Pictures from Fraser Island

Some pictures from our trip to Fraser Island :)

Tuesday, November 20, 2012 - Town of 1770

One month has passed since we first came to Australia… It feels like an eternity since we were in Norway freezing our asses off. We have enjoyed this lifestyle so far, and I don’t think that will change any day soon, especially now that we’re in Town of 1770. Isn’t that just the coolest name of a place ever?! It got its name because this was the place Captain James Cook first went on land in Queensland on May 24, 1770. Town of 1770 is a small place (you have to go to another small place called Agnes Water to get to a grocery store) just where The Great Barrier Reef start in the south. The camping ground we’re living on is situated in a secluded bay right on the beach. Some of the sites are practically ON the beach, but those were of course all taken so we’re happy with being in the second row. When I woke up this morning it was raining, but as I wrote that sentence I saw the sun look out through the clouds. We got here yesterday, and we have one more night at this camping ground. There’s another camping ground here in 1770 and another one at the beach in Agnes Water, so we might try the other two as well, and maybe we like it so much here that we stay here for a while J We heard that there was a lot of fruit picking jobs around Bundaberg, and we thought 1770 was closer than it really is so we thought we would get a job here, but it doesn’t seem like there’s a lot of fruit picking going on around here so we’ll just have to wait and see. Maybe we’ll head up to Gladstone after a while, a city that’s a lot bigger that this small place and maybe we’ll find some kind of fruit to pick J

As I said we came here yesterday. When we got off Fraser Island we went to Bargara, a small place 15 minutes east of Bundaberg. Bundaberg was a lot bigger than we thought it would be so we just drove through it and to the beach in Bargara. There we lived at a camping ground close to the beach. Wonderful! We went in to Bundaberg and bought ourselves a RV-tent (a tent you attach to the side of the car) and new camping chairs (we broke one of the ones we had). When we were on Fraser Island we got the idea of getting a tent. When it was raining or the wind was a bit too much we had to go into the car, and we thought it would be nice to be able to sit outside regardless of the weather. So we got our tent on Friday, and on Sunday evening it came in handy. It started to rain like crazy and there was a big thunderstorm, but this time we were not forced to go into the car, we could sit outside! I must admit we didn’t know if the tent would survive, cuz we didn’t have a hammer to get the pegs in right, but fortunately the tent was still standing the next morning. We now have a hammer and extra pegs to secure the tent so now nothing can stop us J

Well, now I’ll go make myself a cup of coffee, and maybe JT will be up soon (hopefully with the sun shining) J

Lotte

Fraser Island 8.11-15.11

Saturday, November 10, 2012

Enjoying a cup of tea outside our nice 4wd home with Nico D (a Norwegian reggae artist) lound in the background (if loud music can be in the background…?). We arrived Fraser Island on Thursday. We stayed the first two nights at a campground in the center of the island, in the middle of the rainforest, called Central Station. That’s a campground with facilities such as toilets and showers, but still very simple. Yesterday we went to Lake McKenzie, a lake with fine white sand and clear water. It was cloudy most of the day, but I guess that was a good think cuz it was warm enough as it was. We stayed at the lake the whole day, enjoying the environment and the life we live. We also saw our first dingo. It came down to the beach, and walked along the beach (there were people everywhere, put it didn’t seem to bother at all).

Today we drove out of the rainforest and out on the beach again, and on our way we met a few dingoes as well. Along the beach there are a few places where you can buy fuel and some food, so we stopped on the first one we got to, just as we drove out of the rainforest, and bought ourselves a ice-cream. There was some kind of retreat or something there so we were surprised to find paved roads. On the rest of the island there are just sand-roads, so a 20km drive will take up to two hours! It’s fun to drive on the roads in the rainforest, but we got very tiered, so it was a great relief to get back out on the beach where we can drive a lot fasterJ

We found a camping site on the beach at 10 o’clock so we’ve got the whole day here to relax and enjoy life. It’s quite windy and cloudy today as well, but I guess that’s better than getting completely fried in the sun (but I do hope it gets a bit better till we’re going to cook, cuz cooking on a gas-stove in the wind is not easy, and not very economical).

But now we’re just going to enjoy our freedom! JT is playing with his frisbees J

Tomorrow we’ll be driving a bit further north to a campground near the beach, called Dundubara (it’s good to be able to go to the bathroom once in a while), and after one night there we’ll continue up to Waddy Point before enjoying the last night here on the beach again.

