The [Mis]Adventures of OZ


3rd January 2010

Part IIIa So as we drove, Ian told me stories about his youth, living through the war, how desolate Australia used to be, how the Americans helped them out during the war, and more about his travels stowed away on the ship.  He was so proud of this part.. So he wasn’t supposed to steer the ship at night, and the Captain said he never wanted to see him again, which, as far as Ian knew he did a good job staying out of sight.  But when the dat day came that he went to get a reference from the captain he said to come back later, and that he saw him steering the ship every night.  When he did..the letter read that he was a stow away and upon being found became part of the crew and worked harder than any man on the ship. He was so proud, he ever remembered the date, word for word the letter.  Later he joined the English Merchant Navy. ANyways, so we finally got to Noosa, which was great, because Ian actually drove over 20k’s out of his way to drop us there.  We drove up to these two guys sitting on a bench outside of this Persian rug store and asked them where a good place to pitch a tent was.  They tried to explain where but weren’t familiar enough with the area, they were just working there for the week to set up this shop.  So, they invited us to sleep in the shop with them on the rugs! Ian said, well, that’s good enough for me, so this is where I’m dropping you. The young guys were pretty cool, they finished their work and then started to pass around Goon and we stayed up late just talking…a lot about politics actually. They were both Muslim, one a white aussie and the other a guy that came from Iran.  The Iranian guy was so pompous and errogant and he kept trying to challenge me on my knowledge of world issues and the war and anything anti american.  He was just the sort of person he was trying to peg me as an American for being, racist and ignorant. i knew more about every topic he tried to bring up, so eventually he shut up. Regardless it was awesome to get taken in, and despite all that, they were very hospitable, and we stayed for free again! So we wanted to go to Noosa, which is a little over an hour north of Brissy, because it has beautiful beaches surrounded by National Parks where we figured we could inconspicuously camp for the night.  We found this one amazing spot but you had to do a 4k hike through the rainforest and then another 2ks or so on the beach, which was exciting! The rainforest hike was absolutely amazing..but the clouds started to become a deep grey and thunder was looming in teh distance so we started to quicken our pace to get to the beach at least.  By the time we did reach the beach however, lightening started to strike.  I began to get scared because I of course was holding the tent poles which were sticking into the sky out of my backpack.  After we made it to the beach, we decided to go towards the  mountain to the south because there were supposed to be caves there. I was getting grumpy because I didn’t want to die by either lightening or by drowning in a cave but we didn’t have too much choice but to at least walk so I followed Louma up the mountain, which was a much harder climb than all the others, it was over jagged cliffs in the ocean, getting hit by huge waves splaishing spray up and then over steep narrow paths to reach more trees that were blowing like they do when the hurricane starts to blow in.  So as the lightening began to strike more, I am very grumpy and tell Louma how stupid this is and I”m not carrying the tent poles anymore, so he takes them and drops them on the rocks.  We make it to the other side of htemountain which is a beach town called Sunrise beach (shown above).  We decide that we should go to this gorge that Louma had been wanting to climb into instead. I follow him down this dangerously narrow/steep path to a small beach.  There is one large boulder and tons of tiny rocks.  Just as we get there, the rains starts to fall and the lightening flashes, (which is why we thought we should go there instead, because lightening was coming and we didn’t want to be on top the mountain). So we are sitting huddled underneath one poncho in the “shelter” of this one boulder waiting for it to pass. we are still in good spirits, my grumpiness passed because I was no longer a lightening rod and the whole situation became funny. But anyways, I started thinking that it wasn’t a good idea to be in this tiny little beach because it was probaly inaccesible as it was beacuse the tide comes in so far, plus you could tell by the remnants of sea life washed up so far on shore. By this time, it was dark, so we then had to bust out the worst camp light in the world and make our way up the treacherous path.  Louma lost his flip flops and we had our packs in plastic bags, which made it harder to climb up.  I went first and almost fell backwards when a giant iguana scurried past me when I put my hand up on the rock he was on. So we are walking through the dark, through rocky narrow slopes down the mountain, because to Sunrise beach was easier than going back to Noosa.  We are lost on the beach once we walked down about a million stairs and couldn’t find the exit to the neighbor hood. We found a great spot to camp, but…we had no tent poles and couldn’t go back anyways for them.  The storm had passed by now, but it was completely late and dark. (It gets dark around 7 here and it was going on 9, that’s how much of this adventure was in not just stormy darkness, but just plain night) So anyways, after wandering the beach we find an exit to a neightbor hood. Luckily we had a map and start to make our way down the hill to get to town.  As were walking a Wicked Camper stops in a park. (Wicked Campers are rental vans with beds in the back, if you spot one, you’ve found fellow backpackers.) So I say we should stop and make freinds. I just had a feeling. So we stop and start to cut open our mangos..oh yea, that;s another thing. Mangos…grow everywhere here and we got a HUGE bag of them for $5. In cities, they go for $2 each… needless to say, our diet consisted of mangos…mangos…and mangos at every meal, somtiems all we ate. But I’m not complaining..it was delicious! Ok but anyways, so the two get out and start to eat as well and we offer them mango to fish ethem in..no can refuse mango.  They were a really awesome couple from England doing a quick road trip.  We told them of our perilous story and they offered us to actually sleep in the van with them, which was very nice, but at the same time, impossible because those are made for two. So we asked if they’d drive us to a hostel, which they did, but it was past nine and everything was closed we decided to at least sleep in the front seats of the van, but Louma is crafty and particular, like most Europeans, about everything. He wasn’t going to sacrifice a nights sleep, so he rigs up the tent with shoe laces and rope to a tree. It was really impressive actually and funny as well. I wish I had the pictures, but the English kids have them and I lost their email.  But turns out, they were going to Brisbane anyways! So how perfect! the Next day we rode with them down to Brisbane stopping along at beaches along the way, swimming and sun bathing. when we got to Brissy we bought them lunch for their hospitality and went to the Forest, which will be the next chapter…phewwww..so much writing for one time!

