Moreton Island Misadventure

Have you ever had that one trip, that one grueling trip that was possibly one of the worst trip adventures that you remember forever? Well, this is one of my stories. Now before I get started with my story, please note that my story is not a constant reflection of how this place is everyday or even how that company can run the trip. It was just a trip that should've been cancelled from the start due to weather. There are worse things that obviously can happen in life, this is just my disaster overnight trip.

The day started at around 4:45am -- I am not a morning person at all so that was fun. I got myself together, walked over to my friend's apartment across the way at UniCentral and then we all headed to campus to catch our 6am shuttle. The sky was dark and the clouds looked like they were on verge of downpouring. We were so convinced that the trip was gonna be canceled, in fact, we were counting on it. It was not a tropical day in Aussie-land; it was dark, dank, and dreary. We got onto our shuttle with a few other students and arrived at a dock in Brisbane. Our tour guide Ethan* arrived in an old van named Nina*. It was an older van but wow it smelled so bad. I was just glad we wouldn't be sleeping in the van. We had to pick up two more travelers and then we made our way to the ferry. That is where the trouble continued.

It started to downpour as we made our way to Moreton Island on the ferry. The sky was dark and intense, not a very inviting look. We liked to call it the gates of Hell - thunder, lighting, rain, and severely dark skies. It took about an hour on the ferry until we finally docked on the island and drove on the sand. Moreton Island is actually the 3rd largest sand island in world. Sand came from New South Wales to naturally create it. Many floods and bushfires have affected the land greatly. Interestingly enough though, some plants actually need fire. Yes, I did get a little educated on this tour which I really appreciated.

Our first stop was at the Castaways convenience store for some alcohol. I highly suggest that if you head to the island, bring your own booze as it was a little pricey. Anyhow, we headed back on the bus to get to our next destination. We stopped by Honeymoon Bay. It was a really beautiful sight even with the gloomy clouds. We headed down by the water to get some better photos. The water was rough but we figured we could handle it. Instagram wasn't as prominent at that time so I'll just say we wanted to get a Tumblr-esque photo, our backs to the camera looking out onto the ocean. It was great until we got slammed with a wave to the face. It was actually really funny but that incident kept us damp for the rest of the trip. We headed back to the beach and into the water cause hey why not. The water was warm at least and the sand was so soft.

After our dip, we headed back on the van and made our way up the island to the Cape Moreton Lightouse. Unfortunately we didn't get to really enjoy it because it started downpouring again. We ran around the path, and we all slipped across the way until we made it back to the van. Ethan tried to lift our spirits and took us to our next stop, the Blue Lagoon. No surprise here but it was not blue, it was brown murky water. Apparently it's supposed to be brown because it's like tea water or something like that. It's supposed to be good for your skin and some even call it the fountain of youth. I don't know about all that but after I went in, my hair was so smooth and my (peeling) burned skin got a lot better. Or maybe it was the placebo effect, who knows.

Back on the van, we explored more of the beaches. At one point, Ethan could've sworn that he saw dolphins in the water. We didn't think it was an outlandish idea because we had read about it in the brochures. My friend and I braved the rain, running into the water. If there were dolphins out there, we were not going to miss out. It was so cold at that point. Just picture about 8 international 20-something year olds looking like idiots in dark murky water looking for dolphins. Really, we were quite the sight. Just a bunch of hopeful souls out in the water. Thanks a lot Ethan, thanks a lot. After that, Ethan finally ended our misery and brought us back to the camp to end the day.

The campsite wasn't anything crazy. It wasn't glamping but it was not "rougin it". We were greeted by a resident snake so that was fun... It was basically a night of drinking and card games so I definitely understand why we needed alcohol. It would've been severely boring without it. For our bunking situation, the company basically screwed us. Each tent had two "beds", okay not a big deal, but all we had were mats. If we wanted any sort of blanket, our guide was demanding money from us. We went against it and just tried to layer up as much as we could. Being in a group of 3, instead of splitting up we decided to move the beds together so that we could stay together. We didn't want to separate because it was cold, dark, and quite frankly nobody wanted to sleep in a tent alone. We were fine, uncomfortable but we tried to make it work. At one point in the night though, we made a group walk to the bathroom. It was pitch black, and the sounds were very concerning. We could barely see ahead of us let alone what was on the ground, any webs from trees or if there were wild animals afoot. Also being someone who wears contacts, being blind in the middle of the woods added just another level of scary (took my contacts out before bed and couldn't find my glasses). It was freaky and then to top it all off, no toilet paper.

The next morning we woke up early to our breakfast: cold pancakes and jam. After breakfast we were wisked away for a morning hike up Mount Tempest. It was long and grueling but in the end it was completely worth it. It was really cool to see the top of the island, I just wish it wasn't as cloudy as it was.

The trip kind of picked up from then on out. We went back to camp for lunch and were briefed for scuba diving. We got our gear and headed out. Moreton Island has a few shipwrecks so we were given gloves and a wetsuit so that we wouldn't get cut by the ships or stung by any jellyfish. Into the water we went with the pancakes from breakfast in hand. Apparently the fish liked the pancakes more than we did. It was a little scary being in the water. We were off into a deeper section and were told that there were "friendly" sharks below us. Like okay, but why are you telling us when we can barely see through the water right now. So I guess I can say that I've technically swam "with" sharks.

The saving grace of this trip was making our way to 'The Desert'. It was the coolest part of the entire trip. 'The Desert' was a pit of sand hills, not small hills but relatively big ones. We had no idea what we were doing until Ethan pulled out a plank; sandboarding!. It was so much fun, I was not expecting it at all. We all took turns either going solo or with a buddy down the hill. I did not want that part of the trip to end. We had so many laughs and then that was that time to leave.

I slept all the way back to the Sunny Coast and the first thing I did when I came back was take a hot shower. Even though that trip was not the greatest, I came back with some funny memories. It made me appreciate some things a little more and it showed me that I needed to let loose/stop worrying. Getting forced into a weird situation like that kind of shows you what you can handle. I tried to make the most of it and laugh along the way. If I could go back to Moreton Island, I definitely still would. I just happened to get the short stick on the weather. So next time, make sure it's a pleasant forecast!

* - indicates name was changed for privacy