It was my sister’s birthday yesterday, so because we didn’t have any way of congratulating her then, I do it now (this won’t be posted in a few days, but I heard that “it’s better late than never” so…): Happy birthday, Linn! We love youJ Hope you had a wonderful day.

Lotte

 

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

On Sunday JT woke up in the middle of the night because his side of the bed was soaking wet! It was raining like crazy and the windows were open. In the morning it was still cloudy and grey so we packed up our camp as fast as we could (everything was wet) and went off to our next camp, Dundubara Campground. Because of the weather there was not much to do, so we managed to change some coins so we were able to take our first shower since we got to Fraser Island. That was amazing! The rest of the day we spent relaxing “at home” (which is our car), playing cards and doing nothing; a real Sunday.

On Monday we were so eager to get to our next camp that we went off a bit early, getting out on the beach when the tide was still pretty high. We decided to stop and wait for a while, but the skies were blue and the sun was shining so we were just happy to be out on the beach in the sunshine. We managed to get to Waddy Point where we’re now staying and will be staying until tomorrow. This is the place we like the most of all the places we’ve been on this island. The beach is nearby, and on the beach there are big ponds of seawater that are deep enough to swim in, but there are no sharks J On the beaches here on Fraser Island they don’t recommend people to swim because, like they told me, “it’s very sharky on Fraser”, so I guess my mother will be pleased to hear that we did not swim in the ocean.

I just got out of bed this beautiful Tuesday morning, and JT is still sleeping. Later today we’ll take a walk on the beach to a place called Orchid Beach where they have a little shop, a bar and fuel (it’s too small to be called a station, but they have two pumps where you can fill up your tank with expensive fuel, but still not as expensive as in Norway). We went there yesterday, before we got here to have a coffee, but they were waiting for supplies, so today we’re hoping that they’ll have coffee for us, and an ice-cream J

Tomorrow we’ll be heading south again for beach camping the last night here, and maybe we’ll stop at a lake somewhere on the way to take a swim.

Lotte

I have made a film with some pictures from the trip to Fraser Island, but our Internett access is not good enough to upload it so it'll have to wait.

 

Ready for Fraser Island

There hasn't been too many places to log on the last few days so we haven't been able to update our blog... Thought I would write a short update before leaving for Fraser Island (I don't think there is Internet available there).
We stayed in Byron Bay for five nights. We liked the place and pretty much everything about it. The beach was nice, lots of big waves to play in (we are like small children in the water... hehe) and lots of wind just like the west coast of Norway, but alot warmer. The town and the atmosphere is "hippieish" (can't find a better word at the momen to describe it) and the people are layback. On Sunday there were a big drum-circle on the beach where everyone could join in. People were dancing and one guy acctually joined the jammin with two spoons (very cool). With so many people drumming you can't help but move your body to the music :)
Monday, November 5th, we drove north, towards Fraser Island with our car full of tin-can-food (we won't starve to death). We stoped in Mooloolaba (love the weird names here), a small town between Brisbane and Noosa, after driving 363,5km (we chose a long route). In Mooloolaba we checked in to a Caravan Park next to the beach, took a refreshing bath (JT ment the beach there were nicer than the beach in Byron Bay), before having dinner and going to bed. The next day (yesterday) we continued our journey north. We got all the way to Noosa in no time (we thought it would be a longer drive), where we bought a roof rack with a basket for our jerry-can, camping-table and chairs and some water. First we got the wrong type of roof rack, but we finally got the right one, and then it was the struggle of getting it on the car at noon, the hottest hours in the day, in the sunshine. When we were finished we were so tiered, but very happy to have a roof rack :) After relaxing for a while we went into Noosa Heads (sayd to be the most expencive tourist place on the Sunshine Coast) where it's suppose to be lots of famous people (we didn't see any). There were no camping sites there so we took a refreshing bath (in huge waves that knocked us over) before heading out to a camping site.
Today we are driving on the beach toward Inskip Point, where the ferry leaves for Fraser Island. Our plan (if you can call it a plan) is to relax on the beach and drive to a place called Tin Can Bay where I read somewhere that you can feed dolphins at 8 o'clock in the morning, so we'll camp there and hopefully we'll get to feed the dolphins tomorrow before taking the ferry over to Fraser Island. I guess we'll stay on Fraser Island for a week or something, so the next update won't come for a while.
This life just keeps getting better and better :)
Lotte

Byron Bay

We are now in Byron Bay. We came here on Wednesday 31.10 and we are going to stay until Monday 5.11.

