Fraser Island - PS

Forgot to give a mention to Leah - *waves* to Leah - who did the bushtucker talk and to Kelley *waves* to Kelly - who met us from the return ferry on Wednesday morning and, as we had an hour or so to fill while waiting for the rail coach link, took us to a lovely little beach cafe called Enzo's at Scarness for breakfast and where we some dolphins in the bay.

27/07/06: 4.34 pm

Technological Disaster

My human was trying to work out to take panoramic photos and inadvertently deleted all the photos taken up to now - so no photos of me at Singapore Aiport, on arrival at Brisbane Airport or the Fraser Island photos.

*Waves* to Leanne and Monica from South Australia - any chance you could email my human with some of your photos from the tour of the island on Tuesday?

Message to Jonathan - my human told you she needed more training....

27/07/06: 4.30 pm

Bad, but it seems eventually, Good News

Update on credit card - just after we logged off last night my human got a phone call to say that her request for a replacement for the emergency replacement card has not been authorised. The Visa representative tried to connect my human to Michelle at the bank but couldn't at the time. Michelle eventually rang back at 1.15 am local time.

Said that there was no reason the card wouldn't work - but it couldn't be swiped, the numbers had to be entered manually. My human was to give it one more go and if it didn't work then they would see about sending me some cash (however that's the point of having a card - so you don't have to carry any cash).

As the very helpful Hotel Manager Travis was on duty when we got back from out day out in Brisbane today, we had another go - and Yay! It seemed to work, so fingers crossed that it will work again.

Our theory is, that someone forgot to 'authorise' the card's use.

27/07/06: 4.25 pm

Dinner: 26/06/06

My human had arranged to have dinner with Eithne and John Stafford. They are the parents of Tim Stafford and aunt and uncle to Geni. Tim graduated in landscape architecture so when my human met him at Geni's birthday drinks in a Clerkenwell bar she retained his services to landscape her garden.

It was completed in time for his parents to see when they came over on a visit a couple of years ago.

Apart from Monday evening, we didn't see Geni for the remainder of our time on Fraser Island as she had to come back to Brisbane and, as she was still going to be in town when we returned, we invited her to join us.

An unexpected bonus was she bought along Ash, so we were able to check him out! We're pleased to report she's landed herself a 'good un'. (Note to EVers, my human was organised enough to take a photograph and hopes to get the photos - along with the others she has taken so far - uploaded sometime).

We had champagne to celebrate and all in all it was a very pleasant evening. Oh, and my human tried the 'catch of the day' which was barramundi - so she definitely feels she's in Australia now.

26/07/07: 10.40 pm

Fraser Island

I guess you want to know all about Fraser Island now.

The journey went relatively smoothly, although the bus connection to the ferry was running a bit behind schedule but they waited for us to arrive.

Geni met us at the Jetty Bar, together with some of her colleagues and we drink some wine and watched the sunset. Very beautiful and very relaxing. A dingo came along but there are strict rules about not feeding them etc.

After checking in, we went with Geni and her colleagues to a supper at 'Captain' Jack and Glenda's home. Fish Chowder was on the menu and very nice it was too. A big thank you to Jack and Glenda for their hospitality.

We left about 9 pm and it was then we noticed the night sky. Wow! We've never seen anything like it. The sky was full of stars - we spotted the Southern Cross as well as Jupiter. Truely awesome and very beautiful.

We had an early night as we had been done a fair bit of travelling over the last few days and had an early start the next morning as Geni had booked us on the full day tour of the island.

8.15 am Tuesday morning found us sitting on a 4WD coach with 30 or so other people. Our first stop was Lake Mackenzie where if you had your bathers you could have a swim. We didn't swim although my human paddled a bit. Fraser Island is the largest sand island in the world and sits on top of fresh water table, so the lake was very clean and clear and the sand incredibly soft.

After some refreshments we made our way to Central Station and a walk in the rain forest. We were very brave and took the 'long walk option' which was about 2 km.

We then drove to the Eurang for a buffet lunch. By now we had chummed with with Leanne (who was sitting next to us) and her friend Monica, who was sitting further back on the coach. They were on an all-girls trip from South Australia and were staying in Hervay Bay and had just come over for the day.

After lunch we then drove on the 75 mile straight beach! It is used as a highway and the rules of the highway apply to the road. There was also an option to take a short flight if we wanted to and before I knew it, my human, Leanne and Monica found themselves in a small plane flying over the north of the island. Our pilot was Scott and he was, to quote 'Kath' rather a hunk of spunk!

