the post you've all been waiting for (or not)

I just got back from my wine-tasting field trip, but am I writing about that? A resounding NO!

Oy, this blog writing has become a strong love/hate relationship for me--I love that it saves me the trouble of mass emailing everyone, but I hate that it takes me nearly an hour to recollect the adventures that have slipped through the sieve of my memory like sand between fingers at the beach. Honestly, I think the perpetual sunshine is getting to me; most days I'm lazy as all hell.

So before I launch into describing Fraser Island from last weekend, I'll recall the Hyde Park Barracks field trip. I realize that I've written zilch on my current classes, Australian Culture & Society and The Australian Wine Industry. Eh, who really goes away for academia, anyway? But a bit of educational interruption here: For those who don't know, Australia became a British colony after the American Revolution and was colonized as a place to dump British convicts (since our American founding fathers were having no more of that). The first fleet that arrived in Botany Bay and then Sydney Cove consisted of over one hundred convicts, who settled in this unforgiving land with a sense of well-warranted foreboding. And so my culture and society class took a field trip to the Hyde Park Barracks, the first and biggest convict prison in Sydney. (Ironically, it was later turned into a women's shelter/depot? in the 1900s. Let the feminists, including me, chew on that.) Long story short the condition of the barracks was abysmal, and the barracks stand today as a memory of Sydney's convict history.

The roof of the barracks. Still original, possibly.

Sleeping hammocks in the barracks. Stories tell of convicts who would often piss and shit in buckets, but those buckets would spill, seep through the top floor, and muck up all the hammocks on the floor below. Charming thought.

The "Edge of the Trees" exhibit outside the Museum of Sydney, another stop we made on the field trip. The wooden poles are to symbolize the trees that the Aborigines stood among as they watched the first British ships pull up in the cove. When listening carefully, one can hear Aboriginal voices whispering from speakers implanted within the structures. Pretty cool.

And now a recount of Fraser Island.

We flew to Hervey Bay Airport, possibly the smallest airport I have ever encountered. It had one single gate, and we de-boarded the plane presidential-style: walking down the plane's stairs and waving graciously at our awaiting crowd (the impatient travelers waiting boarding our plane back to Sydney).

We then took a ferry from Hervey Bay to Fraser Island.

A picture of the pier on Fraser Island. This looks eerily like a scene out of LOST, am I right?

We sauntered into the resort around 9AM and spent the rest of that day poolside. It was glorious. The entire west side of island has only one real place of civilization, and that was the Kingfisher Bay resort. Here's a picture of the architecture of the Kingfisher Bay Resort from the inside; it's awesome.

Kingfisher Bay Resort

The place was quite posh, and 3 of my friends stayed in the actual resort for the first night while my friend Lisa and I stayed at a hostel/dorm accommodation up the road. The 3 friends were on a 1-day tour while Lisa and I were on a 2-day/1-night tour with a company called "Cool Dingo." It turned out to be very cool, and we did indeed see a dingo, among other wildlife.

The first day of the tour we visited Basin Lake and then walked through the rainforest. OH IMPORTANT DETAIL. Fraser Island is the largest SAND ISLAND in the world, meaning that the entire island up to hundreds of meters deep is sand, and the rainforest on the island grows right out of dry sand. Our guide explained how it worked: once upon a time one very hardy plant took root on the island, died, and decomposed, providing a thin topsoil for more vegetation to grow on. Thousands upon thousands of years later, and after an adaptation in which plants symbiotically grow with mushrooms (strange), an entire rainforest now occupies the island. COOL, yeah? Now the island is listed as a World Heritage site. For purposes of comparison, Stonehenge is also a World Heritage site.

So that first day we visited Basin Lake, walked through the rainforest and watched lizards scamper up trees and eels glide through freshwater creeks.

Basin Lake

Australia's famous eucalyptus trees. Beautifully white and straight, just how I like 'em.

