First week end off, so let’s go out of the city and visit Stradbroke island, called Straddie up here. Straddie’s proximity to Brisbane makes it an easy getaway to a beautiful island for a weekend or longer stay, so it would have been a pity not to explore it. And did you know that it is actually the second biggest sand island in the world? (after Fraser Island, where we’ll go later on). This lovely island is well known of the Queenslanders and especially those living in Brisbane. We highly recommend it to the international travelers who want to escape from the busy city life of Brisbane. Spend at least one night because once there… I’m afraid you don’t want to come back!

The train leaves and nearly one hour later, we arrive to Cleveland, where Anji is waiting for us. Anji is the Marketing & Sales director at Straddie Camping, the company runs 5 camping sites located all over the island. Let’s go onto the vehicle ferry now, “the Big red cat”. After a 45 minute-cruise, looking at people kayaking, fishing and enjoying the sea, we arrive on Straddie. From this moment, we get immediately immersed in the relaxed atmosphere. People are more laid back and happy to welcome you. They like chatting with you. Coming from Paris, where it’s actually often the opposite, we are agreeably surprised..! Starving, we head to Fins’n Fries, the best place to have some delicious fish & ships, it’s smells so gooooood! And eating them on the beach makes you feel even better. Indeed, beautiful view at Cylinder Beach: all the Aussie clichés: surfers, pristine clear ocean, blue sky, love it!

Anji planned us a surprised afternoon activity, the only clue: we’ll surely come back with our pockets full of sand…hihi, we got it: we’re gonna go sandboarding, yeah! And for this, we go with Dave, The specialist in the island, he customizes his tours according to his customers’wishes, all he wants is making sure you have fun!