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Next on our list of things every backpacker should do while travelling down the east coast was a trip to Fraser Island - the worlds largest sand island! When we booked the trip all we knew was that it was a self drive trip and we would be sharing a 4x4 with 9 other random people also looking to complete their list of things to do. We left Airlie Beach and boarded a bus which was to be our home for the 14 hour ride to Rainbow Beach. Not the best night of our lives, theres only so many positions you can get into on a bus seat and none of them are comfortable for your neck, back, legs, arms, face, ears, ribs, toes......... i'm sure we've all been there at some point, just wanted to try and picture the scene! We arrived at Rainbow Beach tired and grumpy. Our moods didn't improve much when we were told that we had to wait 3 hours before we could get into our room! That evening after a well deserved afternoon siesta, we had a meeting to attend which would tell us all about our Fraser adventure. We were slightly apprehensive about
the people we would be grouped with, there were lots of irish in the room and although they were speaking english we had no idea what they were saying! Not sure if it had anything to do with the fact that they'd been drinking since we got off the bus that morning?! Luckily we avoided them in the draw and got grouped up with 8 other english and one canadian girl. There were 3 girls from Tunbridge Wells, 3 guys from Lewes and a couple from up north, somewhere past watford! As it was a self drive we were worried that being in such a big group, we wouldn't get much time driving but it turned out that only 3 of us could actually drive. The canadian girl Anna (known as canadia for the duration of the trip) could drive an automatic but insisted that she would be ok to drive.......she had a go but was quickly ordered out of the driving seat by everyone in the car.
On the morning of our departure we had to pack up our cars and were given the briefest introduction to 4 wheel driving possible! With the formalities out the way and the
Lake Mackenzie
Rach taking a swim alcohol safely loaded we were off to explore the sand. Ben was first up behind the wheel and got us safely onto the barge for the short hop across to the island. Next up, Rachel got behind the wheel... with Queen's 'Don't stop me now' pumping out of the stereo, the sun shining, the windows down and the waves rolling in, we headed up the beach to our first stop Lake Mackenzie. It was difficult driving through the deep sand but once on the wet, flat sand of the waters edge we were flying... I even managed to hit a wave and soaked everyone including myself! We continued up the beach, through a rainforest on a dirt track and arrived at a brilliant blue, crystal clear lake. It wasn't long before we were swimming in the water which was good enough to drink. We spent a couple of hours there relaxing and playing football on the sand before we all bundled back in the rusty beast named Casandra......turns out we're not the only ones who name our cars! After a group discussion we decided to break ourselves in gently and camp at a proper campground on the first night. We
arrived at the central station campground and managed to put our tents up before the rain and the dark closed in. Things went downhill as soon as the first box of wine, or goon as its known over here, was opened......everyone proceeded to get really drunk playing drinking games and no-one could be bothered to make dinner. Instead we ate all the biscuits that were supposed to last us for three days!
In order to see as much of the island as we could we needed to be up early so we woke up about 6 the next morning feeling a little bit fragile. Neither of us were in any state to drive but our third driver was up to the challenge and drove us safely to our next stop, Lake Wabby. We parked on the beach and walked over many sand dunes for about 2 km until reaching another crystal clear lake but this time it was green! Everyone jumped in for a wash but only got out again to be covered by more sand. Our time driving was restircted by the tides... if the tide was in, there was no road! So we decided to head as far
north as we could get passing Eli Creek and the Maheeno Ship Wreck, 2 other must see sights along the way. We camped on the beach, managed to make dinner and Ben had his first experience with a shovel and a bush. During our pre-departure meeting at the hostel we were warned to be wary of dingoes... we were given the impression that they would be all over the island but we actually only ended up seeing three... 2 during our night on the beach. 1 was scavenging for food on the beach, all we could see through the darkness were his beady eyes shining at us and the other dingoe tried to enter our camp but was soon shooed away.
The next morning we were up at 5 am to ensure we had time to see all of the remaining sights. We drove further north to Indian Head where you are supposed to be able to see sharks on a clear day but unfortunately we weren't in luck so we walked on to the Champagne Pools... small rock pools where the waves crash over to make a natural jacuzzi... another chance for us to have a wash! We made
it back to the mainland safely and only managed to get stuck in the sand once, we all jumped out of the car and Ben saved the day. It was a brilliant experience but it was true what everyone had told us... the sand really does get everywhere!
Before leaving Rainbow Beach we had one last activity planned.... a dolphin kayaking trip. This turned out to be a bit of a dissapointment but we did get a brief glimpse of a rare Indo-pacific humpbacked dolphin.
Next stop was Noosa, a small chilled out beach town. We spent four days there relaxing, walking around the national park and doing a bit of body boarding, before catching our last bus to Brisbane. The highlight of our time in Brisbane has definately been watching Chelsea beat Man Utd in the FA Cup final. We have booked ourselves a campervan for the next 2 weeks for a leisurely drive down to Sydney... we pick it up on Wednesday... anyone got any names for us to consider?!
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Jimmy Quinn
non-member comment
name for the motor i think should be clint great name, malc you keep cutting your hair how about them eyebrows. Get smashed JRQ