Moreton Island is a large sand island on the eastern side of Moreton Bay, on the coast of south-east Queensland, Australia. Moreton Island lies 58 kilometres northeast of the Queensland capital, Brisbane. The island is 95% National Park and a popular destination for four wheel driving, camping, recreational angling and whale watching.
Indeed, and I experienced all of those things except for recreational angling. I replaced that with sand boarding, which was an...interesting experience which I'm not sure I care to repeat. It basically is exactly what it sounds like. We took the 4WD out to a place called 'The Desert' where there are the biggest sand dunes I've ever seen, and then you hop on a board and zoom down the hill. There were different style boards - some you had to lie down on your stomach and then there were actual snowboard style ones where you put your feet in and went down standing up. Only one person was brave enough for that!! (It wasn't me). My friend Jody got a face full of sand, Lisa yelled that she feels this is only exciting if you don't have snow, and Kim and I were fairly neutral.
So the whole experience was part of a two day, one night camping trip which I have been wanting to do since we got here, pretty much. Jeremy wasn't all that excited about it, so when Lisa suggested we do it over our holiday this past week, I jumped at the chance. We managed to convince two Aussies to come along, which is quite impressive. On the ferry to the island, we saw whales leaping out of the water, which was absolutely amazing. We felt then and there that we had gotten our money's worth. We were with a tour group of 16 people - Lisa and I (the two Canadians), Kim and Jody (Australians), a father and son from Georgia, 4 Irish girls, 4 girls from
Singapore, and an Indian couple. My little posse say in the back, which - WARNING - if you're ever in a 4 wheel drive vehicle driving around a sand island, the back is the WORST place to be. Lisa and Jody, silly girls, weren't wearing their seatbelts and we went over a particularly large bump, which caused them to fly so high they actually smacked their heads on the ceiling and Lisa broke her sunglasses. Oops. The first activity we did when we got to Moreton was snorkeling among the wrecks at Tangalooma. We saw lots of tropical fish and the wrecks were really cool to see - I was terrified of brushing up against one and cutting myself on the barnacles...luckily, that didn't happen!
Sadly, the weather was not the most cooperative. We had time to hike up a mountain-ish type thing and take some breath-taking pictures, as well as hear some history about the island. We then made our way to the campsite and discovered that half the tents were soaking wet and had lakes of water inside. GREAT!!!! It was pouring pretty hard at this point so we pretty much just crammed ourselves under the two tarps and played cards. The Irish girls (of course) were the only ones who had thought to bring booze, but the girls from Singapore taught us some fun card games and we had a lot of fun!
We managed to find a tent that wasn't saturated and Lisa and I turned in at the wild and crazy hour of 9:55 pm. Cue discussion of what would happen if we woke up to a spider crawling on one of us in the middle of the night...amid the hysterical laughter, all of a sudden lisa realized that there actually WAS a giant huntsman spider in our tent just hanging out on the ceiling. Laughter turns to shrieking, then more laughter as I try to entice Lisa to pose with the spider (she refused). Finally, our Australian friend Jody came to the rescue, coaxing the spider outside. Obviously, after that we had to do a thorough check of every corner of the tent before we were even slightly ready for bed.
Huntsman spiders (Sparassidae, formerly Heteropodidae) is a family of spiders also known as the giant crab spiders, due to their appearance. While frequently very large – in Laos, Heteropoda maxima males can attain a legspan of 250–300 mm (9.8–11.8 in) – they are not deadly to humans. They do bite if provoked, but the victim will suffer only minor swelling and localized pain, and will recover in a day or two. Some larger types resemble tarantulas. Huntsman spiders can generally be identified by their legs, which, rather than being jointed vertically relative to the body, are twisted such that the legs extend forward in a crab-like fashion.
Can I just say - NOT something you want to be sharing a tent with!!!!!
The next day we got to swim in some beautiful fresh water lagoons, tried out surfing, and did some more ocean swimming. All in all, a great trip with many memorable events!
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