On the bus to the Tully River, a rafter called Andy was giving the coach the lowdown on the ins and outs of rafting. He was a lively Australian, but most of the passengers failed to laugh at the majority of his early morning jokes. An hour later, me and my friends were all geared up and waiting to be assigned a raft leader for the day. When Andy was assigned to a different group, Roel in particular seemed relieved. "I'm glad we haven't got Andy" he said. We asked why. "Because I hate him" came the strong response (possibly blemished by the fact that English was not his first language). Immediately after Roel's remark, I looked over at Andy, and overheard a quick conversation he was having with another rafting guide. Andy subsequently strolled towards my group, enthusiastically expressing "Hi Guys, I'm gonna be rafting with you!". We struggled to contain our laughter.
By the end of the rafting Roel had changed his tone; Andy had been an excellent guide. The rafting was fun; far superior to my Thai rafting experience. There were some quite wild sections, and some big dips. There was a moment where the guides intentionally flip the boat in a deep section of water, and also an opportunity to clamber out of the boat and jump off a rock about four metres high. The after rafting DVD also revealed to us that our group were in the most spectacular incident. One violent bump somersaulted Koen and a French guy on our raft out of the front in perfect synchronisation. This was followed by a mad scramble to try and drag them back into the boat.
White water rafting signalled the end of my time with that current group of friends. Sofie had left us in Cairns, and it was now my turn to leave the group. I had spent around two weeks with them, and had travelled with them all the way from Alice Springs. However, it was time to head south, and Frazer Island was my next port of call.
After a twenty hour ride, I arrived at Koala Backpackers Hostel in Hervey Bay early in the morning. The next day was spent choosing a Frazer Island tour and subsequently meeting my tour buddies; Jason, Tiffany, Amy and Liz.
The following day the trip began, and it was really great. Frazer Island is a really beautiful island, our group got on well, and it was fun driving our vehicle along the beach and along the rough inner roads. The highlight of the tour, however, was camping with some Aboriginals on the island.
The Aboriginals were of mixed race, but they clearly were very proud of their indigenous heritage. They performed traditional dances for us and taught us how to play the didgeridoo. One of the dances they performed was designed to warn off bad spirits (or something like that, I didn't pay close enough attention). However, shortly before the dance we were warned not to get freaked out with any pictures we took of the dance. They would apparently be splattered in various white orbs. These orbs were apparently the spirits. I remained sceptical, but also frustrated by the fact that my camera had ran out of battery. However, when I looked at Liz's pictures, I was stunned. Sure enough, some of the pictures were covered in various white circles. I don't know what the explanation is for this, but it was creepy. In fact a little later in the night I suddenly found myself alone around the campfire as everybody dispersed in their own directions for various reasons. The memory of the orbs began to revolve in my mind, and I was happy to see Jason return to the campfire a minute later!The following morning our group joined the mother of the family at breakfast. In the traditional way, she had applied face paint to the female members of our group - although she was not allowed to do it to the men. However, she chose this moment to inform Jason about what she saw when she did the dance the night earlier. She claimed she saw a 'shape-shifter' in him; a green-eyed bald-headed version of himself coming out of him. Jason seemed unsurprised; he apparently has had various people inform him of a strange presence within him! Due to the special circumstances, she felt impulsed to paint his face. Minuted later she did my face as well, presumably out of guilt as I was the only one unblemished! I remain sceptical about the spirits, orbs and shape-shifters, but it certainly has intrigued me!
After returning to Hervey Bay, I booked a bus down to Brisbane for the following morning. The bus was at 5:30 AM, so I bought myself an alarm clock to ensure I made the trip.
The following morning I awoke during the night. It was dark, but I felt like I had slept for quite a while. I went into the hallway with my alarm clock to check the time in the light. It was 5:30; my alarm had failed to go off. I had fortunately done my packing the night before, so I hastily picked up my belongings and rushed downstairs. Luckily I was still in time - and I even got a chance to check my alarm-clock and notice the small switch on the back in the 'off' position. Orbs and spirits still remain dubious to me, but I'm a firm believer in the human body clock!
My time in Brisbane was short lived. There was little to do there, so after a stroll around and a visit to the museum, I moved on the following day to Byron Bay, my current location.
Byron Bay is a pleasant little place. I have bought myself a harmonica here, and have been pleased with how easy it is to play! After recommendations from Jason and a girl in Brisbane, I also booked a day trip for Thursday to Nimbin with Jim's Alternative Tours. This was a great, if slightly surreal, little trip.
In the morning I boarded Jim's colourful little adventure bus. Before long the fun 60's tunes were playing and we were all introduced to Doug, our guide. Doug is a hippy from the 60's, and was very entertaining as he informed us of his time growing up as a hippy and the various tree-hugging plights which have been fought over the years. He took us to Nimbin, a tiny yet intriguing little hippy village littered with sprightly dressed witches, fortune tellers and hippies of all types. We also saw a great waterfall and good scenery on the trip. Doug always ensured that 'The Tour With The Tunes' was fun and original.
The highlight of the trip, however, was the visit to Paul the Hippy's house. Paul, a very intelligent hippy scientist, has spent thirty years growing hundreds of different trees on his land. Talking to him was fascinating, although I kind of got the feeling that most people on our group had absolutely no idea what we were doing there. Nevertheless it was fun, and everyone seemed to enjoy an Australian activity that didn't include a single beach or splash of water!
I spent today doing the nice walk to the Byron Bay lighthouse and the most easterly point in Australia - and in the evening I thoroughly enjoyed a trip to the cinema to see the Bruno film. Tonight I travel to Sydney.
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