Hervey Bay and 1770 - killer kookaburras!

So, last week I took off from the beach house in 1770, since (nearly) all the boys in the Ashton clan (plus fucking ol' kenny*) were invading it for a boys weekend. Claiming to be a woman, I fled the house, borrowed the Peugeot hot wheels and went to Hervey bay.
It was a cool experience to drive on the wrong side of the road, shifting gears with my left hand...
(according to a certain Isaac, I'm not doing very well on that part, but I would say I'm an excellent driver).
Well, I'm back in Brissy now, after a relaxing stay in Hervey bay, kind of boring place, but I took long beachwalks, saw dolphins and pelicans (see below).
Like said before, pelicans know how to get free food. Spot the fisherman and start stalking.

I stayed at the Koala Beach resort, nice enough and yes, there was the singing, guitarplaying, people singing in harmonies, as you would expect. Antonio Banderas above hardly let go of the guitar once he had grabbed it..Fortunately he could sing.

I was almost bitten by an oppossum. Something to tell the grandkids?

Three nationalities. Irish, Australian, Swedish. Spot the Swede!

When I had done Hervey bay well enough, after four days, I returned the hot wheels to Isaac and we went from 1770 back to Brisbane, with a highly appreciated stop at the Bundaberg Rum Distillery. Best part? The free drinks at the end of the tour.

Isaac doing what he does, dj-ing.

Kookaburras are often spotted outside the house, and they are loud. A video of them killing an already very dead sausage is now uploaded to my youtube account. They beat the crap out of it!

Brisbane River, that I walked along on my trip to the Swedish Consulate yesterday.

Coming up nxt week...

Southbound, destination Sydney via Byron Bay and a farm..

Whitsundays and Roundhill

I arrived in AIrlie Beach early thursday morning, a week ago. Airlie is actually a really relaxed and beautiful place, I had low expectations thinking it would be a backpacker ghetto, but above you can see one of the things I liked, a man build lagoon in the centre of Airlie. Lovely.

I stayed one night in Airlie before boarding the "Romance", the tall ship that was gonna take us out to the Whitsundays.

There were only 18 people onboard, which made it easy to find top seats to relax...

Not too stressful...

Our first stop was in a quiet bay, where we had dinner and spend the night. I had to pinch my arm as I was standing in the dark, talking to some people and at least five dolphins started swimming round the boat, hunting little fish just below the surface. It was amazing to see them pass by just a meter below where I was standing. Just before that a turtle swam by, and as we were watching a seasnake swimming in the torchlight, a dolphin comes from nowhere in amazing speed and snap! The seasnake was gone... It was a magical night and I was standing there, enjoying every second of it.

THis was our first stop the second day, where we stepped ashore and saw the Whitehaven beach, a true paradise, so beautiful it almost hurts your eyes. The Japanese in me went a little loco to say the least.

I tried my waterproof camera for the first time. Seems it's not as waterproof as the Olympus team claims, since my display is somewhat foggy after that. And I only took it down to 1,5 metres, far from the 10 it's supposed to handle.

We had almost two hours to kill on Whitehaven beach before we were picked up by the small boat that dropped us off.

I just had to have a cold one on that beach. I'm on vacation!

Took a walk on the white, soft sand. The twig is for keeping the evil flies away, they bite hard..
(something like the Swedish "bromsar")

Sunset on the boat.

This is where me and Lisa would wish Leo Di Caprio was behind us, haha.

Just chilling with the Irish blokes on Whitehaven beach. They were mad but fun.

Me and Ida, a Norwegian girl who worked as a dishy on the boat. I was supposed to do that this weekend, but I went south instead.

The traditional foot-picture.

Irish, before they got shitfaced and started bruising each other on the boat later that evening, while I was trying to get a salsa lesson from an argentinian.

"Waterproof" camera shot

Coral, ca 1 meter deep.

Hidden underneath the surface...

a very ugly fish

Caught in a wave!

From the view point above Whitehaven beach.

same same, but different

One of the few hard things with travelling alone is you always have to ask people to take your picture, which may come across as slightly ego. But I don't care, now at least you know I was there.

Drinking games that just escalated and went out of control on the last night. The dutch guy is the Gymp, and has to do whatever anyone tells him to, in this case pole dancing until someone tells him to stop.

After the weekend I returned to 1770 for some much needed relaxation after a farmstay and the sailing. I went on an ambitious hike to explore the place. But ended up in places I had already seen, like the Roundhill Head viewpoint.