 

 We left Southport for Nimbin on 29.10, it was lovely leaving the bigger places for the countryside. The landscape and nature we passed through on our way to Nimbin was a pleasure both for the eyes and soul. Mother nature was grand and the moments were epic. It was calming and a delight to change the city with trees, mountains and plains, especially after we were struggling for so long to get our car registered. We went back and forth between banks, hotels and the department of transportation and main roads to get a legal document confirming that we had an Australian address, that we have got from our friend Jude. But we needed a Queensland address, and after hours trying to figure it out we found out we could use our receipt from the camping place we stayed in Southport, a receipt we had all along... Who knew that we could use an address we just stayed for two nights? Well… hours of testing our patience… and hours of learning. It all worked out, and now we have bought insurance too. We arrived in Nimbin in the evening Monday. A nice and calm place, everything was closed when we came. It’s a very small place so it`s not that weird they`re closing earlier than the bigger cities, but it was extra early for us since we didn`t take into account that New South Wales has daylight savings and Queensland don`t.. Still stuff to learn… Nimbin was a fascinating place with idealistic and conscious people caring for each other and Mother Nature. A lot of the same values we have ourselves like freedom to the individual, justice for all, and sustainability for people and nature. They have no big chains like McDonalds, K-mart etc. in Nimbin, just local stores, many focusing on organic products and foods. A lot of alternative people here too like healers, palm readers and so on…

After two nights in Nimbin we drove to Byron Bay, on the way we stopped to walk to the top of Mount Warning. Beautiful walk through the rainforest, 9 km all together to get to the top and back. Wonderful view from the top, we were able to see Byron Bay and the ocean from there, other than that it was hills and mountains as long as the eye could see.

It’s funny when you have these special experiences with nature or people you really acknowledge and see the big picture, the truth about existence, that we are all working towards the same goal. We are all reaching for relief and well being from where we stand. And it’s our unique individual life experiences diverting from all other life experiences that make us do and act differently from each other, and that makes us expand. The same diversity makes it sometimes difficult understanding other peoples choices and behaviors. But when we acknowledge that we all are motivated by the same thing (feeling good), it’s easier to just observe others and not judge. It all comes clear; the world and all that’s in it is perfect. We see the evidence in nature`s perfect balance for this to be true; nature with its cycles not needed to be controlled by man. The world with everything in it is perfect and balanced. So know this when the world seems other than perfect; the world hasn`t changed, but the observers perspective may have…

Now we are here in Byron Bay enjoying the beaches and the sea. It’s an alternative place like Nimbin, only much bigger.

Just wanted to share a poem I got from a man on the street at the end of this post. He asked us to share, no name and no address…

I Dare to Be My Self!

I am born into Original Innocence

I am a Be-ing og Infinite Love – with a infinite capacity to Receive & Share

I am a Be-ing of Consciousness – with infinite Clarity…Intelligence & Wisdom

I am a Be-ing of Infinite Joy

The Eternal Wild Free Spirit… of Love-Freedom-&-Joy ever-flows & ever-dances within My Heart.

I am a Be-ing of Great Spirit

I Believe in My Self, I Trust in My Self & I Love My Self

I All-ways love My Self… in a Natural, Healthy, Conscius & Joyfull way in All of my Words-Thoughts… Feelings… & Actions…

I believe in the Original Innocence of all Sacred Earth Be-ings

I believe in the Great Spirit of… all Sacred Earth Be-ings

I believe in each… & Every single Sacred Earth be-ing

Finding their own way back Home to their own Original Innocence to Love Themselves & All Beings

In a Natural, Healthy, Conscious & Joyfull way

In All of their Words-Thoughts, Feelings & Actions

We Honor & Respect Our Self & Each Other

We are Gentle on Our Self & Each Other

We Trust in Our Self & Each Other

We True-ly Love Our Self & Each Other

Whatever happens to one of us, happens to everyone of us…

Whatever happens to everyone of us, happens to each one of us…

We Laugh & Dance & Play Today!!

