Friday, 25 April 2014

The Best Things In Life Don't Cost Much

"The best things in life are free" is a phrase that gets thrown around a lot, and rightly so, as it is those little free things that often matter or are enjoyed most. But in reality many of the best things in life cost at least something. The walk on that beautiful sunny day cost nothing itself, but the transport to get to the start of it probably did. Catching up with a friend is free, but the pints drank in the process weren't. And when I saw Bomb The Music Industry! at The Subterranean in Chicago my ticket cost $15 - a tiny sum to see one of my heroes in an intimate venue, but it wasn't free. So "the best things in life don't cost much" is probably a more accurate, if less catchy adage. What can be said with absolute certainty is that the value or enjoyment of things is not correlated with amount spent. That proved to be the case on my recent travels down the East Coast to Agnes Water/1770, Fraser Island, and Rainbow Beach. My time at the former and latter cost me nothing besides the cheap hostel accommodation and supermarket food, while my two day tour of Fraser Island set me back $300. Yet my brilliant adventure at Agnes Water/1770 and my fun packed day at Rainbow Beach were enjoyed as much, if not more, than my time on Fraser.

You may be thinking that Agnes Water/1770 is a peculiar name for a place, so let me explain. Agnes Water is a tiny town with a long beach that leads up a peninsula to 1770, an even smaller town with a beach on the other side of the peninsula. 1770 (the place) was the site of Captain Cook's first landing in Queensland, in 1770 (the date), and his botanist pal Joseph Banks took a bunch of marine samples there. In 1970, the residents of what used to be called Round Hill couldn't contain their excitement at this historical link any longer and changed the name of the town to 1770. When I had some time to kill at the hostel I amused myself by trying to come up with other places that could undergo a similar name change. Surely Hastings could do with a re-branding to 1066? The town of Woodstock, Oxfordshire was the birthplace of Winston Churchill, but many people don't know this, so to increase publicity why not switch Woodstock's name to the year of his birth, 1874? Lastly, this whole year-as-name business sounds like the kind of thing Americans would do, so how about changing the name of one of the states that everyone forgets when trying to name all 50 to the year it joined the union? I nominate Iowa and 1846. Please feel free to post your own name change suggestions in the comments box!
From Agnes Water I set off on foot with the hope of reaching 1770. The girl in the information centre informed me that to the tip of the peninsula it was over five miles one way and was at first taken aback when she learned I would be walking it, but then she remembered "actually I did it drunk once and it took me two and a half hours so you should be fine." Once underway I soon realised that I would be alongside the road the whole way, which I didn't fancy, so instead I walked along the Agnes Water beach and hoped I could scramble up to 1770 from there. After reaching the end of the beach and 'having a feed' as the Aussies say, I climbed over a rocky outcrop and found myself at...another beach! I chatted to this lovely bay's sole occupant, a man originally from Gloucestershire who was casting a line. He had been made redundant from his job in Australia and was now enjoying some time living in 1770. "Not a bad place to spend a few months" he remarked while adjusting his rod and looking out to sea. Too bloody right. The cheerful chap pointed me in the right direction and once more I was scrambling up rocks, this time arriving at a footpath that took me nicely back to the road and from there on to the end of the peninsula. Captain Cook must have been amazed at the views and so was I, sea all around and sands swirling out majestically. I continued around the other side of the peninsula and soon found myself on the 1770 beach, which rather excitingly I didn't know existed until I got there. It was a beautiful place and one where everywhere I looked people were having fun...boating, paddle boarding, playing on the beach, kayaking...Given the West facing orientation of this beach I couldn't resist sticking around for the sunset and decided I would try hitchhiking  the remaining three miles back. It was my first attempt and it was successful! After about 10 minutes of thumb-out waiting a German couple in a campervan drove me back to Agnes Water with darkness closing in. 1770 was one of my favourite places I've visited on this trip and the day was one of my greatest adventures.

