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Published: August 14th 2007
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Well as the title suggests I've lots and lots of catching up to do with this blog. As I explained in my previous entry I dropped my camera into the sea in Noosa last week, but it got even better because I fell coming down a little cliff on Fraser Island and dropped it, breaking the shutter so there are no photos accompanying these entries till I get myself sorted! On top of all that 6 or 7 of my blog entries were deleted & only for Maria (Sarah's friend) I'm not sure I'd have ever got any of them back and they were all of my travels in Oz.
So anyhow enough whining for now and time to catch up. Me, Niamh & Mark headed to Fraser Island last Wednesday morning. We took a ferry over to Fraser on our special 4WD bus. Fraser Island is the longest sand island in the world, it is World Heritage Listed so basically that means it's up there with the likes of Uluru & the Great Barrier Reef. So we got off the ferry just before 10 and drove a little in our bus with our guide Steve. We were travelling in
convoy with a couple of other 4WD's when one of them got stuck in the sand. It took over 2 hours to get out of the sand, it was unreal and then we definitely thanked our lucky stars that we hadn't done a self drive trip. So when we did get motoring again, after much sweating by the guides we got underway and went for a little walk in the rainforest & then onto lunch at Happy Valley.
After lunch we drove to Eli Creek it is the largest creek on the east coast of the island with a flow of 80 million litres per day. There is a boardwalk for visitors to reach the top of the creek and swim or ride down the creek if they wish. Mark walked in it, Niamh & I opted for the boardwalk. The creek was just off the beach which was so beautiful. After that we got back into the bus & headed for Indian Head, which is a rocky headland - the view from there was spectacular - in front of us was the ocean, next stop South America with whales breaching in the distance, behind us were sand dunes
with perfectly white sand and to either side was 75 mile beach. Interestingly the beach is a recognised roadway with typical road rules & speed limits. On the walk back down I was feeling the pressure cause I was at the front of the group and didn't think I was going fast enough - I slipped and landed spectacularly on my ass!!
After that because the tide was coming in it was time to head to our camp at The Cathedrals to set up base for the evening. Not sure Niamh thought much of the tents but I have to say I was quite impressed - the tents had wooden floors & beds in them - think Niamhs standards are far higher than mine! Steve our guide cooked for us, at this point we were beginning to figure him out, he appeared to dislike foreigners & wasn't hugely keen on women so on both fronts Niamh & I were slightly screwed! It came time to sort out our tents & as it was all couples on the trip except me & a Korean guy, I was not looking forward to this, but thankfully they are not allowed to put
a guy & a girl together who don't know each other so I got my own tent. After a quick didgeridoo display by Steve we were tucked up in bed by 9.30pm.
We woke early with the sound of the kookaburra - which might sound lovely and romantic and terribly Australian but not at 6am let me tell you. Steve came and rattled our tents at 6.30am to wake us up. We were all showered & ready to go by 7.45am. So we first stopped at The Pinnacles - where there are like pillars of sand but in unusual colours & then we went onto the Maheno ship wreck - which is a famous wreck on Fraser. Next stop was Lake Wabby - but before we got to the lake we had to walk for 2 kilometres uphill through sand dunes, if ever I was going to have a heart attack it would have been there! I've become so clumsy since arriving here that I managed to fall over what I can only imagine was the only twig in the whole of the dunes, cutting all my toes. We got there & jumped in & swam to the far
side - when we got out of the lake to dry off, it began to rain very lightly, I haven't seen rain in about 5 weeks!
Then after that we had a little trek through more forest back to our bus. We then drove to Happy Valley to pick up our lunch & drove on to Central Station where we had lunch. Then we went to Lake Birrabeen, apparently the sand at this lake is really good for exfoliating & the water is good for you hair. Turns out nobody on our trip was going in but MARK, Niamh & I grinned and beared it & being the troopers that we are went in. There was no sun out at this point so it was very cold! After our dip it was back to the bus and back to the mainland on the ferry.
Just found this useful bit of info, which I'm really thankful we didn't see until now because we half lived in fear of dingoes while on Fraser - 'Dingoes were once common on the island, but are now decreasing, though they still remain a threat to humans. They are part of the last remaining
pure dingos in Eastern Australia and to prevent cross-breeding, dogs are not allowed on the island. There was no recorded history of dingoes attacking humans on Fraser Island up until 1995. In April 2001, a boy wandered away from his family and was discovered dead, with indications of a dingo attack. Many dingoes were killed by authorities after the incident. In 2004, a dingo entered a hotel room on the island where a baby was lying on a bed. It was chased off before any incident occurred'.
We got back to Hervey Bay for just after 5 and went to collect our car. When Mark went to open the car it turns out I'd left it open, fortunately for me nothing was taken as Mark had left his wallet & passport in the boot! So we hit the road about 6 and stopped for tea in Maryborough, the initial plan was to break the trip up with an overnight stop off, but we decided to see how far we could go. We made it back to Brisbane just before 9.30pm. Our adopted family were only too happy to see us!
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Auntie
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lucky escape
kate, Thought you had been taken by a dingo its so long since we heard!!!.where to now?? Dying to know. You had a lucky escape in the tent !!!!. Fraser Island sounds full of excitement and thrills.