Fraser Island - the world's biggest sand island

I had an image in my head of large tracks of endless white sand but I could not believe how green the island was and how all the forests that grow on the island grow in sand.

We are on Fraser Island, the biggest sand island in the world just off the coast of Moreton Bay and a stones throw from the mainland. We have taken our car over by ferry to explore the island.

The tracks are all sand, some soft and lethal. The beaches are spectacular with hard sand and pounding waves. It is the only place I know where this magnificent beach of 75 miles in length is a giant highway for excited 4x4s.
Ozzies love to bring their trucks and raised vehicles here with everything to make their camping trip enjoyable. Fishing, swimming in some of the 100 fresh waters lakes on the island and making sure you dont get stuck in the sand is a national pastime and a great favourite.

We were bringing a 4x 4 with us but one which was a little different from the Ozzie UTEs as they are called here. We can proudly claim that we were able to offer assistance to another car but never got stuck ourselves. However there is a lot more that we haven't explored and we hope to go back and do more of the driving on the tracks and the beach.

It is probably the only place where you get planes landing on the beach while dingoes roam and cars speed along. You have to see it to believe it.

 The elaborate patterns of a tiny mollusc.

 One of the giant elk horn ferns that grow on the trees- this one was quite low.

 The various eucalypts and the forest floor.

Aircraft, 4 x4 s and dingoes on the beach. 

Note Xmas decks on car aerials by Eli creek a great favourite  freshwater creek on the island. Eli Creek which is found on the eastern side of the island has a flow of 80 million litres of water a day.

 Our little party of 4 x 4s

Lake Mackenzie - one of the many freshwater perched lakes - meaning they lie on a bed of leaves and dead organic matter which waterproofs them and are maintained at the level they are simply by rain falling. Fraser is home to 40 perched lakes. They are quite acid so dont support much aquatic life but they are wonderful to swim in and the silica sand is cool and smooth. It feels like you have had a skin treatment after swimming in this lake and the colour ranges from the white turquoise to the deep inked blue.

Sunset on one of the beaches. A great place to welcome the new year and remind ourselves of the strength of the natural world and all that it has to offer us in its purest simplest form.

The Everglades- A Hilton - unlike others you have ever known.

Noosa river system extends from the coast line back into the country. These waterways were once an important way to get logs transported. Now the area is the Great Sandy National Park and it is a wonderfully relaxing way to explore the Noosa river, its tributaries and wetlands.

Dave, with a dry wit and a fabulous Aussie humour kept us briefed about the history of the area and the developments. He introduced us to various landmarks along the way starting with the floating homes, the most quaint of these being the Hillbilly Hilton which sits proudly on the river. A little further inland is Makepeace Island - another Richard Branson island - complete with jetty and superb accommodation. He was happy to share some celeb gossip with us...

The journey was over several hours - in that time we saw a tawny frogmouth and a snake Swimming spotted by Nick - there were a few birds but not as many as we had hoped to see. The weather was threatening and I suspect wisely they had all found a perch to keep dry on. We loved the paperback trees, also called Tea trees. Some of the tannins from these trees make the waters a deep reddish colour as if you are swimming in pot of stewed tea.

Talking of tea - we had a grand one near Harry's Hut, a local figure and hero who sadly is no longer but his hut survives and is the place where teas with sparkling wine and anti pasti unfold and every one enjoys the chit chat and the interaction, if not a swim.

On the way back we enjoyed speeding along and watching the leaves of the lilies develop a life of their own through the ripples on the water.

Summer time in Noosa.

The heat is here which means beach time and for some bikinis !

We spent our post Xmas break on the Sunshine Coast in Noosa- we had been some time ago and thought it would be a lovely place to go back to. I booked the accommodation nearly a year ago and it was perfectly situated just on the end of Hastings St, the main drag. It's only a couple of hours from Brisbane and when you arrive you soon realise why it is so popular. The main town is fairly compact so you can walk along Hastings Street which has some choice shops, restaurants and cafes. You can also walk along the beach and follow trails around the beach or up into Noosa Headlands. There is so much on offer whether on the beach, or with food and music festivals being held there, and of course, Eumundi the enormous outdoor art and craft, food and more market, is only a few kilometres outside Noosa. 