Part IIIa

So as we drove, Ian told me stories about his youth, living through the war, how desolate Australia used to be, how the Americans helped them out during the war, and more about his travels stowed away on the ship.  He was so proud of this part.. So he wasn’t supposed to steer the ship at night, and the Captain said he never wanted to see him again, which, as far as Ian knew he did a good job staying out of sight.  But when the dat day came that he went to get a reference from the captain he said to come back later, and that he saw him steering the ship every night.  When he did..the letter read that he was a stow away and upon being found became part of the crew and worked harder than any man on the ship. He was so proud, he ever remembered the date, word for word the letter.  Later he joined the English Merchant Navy.

ANyways, so we finally got to Noosa, which was great, because Ian actually drove over 20k’s out of his way to drop us there.  We drove up to these two guys sitting on a bench outside of this Persian rug store and asked them where a good place to pitch a tent was.  They tried to explain where but weren’t familiar enough with the area, they were just working there for the week to set up this shop.  So, they invited us to sleep in the shop with them on the rugs! Ian said, well, that’s good enough for me, so this is where I’m dropping you. The young guys were pretty cool, they finished their work and then started to pass around Goon and we stayed up late just talking…a lot about politics actually. They were both Muslim, one a white aussie and the other a guy that came from Iran.  The Iranian guy was so pompous and errogant and he kept trying to challenge me on my knowledge of world issues and the war and anything anti american.  He was just the sort of person he was trying to peg me as an American for being, racist and ignorant. i knew more about every topic he tried to bring up, so eventually he shut up. Regardless it was awesome to get taken in, and despite all that, they were very hospitable, and we stayed for free again!

So we wanted to go to Noosa, which is a little over an hour north of Brissy, because it has beautiful beaches surrounded by National Parks where we figured we could inconspicuously camp for the night.  We found this one amazing spot but you had to do a 4k hike through the rainforest and then another 2ks or so on the beach, which was exciting! The rainforest hike was absolutely amazing..but the clouds started to become a deep grey and thunder was looming in teh distance so we started to quicken our pace to get to the beach at least.  By the time we did reach the beach however, lightening started to strike.  I began to get scared because I of course was holding the tent poles which were sticking into the sky out of my backpack. 

