Working Holiday: More holiday than working

I just returned from Magnetic Island and between Byron Bay and Townsville, where I’m currently at, I’ve done many cool things. As you may or may not have noticed, this update is not in Dutch. I decided to give writing in English a shot, since I’m meeting so many new people from different countries, who also want to know what I’m up to and what my experiences are.

One amazing thing I did in Byron Bay was seeing the sunrise. The most Easterly point of the Australian mainland is located in Byron Bay, so we were the first people to see the sunrise that day. Also the strangest thing happened there. As we were walking back on the rocks, I found a jar with a note and a watch inside it. I accidentally dropped the jar when I was trying to open it, so it was easy to get the note and the watch out. The note mentioned two people and a little poem. We did not no in which context the note was written and the poem could either be a scary goodbye from someone who committed suicide or a love letter. It was a longshot, but we found the girl from the note on Facebook and it turned out to be a love letter from two people who shared the same experience at a different time. They both visited the same spot on different days and were supposed to come back there years later and open the jar together. It turned out the guy left that jar exactly in the same week we found it, one year ago. We replaced the jar and put the note and the watch back where

we found it.

So, after Byron Bay I left for Goldcoast, Brisbane and Noosa before my Fraser Island and Whitsundays trip. I recently found out that I have a second cousin living in Goldcoast, so I met him and stayed there for a few nights, which was nice! Goldcoast is also known as Surfers Paradise, but unfortunately I was not able to surf there. I just had a few nice days for myself, which is something that I really need sometimes. As a backpacker you constantly meet new people and have to socialize, party and hang out with other backpackers. I know it does not sound bad at all, for all of you working people back home. However, I find it to be exhausting at some points. Maybe it’s just me being weird, but sometimes I desperately need some time for myself. The good old Me, Myself and I, right. Usually at these moments I start writing the blog updates, to organize my head and do some financial checking to make sure I’m not completely broke yet.

Also, I stayed a few days in Brisbane. I’m still not entirely sure what to think of this city, because after all the smaller towns and villages it was weird to be back in a proper city like Brisbane. Luckily I didn’t have much time to worry about that, because I had a skydive to attend to! I was supposed to do the skydive in Byron Bay, but that unfortunately got canceled due to the weather, so I changed the

location to Brisbane, since I was leaving Byron at the time. Surprisingly, I was not scared or nervous at all for the skydive, I was just very very excited. I wanted to do a skydive for such a long time, but in the Netherlands I always thought it was too expensive for a not so spectacular view. However, here in Australia the view is pretty great, if I may say so. In Brisbane I also went for a dive and on my way to Noosa, I stopped in a unpronounceable place called Mooloolaba for another dive. The weather during those days was not great and more and more rain started to fall. The first day in Noosa was alright and I went to the National Park with the so called Fairy Pools, which weren’t as exciting as I had hoped for. Stupidly enough I googled the Fairy Pools before I went there so my expectations were very high. Once I arrived there, it was a rock pool which was cool-looking, if it wasn’t crowded by fat people jumping in all the time. So yeah, I walked two hours to see fat people jumping in to a rock pool, but luckily there was plenty more to see in the national park. For instance, I saw my first wild snake down under and also a decent sized spider. The second day in Noosa, it was just pouring rain all day and I did absolutely nothing, but watching Netflix.

After Noosa it was time for Fraser Island! I was super excited for this

trip, even though the weather was not looking great for the 3 days I was there. But yet again, you can never trust the weather forecast, because we had 3 absolutely stunning days. I did a 3 day/2 night tag along tour, which meant we had a tour guide driving the first car and 3 cars following him. We left early in the morning and to be honest, after my great great adventure of driving (and getting completely lost) in Sydney, I was a bit nervous to get in a car again. So the first day I just chilled in the passenger seat and watched how everybody else was getting the hang of it. The nights on Fraser Island we spent camping in a tent, which was better than my tent experience on the Shambala festival in Chiang Dao in Thailand, luckily. We were back from driving pretty early the first day, around 4pm, and since there was not much to do at the campsite, what else could we do than start drinking, right. So dices came out of bags and alcohol was poured in to cups and we started to play a very stressful, but very fun drinking game. Before we even started cooking dinner I was absolutely smashed and I was not able to drink anything else for the rest of the night. Classic.

