Counting down the days during my last week in Brisbane filled me with great joy. This was tainted slightly as our old reliable car had packed up on us. It failed the garage test which meant we could not re-register or insure it. Basically it means the car is worthless.
It’s probably the worst news a group of travellers can get when they are days from starting a road trip. Whilst my mind was ticking over our options Mel and Steff were getting stressed about everything and cursing the day they ever came to Australia. It was all very dramatic. We’ve each had times when we have said that but things always work out in the end. It seemed our only option was to scrap the car and buy a new one. I did not fancy doing that as we were days from leaving.
Instead I offered to pay the rego and insurance whilst the money originally put in to pay for all this would be used to fix the car. Steff just happened to be pretty clued up when it comes to cars and he amazingly managed to get the parts needed for knock down prices at a scrap yard. Mel and Steff would wire me the money later once they picked up jobs at the end of their trip. I’m not that generous!
All this running about back and forth from Tweeds Head (back to NSW as that’s where the car was bought) meant that Steff had to take some time off from work which was a shame but secretly Mel and I were jealous of the fact that Steff managed to escape work for a couple of days! He even got to go on the Superman ride again at Movie World as he drove through Gold Coast.
To make up for some of the loss in earnings, Steff worked an extra day on Saturday whilst Mel and I were left to pack up the camping stuff. What should have been a relatively swift job turned into an exhausting onslaught of horridness.
The sun was beaming down on us and there was no shade to be found. We dragged everything out of the tent and started packing up. I squished down my airbed no problem. Mel went to do hers but nothing happened. Try as we may, that airbed would not go down. Half an hour later and we were still just as dazed and confused. Oh and profusely sweaty.
We enlisted the help of Steff via Blackberry but all we received was a torrent of abuse about how useless we were. Mel figured it out in the end but we’d wasted so much time doing that. Normally packing up takes us around 20 or 30 minutes but Mel and I spent a good few hours sorting everything out – such as the ant infestation! - and packing the car. It was unbelievable how long it took.
Mel and I were beat and we needed a shower fast. We drove to reception, checked out and asked to go for a shower. The receptionist frowned at us and said we should have had our showers earlier. Somehow, the receptionist saw the devastation in our eyes and pitied us enough to let us shower free of charge. We had just spent four weeks at the camp site so I'd like to think we deserved some goodwill!
Eventually we left to pick up Steff and headed to our first destination, Noosa. We’d heard all but good things about the place. It was described as Byron Bay before the crowds took over the place. This sounded right up our streets.
As we drove in, we passed high-end resort after spa after luxury apartments. It was a sight that saw our hearts sigh a little as we wished we had enough money to stay in one of those places.
We reached the heart of Noosa to find it buzzing with people. Noosa is made up of a cluster of restaurants and bars but was a lot more clean-cut than Byron Bay.
After the disaster that was this morning, the last thing we wanted to do was camp again. We booked two nights in Noosa before we departed for Fraser Island. We used this time to relax and spend time at the lovely beach there. Everything was so close together, it made things easy.
We ate well, eating out at a bar by the beach during the day and a pocket friendly fish and chip shop pointed out by a friendly 7 Eleven attendant by night. Everything was running smoothly and we were back to being our happy and chilled selves.
However, a hostel wouldn’t be a hostel without the token weirdos. This came during our second night where a random Swedish guy got up in the early hours to tackle the plumbing issue we had. He successfully unblocked the sink but made a mess in doing it. Mad. This coupled with a girl who had an awful tickly cough which meant she coughed every few seconds meant that we didn’t get the peaceful sleeps that we hoped but at least we were indoors and didn’t have to pack up a tent!
I was so excited for the Fraser Island trip but wasn’t looking forward to the early start. The pickup was 6:20am but I needed to unpack the car to get my lenses out as I’d forgotten to do that during the day. Naturally, I couldn’t sleep. I just hoped that I’d be awake enough to enjoy the trip.
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