Three days

Thursday, 06/09/2012 - 83 A.D. 

We got to Hervey Bay at 07:30 in the morning in good spirits, not least because we’d slept (with dreams, not just power naps, and not about crocodiles). We’re also quite impressed with how every Greyhound journey we’ve been on in Oz has arrived earlier than scheduled, though I should not tempt fate by saying that!  

Hervey Bay is another place that is only really known as a springboard for doing something nearby, in this case visiting Fraser Island and/or looking for whales which come here for two weeks every year to rest up on their annual migration south. Quite why they choose Hervey Bay, no one knows. We chose it because Tim wanted to visit Fraser Island and I fancied some chill-out time (a completely different thing to wasted time). The main reason I fancied letting it all hang out here was because we’d dropped the letter ‘s’ and booked into a bonefide hotel. It was a bit of a hike to get there – 4 kilometres (or 6 according to the man at the bus stop), but we had the time to kill and it wasn’t too scorching first thing in the morning. En route I stopped off to read a bit of my latest book in the shade (Rum punch by Elmore Leonard) and Tim sat down on the beach and had one of those moments, similar to what I had while alone on the Picton ferry. It’s the kind of moment when you suddenly realise where exactly you are and what exactly you’re doing there. Doesn’t sound like much, but they can be quite profound.

The Beach Motel gave us a really nice room – another triple so this time I got the double bed – with a television and possibly the best shower we’ve had on the entire trip. It’s also nice to be provided with more tea and coffee than we can drink. The so-called “free wi-fi” actually means a 50 megabyte download limit per day, but I managed to blag some more by saying that I’ve got to work on the internet while I’m staying here (sounds better than saying, “Puleease give me some more juice so I can skype my mummy and daddy!”)

The afternoon was lazy, but afternoons should be lazy when we’ve done an all-nighter, that’s the agreement. Come the evening and I got to watch three episodes of The big bang theory in a row – oh how I have missed it! Unfortunately when we tried to skype our parents the fresh code we’d been given didn’t work, so I tried to send them a text so that they weren’t hanging on. Could I get a reception in this quaint little town? Could I heck! Even after a 20 minute jog into the town centre I still wasn’t getting any bars on the mobile. However, some good did come of this dilemma -  Tim’s phone has not worked since day one of this trip (something to do with him trying to upgrade the firmware to use it on the plane). When I jogged angrily back to the hotel, we switched sim cards in our phone and miraculously Tim’s phone worked again. The lad was so grateful he almost did a jig!

Yes, yes, I know, there’s not a lot been going on, has there? Well wait until you read Friday’s entry…

Friday,07/09/2012 - 84 A.D. 

Tim got up early to go on his Fraser Island tour. I stayed in the hotel room and did some creative writing.

At some point the maid came and asked if we needed fresh towels. I said it wasn’t worth it because we were only staying one more night.

Fin.

Saturday, 08/09/2012 - 85 A.D.

The day started well when we got wolf-whistled by some girls driving past as we waited with our luggage for the bus at an impromptu stop outside Gringo’s Restaurant (what an apt name!) Seems that in a small town like Hervey Bay you can catch the bus from anywhere along its route, just stick out your hand as it approaches.

Bit of a weird one today – we were heading to a place we’d never heard of before, Maroochydore, simply to use it as a staging post for getting to Australia Zoo tomorrow. Basically it’s the closest town the Greyhound stops at before getting to the zoo and three days ago we never even knew it was on the planet. That’s one of the fun parts of travelling – making last minute adjustments to improve on plans originally made months ago. Who says I can’t be impulsive???

Once again we both got two seats to ourselves on the bus, but there were a few more people on than usual. When we stopped at a place called Rainbow Beach (presumably people go there because it sounds like it might be fun) a group of incredibly loud German girls boarded, just to continue the trend, although they didn’t sit next to me, they went to the very back. I got the three English girls behind me, each of them speaking with that lethargic whine to their voice that English girls abroad often seem to have (the German girls probably sound the same, I just can’t understand them). And all three of them were reading Fifty shades of grey (or one of the sequels)…how popular are those books??? They be everywhere.

