Today our couchsurfing hosts took us to a beach, where we could snorkel. At first we were a bit scared because of the sharks, but then we actually did it, and I took some photos with my underwater camera. 🙂 After we had snorkelled we jumped from a little bridge and had a lot of fun. The beach, the bay and the landscape looked so beautiful it was really  amazing. 🙂

As soon as we were awake after a rather sleepness night in our tent, I decided to look for a shower. 🙂 Luckily I found one at a caravan park next to our tent ( it was open because of the huge music festival which was to open this weekend on Stradbroke Island)

After I had had a shower we packed all our stuff (not much) and hitchhiked to the beach. 🙂 A young couple from Australia, who have come over for the music festival, gave us a lift in their  very small car. 🙂 After we had arrived at the beach, we started to walk the North Gorge track with our backpacks.

 

 

 

 

 

We saw a kangaroo family and some whales on our way.

We spotted a lot of nice places to camp but decided to keep on walking, because it would have been  too dangerous (e.g. in front of a cliff^^). We were just going to settle down in the wilderness again, when Leonardo (the booked couchsurfing-host) called us and invited us to his apartment. After we had had our lunch, we walked along the road to hitchhike to his apartment.

We were lucky and a very friendly man with his daughter picked us up and gave us a lift to the „whale watch ocean resort“, our new home. Very beautiful view, our own room and so friendly hosts (Leonardo and Tom). The two guys told us, that we should feel like being at home, could do whatever we wanted, and stay as long as we wanted. 🙂 🙂 Heaven again? 😛 We were also told that it was not good to go snorkelling that day, it would be better to wait till the next day, and then go to the South Gorge. 🙂 So first of all we took a nap in our comfortable new room. 🙂

 

Parking in Brisbane is very expensive. We had to pay 4 dollars/hour. That was too much, we can’t afford a lifestyle like this. So we decided to head for North Stradbroke Island by ferry. When we just had arrived at Cleveland to catch a ferry, we realized, that it was too late. The last ferry had gone at 7:55 pm, we arrived  at 8:00 pm :/ Damn it! So we went to the shops and parked our car at a carpark and  prepared for the night. It was our second night in the car, and both of us slept very well. The next morning we relaxed in the sun, played darts and enjoyed ourselves.

 

 

 

 

At 3:25 pm we caught the ferry to Stradbroke Island (15 AUD each for a return ticket, quite cheap :D) and we arrived at the island at 4:00 pm. We thought it is a small island, but after we had talked to a man on the ferry, we learnt that we were wrong:  Stradbroke Island has got 2000 inhabitants. 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

That is not much, but definitely not an island to walk along carrying backpacks all the way.:) So I decided to  hitchhike again, and Jan couldn’t believe it, but the third of three cars stopped. An old man, Peter, picked us up. Once, about 3o years ago, he had been working in Düsseldorf for a shipping company.

 

 

 

 

 

After we had jumped into his car, he asked us, where we wanted to go. Our answer was „we don’t know, haha, somewhere where we can camp for free“. He showed us a place, where we could camp (and where the rangers wouldn’t find us) 🙂 Then he toured us  around the island to show us the nicest spots:

 

 

 

 

 

The main beach ( one of the best surfing beaches in the world), a walking track, where one can see dolphins, sharks ( yeah real sharks, he said, at least once a year, a stupid tourist gets hurt or eaten by a shark) and a place, where we can see whales. Here are many nice spots to snorkel, and we decided to go snorkeling the next day. 🙂 I will use my underwater-camera, that my sisters gave to me as a good-bye-present, and I have already used the compass, which my friends gave to me as a gift, so that I will always find the right path to walk. 🙂 Thanks for that! 😀

When we will have snorkelled tomorrow and have challenged our first day on this island we will try to contact the one couchsurfer-host, who is  living  here on North Stradbroke Island. 🙂 Maybe we can sleep at his place, because a pop-up tent for two guys  and two backpacks is quite small. Sleeping in it is like sleeping in a sauna. 🙂