Fraser Island

Welcome to Fraser Island!!
...the island with incredible white sand dunes and beaches, crystal clear rivers and lakes, and amazing rain forests... what more could you want in an island?

here are some of the great people that i met on Fraser Island... such a great group!

Below is a picture taken from the air of the sand dunes... the sand is always blowing inland slowly covering the rain forest. this is part of a natural cycle and the forest will grow back eventually.

The whole island is made up of sand dunes which the forest grows in! This pic shows how the sand dunes slowly takes over the forest.

this is a pic taken on our last day - we visited a lot of places to swim, but as you can see, you didn't need to jump in the lake to get wet! eventually, i gave up on trying to keep my clothes dry and would put them on straight after swimming without drying off. it really didn't matter!

here i am after floating down the river on my back. this is shamu who i borrowed for a picture.

...me playing with my underwater camera. sadly, after this trip, i got some sand in the seal and i'm scared of putting it under water!
This is me and Macarena exfoliating our skin... the sand on the inland lake was insanely fine!

ship wreck...

Back in Australia!!

Gabe, Ami, and Miribai looking out over the ocean in Dee Why (suburb of Sydney)... a few minutes after this picture Ami and Miribai got soaked by a massive wave!

So I am back ‘on the road’ again... on January 8, 2008, after being home in Toronto for four months, I came back to Australia on a working holiday visa. After a few days in Hong Kong, I flew in to Sydney, Australia and started doing stuff with OzGREEN... first there was a brilliant workshop at a great camp near Sydney. Then 9 of us met in the very rainy, but very beautiful, Bellingen to start training on how to give environmental workshops.

At the base of a mountain called “Old Man Dreaming” we started doing some dreaming of our own... Dreaming and scheming for ways to make things just a little better for all of us here on this planet. In our free time, when we weren’t checking our clothes for leaches, or digging trenches around our tents (so they wouldn’t flood as bad),

Jess digging a trench arround someone else's tent...

we were swimming in the Never-Never River, eating amazing food, and sharing stories around a camp fire. It was a magical time I’ll never forget.

Jodi and Holi after swimming in the cold never never... both smiling 'willingly'...

After that, a few of us headed North to Byron Bay and stayed at Gabe’s mom’s place. We spent a few days recovering from the last few weeks... some of us even got to sleep in beds! I personally LOVED it in Byron – it’s so green and hilly with a great beach to swim at! A dolphin even swam right in front of us once! It was unreal!!

Cedar and I paragliding!

On my last day there, I went paragliding under the careful watch of Gabe’s brother Cedar. Last year I went sky diving, but this was a million times better! I felt like a bird the way we played with the thermal lifts to rise above the tree line on the ridge of the mountain.

ME - just before paragliding!

Then I did an 11 hr bus ride further North to Hervey Bay. After a few days of rest and relaxation at this great hostel, I’ll hopefully be out on Fraser Island enjoying the pristine white sand beaches.

I’m sending lots and lots of love to you all and thanks for all the e-mails letting me know what you are up to! It’s always nice to hear from you guys!

Addy :)

ps - if you are confused about the dates, i wrote this back in January but just remembered to post it!