Fraser Island, the world's largest sand island, is another place that you can't just turn up on and wander around, so I had to go on a tour and opted for two days as the Island is 75 miles long and I had only heard amazing things about Fraser. It's an interesting place. All the roads there are just sand (navigated remarkably well by our German engineered 52 seat four-wheel-drive bus) and there is also a highway - the Seventy Mile Beach that runs up the east of the island. This means that anyone strolling absent mindedly over the sand is in danger of being hit by a Jeep going at 50mph. Stops on the tour included a couple of impressive lakes, a refreshing creek, and the SS Maheno shipwreck. Ridiculously, since running aground the poor ship had been bombed by Australian pilots in training. Why not just draw a big X in the sand and bomb that instead! Not much damage was done anyway - of 200 bombs dropped just two hit the Maheno. Everything on Fraser was very nice but the tour was lacking the excitement and adventure of my usual escapades. It was all a bit comfortable. There was no extreme sweating. No concerns about running out of water. No crushed pieces of bread and perspiring lumps of cheese crammed into my mouth when an urgent refuel was needed. There were no stunning locations that I didn't know existed reached and then enjoyed in complete isolation. No phone-photographed maps scrutinised through sweat-stung eyes to try to work out where the hell I am. In other ways, the comfort was very welcome, considering my long run of hostel living. Firstly, I've been existing on basic foods - pasta, tuna, bread cheese, biscuits, fruit - so the variety and size of the all-you-can-eat buffet meals was just heaven. Letting me loose on such feasts was like waving a red flag in front of a bull and each meal was treated like the last supper. Secondly, a cock-up led to me not being assigned to a quad share room as requested, so they stuck me in the only free room left - a twin room with a giant bed that I had all to myself and I slept like a king. If something is only as good as its ending then the two day trip was very special indeed, as the barge returned to the mainland at sunset with red in the sky and dolphins in the water.

Rainbow Beach is best known for being one of Fraser Island's two access points, but I would encourage every East Coast traveller to stop there whether they are hitting up Fraser or not. The afternoon was spent bobyboarding (free hire from the hostel) and then I joined the sunset walk (free) that departed from the hostel at 4.30. After a 20 minute walk we arrived at a huge sand dune with views out to the sea on one side and forest and rivers on the other side. It was as breathtaking as anything I saw on Fraser and the sunset that completed a hattrick of sunsets for me was the best of the lot. We also sandboarded there (free) - zooming down the steepest section of dune headfirst on a  bodyboard. Brilliant fun. That night at the hostel (I must give a shout out to Pippies Beach House - a great hostel!) I enjoyed some drinks and conversation with a fun crowd that included a 48 year old German man named Wolfgang who was a great character. He sounded like someone imitating a German speaking English, he complained that Australian prices were restricting his afternoon cake-eating habit, he danced on the sand dunes in an attempt to keep the mosquitoes off, and he yelled "LEGS UP" at sandboarders whose feet were dragging in the sand.

To conclude, I don't regret splashing the cash on the Fraser tour, because who knows whether I will ever get the chance to go there again? However, I would say that the fact I had parted with $300 to be there added an unwelcome pressure for me to really enjoy every minute of it. In contrast, if there was no route from the Agnes Water beach to 1770 forcing me to turn back then I wouldn't have cared because it hadn't cost me much to be there. Finally, Fraser Island being hyped to the max is perhaps justifiable as it is an incredible place, but it being talked up so much more than the equally stunning places nearby is surely a result of so many parties (tour operators, booking agencies etc.) making money out of people going there.


1770 beach in the evening sun

2 comments:

  1. ... no he didn't Sheena Felton did.

    Runnymeade/ 1215 (date of Magna Carter)

    Westonzoyland / 1685 (battle of Sedgemoor)

    1564 / Strafford upon Avon

    1773 / Boston (tea party)

    1331 Glastonbury

    What would happen if 2 towns had same number?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Some great suggestions! Runnymede to 1215 is am excellent idea. I'm not sure Westonzoyland's name should be changed though, it's such a classic Somerset name!

      Two towns could have the same number I suppose, as there are currently towns with the same number. If everywhere along the East Coast of Australia where Cook touched down wanted a re-branding then half the towns would be called 1770!

      Delete