps had marked Indian Head as being the most northerly point we were allowed to drive.

There were 5 ppl bogged down… we helped digging out a bit, but they kept sinking deeper… one hopes they got out alive, we had to retreat before the waves cut us off completely… I took the final leg through the soft upper sand high on the beach, and was quite happy when we finally got to our campsite for the evening – which was right down by the sea. Great company, yum food, crystal sky – perfecto.

Leaving the Australia Zoo behind us, we headed off to the glasshouse mountains, which are really close by. They’re a series of hills sticking out of a fairly flat landscape all around. Like Mt. Warning, they are the remains of the plug of a volcano.

The hike to this one was quite ‘fun’. As per usual read the sign about the walk being ‘difficult’ and ‘steep’ and ‘only for experienced hikers’.. So off we set, aiming to do the 3 hour walk up Mt. Beerwah (and down again) in about an hour. We passed a sign which said ‘only experienced climbers past this point’… and wandered another few hundred meters along until we hit a patch of rock. Which was pretty sheer, and with few holds on it. However, after asking a couple of ozzies which way to go, and being told ‘just follow the yellow markers’, off up and away we went.

And it was probably the most enjoyable hike I’ve done in a while – at least a short one, but you would want a reasonable head for heights I think.

So after a quick run up and down Mt. Beerwah, it was time to hit noosa. The hip (and expensive) part of the gold coast. There was a nice national park that we wanted to hit before heading north. Our night in Noosa was lovely, in no small part due to the rather large tub of Copenhagen Ice-Cream we shared. Well, as much as two ice-cream lovers can at any rate.

The only tiny stressful part to the day – is finding a place to park for the night .. for some reason ozzies find it necessary to put up signs saying ‘no camping’ along beach fronts.. etc… quite inconvenient. However, there’s a park in the middle of Noosa – which was perfect for our needs (just in case anyone else is driving through)

So the next morning, had a quick walk around the park – (well, I walked, Mhairi did most of the available shorter walks!) Lots of surfers out.

Then, left noosa (After another ice-cream) and off to Rainbow beach, for a 4wd tour of Fraser island. Self guided.

So on Northwards to the Australia Zoo.. found an excellent pull off the next side road down (and then turned into a forest) to park our van in overnight.. love it when we find cool places easily.

Anyway – Australia Zoo – home of the crocodile hunter… and I must say, it’s a really well laid out park actually.. we saw lots of the amazing native creatures.. including the crocs. I’ll put up a selection of a few of them. They had mini-shows / presentations throughout the day, so it kept us really interested – I’m not usually a zoo person. Anyway, running outa time in the cafe, so just going to put the pics up now. But do go, it’s a great place.

A saltwater croc – in the CROCOSEUM! (he showed us how they sink down beneath the water and just watch their victims.. can hold their breath for 3 hours. You need to stay 1/2 the length of a croc away from the water)

Koala..

A kookaburra. These guys rock, their call is basically gut-laughter

There are lots of lizards in this pic.

And just a couple of big ones

These brightly coloured birds are from S.America.. Lorikeets. The bird show was great – 2 helpers were flying them around the arena… amongst the crowd.

I thought this sign was pretty cool. doubt I will see another one ever..

Then there were turtles..

and finally A Burmese Python wrapped around our necks.

Had a really relaxing day around Brisbane.

Still managed to see quite a lot of downtown.. it’s a funny place Brisbane. There’s a beach in the centre of town (man made). There’s lots of funky art work all around the place too.

Walked around kangaroo point where there’s about 200m of a rockface free to climb.. perfect. Except that I didn’t bring a rope + rack. Hmmm, don’t regret it, but wish I’d had a shrink wrapped – de-hydrated fold-away-takes-no-space-and-is-really-light 50m rope. Someday hopefully.

Then on Friday I met up with some friends of my parents – Julie and Duncan Stuart. Many of their clan (and there are lots of them) have passed through Dublin at one point or another… so it was good to see them on home turf.

Had a really yum and interesting lunch with them.. there’s some fruit here.. the bigger one is ‘Custard Apple’ The slice + thing that looks like a cucumber is ‘Wosteria Delicia’ – or something – will get the correct spelling sometime. Both delicious and quite different.

Anyway, good times. Then we set off up towards the Australian Zoo – home of the Crocodile Hunter..