The giant kangaroo pictured above is called Matilda and she was used as a mascot at the 1982 Commonwealth Games in Brisbane. There’s a motor inside her which causes her to turn her head and wink every now and then. Quite what she is doing at a rest stop along the Sunshine Motorway, I don’t know. There was an amusing incident at this stop involving the three English girls. Even though they’d doubled-checked with the driver that they had to be back on the bus at 14:30, cometh the hour and they were still lazing on the grass by the café without a care in the world. As the driver did his passenger count he said to Tim and I, “Watch these three come running now!” and he started up the bus and went to drive away. Of course the girls came running (or one did, the other two strolled). As they made their apologies, the driver wasn’t interested, and that, ladies and gentlemen, is how Greyhound Australia manages to keep to its schedules!

We got to Maroochydore about 16:00 and the place seemed a lot bigger than I’d thought. The woman in the Information Kiosk sounded offended when I claimed it wasn’t on the main Greyhound route. “Yes, it is,” she insisted. “Why’s it not listed on the map on the website then?” I asked. She had no response to that and we headed off to our latest hostel. Tonight we’re in Cotton Tree Backpackers which is an old wooden building with plenty of damp that has been painted in lots of bright colours to disguise the grotty bits. And, for the third room running, we have a private room with a double and a single bed. It’s my turn for the single bed which, ahem, is pink.

Everyone was very friendly when we walked through the gate and across the yard where they were gathered. Virtually all of them gave us a warm hello, which you don’t often get from fellow residents, they’re usually a lot more guarded with their greetings. We found out later that they were celebrating someone’s birthday and had probably been drinking for hours. Inside the room all of the windows were open and I noticed the distinct aroma of cannabis on the breeze (not that I would have any clue what that smelt like). Luke, the guy who was working on reception was either stoned or Dutch (or both), but to be fair to him he hadn’t been doing the job for long.

I had a mini crisis upon opening my bag to find that my anti-bacterial hand gel had leaked inside my wash kit and some had seeped out onto various jeans and shorts. Not the greatest of woes, but the toilet paper on hand to mop it up with was about as absorbent as a piece of cardboard. I got through about 30 metres worth, but my hands were cleaner than they have ever been in my life.

After leaving hand-gel-afflicted clothes hanging up to dry and having breathed in as much of evening breeze as I could, we headed out for a quick look around. This would be the shortest time in which we’d ever graced a settlement, leaving aside places we’ve transferred through on the buses. Normally when we check out after one night we still have the following day to get a feel for the town, but tomorrow it would be an early start for Australia zoo. Shame really, because Maroochydore didn’t look that bad at sunset. This stretch of land between Brisbane and Noosa is known as the Sunshine Coast and with average winter temperatures around 25 degrees and little of the summer humidity of the tropical north, it has close to perfect weather.

After night came down we went to a pizza chain called Eagle Boys (stupid name, great pizzas) and got a two-for-one offer which came free with garlic bread and a drink. Then we headed back to the Cotton Tree, only to find a mild-mannered Korean lad called Benjamin in the kitchen, along with a girl called Elise who claimed to be from Bali and Benjamin’s girlfriend. We believe neither of those statements to be true, but she was definitely smashed out of her head on wine. There is an old legend that speaks of really hard-up backpackers who will go to a pizza parlour, order something dirt cheap from the menu, then spend the next few hours waiting for people to leave behind the bits of pizza they can’t eat and then pounce on them like vultures on carrion. Elise attempted to do the same with our pizzas, although she didn’t wait for us to leave what we couldn’t manage, just asked if she could have some, then she simply tried to take some. At first I played along, but it quickly got tiresome and I manoeuvred my meal away from her grasp. She’s smashed out of her head – what can you do? I let her hoover up the crusts that I left behind! During this battle for the discarded pizza, Benjamin looked on embarrassed, trying to pretend he didn’t know her. We soon left him to his shame and Elise to the soon-to-be-imminent “spinnies”.

Now, I know the last few days have been a bit quiet, but it can’t be hectic and eventful all of the time. You don’t want me to have to start making this up for your entertainment, do you? Still, tomorrow’s entry should be a cracker coz we’re going to the zoo, zoo, zoo! Yep, let’s stop looking back – to the future! A Steve Irwin-influenced future…crikey, what a ripper, mate!