Description: On our first weekend into the uni semester, my friends and I decided to head to the beach. Many of our fellow study abroad students were heading down to Surfer’s Paradise, but we wanted to visit somewhere slightly less touristy. After a lot of flipping through our trusty Lonely Planet guide, we settled on North Stradbroke Island.
We didn’t get a nearly early enough start to the day, leaving our apartment around 10 o’clock. We caught the bus into the CBD and then the train to Cleveland from Central Station. The ride to Cleveland took about an hour, and when we finally arrived, we then had to catch a bus to the ferry station. The ferry across a very choppy Moreton Bay to the island took at least another 40 minutes (longer if you take the slow vehicular ferry), a good portion of which we were airborne, having been tossed by another huge wave.
Once we arrived at Dunwich, a relatively uninhabited, uninteresting town on Straddy, we had to catch another bus, this one taking around 30 minutes to reach Point Lookout, our final destination. Overall, the total cost of our transportation was approximately $8 (concession 6-zone fare for train and 2 mainland buses) plus a $11 return ferry fare and a $5 return bus fare—totalling $24. We didn’t arrive in Point Lookout until around 2 o’ clock, and decided that to catch the last ferry we’d have to leave by 5, leaving us a paltry 3 hours to see the area.
Unfortunately, because of the strong sea conditions, Main beach had no flagged areas and even less swimmers—we saw quite a few people picnicking, but no one going near the sea. After wandering along a lookout to both snap pictures and get our bearings, we decided to go to the more secluded and just as deserted Deadman’s Beach, which was just a short walk along the road away.
Once we arrived on the beach, I set up a little camp. Walking on the beach was extremely painful for my still-very-broken toe, so I pretty much spent the entire stay on the beach covered in a towel to keep the blowing sand out of my eyes, reading a book. It was nice to lie there with the sound of the sea in my ears, but I would have liked to explore more. My friends did just that, wandering from one side to the other of the small beach.
After a little while, they bored of this, and we ended up leaving the beach with 45 minutes before our bus arrived. In Point Lookout, very few shops were open, but luckily, the one selling gelato was, so we enjoyed a nice few scoops (around $4.50) before heading back to the bus stop and to Brisbane.
Unfortunately, we picked a bad day for swimming and didn’t leave enough time to take in more of the island. The island is a beautiful place—I just recommend leaving plenty of time and checking the forecast beforehand!
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