In this moment… with Conscious Gratitude… Deep Lovingness… & Eternal Devotion…

We Celebrate Our Self & Each Other…

We Celebrate the Eternal Wild Free Spririt… of Love-Freedom & Joy

 JT

Our two first nights in the car

The first two nights in our new car is over, and it has been quite an experience so far. On Friday we arrived Southport on the Gold Coast late at night. We had found a camping site on the Internet, but due to the dark, and I guess also the tiered people in the car, we couldn't find it. We drove around looking for other camping sites, but everywhere we went, they were closed. We were tiered and wanted to get some sleep so we drove around more remote places to find a spot where we could park for the night. When we finally found a spot in a neighborhood close to a park with public toilet we tried to go to sleep. Our backpacks were just thrown into the car, so we tried to lie down in the middle of everything. With no curtains we felt like people could watch us from the street and we got a bit paranoid... JT could not sleep in the back so he slept a little bit in the front seat. I managed to sleep after a while, but only very light. I remember I was thinking "What the h*** are we doing!?! This is crazy!" In the despair of not knowing what to do and where to sleep I started having doubts about this whole living-in-a-car lifestyle. 

Saturday, in other words; yesterday, we woke up (if you can call it to wake up when you haven't really slept) around 5.30 or something. I wanted to try to drive (the day before JT drove) so we drove around the block a bit and then we started to head for a place where we could buy some storage boxes and other stuff for the car, and a place to wash the car. When the car was washed we went to this big store where we got boxes, and then we packed everything out of the backpacks. After some hours in the parking-lot, with red shoulder that had been forgotten in all the box-business, we started looking for a place where we could find a mattress and some curtains, or fabric to make curtains. Three people tried to explain the way to the same store, but a misunderstanding regarding the motorway made it very hard to find. We finally found it and bought a mattress and some curtains that were on sale. It started raining, for the first time since we got to Australia, so we went back into Southport and found the camping site that we tried to find the night before (the reason we didn't find it was because we were looking in the wrong place). We got our spot for the car and we made the curtains fit. We now have privacy and, in our opinion, it looks pretty good :) Tonight we slept like babies! All the doubts from the first night are gone! We have made this car into a home in just a few hours :) 

We have to stay here in Southport until Monday because we have to go to the Department of Transport to get the car signed in our name, and we have to do that in Queensland. After that we're planning to go a bit south before heading up north. I don't know where we're going first, but we want to go to Byron Bay and Nimbin (the Amsterdam of Australia) and anywhere along the way where there's a beach calling for us :)

Love our life :)

Lotte  

Thinking about the journey...

Sitting in our room, relaxing and thinking about the whole journey from we first decided to travel, to being here in Australia. Feels like a long time but it has also gone very fast. Feels as odd as it sounds… I am so grateful for all the help we have got from our families and friends on our way. We stayed for two periods at my parent’s place. That was like a hostel with laundry service and food-serving. My sister opened up her home to us, even if they have a busy household, she also made us food, we have been spoiled for quite some time. Then Lotte’s parents let us stay there for two and a half month. Here we also got showered with love and care, homemade meals and take-away. We got to save up a lot more money than we expected because Lotte’s parents insisted on paying for everything all the time. All of this is true blessings, but the things I appreciated the most was the time we spent together, with all of our families, brother and sisters and their children, doing stuff together and making memories. Thanks all of you, you’re forever in my heart.

It’s also a blessing to have so many friends near and far giving us support, help and tips on where to go and what to take into account. I appreciate all good advices from our more traveling experienced friends. And the last time we were in Kristiansand visiting Mari and Nedvin they introduced us to frisbeegolf. This is a sport I have become to enjoy very much. Brought my discs with me to Australia and hope to continue with the sport here.

To travel gives me a lot of impressions and new things to relate to but also give me time to think about stuff I probably should have taken a settlement with before. So my purpose with, and my goal for this journey isn’t just to explore the world but also to explore myself. My ambition for changing my environment is to brake free and change my thoughts and conception (and the limitation) I have about myself, my potential and what life can be. I want to be in and indulge myself to the Now, where the past nor the future can be. In the Now; all that ever is. Because in the Now there is no worries, no regrets and no room for doubts. In the Now life’s potential flows free in an eternal never-ending experience. My goal is through cultivation and being true to myself to reach a state of mind where I am in balance and harmony. Thank you to all of you that follows us.

JT