Where on earth..?

It's raining again

So, finally the weather catched us. After we left sunny Byron Bay it's been more or less raining every day. I even got a damn flu in Cooray and been cursing the rain and cold weather from there on (I call a cloudy day with temperatures around +25 C cold).

After Byron we headed to a small village called Cooray some miles west from the coastal town of Noosa. We were promised a free housing, free food (including vegetarian cooking lessons) and free surfing for a change of three hour of work in a small organic farm. The deal sounded almost too good to be true so we went to Pete's place and were exited by all the new stuff we might learn there. But as good as it sounded the reality was awfully quick to reveal itself. The house was quite ok from the outside but it was all such a mess inside.

The work itself wasn't that bad. There were no organic farm anymore but there were plants and fruit trees instead so no big deal. The work consisted mostly of creating new walking paths, carrying stones to surround plants, painting of walls and such. Actually the work was quite a joy after countles days of fooling around on the beaches. And the painting was done for an aboriginal man living in Pete's place so I have to say it was a worth doing.

But.. the indoors, the kitchen and the toilet. What could I say? if a man doesn't flush a toilet, wash his hands or use shower even weekly then I'm out of words. The kitchen was propably the worst as we had to eat there. Pete told us he washed the dishes only once a day (well, i didn't see him washing the dishes at all) so you can imagine why I'm complaining. We had to use the dirty plates and mugs, make food on dirty tables with dirty hands. Atleast until I did something about it. But you can't clean a place in few days if has not been cleaned for years. For the good of Pete I have to say he has a good knowledge of vegetarian cooking. We learnt many superb recepies of vegetarian cooking and actually been making some of the foods afterwards. So, it wasn't all bad after all. Oh, and I found that fist sized huntsman from the bathroom. That was my best moment at the Pete's place.

The following weeks I have been trying to cope with my flu. I had to skip my surfing and swimming but then again it's been raining almost daily so my biggest feelings to seek the cooling water was gone anyway. Noosa was a nice place althogh a bit too expencive for my taste. The YHA we lived in had some really cute parrots in the trees and there's a few great shots of those. Also we found a cool lizard in one of the small villages south of Nooza and I managed to catch a shot or two of that one also. Heh, at this point you must have noticed my interest of all kinds of animals.

From Nooza we continued north to Hervey Bay where people usually go to Fraser Island. It's the worlds larges sand island with endless sand dunes (some size of a big hills) and most likely worth seeing in good weather. Anyway, we skipped the place and acually were lucky not to go there. Think about spending a day or two on an island without proper cover from rain and cold while it's rainingn and flooding all around you. So Hervey bay was just a stepping stone for us on our way to the Airlie Beach.

The following stop was at Bundaberg. Bundaberg is a famous city for young backpackers who want to make some extra money in the multiple local vegetable farms. For us the Bundaberg offered some more rain, typical australian east coast city view, protected beach for sightseeing endangered sea turttles and so on. Actually we were thinking of doing some job in there but after calculating our dates we decided that we do not have enough time to stay there long enough to to make any real money. And while in Bundaberg we noticed that the rains made some of the normal works impossible so the working opportunity was even worst at the moment of our stay. And yes, the rain is a good thing for the farmers but some of the work cannot be done in a heavy rain.

The turtle tour was one of the best things I have seen on my journey so far. When I went to the beach I was hoping to see one or two small hatchlings on the beach but it turned out to be so much more. Me and my fellow tour members were chosen to the first group to enter the protected beach and it turned out to be a lucky thing. We were only getting seated to the outdoor theatre to wait for news from the beach (there are many voluntary workers patrolling the beach all the nights during the hatchling season of the turtles) when we were told to be quick and get ready to go and see the young turttles to exit the nest and enter the sea. This is someting worth mentioning because the small turttles are pretty quick when they must run for their lives to reach the sea. We were lucky in that but propably the even luckier as we were able to see one of the females to come in to the shore and lay her eggs and then disappear to the sea again. There are some great shots from my turttle night in the gallery. Oh, and to let you know, there are many photos from the night but the turtless were distracted as little as possible and they were left alone in the dark during the most critical moments of their nesting and such. We were guided all the time and were being told what to do and where to stand all the times. Anyway, it was a night to remember!

Right now I'm sitting in an internet cafe in Airlie Beach. We came here this morning after spending a whole night in a buss from Bundaberg and you know how well one can sleep in a coach full of people. It's been raining a few times today but we also had a few hours of sunshine so we saw what it can be here too. Tomorrow we will go sailing for two days so wish us the best of luck and let the blessed sun shine for a few days!

posted by Raine @ 9:59 AM