Moreton Island (19.09.08)

Today we headed out early to the cultural forecourt at South Bank, where a bus was picking us all up to go whalewatching in Moreton Bay. We bus'ed up to Pinkenba north of Brisbane, and boarded the ferry to Tangalooma Resort, Moreton Island. It is not what yopu would call a ferry in Norway, it's more like a large catamaran passenger boat. It took about an hour to get there. Me and the people I was sitting with saw dolphins in the sea just before we arrived at the island. Just before we were about to disembark, the captain informed us that the whalewatching cruise had been cancelled because of incoming 'storms' or strong wind or something like that. We all knew that this could get interesting, as the ferry back left at 4pm, and we arrived around 11am. We disembarked, and walked on the pier to the island. It was very pretty, with a long beach, green water, forests and prettyness. There were pelicans and seagulls being fed on the beach from the pier; they looked really cool. We were met by a resortlady, and she and Anni were trying to organise some other activity for us. We went past an outdoor aquariumpoolthingy which apparently contained 'dangerous fish'. They looked nice to me, but I didn't stick my hand in to put it like that. We walked over to the cafe-area and sat down under some 'large tropical-style umbrellas'. We were served sandwiches, oranges, muffins and coke while waiting. The resort used to be a whaling station, where they slaughtered humpback whales. It stopped in the 1960s, when the stock was down to 500 whales and the laws were changed to save the whales. The whaling station is still there. The island was made a national park, and the area turned into a resort. There's a lot of activities to do there, like feeding dolphins, whalewatching, driving your own 4WD and cruise around in the sanddunes, helicopter rides and water activities. They replaced our whalewatching cruise with a desert safari, which after having experienced, I do not mind at all. We were taken to a 6WD bus, and were told that it would be a bumpy ride, and especially for those in the back. Naturally, I went to the back and sat down. Hanne was a bit slower and ended up nearer the front.

We set off into the wild, bumping our way around. It was the funniest busride I've taken in my life, as you literally jumped off your seat, or slided off the seat, as the bus bumped both up and down, and to the sides. There was only room for one vehicle on the 'road' through the jungle, and we found it very amusing that in the middle of it there were signs saying that the speed limit was 20 (as if you'd ever think of driving 60 on those roads), and that it was a two-way road. Of course, we ended up meeting a jeep and a truck in the middle there. What on earth is a truck doing out there? There's nothing but sand and trees? We ended up in a desert with some large sanddunes, and we drove over to one of them and got out. We left all our stuff in the bus and got a demonstration of sandboarding from a guy. We were two buses, the other one was filled with asians. We picked up a tiny piece of plywood, rubbed a candle on it "to give it speed" (why do we want speed? I don't want speed! :( ) and started climbing up the sanddune. If you've ever climbed a sanddune, you know how 'fun' that is. We lined up on top of the dune, and I was totally terrified. I hate heights, and it was a looong way down. I shut down my head when it was my turn, the pusher put my piece of candled plywood on the sand, I lay down, pulled the front of the plywood up, held my arms and legs up from the ground, and the guy pushed me off the dune. Two metres after the pusher was a professional photographer, taking pictures of us as we launched into nothingness. I went down the hill at a speed of 45-60 km/h, and ended up far down with some sand on me. Hanne came down just after me. The photographer guy came down when everyone had done their first turn (people could do it as many times as they wanted), and made people pose for him. We got some really cool photos (or bought, for 16 AUD per picture). When everyone was done, we headed back to the resort. On the way, we saw a small snake. The driver informed us of the various species of animals on the island, among them #17 and #2 on the list of deadliest snakes in the world. Nice to know. We came back to the resort, went to the photoshop and bought pictures, then went to the boat, sorry, ferry, and left for Pinkenba, where the bus picked us up and drove us to the city. Hanne and me have a bit of difficulty getting home from that part of the city, as we have to switch buses so many times. Anni was very kind and brought us with her on the train to Morningside, where we got into her car and she drove us home. It was very nice of her, and saved us a lot of trouble. We were supposed to go to Fortitude Valley to meet up with our class that evening, but we didnt get dinner until very late and we were very tired, and it would take us like an hour to get there, switching buses man times, so we decided to stay at home and relax. Sorry class :(