Coolangatta
Coolangatta is the most southern town in Queensland. Actually, it is the northern part of the twin town Tweed Heads/Coolangatta. The part that is in New South Wales is called Tweed Heads. Point Danger is the rock where the waves start to break and is also part of QLD and NSW. On the NSW side one should not surf, but the waves break perfectly in QLD. Snappers Rock is one of the best surf breaks in the world and if you catch the right wave you can ride it in its total length, up to Kirra Beach which is 2km north. But unfortunetly, there were no surf lessons…
I stayed in YHA Coolangatta. When I arrived on late May 31 it was slightly raining. Also my mobile phone broke when I switched it on after leaving the airport terminal. I don’t know what the problem was, but I simply didn’t want to charge. So the following weeks I was unreachable.
I chose Coolangatta as I wanted to travel in the southern part of Queensland and I wanted to learn surfing. This is also the only thing to do in Coolangatta. There is nothing else, except watching the ocean and relaxing/reading. As the beach was closed because of really bad weather conditions, I just did the latter „activities“ and adjusted my life to holidays. So I spent three days, walking on the beach (even with bad weather I wore just shorts) and reading.
The sky was clouded every day I was in Coolangatta. This was contrary to what I expected and to what I wanted and why I went to QLD. The day I left for Surfers Paradise was the first really warm day – and I had to carry my rucksack :/. There were only a few german people in that YHA, so luckily I was forced to speak english. This should be different during the next few locations.
Surfers Paradise
The second station was Surfers Paradise, simply called Surfers. It’s more a Shopping and Party mekka than a paradise for surfers. But, as I was told, the surfing schools there would operate every day. So, the first thing to do, was to locate the schools and inquire for lessons. I spent the first day with a swedish guy I met in Coolangatta. The second day was filled by two two-hour surfing lessons, with a two hour lunch break and two one hour walks on the beach. During the following days I took just one surfing lesson as the wettie (wetsuit) was too tight at my arms 😉 and I faced more problems standing up.
Riding a wave was the final variant of surfing I had to try. After wind-surfing and kite-surfing this is the one with the lowest costs. You simply need a board and that’s all. So it’s the easiest thing if you’re travelling. Unfortunately all three kinds of surfing require different surfboards.
On a windy day, kite surfers ruled the surf. But there was no hire available and if it is then the price will be at $180 per day which is more than 100 Euro. F*ckin‘ expensive. That’s a reason, why I’m thinking about buying a kite or don’t do it at all. To rent a surf board is about $20 to $30 per day, quite cheaper… But I didn’t do it that often. I tend to buy a cheap board when travelling in summer. Travelling by bus allows to take two pieces of luggage, each 20kg. But this is in three months…
Again I stayed in a YHA, which was located at Main Beach, north of Surfers Paradise. I had been warned by other students that there are many german guys travelling in Queensland and here, this was true. At least 30 per cent german people and they were only talking german… Ahhh. I separated from them and tried to talk only to native speakers (uk and us). Of course, avoiding german wasn’t always possible, but I tried to avoid the german language.
Brisbane
Brisbane is the third largest town in Australia, but there is not so much to see. Already on my first day, which was actually only one afternoon, I walked nearly the whole centre of the town. The following three days I spent in botanic gardens and in outer parts of the city. I walked all the time and never jumped on a bus.
Unfortunately I had already missed the first game of the german soccer match at the Euro2008 as there was no pub in Surfers Paradise that opened that long. They have laws there that forbid re-entry to clubs and pubs after 03 A.M. Maybe that’s a reason why some pubs close at 03 A.M. But in Brisbane there was the Pig N Whistles that opens 24/7 and therefore also shows soccer every night. The second game was shown here at 02 A.M. I got some sleep and then went out to that bar. My german roommates where that drunk that they stayed in the hostel. There were around 130 folks watching that game. Singing was forbidden as the hotels around the bar complained about the noise and police ordered to switch the TV off if the noise remains. So only the national anthem was sung and afterwards every noise was nip in the bud.
While having breakfast the sky was totally clouded but it cleared when I left the hostel. So everyday sunshine and purely blue sky… The hostels were not that heavily crowded by german guys.
Noosa Heads
„Gorgeous Noosa“ (Lonely Planet). And this is definitely true. Everybody who was there that I must go there. So I spent four night at the YHA Halse Lodge, close to Main Beach. I spent a lot of time in Noosa’s national park. Even during winter it was pretty warm but the plants and trees in the national park were mainly only green and did not flourish. Well I spotted a Koala and tried to surf, but the waves were to hard to catch and more suited for long boards.
