On Saturday, Jess and I met up with
a friend and went to check out the popular West End markets. West End is an awesome area right across the
Brisbane River from where we live and is a hippie/hipster/quirky place full of
awesome shops, cafés, and pubs. At the markets
you can find heaps of cheap fruits and veggies, locally made jewelry and
accessories, hot food for takeaway, and basically anything else you could ever
want. This weekend I hit the jackpot
though. I had just paid for some bananas
(to make my new favorite food that my roommates got me hooked on- grilled
peanut butter and naner sammiches) when I turned around and found a long time
favorite sitting randomly on the table—chestnuts! Yep, as in “chestnuts roasting on an open
fire.” Never would I have guessed I would find these in Australia. As I sit and crack them open for post-dinner
snacks, none of my roommates think that they are worth the effort…oh well, more
for me!
To continue our celebration of a
weekend in Brisbane, Jess and I decided to have a roomie fun day and go to the
seafood and wine festival on Sunday. It was
great fun! Caxton Street, a main road
near the city, was shut down and lined with booths selling seafood and
beverages. The seafood part of the
festival lived up to expectations—I got some prawns and chips that were
absolutely delicious (think British…chips are American fries). As for the wine aspect…let’s just say the Australian
love of beer took over. There were many
more types of beer available and only about two tents selling wine. That combined with the fact that beer was
half the price made our beverage choice for the day an easy one. The icing on the cake was sitting in front of
the stage, people watching, and listening to some great Aussie bands. One of the bands, Taxiride, is even on iTunes. Check them out, they are pretty solid and some
of their songs have already made it onto my iPod’s “Frequently Played”
playlist.
Not that Brisbane needs an excuse to
have some sort of celebration, but that weekend was also Buddha’s birthday so of
course there was a week-long festival.
Sunday night was the last night, so what better way to celebrate than
with fireworks! We decided to festival
hop so we made our way down to the Brisbane River to watch the fireworks. Sitting on the riverbank with a perfect view
of the city skyline as fireworks lit up the sky was a great end to our Brisbane
weekend.
My task for the upcoming week was to
prepare myself for my next adventure and yet another first. I was actually a bit nervous for this because
I didn’t really know what to expect and everyone else I was traveling with had already
participated in an adventure of this sort.
Okay, so no pressure for the American traveling with a bunch of
Europeans. This may or may not have been
me during the week leading up to this:
I am a notorious overpacker (my dad
will more than vouch for that) so I was all over the place trying to pack. I was convinced that I was shoving all the
wrong things in my backpack and would end up being the laughing stock of the
trip. So believe me when I say I was
more than relieved when I met up with my friends and realized that I in fact
packed the LEAST amount of things. Yes you
heard me right. Everyone else had more
stuff than me. This might have been a
once in a lifetime occurrence and no, that is not the first I am supposed to be
telling you about. But it is monumental
nonetheless.
As with most of my other travel, I was
up before the sun on Friday to start my adventure. I must have been running on adrenaline
because I didn’t even need an overpriced coffee to be able to interact with
people at such an early hour. Armed with
a weekend’s supply of food and water, I met up with my European friends and we
made our way to the MICAT ferry that would take us two hours across the bay to
our weekend destination. And what better
way to be welcomed onto the ferry than with some rain. Yes, we are supposed to be in the Sunshine
State that boasts 300 days of sunshine each year. Good joke.
But as we looked back to the mainland we saw this which we hoped would
be a token of good luck:
Before we knew it the ferry made it
across Moreton Bay and landed on none other than Moreton Island. And when I say landed, I literally mean we
hit land. The giant ferry drove straight
up onto the beach with only a little sign stuck in sand to mark the fact that
this was the ferry landing site.
I wish I could tell you that warm
air and sunshine greeted us on the world’s third largest sand island. Well I could, but it would be a lie and I am
not one to lie. But we did not let the
rain stop us and we proceeded to trek through the sand with all our supplies
until we came to the place we would call home for the next three days. Luckily the rain stopped and the sun came out
and we were able to create this:
Yep, we were camping! Bring it on Mother Nature!
