Sand In My Pocket

I did go on a day trip to Moreton Island today. Moreton Island is a 38 km long sand island approximately an hour away from the Port of Brisbane ie. the mouth of the Brisbane River. The Island is a complete national park although 50 people actually live there. I am currently sitting on the MiCat sailing back to Brisbane.

I have to mention that I was pretty bored and lonely after the weekend and even though I didn't like the actual movie, going to see Wall Street 2 on Sunday night actually made me feel better. The movie did make feel stupid and I gave it 2.5 stars.

Monday wasn't a special day but I had something to do all the time. I did my laundry, bought and wrote some postcards, did some reading, booked this trip and went to the movies yet again. I saw Despicable Me in 3D. It was dark for a "kids' movie" but I did laugh quite a lot.

Today I woke up at 6:00 AM or a little after it naturally because my "first" alarm was set for 6:00 PM. I'll skip the unnecessary details. First I walked, the. I sat in a car and after that I sat in another car before boarding the MiCat before 9:00 am. On the boat I read Chuck Klosterman's book about places of rock stars' deaths.

The term sand island might not mean anything unless you've seen one. Besides the volcanic rock that formed the north par of this island the whole island is sand. All the plants that grow there, grow out of sand. This place truly was unique in its own special kind of way. (An ironic sentence I'll never write again. From now on I'll settle on unique.) The sand's also the finest sand on earth, literally. It's the same sand glass is made out of. The roads, sand roads.

Now, I want to put the readers in my shoes. Or my thongs* to be exact. Our transport on the island was a minibus. A four wheel drive minibus. On monster truck steroids. Fittingly our guide and driver, Allan, was a monster truck of a man. With a girth of more than 2 meters this was one huge jolly good fellow. Somehow I felt respect for this man just for his mere size. Sure I could outrun him and I'd be less annoying to sit next to on an airplane, but roll us both down a mountain and I'm sure he'd win (obscure Jethro Tull reference).

*Not underwear but a Aussie word for flip flops. I guess in this case the gap next to the big toe is the crack.

The whole day was like a day in an amusement park. Except instead of standing in line for hours, the way you got from one ride to another was actually a rollercoaster. A slow rollercoaster that shakes you around. You remember those ping pong racquets that have the ball on the end of a string. Imagine you're the ball. The seatbelt's the string, the car is the paddle and the terrain is the arm violently smacking the ball again and again and again.

After an hour of that we got to a beautiful place called The Desert. I didn't get a good picture of it cause I didn't want sand all over my phone and the view from the parking lot wasn't that spectacular. There was a sand dune in the middle of this desert and that was the place for sand surfing. Quite simply the purpose was to lay on your stomach on a thin wooden board and bend it just a little so you wouldn't get sand in your face while you careened down the sand dune. Once down, climb back up and do it again. Now this was fun. Climbing up was quite strenuous but going down wasn't just lying down. With almost all of my weight on my chest which took quite a beating against the board bouncing on the sand I felt more spent after going down than climbing up.

I did four runs after which I was like Thomas Haden Church in Spider-Man 3. My arms and legs were covered in sand and my left pocket was filled with it. I have a hole in my right pocket so it was empty. We got back on the 4WD bus and headed to a swim in the lake.

Our second "ride" was swimming in the Blue Lagoon. The water was fresh and I liked the fact that nobody had a house or a sauna on the shore of the lake. It got rid of the sand and then we had some lunch. Then we drove some more.

On our last drive we saw Queensland's oldest lighthouse, a venomous snake crossing the road and a little town which reminded me of the island in Lost.

Of our five hours on the island, three were spent in the car which was bumpy for most of the time. Basically the whole 11 hour day only consisted two hours that wasn't spent on a boat or in a car. Still, I'd recommend it to anyone who spends more than three days in Brisbane. The thrill of sand surfing alone is almost worth the price of admission. A two or three day trip might be more relaxing with more time to do the stuff.

We're now arriving in Port of Brisbane and after a ride to the city I'll start packing and closing the Brisbane chapter of this trip. One more night and one more visit to the book store tomorrow and I'm off to Melbourne for two nights.

Thanks for reading.