The Diary Sean's birthday. I bet he wishes he could be here. More jolly japes on one of the islands including international frisbee and keepy uppies in the sea (see xmas day). No world, southern hemisphere, continental nor national records were broken. We arrived back on dry land at 4:05pm, a mere 5 minutes late.
The crew
We then managed to squander the next 8 1/2 hours before the bus left. We talked to Heidi and Ian and used Heidi's room while she went out 'raging' with Stefanie. Ian was on the same bus as us and he joined us for a pizza before we left.
2012 Sean was turning 24. He's currently living in Adelaide with Louise and kids Hannah (13) and Joe (11) and is almost old enough to play O45 footy.
The Diary A very early start - before 7am. It rained, the sea got rough, went calm, the rain stopped, 3 cups of tea and breakfast. All this happened before Oz and Beth surfaced from their cabin well after everyone else. I shall draw my own conclusions. More snorkelling and some swimming in the strong tides getting nowhere. We landed on one of the islands and went on a brief bush walk. Big lizards everywhere.
Thar she blows
Ian at the helm
Nessie ?
Oz and the South Star
I ate loads for lunch having missed out on the previous meal. After lunch we sailed again and indulged in a spot of boom-netting. All good clean fun but hard on the hands. The evening was very tranquil and we passed it by, by discussing Queensland politics with Ed who turned out to be very pro-Joh (Bjelke-Petersen).
2012 Joh Bjelke-Petersen. An incredibly controversial figure in Australian politics.
The Diary We've been travelling for 6 months now. Beth's bus was on time so the three of us got on the courtesy bus to the Ariel Point Marina while Beth recounted tales of Fraser Island and her dodgy travelling companions. Oh-oh. On the South Star we were greeted by Ed, our skipper, and Yvonne, our deckie.
The Souh Star
Our fellow passengers were Chris & Debbie from Somerset and Manchester reading Mech Eng and Pharmacy, Ian from the Royal Navy, Heidi from Canada, (I never found out if she had a Canadian flag on her bag, which seems to be obligatory for Canadian travellers), Stefanie, the cute if slightly overweight German from Stuttgart who's English was pretty good and Roswitha and Markus, the German speaking Italians from a restaurant in the Tyrol. Everyone turned out fine, Ian was a little overbearing at times and Markus and Roswitha could be a little quiet but everyone got on. Definitely no dickheads.
We sailed, or rather motored, out to a sand island and did the first of several snorkel sessions. This was the start of "did you see...", "it was this (arms spread out wide) big". Tea, biscuits and sandwiches appeared throughout the day and were quickly devoured. We had a little bit of trouble with the engine but managed to get in some more snorkelling on the reef. Wow.
I felt quite ill in the evening due to the smell of the peanut sauce on the bbq satay sticks - definitely not seasickness - so I went to bed early without my evening meal.