We spent our days walking along the beautiful beaches, watching the kite surfers, paddle boarding and walking in the National Park. We traversed a beach and wondered why we were coming across men with nothing on only to find that it is one of the few nudist beaches in Queensland.  We spotted koalas in the wild and saw turtles. We ate Betty's Burgers and feasted at "Sails."We got rained on and ran off the beach, sheltered for a while and heard an Aussie voice saying - "The rain has gone - you can all come back out now."

And just in case you didn't have enough time to organise your bikini line - look no further, Jim has the instant answer in his Muff Management Mobile which is readily available by the beach side. 

Don't you just love them. 

2016

Happy New Year everyone - I took a small break from blogging to enjoy the family who came out to Australia and to see friends. We have just waved them off, put the house in order, re stocked the fridge and opened Blogger. Talking to friends and family all over the world there is a general consensus that this was a content time- Not forgetting the misery of the refugees and the war torn areas in the world it seems churlish not to be able to enjoy the warmth of family.Xmas and New Year is a stressful time. There is so much pressure to get everything done, to make sure it is perfect, to follow tradition and to exceed expectations but really at the end of the day isn't what is important the chance to sit next to a loved one and to reach over and hand hold for that brief moment when they will let you do this? I overcooked the turkey and forgot the crackers but every last morsel was eaten in the subsequent days and the crackers will be fresh and ready for the table next year.

So we have come swimmingly (literally) into the New Year and feel invigorated by the days of sunshine and the travels. More of that soon, but also in the mood  for clean ups of all that trickles into the inbox. My favourite word this week is UNSUBSCRIBE. I am in the mood to not only do the actual dusting but to dust off some of the cobwebs of last year, shake my feathers out and start afresh on something which will engage me and challenge me. Perhaps you may need to hold me to my word half way through the year as a lot is made of these commitments in the early part of the year. Talking of feathers, as I write my favourite pied butcher bird is here to say good morning and eat some morsels of chicken. 

Collectively we shall undertake a sober February - shortest month in the year I hear you all shout - but only by a day or two.We shall give all the money we raise to support Wildlife Queensland's efforts to protect the Spotted Quoll, an endangered marsupial. My niece Gaby raised money for miracles babies when she recently celebrated her 40th Birthday. More and more people are opting to give to good causes instead of being caught in this never ending consumerism trap. Individually we have achieved our ideal weights and hope to maintain them by a programme of gentle but sustained exercise, with some swimming and running. We have neighbours who are as into food as we are, so we are constantly exchanging recipes and food sites. Our next one, this Wednesday,  is roast duck in a wood fired pizza oven that Kim and Pat have decided is the best way to cook duck without having a splattered oven. Communication will be another focal point with less of Candy Crush and more of "mindless prattle" as we in the family like to call it. 

C faces a year of consolidation and change at the University for which he has plans and hopes. I will attempt more technical skills and know-how through workshops and online programmes. Maybe making more of the Blog and being more adventurous with my writing. Everything I learn means I can go back and impress the boys - no mean feat - and I can rely on myself more,rather then have a list of problems they have to address every time we meet. 

Finally, but by no means least, we will foray out in the wild, attempt to swim with mantra rays, go on the Great Bunya Drive and hike up a mountain. Those knees need to be used, er while there is useful movement left in them. I say this as over the Xmas period my left thumb quite suddenly has refused to have any grip and is often painful. Sobering let me tell you.  And so with all this in mind the blog will be the way I come to report back, share the experiences and the shames (there are bound to be a few). Happy New Adventures to you all. 

