Morten Island

Since I have fallen a bit behind with this blogging lark, Hannah has already beaten me to it and written about our trip to Moreton island. You can read about it here.

On Thursday, we went across the bay on a guided tour around Moreton Island. This didn't get off to a great start when our guide was told the wrong pickup point and we ended up having to walk on to the ferry ourselves; luckily the pickup point wasn't far from the ferry or we would been in trouble. The tour got better from there on in.

Moreton Island is unusual in that the whole island is made of sand, with a thin layer of vegetation on top, holding it together. In fact, it is the third largest sand island in the world, its neighbour Stradbroke Island being the second largest and nearby Fraiser Island being the largest. The island is 95% national park and, given the somewhat shaky foundations upon which it is built, it has to be treated with care. Luckily, this doesn't prevent thousands of backpackers descending on it every year and having an awesome time.

Our tourguide, Grant, turned out to be an excellent 4WD driver. This was a lucky thing. I had been expecting some kind of dock when we reached the island. Nope. The ferry sailed up to the beach and we drove off, onto the beach. We then proceeded to drive along the beach for a few hundred yards. What with it being high tide at the time, this meant that our 4WD minibus was at a frightening angle, with one wheel in the water half the time.

Things didn't get any less scary once we turned onto a sandy track leading into the interior of the island. Grant told us that the tracks were tarmacked during the war, when Moreton Island was an important part of the plans for the defence of Brisbane and was home to thousands of troops. Sadly, the tarmac has now all fallen away. Our seatbelts proved to be essential; we were thrown around violently as the bus careered along the bumpy sand. Luckily, no one was sick and we soon arrived at the location for our first activity: sand boarding.

Sand boarding involves lying on a wooden board, the underside of which is waxed, and careering, head first, down a sand dune. This was our dune:

It was certainly an adrenaline rush, not least because I somehow ended up with the fastest board and, as a result, a ton of sand hitting me in the face on the way down. The board got up to an impressive speed on the way down, with me trying me best to hold on and not lose anything else; I managed to lose my flip flops almost immediately when I set off. Reaching the bottom wasn't fun because the board left the smooth sand of the sand dune and reached the bumpy sand at the bottom.

The worst part came when you got to the bottom and realised that you had to trudge back up the dune:

After a few goes sand boarding, we were covered in sand and had had enough. Luckily, it was time to head back to the beach.

It was at around this point that Sophie reminded me of the time that we went to Guernsey and all ended up with sunburn in comical shapes in all of the places that we forgot to apply sunblock. I think I tempted fate by informing her that it definitely wouldn't happen this time. More on that later.

A little way off the shore were a whole load of wrecked ships. We were somewhat disappointed to learn that these were wrecked intentionally in order to give tourists something to swim out to. They were still pretty cool, though.

Luckily, I had recovered from my ear infection by this point, so I was able to join the snorkeling fun. We each donned mask fins and snorkel and swam out to the wrecks. It was interesting to note that the underwater portion of each was completely covered in barnacles, to the point where the original metal structure of each of the ships was totally hidden. I was very disappointed that we were all given floatation jackets to wear while in the water, making it impossible to swim down and investigate any of the interesting structures and fish beneath the surface. Still, I suppose it is better to be safe than to be sorry. Here is a picture of the snorkeling gear. Very manly, I'm sure you will agree.

After we got in from snorkeling, we had time to do a bit more sunbathing and then we headed back to the ferry and returned to Brisbane. Fortunately, Sophie and Dan stayed awake and were able to direct us home. Slightly less fortunately, Hannah and I both ended up with the comical sunburn. I had completely forgotten to apply sunblock to my upper arms, for example, with the pattern of sunburn showing precisely the bits that I had missed. I guess it's a lesson for next time and Moreton Island was definitely worth it.