Four Wheel drive on Fraser Island....

Just got back from Fraser Island. I had a really enjoyable 3 days there, we went on a self guided 4 wheel drive safari, it was great fun. The first day we had to meet at 5.45am to get all of our stuff organised and put in the van, then we were off at 8am to catch the ferry. I was quite pleased as another guy joined our group later on the night before, and he seemed to have a good head on his shoulders, I think if he wouldn't have come it might have been a different story!!! Anyway, we got over to Fraser Island later in the morning. Fraser Island's World Heritage listing ranks it with Australia’s Uluru, Kakadu and the Great Barrier Reef. It's the world's largest sand island (123 km long), and a precious part of Australia’s natural and cultural heritage. The lakes there pump appox 120 million litres of fresh water into the sea each day, it really is amazing how Australia has a water shortage! Fraser Island is the only place in the world where tall rainforests are found growing on sand dunes at elevations of over 200 metres, it really was pretty spectacular. I was one of the first of us to drive on the beach, it was well cool, a bit weird at first, but it didn't take long to build my confidence up. The weather wasn't the best, we were all really disappointed, we took a walk to Lake Wabbi, there was a massive sand dune next to it, so we all ran up it (which wasn't easy) and then had a race back down to the water. After that we walked back to the car, it started raining after that, and didn't stop pretty much all day after. At about 4pm it was time to set up camp, we had to do it before it got dark as we were camping on the beach. We got all our tents up and got the dinner prepared, we were having pasta, which unfortunately took over an hour to cook, and tasted horrible.....we had to all eat in the van in the end cos it was really raining hard. The ranger had come around earlier to explain to us about the dingoes and what we should do if we saw one, and how we should not leave out any garbage or food outside or in the tents as they would get it in a flash, there are so many rules here and lots of fines to be given if you disobey them. We'd all had some beers and most of us were pretty tired, so one by one everyone went to bed, I was one of the last to leave, which just left two 19 year old girls and two 19 year old lads drinking in the van. I had to try and drum it in to them to put the rubbish and food dishes in the van when they'd finished, and to make sure they locked the car doors (yes I had my responsible head on!)....anyway, to cut a long story short, I got up in the morning and sure enough, the windows and doors were open and the dishes were still out, I was a bit annoyed at them as everything inside the car was soaked and I hadn't really been able to sleep that night cos I was so worried if they hadn't put it all away that the dingoes would be outside.

So next morning we all woke up at 6.30, but we'd missed our window to be able to drive on the beach (we had to abide by tide times cos we had a hire car and we couldn't drive through salt water) so this meant we could all go back to bed for a bit until the tide was out again. We actually saw our first dingo that morning, he wasn't so close thank goodness! We got our camping stuff packed away and ate some breakfast then we set off to the north of the beach to Indian Head. Here we climbed up to the lookout and sat up there for a while looking at the amazing view...we saw whales and dolphins swim past. We were getting a bit frustrated by then as it was getting really hot (luckily) and you can't actually swim in the sea, it's full of tiger sharks, and the rips are really bad, so we took a walk to the Champagne pools for a dip. These are small rock pools that you can swim in, and when the waves crash in behind the rocks it looks like champagne bubbles...hence the name. After this it was time to set up camp again, we decided to stay on the beach again as the weather had been ok. We had a nice bbq and some drinks then we all crashed out, this camping business is tiring work!

This morning we got up early again for sunrise, I got some really good photos, and I also got photos of the Maheno shipwreck (from 1939) which we'd camped near. It was my turn to drive again, by the time we were all ready we only had 15 mins to get off the beach, I had to find a turning to the inland tracks so we could drive to Lake McKenzie. So I had my last drive down 75 mile beach and then onto the inland roads. These were really good fun, everyone was bouncing around like anything, brilliant....I could be a rally driver yet!! It actually took us ages to get there, we had camped right up north and we had to get to the south inland. We finally got there about 12ish and jumped into the lake, it's absolutely beautiful there, the water is so clear and fresh, you can actually drink it.

We drove back to the ferry after that and got back to the hostel to clean all our stuff and return the camping gear. I tell you it was so nice to have a shower and wash my hair, the only time in the last 3 days we'd had contact with the water was when swimming in the lakes! The group I was with were all really nice, we had such good fun, we're all actually in the same room in the hostel tonight, so we're going to have a couple of drinks tonight before everyone sets off on their way tomorow. I can't wait to sleep in a bed, I've actually got bruises on my hips and legs from sleeping on the hard ground. Next stop Rainbow Beach...