The local Aboriginal people call Fraser Island ‘K’Gari’, which is very fitting as it roughly translates into paradise. It is said that all the sand from the eastern coast of Australia eventually ends up at Fraser Island, a gigantic World Heritage–listed sand bar measuring 120km by 15km and created by 800, 000 years of longshore drift. Seen from the coast this beautiful enigma appears too lush and green to be the world’s biggest sand island, but the island’s diverse ecology is one of the many wonders of the place. Rainforests and some 40 freshwater lakes dot the landscape, and dunes (known locally as ‘sandblows’) tower up to 224m high. Off-shore, whales, dolphins, sharks and turtles can often be seen from these high points.
Festival time. Fireworks explode in fizzing starbursts of ruby and emerald above the smoke-swept battlements of Edinburgh Castle, while cascades of sparkling fire stream down the castle walls. Swooshing rooster-tails of rockets fill the sky ever more thickly, lighting up the rapt faces of the crowds, as the thundering music swells to a climax. And you're standing there in the midst of it all, face turned towards the sky; transfixed, mesmerised, seduced, wondering what's going to happen next.
You can always tell the character of a place by the nicknames it has earned. Appropriately enough for the city that inspired The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Edinburgh has two contradictory - but complementary - ones.
Like a favourite book, Edinburgh is a city you'll want to dip into again and again, savouring each time a different image or experience - the castle......
