Moreton Island

After Pat left, Trevor and I decided to work south to the Great Barrier Reef. We expect it will take a few days to get far enough upshore, and we're in no real hurry. So the first day, we mad it about 10 km in the right direction before getting distracted. Moreton Island seemed to be calling our names, so we got some tickets for the extremely slow ferry. The clerk who sold us the tickets insisted that a 4 wheel drive was the only way to get around on the island. I assured him that we knew how to walk, and we boarded the ferry with our packs. We were the only ones not in a vehicle.

Moreton island was absolutely beautiful. The whole island is a sand bar, so all sand is extremely fine, and the water is crystal clear. We spent a few hours playing in the water, and body-surfing in the breakers. The next morning we walked to a lighthouse, about 5 miles away. Along the way we found some clams in the sand. This was greet news because we didn't have enough food for another day, but really wanted to stay longer. so with the clams, we now could have a nice dinner of clams on pasta, with garlic and basil, and a little parmasan cheese. We put the clams in my frisbee and covered them in wet sand. Then wrapped them in a towel, so they wouldn't escape. We hid the whole thing near a creek, and marked the location on my GPS unit. then continued to the lighthouse.

On the way, we saw a man holding a fish by its tail and rubbing it back and forth on the beach. This seemed so odd that we had to know what was up. When we asked why he did this, he replied in a very matter-of-fact tone (with an Australian accent of course), "Trying to get the worms to come out of the sand". So he's catching worms with fish... everything is backwards here.

The lighthouse provided an excellent view of the islad, and also of some distant

mount

ain, the "Glass house mountains" that we climbed yesterday. We also saw some dolphins from the lighthouse, but without photo editing software, I can't crop my photos to show them.

On the way back to the campsite, we stopped to get the clams but they were missing! Some jerk took all our clams, the towel, and the frisbee. So dinner was pretty plain, and we left the next morning, after watching the sun rise over the sea.











The next stop was Mt. Coorwin, in the Glass house Mountains. it looked like a great rock-climbing spot, but no matter how many people we asked, nobody seemed to know anything about rock-climbing. Even the workers at the information office were clueless. So we hiked up nearby Mt. Beerwah. An excellent hike, but not much for satisfying the rock climbing hunger. Today it's internet/shopping/laundry/shower/research day, and then it's off to the Great Barrier Reef to SCUBA dive!

Until next time, faithful readers.