It’s hard to go for sports when you want to see the town. Especially during the short days in winter. This is the thing I worried most about and which was unfamiliar. During the day it feels like summer and after dusk at 05 pm it gets cold. I don’t mean the temperature drop, I talk about the fact that a summer day ends at 05 pm. I didn’t get used to that and I don’t want to. Drawing attention back to the first sentence, there are only eight hours to use. Going surfing takes four to five hours as this is the usual time to rent a board. So only three hours remain to have a look at other stuff. I preferred walking around.
While travelling in the summer the day might be organized differently and this what I look forward to. This was more a test run of travelling. One must understand how to organize the day when sports and travelling/sightseeing shall both be achieved each day.
Of course, there were many german travellers in Noosa, but also people from the netherlands, canada and even one from iceland.
Rainbow Beach
There is not so much to see in Rainbow Beach. It is mostly a start point for Fraser Island 4WD self-drive tours. On the arriving day there was the first briefing, then grouping the teams and hanging out at the beach on that evening before having a common dinner and a early night.
Fraser Island
My group was composed of 11 people, four germans (including me), three irish, two english and two canadians. Other groups were comprised of nine germans and two non german speaking guys or even 11 irish people.
The first day we spent at Lake McKenzie and then went to the aboriginal Campground to have dinner and a campfire. Of course, we slept in tents and without mattresses it wasn’t comfortable at all. And it was really cold. We were told, that everything you need on Fraser Island are shorts and do not take shoes, because you wont need them. But it was sooo cold at night.
The second day we first went to the famous shipwreck and then drove up to Indian Heads. Afterwards we went to XXX creek and then went to build the camp and have dinner. Then many, many people got really drunk. We had to carry one from the beach back into the camp… He couldn’t move anymore and fell into his tent. We had a full moon that night and the moon gave so much light that we didn’t need the light of the car.
At night Dingos walk trough the camps. They are nosy but shy. And they are like wolves, at least they howl like them and a pack of them did it in the middle of our camp at around 5 A.M. At around 5:45 on the third day I got up and spent two freezing hours at the beach to take photos of the sunrise. Later we went to Lake Wabby and then went back to the barge (small ferry) to return the car.
Fraser Island was cool, but due to winter the days were short and we spent a lot of time in the jeep to get around. And as mentioned before it was really cold at night. This is a place to visit in the summer month. But then it might be unbearable hot in the tents at night.
Fraser Island is the world’s largest island made up of sand. So there are only few roads. mostly it’s just a lane of sand amongst rainforest. There you need the 4WD… Most of the time we were driving on the beach, close to the „imaginery blue line“ where the sand is hard but not wet anymore. The beach is the official road on Fraser.
Rainbow Beach
After returning to Rainbow Beach one normally spends another night in that hostel to relax and get some sleep. I spent one additional night and relaxed more ;). I didn’t do anything on the following day, just hanging around at the beach, reading and chatting.
Hervey Bay
As I had bought a Greyhound bus ticket Brisbane–Hervey Bay and return, intended that I would go to Fraser starting at Hervey Bay, I just went there to see that town and to have been there. Again there was nothing to do. Relaxing and walking around a bit.
Sunshine Beach
Sunshine Beach is on the other side of the Noosa national park. It has a much higher surf as it faces the ocean directly. I spent seven nights with relaxing, some surfing (I chose the day with the hardest conditions), a lot of reading, laying in the sun and at the beach, visiting the national park again and simply walking around.
Here, we watched the final of Euro2008. To watch it, we went up at 04 A.M. in the morning. And then such a boring match. FCUK, we should have stayed in bed.
Conclusions of my travel
Of course, I should have done some more activities, such as tours or day trips. But I mostly wanted to relax after nearly eight months of continuous studies. I am now adjusted to travelling and don’t want to study again. Life could be so easy. But there is always the balance of traveling and relaxing one must find. Some people stay at places even for months. One has to find the right number of days in a town. It’s hard to guess and it’s even harder to travel if one does not have his own campervan. It required more planning, as the bus must be booked 24h in advance and you always need a bed in a hostel.
The best way of traveling would be, to buy a campervan and then drive around Australia. Maybe that’s the way of getting through the second period of travel in summer. To hire a campervan is too expensive, already the petrol is expensive enough. Let’s see how travel will work in the second period. At first, there are fifteen weeks to survive until the semester is finished.
I think, it’s not hard to find mates to travel with. Through my short route and individual itinerary there was no one to travel with. But that’s OK and might be different when one fits into the popular tracks. We’ll see.
