Day 107: Stories From Fraser Island

Life on Fraser Island is pretty secluded. With one bakery, one general store, and some scattered housing, I imagine it is fairly similar to the American mid-west. Nothing has happened here that deserves its own blog post, but there are a few amusing anecdotes to share:

1. The wildlife here is pretty crazy. Lizards ranging from 2 inches to 2 feet have been seen running across the grass in front of my building, plus the other night I saw a snake that I’m fairly sure was a Death Adder (one of the top five most poisonous snakes in the world). Today in my room, however, I noticed one of the aforementioned 2-inch lizards stuck between my bathroom window and the outer screen. Not wanting him to starve and die, I moved the window around, trying to let him free. He ended up in my bathroom, and when I grabbed him by the tail to pick him up, he fell to the floor and I was left with a twitching lizard tail in my hand.

2. I was serving dinner one night in the restaurant, clearing plates off tables, when a girl on one of the tours waved me over. She said that she didn’t want to seem weird, but said she recognized me and asked if I was from Canada. Being bored, I said that I was. She then asked if I had arrived in Sydney around the middle of January. That was indeed when I arrived, so I continued playing 20 questions with her. Her next question: “Were you ever hanging out with a guy named Clarke?” Wow, that’s awkward, I guess she did recognize me. Turns out she remembered me from one night I spent hanging out with her while I was still in Sydney. Small world.

3. Fraser Island is famous for having the last population of purebred dingoes in all of Australia. I wasn’t really impressed, until someone told me that the dingoes of Fraser Island are also famous for eating babies and other small children, and that they hunted like the velociraptors from Jurassic Park, with velociraptor flanking maneuvers and everything. With that in mind, you can imagine my surprise when a pair of dingoes came upon me on the beach one night. I jumped up and instantly checked over my shoulder, but luckily my size intimidated them and they kept moving, no doubt looking for an unguarded baby.

4. There is also a bar on the resort, where employees and overnight tour groups can go to party. A few nights ago, a pair of American girls were down at the bar and were causing quite a stir among the male staff members. I assumed that my being from America would give me an edge over my co-workers, so I went to talk to them. Everything was going fine, until I got up to order drinks at the bar with one of them. Before our drinks arrived, in the middle of conversation, the girl I am talking to yells out “IT SMELLS LIKE BIGFOOTS DICK IN HERE!”

That was my cue to give up, and possibly go home and put on more deoderant.

Day 91: Surprise!

I'm no longer living in Melbourne! After working at the Melbourne Grand Prix, I decided to pack up my things and continue to drift aimlessly throughout Australia. As comfortable as I was living in Melbourne, during my last few weeks I started getting a travelers itch, a desire to move and see new places, so I returned to Sydney to plan the next stage of my trip.

Double surprise! I'm no longer in Sydney either.

I returned to Sydney right at the end of March, and spent a few days in the city as I had planned. I talked to some travel agents, spent some time at the offices of my job service, and was busy deciding what to do next when I experienced some good fortune. As I was surfing the internet at the Work and Travel Company offices, one of the job consultants came and asked me if I had any restaurant experience, and said the four magic words every traveler wants to hear: "Interested in resort work?"

Two days of bus and plane travel later I arrived on Fraser Island, a 75 mile long all-sand island off the coast of Queensland. The island is covered by a sub-tropical rain forest, with a small beach-side resort situated on the eastern coast. The resort is a tourism hub, serving as a base for people exploring the island's many bright blue freshwater lakes, and white sand beaches from the comfort of their SUVs.

The resort has one large restaurant area, and does buffet service at lunch and dinner, as well as some regular sit down meals in the evening. My average day starts at around 10, setting up for the lunch service. I work to just after 2, mostly busing tables, and then I have anywhere from 2 to 4 hours off before dinner starts, where I'm free to explore the island, or simply lie on the beach. After relaxing all afternoon, I work the restaurant during dinner, waiting the occasional table and acting as the host. I have my own room, including bathroom, and 3 meals a day provided by the restaurant.

Can I get a "Hell Yeah!"?