North Stradbroke Island - Thursday 22 - Friday 23 February

Thursday 22 February

We caught the luxury Sea Stradbroke ferry which only took 45 minutes. North Stradbroke Island (NSI) is a subtropical island listed as one of the world's most ecologically important wetlands. But unfortunately, as we found, you needed a 4WD to be able to access most of the roads. These also take you to the beaches that no other vehicle can go. There are three main places on NSI.

Dunwich - where the ferry docks. Well known for its Aboriginal and European history and it holds graves dating back to shipwrecks in the 1800s. It's estimated that 10,000 people are buried there including 26 immigrants who died during a typhus plague that swept the immigrant ship, The Emigrant, in 1850.

Amity Point - where the first Europeans settled in 1825 when a pilot station was built to help shipping into Moreton Bay.

Point Lookout - where you can see for miles on the South Pacific Coast. It's basically the main tourist spot.

As Point Lookout was the mecca for all tourists we decided to head for there which was the northern tip of the island. We pulled up at Cylinder Beach Camping Area because it looked fab. The ranger had finished at 5pm though so we couldn't check in. This is the story of our life so far ever since we got Gert. I became a bit agitated as we needed a place to stay and who on earth finishes work for the day at 5pm? I know when I was at Freshfields I clocked off mentally at 4.30pm but at least I could be seen and heard. I spotted the bell and immediately started buzzing and buzzing. The ranger must have been very ignorant because he chose not to hear the bell. We left and headed for another campsite called Adder Rock Camping Area which was just outside Point Lookout. The ranger's notice said that the office had shut at 3.30pm. Crikey mate. Does anyone work a decent day over here? I couldn't believe it so I became a pain in their backside and buzzed and buzzed until someone came out and said that the ranger had gone out for the evening. So I decided to go one better and had a peep and found the caravan supervisor's number and telephoned him. He gave us the code to the gate and we were away. We originally found a camp spot right by the beach but it was too far away from amenities so moved to another part of the camp. After the stress we had gone through of finding a place we had to drink extra red wine which certainly helped our mood.

Friday 23 February

As reliable poms we went straight to the ranger's office and paid up for last night and also paid for tonight because the huge fruit bats (apparently called Flying Foxes) provided too much entertainment for us to miss. Plus this campsite was one of the best we have stayed in so far. It rained heavily through the night and some doughnut had left their mobile on the chair outside. The other doughnut found it but unfortunately it was too late for the phone. So, in just under a month, I will soon be on my third mobile phone. We went crazy and had our second dip in the sea here. The waves were really powerful so we didn't stay in for too long but the sea was lovely and warm. We visited Brown Lake which would have been lovely without the horrible rain. The lake was indeed brown. So I got changed into my long cargos and my coat. We headed to Blue Lake thinking that this would be more fun. We obviously hadn't learnt from our last walk which was Challenger's walk. In order to reach Blue Lake we had to park Gert and then take a walk which was a round 5.1km which didn't seem too bad at the time. The walk was through a forest which was really humid and so boring. We didn't see any wildlife at all. When we were half way into the walk we started walking a bit faster just to get it over and done with. We then saw a sign which said that the lake was 100m away. Once we reached the 100m point we managed to see a tiny bit of the lake from a lookout point but it was too protected by the trees - again. It was a difficult decision at the time but we decided to walk a little bit further because we thought that there must be more to see if they had sent us all this way. About another 150m on we came to another little clearing but that was all. It was a complete waste of an hour or so. We headed back to Gert but this time at a very fast pace. Five people arrived in a 4WD as soon as we reached our van and luckily for them we told them that the walk would be a complete waste of their time so they turned around.

After this experience Carl had spotted a walk called North George Blowhole. It took you around a little bit of the north east coast which included Whale Rock and Captain Cook Lookout. The first half of the walk was very impressive but then it started pissing it down - again - so we had to jog around the second leg and we were absolutely soaked through. We quickly ran into a surf shop and I did a bit of Roxy shopping. Whoever put that shop there was a genius.