- Esther
- Aug 17, 2019
- 3 min read
After our super-long seventeen hour bus journey, we were happy to end up in Noosa; one of the most relaxed and beautiful beach towns we’ve been to in Australia so far.
I had my first surf lesson at the beach there (which went way better than I expected it to!) and there was also an amazing coastal walk along the beach from Noosa Heads. Halfway through the walk, we found what was probably my favourite place in the whole of Noosa - it's magical-looking Fairy Pools!
Noosa’s main town was also really pretty, and we found the best place for ice cream (Massimo’s) and poke bowls (Raw + Rice) by the beach there.
From our hostel, we also took a shuttle bus to the famous Eumundi markets, where you can spend hours walking around, trying the amazing food and looking at all of the cute clothes and souvenirs.
Fraser Island (K'gari) trip
After a couple of relaxed beachy days in Noosa, it was time for a really packed and busy few days exploring Fraser Island with a tour company called Dropbear Adventures. Those few days were one of my favourite parts of the East Coast so far!
Fraser Island, or K'gari (its original name and the aboriginal word for 'paradise'!), is apparently the biggest sand island in the world, but I hadn’t heard much about it before we arrived in Cairns, where it seemed like everyone was recommending it.
The tour was basically set up as a camping trip on the beach, where our group of about thirty backpackers got into our 4x4 cars every day and drove around the island exploring the best parts of it together.
We actually managed to explore so much in three days that it would be too much to write everything down! We went to quite a few lakes, walked through a lot of sand dunes and forests, saw a few amazing lookout points and even visited a shipwreck.
One of my favourite places we visited was the Champagne Pools, which were bubbling blue pools of water right next to the sea (similar to the Fairy Pools in Noosa) that we could swim in. The boys found an octopus in the rocks there as well!
I also loved Eli Creek, where we spent a few hours swimming and floating down the current in rubber rings. Apparently this was the place where the aboriginal women from the island's Badtjala tribe used to come to have their babies!
Another amazing thing we did was have a plane ride over the island first thing in the morning on our second day. Its lakes, forests and beaches looked gorgeous from above and we even spotted a whale from the plane, which was definitely worth waking up early for!
Our group had a funny moment on the plane too because the pilot forgot to shut the door, so after about five minutes of flying over the sea with one of the girls practically hanging out of it (which we all just assumed was part of the experience!) he realised and did an emergency landing before starting the tour over again!
On the last day, we visited the most amazing lake called Lake McKenzie (or Lake Boorangoora; the Badtjala tribe’s name for it). The sand there was bright white (and apparently great for exfoliating and cleaning your jewellery) and the water was turquoise blue. Our group spent a few hours there swimming, sunbathing and playing ball games.
The camping was also great because even though the campsite was very basic (and also right on the beach, so the sand got everywhere!), the evenings with our group were really fun. We stayed up chatting, drinking, playing card games and even attempting to play the didgeridoo (which is harder than it looks!)
Both evenings, we also stargazed outside our tents. There was absolutely no air pollution on the island so we could see the Milky Way perfectly from our campsite, which was beautiful.
One of the really good things about the company we were with was that throughout the trip they stopped to tell us stories about the Badtjala tribe; the aboriginal people who lived peacefully on the island for thousands of years. Our group leader, Luke, told us stories from the aboriginal Dreamtime, like how the native people always believed that the island was formed by a goddess (called K'gari) lying down in the ocean and becoming it, and about the aboriginal people’s respect and love for the land.
Luke also told us about the sadder parts of the island’s history, like how when the English came to inhabit it a couple of hundreds of years ago they walked the Badtjala women and children up to the highest cliff (which we visited) and pushed them off it.
I had an incredible time on the beautiful K’gari island and couldn’t have asked for better company, weather or a more fun tour.