The second day I felt confident(ish) enough to get behind the wheel and drive the massive 4WD. It was me and 7 passengers that I had to drive around, but besides getting out of the parking spot, driving that car was too easy. We went for some Champagne Pools and nice lookout points. Fraser Island is the largest sand island in the world, and nowhere on earth is as much sand in one place as on Fraser, which is a pretty cool fact. Then again another night of drinking games and also I got bitten by a bull ant that night, which hurted like hell and was itching crazy much the day after. The last day on Fraser Island was a special one, what a day was that. It started off quite easy, just as every other morning, but on our way to another lake we heard someone yelling in the radio something about a car crash. At first I thought it was a joke and one of the cars just got stuck in the

sand, which happened before. Then someone in our car said the car flipped over and even then I couldn’t believe it. It was only when I saw our tour guide sprinting past our car to the car behind us, that I figured the car flip might actually had happened. So, the people in our car jumped out and followed the tour guide and yes, once we arrived at that car, the car was on it’s side. As soon as it was clear everybody was okay, people started to take pictures and -of course- selfies with the car. I think our tour guide said this never happened before. I guess there’s a first time for everything.

I did another dive on the day after we came back from Fraser Island. Maybe you are wondering why I am diving THIS much, but as some of you guys know already, I am doing a Dive Master course in Cairns, which allows me to work as a Dive Master once I completed the course. However, I need 40 logged dives before I can start that course. A Dive Master is not the same as a Dive Instructor. As a Dive Master you are allowed to lead other divers who are fun diving and you’re kind of a guide. An instructor is able to teach, which I will not be able to do as a Dive Master. Anyway, I did a dive at the so called Wolf Rock which is crowded with nursing sharks. Also on the day that I went there, which was pretty amazing. I swam past and in between approximately 20 to 30 sharks which was absolutely unreal. Not that

scary, as long as you don’t look behind you and a shark unexpectedly turns up. However, in between the 2 dives I got seasick and my breakfast was soon to be fed to the fishes. I did go for the second dive, because in the water you don’t feel the waves as much as on the boat, but as soon as I ascended again after the dive was finished I started to throw up again, but this time under water. Yet again, there’s a first time for everything. To make things worse, that same afternoon I had to catch my bus for a 17 hour trip to Airlie Beach, from which my Whitsundays trip would depart. Literally 5 seconds before I got on the bus, I threw up again next to the bus station.

For the Whitsundays I booked another 3 day/2 night trip. This time I would sleep on a sailboat! For my own safety I did not bring any alcohol on this trip, just because my stomach was still confused after the dive and the busdrive. Even though the view of Whitehaven Beach was stunning and I did more diving, I was a bit unlucky on this trip. The first night we played a game, and whenever you failed playing the game the correct way, someone would spank you with a fin. You know, the things you wear on your feet when you go snorkeling. I was unlucky enough to be the first one to fail at this game and therefore be the first one to get spanked. The guy who had the fin did not know his own strength and he spanked me unbelievably hard. To be as dramatic as I can be, my eyes started watering and I was literally on a point that I could cry, but I did not wanted to do that, so I sat down and watched everyone else continue with the game. It's now a solid week later, and there is still (!) a fucking fin-mark on my ass!!

The other reason I was so unlucky on this trip was because of the last day of the trip, I accidentally jumped on a screw. We had the sailboat and a smaller motorboat next to it, to bring us to the beaches and the shore and stuff. On the last day we went in the smaller boat to feed some fishes, and because they were waiting for me, I kind of rushed getting in that boat. Without thinking I jumped from the sailboat in to the smaller boat, right on a screw pointing up. It did not even hurt that much at the time, but now a few days later I am still not able to walk properly, probably because the wound is pretty deep. For the weaker people amongst us, I will not post a picture of my foot, but you can imagine it looked pretty nasty.

After Fraser Island and the Whitsundays it was time for yet another Island, called Magnetic Island. I don’t actually know where the Island got it’s name from, but the best thing to get around here is to hire a Barbie car. So, that’s what we did. We hired a barbie car, cruised around the island, went to a Koala Sanctuary and cuddled a koala. Also, there were some reptiles and a python, which I also got to hold for a bit. That was a bit of a weird experience, because it was much heavier than I thought it would be and the texture of his skin felt like rubber. Now I’m back in Townsville for another 2 nights, before I am heading to Cairns. Hopefully I’ll be able to meet up with my aunt who’s currently visiting Australia! I’m now also starting to look for a job around Cairns and work until my ex-roomie Rose arrives in Cairns! I just had my 4 month travel anniversary so I’m excited to see some familiar faces soon!

Well, this is it for my first English written blog update. Bear with me, because English is not my native language, but I guess it’s good enough to understand that I’m still enjoying myself down under!

Cheers!