Putting up the Xmas Tree

When I moved to Delhi and our first Christmas came around I remember asking a lot of people where I could get a tree from and no one really knew. There were plenty of artificial trees but I have never had one and somehow I was not quite ready to make the switch. I dont know if going from a real tree to an artificial one is like going from a real book to a kindle - there may be some interesting similarities here, but I digress. Having searched high and low I ended up going to a nursery and buying a tree in a pot which I brought in every Christmas and then looked after for the rest of the year in the garden.

This year I went along to my local shopping area and there was a whole shop dedicated to trees and wreaths, mainly real, but some artificial ones, thrown in for good measure. There was a whole catalogue of what was available thin ones, fat ones, tall ones, small ones. I chose a small one, on the grounds that the price was high enough as it is and my space was limited so off he went to collect it. The trees come from a sustainable source and when we are done with them Brisbane City Council collects them to prop up areas of erosion. Carpets were removed and a through way was made to the living room where we rearranged the furniture to give it centre stage. His instructions however were to put it in water and this is sensible enough bearing in mind that this is Australia and the temperatures are in the 30Cs.  But how do you prop a Xmas tree in a bucket of water without it tumbling over which it did on two occasions? We wedged it, propped it, poked it and lodged it, we brought cartons and cardboard, we contemplated sand and dirt, we cut templates and we rummaged around in the garden for rocks that we could shove either side of the bucket to keep the tree upright. The physical effort was entirely his but I was the underling who fetched and mopped, shifted and held it from toppling on his head. After some considerable physical exertion we managed to prop it up and I brought out all our lovely hand painted Indian baubles with their golden threads and pompoms and tied each and every one to the tree. It was completed with one of my son's sparkly drawings, a mix between an angel and a Commander of a ship and of course the most precious bauble of all, my golden glass case which had been flattened by Tara chewing on it as if it were a bone, teeth marks and all.

The lights were switched on and I stepped back in some awe. The room was flooded with the unmistakable smell of pine and and the lights lent a soft golden glow to where I stood. Yes Christmas is special and I am ready to gather my flock around me. Wishing all of you out there the peaceful sight of bats flying out at dusk, or the gentle silent dusting of snow on the ground, wherever in the world you might be, with time for thought, sharing and a deeper understanding of what we can do for one another. 

Climate Change Agreement

Our lives can be as broad or as narrow as we chose them to be. Today we have our street party but it is raining so will it still go ahead ? Th rain however is welcome, for the garden and for the farmers in the Queensland hinterland who have been suffering the terrible drought that has decimated their farms over the last few years. A woman got bitten by a taipan snake, one of the most venomous snakes here, when she went to check if her Xmas lights were on. At 6 am we woke to the news of a Climate Change Agreement in Paris. 

So this must be where the small and the narrow turns into something massive and universal with 195 countries committed to even making that half degree change in global warming. "No country shall step back" were the words that stuck in my head and the message from Julie Bishop, Australia's foreign minister is that for the first time there is a general recognition that action must be taken. It will be a particularly interesting one for us living in Australia where they have been so dependent on mining coal. 

The first mark of change is an announcement already today that the Turnball government has lifted the ban on wind turbine investment. Perhaps there are more changes to come. So it is important to recognise the significance of this and the collective agreement of 195 countries after years of sometimes frustrated and difficult negotiations. 

Given the season, I am therefore celebrating the announcement with nature's answer to Xmas  colours and decorations. Candelabras on trees- only this time they are in situ and we can all enjoy them without turning on a socket and available at any time of day. 

Storm Season

December 1st is the official start to summer but also the time when storms become more frequent in Queensland. There are posters and advertisements constantly warning people of the dangers and how best to protect themselves and their homes. There was a big storm on Sunday just as we were heading out - lashing rain and strong winds. This is what it looked like.

Today the rain came down slowly and gently and the sun is just setting as the bats head out over the sky to find their dinner. It was so stunning I thought I would share some of the photos with you.