That was probably not the best thing
to say because Mother Nature really did bring it. Between rain, wind, and mosquitoes who I swear
hadn’t eaten in weeks, it made for an…umm…interesting first camping experience
for me. In all seriousness I really did
have an awesome time and this all made for some great stories and solid blog
material. You all are the lucky ones who
get to reap the benefits, congratulations.
Okay, so a little bit about Moreton
Island. As I mentioned, it is the third
largest sand island in the world. Pretty
cool! One of the most iconic features of
Moreton is The Wrecks. Fifteen ships were
deliberately sunk off the coast of the island in order to create a breakwall
for smaller ships. Our campsite was a
two minute walk from The Wrecks, so this was our view for breakfast every
morning:
No complaints there! The first day we spent swimming around The
Wrecks and playing beach volleyball since the rain managed to stay away. Then that night was the night that forever
changed my life. For those of you who
don’t know me, I absolutely love dolphins.
Freakishly so. So when I found
out that I could feed wild dolphins while at Moreton Island I made it my
mission to do so. And guess what. That mission was a big, giant success! After watching one of the most beautiful
sunsets, I made my way to the dock at the nearby Tangalooma Resort that
sponsors the dolphin feeding. Before I knew
it, there were at least ten dolphins swimming right up to the shore. Guys, words cannot even describe my happiness
and pure joy at this moment. I even
teared up a little. No shame, I’ll admit
it. In complete awe, I sat and watched
the dolphins swim around and play with each other. The awesome thing is that these were all wild
dolphins, so everything they were doing was completely natural; they had not
been taught tricks or anything. These
feedings have been going on for quite some time, so the dolphins know to come
to the shore because they will be fed. What
a wonderful motivation food is!
Finally it was time. Time for my
wildest dreams to come true. Hardly able
to contain myself, I went down to the beach, picked up a little dead fish with
its beady eyes staring at me, and made my way into the water with the resort’s
dolphin expert. I could barely believe
this was real life as a huge dolphin swam up to me and took the fish right out
of my hand. Pure joy. After I exited the water from feeding #1, the
joy must have been apparent on my face because the lady in charge told me to
get in line again to give it another go.
Of course I ran back to the water and got to do it all again! Unfortunately I don’t have pictures of me
feeding the dolphins, but this is probably what my face looked like:
Saturday we decided to take on the
task of hiking across the island to the Eastern Beach. It drizzled on and off all morning, but we
finally got tired of waiting around and had no desire to sit in the damp, steamy
tents all day, so we decided to begin the hike and deal with whatever Mother
Nature threw at us. For the first hour
we walked through a pretty assertive rainfall.
Finally we could catch glimpses of blue skies and heard the sound of
ocean waves crashing on the Eastern Beach.
We were so close! By the time we
got to the beach it was pretty overcast, windy, and cold, but I can imagine the
coastline would be even more beautiful on a bright sunny day. We ate lunch (which for me consisted of a
peanut butter sandwich…just like every breakfast, lunch, and dinner that
weekend) and turned around to hike back to our Western Beach. When it was all said and done, the hike took
about four hours and we covered 18 kilometers of sandy paths. We were pretty impressed with ourselves to
say the least.
We made it to the Eastern Beach!
Mother Nature was significantly
nicer to us on Sunday. There were a few
showers in the morning, but the afternoon was bright, warm, and sunny and made
for the perfect day to lay out on the beach.
By this point in the weekend I was perfectly content to lay in the sand,
listen to the waves crash on the shore, and just relax. I’m pretty sure I dozed off for a while
because at one point in the afternoon I swore I had actually taken a real
shower. Nope, that was definitely a
dream. Before we knew it, it was time to
pack up the tents, board the MICAT ferry, and head back to Brisbane. Once I made it back to my apartment I sprinted
for the shower and let me tell you, it was one of the hottest and best showers
ever.
Now, after reading all of this you
may be wondering what I actually thought about my first ever camping
experience. This is what my European
friends were asking me all weekend. I actually
did have a wonderful time and would definitely camp again! Maybe with warmer temperatures, less rain,
and less bloodthirsty mosquitoes though, but hey, a girl can only ask for so
much. This ultimate camping adventure
would not have been nearly as great if it wasn’t for the company, so here’s a
shout out to all my friends who were there!
You all are great!
Moral of the story: a rainy camping
experience gives you a newfound appreciation for your warm, cozy bed.
Cheers!