View point

In 1770 there is a bar called the Tree bar. It's very charming and this is where the locals chill out with a beverage of choice after a hard day of doing..whatever locals do here. But this bar actually has it's origin across the road, where the first settlers used to sit and drink under the Mangrove Tree all night or until they fell of a chair I guess.

Below is the original Tree bar, which was "closed" as the town started developing and some officials realised you can't sit and drink under a tree for some reason.

Original Tree bar.

Oh, and I have tasted my first piece of kangaroo meat. It was really tasty actually!

Currently I am in Hervey Bay, contemplating whether to just hang out here for a couple of days, or spend even more money and go to Fraser Island on a daytrip. It's just off the coast from Hervey bay.

More reports to come. Back to the hostel for some good, cheap food, probably noodles :)

Back in one piece, I reckon

Nu ar jag tillbaks fran min 2-dagars seglingstur i the Whitsundays. Stockholms skargard har hard konkurrens dar...

Jag ska publicera en utforlig bildrapport sa snart jag har tillgang till kamerabatteri...

Nagra cliffhangers sa att ni inte byter blogg under tiden...

Skoldpaddor
Delfiner
Havsorm simmandes i lugn och ro
Nagra sekunder senare... havsorm is no more
Vansinning drinklek
Jansson fick jobberbjudande som diskare, snacka om karriarsplanering

Men mer om detta senare...

Cliffhanger until the next episode (in technicolor) as soon as camera has battery power...

Turtles
Dolphins
Seasnake swmming around minding his own business
Seconds later..seasnake is no more, he has seized to exist..
Insane drinking games
Job offer as a dishy on the boat. How's that for changing careers??

Until the nxt time...

The pictures, the stories

I arrived to the farm at 830 in the morning, and after a lovely breakfast it was time to hit the outback on a horseback..I was really looking forward to doing that, it's been two years since tha last time I went riding in Sweden.

My horse for the day was Flossie, a nice chestnut horse, somewhat lazy but very kind and easy to handle. Our task was to move some other horses to their "holiday paddock", so we had to use our horse to keep them walking in a straight line and from eating. After that we went for a long ride to the very back of the property, moving some injured horses to another paddock. It was a slow and hot ride, but I just leaned back and enjoyed kangaroos, wallabies and the mad magpies, birds that attack and follow you (looks a bit like the swedish skata, but more aggressive). On the way back we stopped to count cows in a paddock, which is harder than it sounds..

Kangaroo resting in the shade. Usually they sit two or more together, little families.

Me and Flossie

We also went to check on a bull that's been sick for a few days. I don't know if they're gonna let him die there or put him to rest, but I felt sorry for him, lying there without water in the 35 degree heat.

THis is the view from my room, building safely build above the ground so no snakes can get in. Liking that.. Behind the bushes is the pool and then the main building with computers and tv.

Pretentious picture, trying the macro..

THe pool. Cold water, which is extremely nice when it hits 35 degrees and there's red dust on your clothes..

In australia you can't smoke outside unless it's a designated area, and this is it, complete with hammocks.

The dining area, where we have bbq's at night. Everyone is in bed by 9pm however, the days are long and mornings early here.

How relaxing is this...?

Over the fire you toast your bread, fry your eggs, and in the kettles there's water for your coffee or tea. Reminds me of how we do it in Sarna while on a snowmobile trip!

Pool and garden.

Try to count these from the back of a horse..I found myself counting in English, which was surprising. Maybe I'll come home with the Silvstedt accent, haha..

Me, Trevor and his absolute favourite horse, that hardly anyone get's to ride, cause he doesn't want her spoiled. Trevor's been giving me a new, better and more challenging horse every day, and I think he likes to test me :) So far so good!

Lasso. Didn't try it yet though.

Yeah, i took a picture of myself. What would you do if you travelled alone?

This is Harry. He's the king of the dining area, he talk's and climbs around his cage and tree. He is a cockatoo, don't know the Swedish word for that one!

I also learned how to ride a motorbike here, my first day. That wasn't as hard as it seems, but then again, we didn't have to use the clutch, just shift gears. Maybe I'll explore that new found hobby once back home.

This afternoon I'm leaving Myella, to catch the night bus from Rockhampton to Airlie Beach. Tomorrow I'll just hang around checking out backpacker heaven (or hell, anyway you choose to look at it) and on Friday it's time to board the New Horizon, which seems to be the exotic backpacker version of our Swedish Vodka Boats...smaller, with scuba diving and coral reefs but apparantly the same amount of alcohol..I have been warned though, heaps of drunken tourists get dehydrated and sunburned, so I'll act my age and just have a couple of cold ones!