So as many of you know I went to visit my friend Scanlon this past week on the Gold Coast. We did a weekend camping trip through her school to Moreton Island. I was super excited because I haven’t been able to do Fraser Island, which is a little bit more popular and touristy but Moreton Island has many of the same activities.
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| Moreton Island from the Ferry |
We got up super early Friday to hop on the bus. There were about 30 students on this trip and I was the only one not from Bond Uni. Scanlon knew a bunch of the other students so we hopped on the bus with them and began our hour-long drive to Brisbane. In Brisbane we caught the ferry to Moreton Island. The ferry trip was another hour and a half so we had plenty of time to sleep and play some card games while enjoying the beautiful views of Moreton Bay.
For those of you that don’t know much about Moreton Island here is a little history lesson. The island is almost completely made of sand. The Aboriginal people call it Moorgumpin, which means place of sandhills (yes it actually has huge dunes). There is a wide variety of wildlife on the island (which we experienced quite a bit of). Because Moreton Island was never part of the mainland it doesn’t have many of the larger animals you would normally think of as being Australian (like kangaroos). The largest mammal is a bandicoot (who knew bandicoots were real animals?! I thought they were just gaming characters). Aside from all the wildlife there is actually a lot of history on the island. European settlers (and by that I mean local convicts) built a lighthouse when Moreton Bay became a main shipping area because of the many shipwrecks. Moreton Island was also used as a major coastal defense base during both world wars. Today Moreton Island is a National Park and Recreation Area. It can only be accessed by ferry/boat and traveled by foot or 4WD vehicles.
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| Lighthouse |
After our lovely ferry ride we hopped into our bus/4WD thing and headed off to camp. The camp was all set up for us already. The tents just stay pitched from week to week and the company has an outdoor kitchen and bathroom facilities right near the campgrounds. We were told to pick our tents, drop our stuff off and change into bathing suits so that we could head to the beach. I chose a tent with Scanlon and her friend Kristen. We were a little slow at getting ready because we were distracted by the GIANT spider on the outside of our tent! After chasing it off we finally were able to put our suits on and head back to the bus. A short ride got us across the island and we drove to the lighthouse on the northern point. After the light house my bus had to head back to the ferry to drop someone off and then met up with the other bus at the only store on the island. We bought provisions for the night and then headed out to the beach before going back to camp for dinner.
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| One of the many creatures we encountered |
The next day a group of people went to hike Mount. Tempest, one of the sand dunes that is covered in vegetation. I stayed at camp and hung out at the beach with a few people. We played some frisbee, swam, kayaked, and just enjoyed the sunshine. The two groups came back together for lunch (The food was actually pretty good the whole weekend). After lunch we headed over to the wrecks to go snorkeling! It was sooo much fun! We saw all kinds of fish, a sea turtle and even a few sharks! They weren’t big sharks, I can’t actually remember what kind they were even but apparently they’re ones that smother you and then eat you. Awesome right?! Haha
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| After checking out the shark we took a break for a photo op. |
That night after dinner Scanlon and I went in search of starfish on the beach. We had gone the night before and found a perfect one but someone had thrown it in the trash after we brought it back to camp. L We didn’t find anymore good ones to keep but we did save a few. We also found a huge jellyfish that looked like a brain or like smokers lung haha. It was so cool and sooo gross. The amount of wildlife on the island is amazing. That night at the campfire we also saw sugar gliders (flying squirrels!). It was soo cool. There were three of them flying from tree to tree.
Sunday was another early morning. We had lots to do before leaving the island. We packed up camp and hopped in the bus to drive across the island to the sand dunes. On our way there our bus got stuck in the sand twice! We had to dig it out and then push it out both times. It was actually a lot of fun but it was crazy hot outside so I was very happy to get back in the bus when it was over. Finally we made it to the dunes. From the front it didn’t look very big. Certainly not bigger than anything we have in Michigan. We climbed to what we thought was the top and then realized that there was another even larger dune behind it that we still had to climb. After a very long hike up the dune we were rewarded by sand boarding down it! This is something I haven’t done before. In Michigan we just run down them. I think they’re steeper at home and sand boarding might not be safe. Who knows I could be totally wrong. Either way it was really fun. After sand boarding we got to export the resort that is on the island and relax at the beach while we waited for the ferry to take us home.
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| After we'd already climbed the first half of the dune |
It was a fantastic weekend. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who is looking for adventure.
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| Sunset from our campsite |
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