After we made it to the beach, we decided to go towards the  mountain to the south because there were supposed to be caves there. I was getting grumpy because I didn’t want to die by either lightening or by drowning in a cave but we didn’t have too much choice but to at least walk so I followed Louma up the mountain, which was a much harder climb than all the others, it was over jagged cliffs in the ocean, getting hit by huge waves splaishing spray up and then over steep narrow paths to reach more trees that were blowing like they do when the hurricane starts to blow in.  So as the lightening began to strike more, I am very grumpy and tell Louma how stupid this is and I”m not carrying the tent poles anymore, so he takes them and drops them on the rocks.  We make it to the other side of htemountain which is a beach town called Sunrise beach (shown above).  We decide that we should go to this gorge that Louma had been wanting to climb into instead. I follow him down this dangerously narrow/steep path to a small beach.  There is one large boulder and tons of tiny rocks.  Just as we get there, the rains starts to fall and the lightening flashes, (which is why we thought we should go there instead, because lightening was coming and we didn’t want to be on top the mountain). So we are sitting huddled underneath one poncho in the “shelter” of this one boulder waiting for it to pass. we are still in good spirits, my grumpiness passed because I was no longer a lightening rod and the whole situation became funny. But anyways, I started thinking that it wasn’t a good idea to be in this tiny little beach because it was probaly inaccesible as it was beacuse the tide comes in so far, plus you could tell by the remnants of sea life washed up so far on shore. By this time, it was dark, so we then had to bust out the worst camp light in the world and make our way up the treacherous path.  Louma lost his flip flops and we had our packs in plastic bags, which made it harder to climb up.  I went first and almost fell backwards when a giant iguana scurried past me when I put my hand up on the rock he was on. So we are walking through the dark, through rocky narrow slopes down the mountain, because to Sunrise beach was easier than going back to Noosa.  We are lost on the beach once we walked down about a million stairs and couldn’t find the exit to the neighbor hood. We found a great spot to camp, but…we had no tent poles and couldn’t go back anyways for them.  The storm had passed by now, but it was completely late and dark. (It gets dark around 7 here and it was going on 9, that’s how much of this adventure was in not just stormy darkness, but just plain night) So anyways, after wandering the beach we find an exit to a neightbor hood. Luckily we had a map and start to make our way down the hill to get to town.  As were walking a Wicked Camper stops in a park. (Wicked Campers are rental vans with beds in the back, if you spot one, you’ve found fellow backpackers.) So I say we should stop and make freinds. I just had a feeling. So we stop and start to cut open our mangos..oh yea, that;s another thing. Mangos…grow everywhere here and we got a HUGE bag of them for $5. In cities, they go for $2 each… needless to say, our diet consisted of mangos…mangos…and mangos at every meal, somtiems all we ate. But I’m not complaining..it was delicious! Ok but anyways, so the two get out and start to eat as well and we offer them mango to fish ethem in..no can refuse mango.  They were a really awesome couple from England doing a quick road trip.  We told them of our perilous story and they offered us to actually sleep in the van with them, which was very nice, but at the same time, impossible because those are made for two. So we asked if they’d drive us to a hostel, which they did, but it was past nine and everything was closed we decided to at least sleep in the front seats of the van, but Louma is crafty and particular, like most Europeans, about everything. He wasn’t going to sacrifice a nights sleep, so he rigs up the tent with shoe laces and rope to a tree. It was really impressive actually and funny as well. I wish I had the pictures, but the English kids have them and I lost their email.  But turns out, they were going to Brisbane anyways! So how perfect! the Next day we rode with them down to Brisbane stopping along at beaches along the way, swimming and sun bathing. when we got to Brissy we bought them lunch for their hospitality and went to the Forest, which will be the next chapter…phewwww..so much writing for one time!

  1. ecinoz posted this