Rainforest

Then we went to Lake Mackenzie, which is the most beautiful freshwater lake I have ever stepped foot in. You know how American lakes are usually algae-covered, dirty brown or green, and crawling with who-knows-what? Well apparently the water in Lake Mackenzie is so PURE and too acidic for anything but the hardiest algae to live in. Result? A beautiful, perfectly clean lake with water the bluest blue color of the Carribean. And best yet, the entire lake is surrounded by sand so white it's blinding. The freshest water I've ever known--I felt like I could drink straight from the lake with no repercussions. Really, no pictures can do Lake Mackenzie justice, but here's an attempt:

Lake Mackenzie

The second day we drove along 75-Mile Beach. What, you ask, driving... on a beach??? Since the entire island is sand, it makes driving incredibly hard if roads aren't paved. And frankly, to pave all the roads on the island would take more money and more manpower than I could imagine (the entire fucking island is SAND!). So the only way to navigate the island is on 4-Wheel-Drive (4WD) vehicles, but even small 4WD vehicles can often get stuck in sand that is soft. As in the following picture:

I felt so bad for these people pushing their car since Lisa and I were on a giant 4WD with an experienced driver/guide. Keep in mind that it was about 90 degrees Fahrenheit too.

So the entire island is sand and a nightmare to drive, but the easiest way around is to... DRIVE ON THE BEACH! Since the water compacts and flattens the sand, it's much easier to drive along the wet sand of the beach than on the soft sand of the inland. Or, at least, less bumpy. Driving on the beach too fast or recklessly can actually cause cars to barrel roll into the ocean, NO JOKE! But the beach is infested with sharks, so it's not much good for anything but driving on (or barrel rolling on), anyway.

We drove all along the beach to visit a shipwreck (the Maheno) and then took a detour to Champagne Pools and Indian Head.

The Maheno shipwreck on the beach. The history is too long and complicated for me to explain. Something about Japan, scrap metal, storm?

Champagne pools.

The rock formations around the pool block and filter the powerful, crashing waves from the ocean, making the resulting water in the pool bubbly and fizzy like champagne. So strange and enjoyable!

Oh, and here's a dingo!!! Which is a very unsafe animal, despite its resemblance to a typical dog. NOT DOMESTICATED! WILL TAKE YOUR BABY!

Indian head is another amazing rock formation on the island that juts out into the ocean and ends with a dizzying cliff drop. From the top, one can spy rays, turtles, and sharks in the clear blue waters of the ocean.

Me at Indian Head

The cliff at Indian Head.

Driving back from Indian Head we watched several small planes take off from the beach to do fly-over tours of the island. For a 15 minute plane ride over the island, it would cost you $70 Australian bucks. (Approx. $50 US dollars, which works out to be about $3.25 USD/minute). Guess which poor college student didn't do it. Still, how cool!

Plane taking off, FROM THE BEACH!

We then made a photo stop at Red Canyon, a large fiery red-orange sand mountain (from iron oxides in the sand). It was incredibly beautiful, as you can see for yourself.

Red Canyon

Our penultimate stop was a tiny very cold creek called Eli Creek. I lay on my back in the shallow creek, and the current was strong enough to pull me almost out to the ocean! As lame and shallow as this creek was, it was probably my favorite part of the day. Eh, I'm all for the cheap thrills!

The last stop:


Fraser Island is notable for its juxtaposition of 4 very distinct ecosystems, 3 of which I have already discussed: lake, ocean, and rainforest. Can you guess the fourth? DESERT! Of course, where would an island of sand be without a desert? Way back when, winds started violently blowing sand from the beach into the rainforest, killing the topsoil and any vegetation and eventually turning patches of rainforest back into dry deserts. The eeriest thing to see is the forest of dead trees that still jut out from dunes. It truly looks like something out of a Van Gogh painting.

Overall I had an amazing trip. I was worried that the tour would be lame, but we really lucked out and got an extremely entertaining guide who has lived on the island for 13 years. He's also a well known photographer of the area, and his website is *HERE*. We sang cheesy (mostly American) songs on while driving, and I met people from all over (London, Tokyo, Toronto, Finland, Holland, Austria, etc.). Of course, now I have drinking buddies all over the world who insist I call them up when I'm in their neck of the woods so they can get me really really trashed.

Three words: What a blast.


PS: Um, okay I realize that I still haven't gotten around to posting about Australia Day (Jan. 26th), which is the Australian analog to the 4th of July. I'll do that later this week along with a description of my wine-tasting field trip from this past weekend.

Next time I'll also write more about the Born Ruffians concert I went to last week, including my interactions with scenester Australian kids. Three words: Egregious plaid observed! (Much like here, I'm afraid.)

That's it, the end.