Two Tall Travelers

Fire again?
Monday around 4:00am. A rude awakening. What disturbed my sleep was some strange sound like something being blown with force. Maybe it resembled the sound of a hot-air balloon when it blows the hot flame in the balloon. When I opened my eyes I just saw white. The dorm room with 7 beds was covered in white and the white stuff was still floating in the  air. The girls began to cough. I was simply annoyed. Turned around and stuck my face in my pillow. A few seconds later I actually woke up and realized that we needed to get out of that room. The 6 girls and myself were found outside the  room a bit later discussing what happened. One of the girls looked like Snow-white. I mean she was white from top to bottom.
Somebody had broken our back door open and with a powder fire-extinguisher sprayed our room. Funny? Not really. More like a high school prank. The next room had experienced the same but they were not that badly affected so they went back to sleep. After a while the fire fighters came (I remembered Aaron and my tour of Jeremy’s fire station and the little video we made) and told us that it was simply baking powder with some additive. All ok.
Great. The girls went back to bed after we all cleaned mattresses and sheets and I stayed outside with my mattress, hopped in my sleeping bag and slept till the sun came out. Just makes life a little more interesting doesn’t it? Arrg.

This week I took a trip to Fraser Island. This place is a miracle in itself - the world’s largest sand island, that is, ALL ground is sand (?!) but the most beautiful vegetation is found all over the island. From thick bush to crystal-clear drinking-quality fresh water lakes to high sand dunes and pine trees, all is found there. You can only drive in a 4×4 on the island, and even then you sometimes get bogged down. I travelled in a Land Cruiser with 7 Finnish folks and 2 Irish girls. We did not have a good start because it poured down the entire day so we had to set up our tents in the rain and come to terms with a wet habitat for the night. The Irish cooked a lovely dinner, in the rain but under a tarp that I had put up in the trees with all my military experience (You would have thought the 5 guys from Finland who all had spent a year in the military would have helped or contributed their knowledge. Nope. Not that first night anyway. It was quite a funny site though, everybody was soaked and after our dinner we just had a good laugh about it over some beers.
Thank God (!) the rain ceased the next day and both day 2 and 3 were dry and partly sunny. From “Indian Head” a lookout point over the sea on the North tip of the island I spotted several sharks, a huge turtle, manta-rays and stingrays. Beautiful. Day three we mostly spent at the gorgeous lake McKenzie. Volleyball on the white sandy beach, swimming and drinking that beautiful water, just chilling on the shore… good times. At the end of the 3 days I had sand in every pocket, backpack, ears and everywhere else just like that white powder a few days before! Good times!