While in the air we spotted a whale - so it was worth it just to see that.

We landed near the 'coloured sands' and met with up with the coach and the remaining passengers and we then made our way to Eli Creek.

It was then time to make our return journey along the beach and across the island and we arrived back at the resort about 4.15 pm. My human said goodbye to Leanne and Monica and I made my goodbyes to their respective hats - they had been good company.

However, our day of activities had not finished. My human had been talked into going to the Bushtucker Talk and Eat session. You'll be relieved to know there were no witchity grubs but we did get to sample kangeroo, crocodile and emu as well as a range of berries and spices.

After another exhausting day we got to bed and we had another early start for our return journey to Brisbane today.

The journey back was delayed by about 30 mins so we didn't get back to the hotel until nearly 5 pm.

26/06/06: 10.34 pm

Mainly of interest to EVers

If you don't know what an EVer is, than this won't be of much interest to you.

The reason for our flying visit to Fraser Island was to visit Geni - who was a member of EV while she was living in London and now works at the Kingfisher Bay Resort as a Guide. Geni's hot news is - SHE'S NOW AN ENGAGED PERSON!

It all happened last Thursday. Her intended, Ash, proposed to her and gave her a ring. Geni described him as a 'tree hugger', i.e. an environmentalist. More details later.

26/07/06: 10.14 pm

Bad News

It didn't work.

When the human presented it for payment for the one night's accommodation they got a 'invalid transaction' message.

Human spent about 20 mins on the phone Monday morning trying to get it sorted. Not much progress made and as we had to catch a train we postponed dealing with the matter until today.

Human spent 45 mins earlier this evening trying to get it sorted. Apparently there is a problem with the magnetic strip and security numbers on the back. Everyone's very sorry and apologetic but it doesn't help my human very much does it?

Upshot is, we've put in a request for a replacement for the replacement but with all the travelling about we're doing in the next 6 days, we've asked for delivery at our hotel in Sydney next Wednesday.

Now just have to wait and see if they the second replacement will be authorised.......

26/07/06: 10.10 pm

Good News

Yay! Emergency replacement card did indeed arrive at my hotel on Monday morning ......


26/07/06: 10.06

Tie me kangeroo down sport

Now for some serious blogging.

On the train journey up to Fraser Island we spotted a kangeroo - just the one on it's ownsome. Unfortunately the human didn't have her camera ready so you'll just have to take my word for it.

All together now: Skippy, Skippy, Skippy, the bush kangeroo, Skippy, Skippy, Skippy our friend ever true ....

T,t t,t t

What's that Skippy?

t, t, t, t

Don't forget to let them know about the credit card. Don't worry, Skippy, I won't.

Posted 26/07/06: 10.05 pm

Housekeeping Note

Hi there - hope to post later on, but it has been bought to my attention that the time stamp on my postings are BST (i.e. GMT + 1) and not local time. So, if you are in the UK you have to add 9 hours to get the true time of my posting. If you're anywhere else, you'll have to work it out yourself!

To help, though, I'll try and date and time stamp individual postings.

26/07/06: 6.00 pm

Finally, G'day

Yes, we finally got to Brisbane and we were met by 'Fred' and her new friend, Warren........

Fred drove us all to my hotel, and after checking-in, we made our way to the Lychee Bar in West End (apparently not a place you'd visit 20 years ago but now becoming very fashionable. The bride-to-be was having a bit of a get together so we just popped in to say hello. (Note: apparently the impetus for the trip was Allison's wedding).

Unfortunately the groom wasn't there as he's poorly - Allison told us that he nearly didn't fly out with her and planned to travel just before the wedding (which is this coming Saturday). 'A' was having none of it and dragged him on to the plane.

Hotel seems very nice but we check out tomorrow (return on Wednesday though) to make our north to Fraser Island. Should be interesting as it involves a train, coach and ferry.

Watch this space.....

The Final Furlong

Well here I am in Changi Airport just waiting to board the plane for Brisbane. Can't say I've seen much of Singapore but my human has taken a couple of photos of me in the airport to prove I was here.

Flight from London to Singapore was very smooth - well, there were a couple of rough bits but nothing to worry about if you have ever been on a bendy bus in London. Take off and landing were one of the smoothest I've ever experienced (well, actually, the only ones I've experienced so far :-) ).

Other than that, can't really comment as I spent the journey rather unceremoniously locked in the overhead luggage locker. Good job too, the blue, purple and lilac colour scheme in Singapore Economy clashed terribly with my perfect pinkness.