The Adventures of Ben and Liya: Brisbane, Hervey Bay, & Fraser Island: March 2nd

After visiting the super laid back town of Byron Bay, we took an hour bus ride north up to Brisbane. We only spent a night in Brisbane. There wasn't much to do or see in Brisbane relative to the other cities we've visited but it did remind of us Portland, OR. There is a river running along the city, a beautiful bridge, botanical gardens, a medium-sized city business district, a University, a Chinatown, and plenty of shopping.

The next day, we rode the bus for 7 hours north up to Hervey Bay, the jump-off town for Fraser Island. We spent a couple of nights in Hervey Bay before arriving onto Fraser. The day before we left for Fraser, we were put into groups of 11 at our hostel. Our group consisted of 4 North Americans (3 from the NW, and 1 from Vancouver Island in Canada), the rest were from England. We left early the next morning.

While on Fraser, we saw and enjoyed amazing sights - Lake McKenzie, Lake Wabby, Champagne Pools, and Indian Head. The pictures speak for themselves! (check facebook pictures from entry below). We absolutely loved Lake McKenzie. The water was so pure and that it was completely fine to drink it while relaxing in the lake - it was very refreshing! The Champagne Pools were great to experience. They are rock pools in the ocean and are the only places where we can swim in salt-water (we're prohibited to swim in the ocean due to rough waves, tiger sharks, stingrays and mean jelly fishes). Lake Wabby was a lake surrounded by huge sand dunes and it was where we could hand feed the catfish in the lake.

We had a humble campsite and had some interesting cooking sessions with our horrible cooking tools. It was all fun though - we had Alex on the guitar, a great ocean view, GOON (box wine) and great company. We met some wonderful people (Alex, Brittany, Annie, Anthony and Jenna) on this trip and will be sure to stay in touch with them. One gal, Annie, is from Redmond, WA, so we will be sure to reunite when we return to the States and take her to the Duchess! :)

The 4WD driving was an experience! Ben drove for a few hours during the trip. Imagine driving 9 other strangers with different personalities, on the other side of the car and road, on the beach, over tree stumps and streams, and in crazy deep sand (which we all had to get out of the vehicle to help push the SUV).

Following Fraser Island was a 2 day, 2 night trip to Whitsunday Islands and a couple of nights in the touristy beach town of Airlie Beach.

Ben in Brisbane