7/9 - North Stradbroke Island

OK, so now we're going back in time -- to a time when I was too lazy to put pictures up on my blog. A couple of weekends ago, I went to North Stradbroke Island, which is right across the Moreton Bay from Brisbane. After taking the train to the coast and then a ferry across the bay, I ended up in Dunwich, which is not that interesting.

Dunwich

The beach near Dunwich

Then, I took a bus to Pt. Lookout, which is on the Pacific Ocean side of the island. Pt. Lookout's claim to fame is that it is the eastern-most point of all of Australia. So pretty much, there is nothing but ocean until you get to South America. From Pt. Lookout, you can see huge waves break against the cliffs. I spotted some whales blowing in the distance and a school of dolphins playing in the waves not too far away.

The Gorge at Point Lookout

N. Stradbroke has miles of beaches. There's even a beach called 18 Mile Beach, which is weird because everything in Oz is in kilometers. I guess 29 Km beach doesn't quite sound the same.

Main Beach, from Point Lookout

Main Beach has huge waves for surfing. Today, swimming there wasn't even allowed because the waves were so powerful. I talked to some surfers, who said the waves that day were great -- big, but clear. Check out a close-up of the waves and a crazy guy who decided to brave them:

Them waves is big

Mmmm... dead fish

After spending most of the day hiking along Main Beach from Pt. Lookout, I headed back to the western side of the island to catch the sunset.

Me at the beach before sunset

My stuff at the beach

I ended up at Cylinder Beach, which, being on the bay side, has calmer waves for swimming. After a long day of hiking, I hopped in the waves, which were still pretty strong. After that, the day was almost over...

Sunset at Cylinder Beach

Sun go bye-bye

Night settles in at Fisherman's Beach

So that's my day at N. Stradbroke Island. After making it home on the train, I got a few hours of sleep before yet another early morning adventure...

[To be continued...]