08/02 - Gorgeous beach day

Today we had a super lazy morning. The weather on the island is fantastic so we extended our stay for 1 more night. This place and island is like paradise! White beaches, turquoise water, sun + heat and no-one around!

The diving center attached to the hostel had to cancel all its dives, so no-one came to the island, which is perfect for us. There was a few people around over the weekend but we barely saw them. We feel like we are alone J it is nice!

Around 10.40am, we went to the beach with body-boards from the hostel. We stayed on the beach by the hostel (perfect and empty). We played in the waves.

At some point, I got chat up by a strange guy, he mistook me for an Australian (too tan for an European apparently…) and when he found out I was not Australian he was quite rude… WEIRDO!

Came back to the hostel around 3.30pm and had lunch. We weather was excruciating, so we stayed in the hade until 5pm. After that we went for a small walk and stayed to watch the sunset (around 6.30pm). It was amazing! The colours were beautiful!

Back at the hostel, we took a shower, had dinner, did a bit of research for the next adventure and finally went to bed.

Walked 1 km today. 

Slept in a private room, in North Stradbroke Island YHA (Manta)

07/02 - Beach walk

No alarm this morning!! We got up just before 10am, we checked out (to move to a private room). The room is not ready so we leave the bags in the reception. We had breakfast around 11am and then left to do the coastal walk.

The weather was a bit greyish at time and windy, but it kept changing. We went from beaches to beaches, it is beautiful!

 

We found a small beach/ paradise nook with tide pools and currents. So we stopped and played in the pools for a while. We then went in the “crazy” ocean with really strong currents. We stayed there for 1h and once air dried we resumed our walk.

Before we start the cliff walk: Gorge walk, we bought lunch (2 sandwiches and dessert: chocolate brownie!!). The walk was lovely. It is quite windy and the sky is grey but at least it is less hot. We could see the “longest beach ever” but decided to head back, as it was not protected from the wind.

On the way back, we walked along the road. We spotted our 1^st wild kangaroo in someone’s garden! We finished the walk back on the beach. We reached the hostel around 4pm. We checked in, in our new room. Took showers and rested for a while.

D. went out to see the sunset and I went downstairs to work on the blog (our room is too far from the reception so we don’t get wifi in the room). I inquired about the diving and the snorkelling spots. I learnt that everything has been cancelled due to the sea conditions (low visibility). This is also the reason why the hostel is empty, the groups who booked for the Manta Fest did not come!

We had a quiet evening and dinner. And went to bed early. Island living is hard: sleep, walk, swim, walk, rest…..!!!!

  

 Walked 11.5 km today. 

Slept in a private room, in North Stradbroke Island YHA (Manta)

06/02 - Moving to an Island

Today, it was kind of an early morning, a bit hard after last night. We had breakfast and checked out well before 10am. We are heading to North Stradbroke Island. An Island a bit outside of the bay of Brisbane.

We took the train from Roma Station at 9am to Cleveland (it took around 1h, I slept the whole time!). Then a courtesy bus took us to the ferry terminal (it took around 10 minutes). We bought our ferry tickets and waited for the boat. Once in the boat I remember the guy asking for our tickets and then nothing else (I fell asleep again, exhaustion? Or the tablets?? Maybe both!). The ride was 25 minutes. D. woke me up when we arrived.

A courtesy shuttle from the hostel was supposed to get us, but apparently we missed each other so in the end we had to wait quite a while until someone came to pick us up. The ferry had arrived in Dunswich but the hotel is situated in Point Lookout, at the top right of the island. It is a big Island but most of it is a natural reserve.

Once in the hostel we checked in our room (mixed dorm x8, spacious) and rested a little. D. did some painting (watercolour), I worked on the journal and slept for a bit. It was way too hot outside to go up and about.

Around 4pm, we went for a walk on the beach. It is right by the hostel! But we went a bit father to another beach and stopped there. D drew some more and I read, and fell asleep again! After the walk, I was too exhausted to continue so I went back to the hostel while D. kept going.

Pretty much as soon as I arrived at the hostel (around 6pm) it started raining… I hope D. was under cover. I took a shower to warm up and spent some time on the laptop in the room (I had managed to find a spot on the floor where we could catch the free wifi from reception!).

We found out that this weekend it is the Manta Fest: the Manta Ray are passing by the Island. Unfortunately all the snorkeling and diving are booked out…. There is only 1 space in each. D. asked about his license & they told him that he needs to send his papers to PADI if he wants to dive in Australia…

D. made dinner + in the free library he found an interesting cookbook, so he took it to study/read it. We were both really tired and went to bed short after our roommates came back from their day out (3 girls).

 Walked 7 km today.

Slept in a mixed dorm, in North Stradbroke Island YHA (Manta)