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Published: December 14th 2006
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Next adventure started in a little town called Hervey Bay. Hervey Bay was delightful. It has 14 km of shoreline. And you could go in the water here without using a stinger suit, they don’t have jellyfish. Most people travel to Hervey Bay to start their journey onto Fraser Island. Fraser Island is the world’s largest sand island. It is one of the only places that has a rainforest growing in sand as well. You can only travel on Fraser with a 4WD being of course due to all the sand.
Upon arrival in Hervey Bay, I met with the group I would be going to Fraser with. There would be 11 of us in one 4WD, self-driven. We would spend 3 days and 2 nights camping on the Island. All camping gear was provided for us and fuel for the 4WD. The 11 of us consisted of two Canadians - Sophia and myself, an American - Shea, a couple from Denmark - Mette and Allan, one Irishman - Mike, and 5 Brits - Jayne, Steve, Ben, Paul and Kate. Our group was really laid back for the most part and no one was really into the party party, like
20 year olds. I find with some of these tours it can some times be just about how much booze you drink and how drunk you got.
The first day out was an early rise, had to be up by 6:15 to start packing up the vehicle for our trip. I think in total with the whole group, there were 6 trucks that left that day all filled with 11 people. We rode a ferry from Hervey Bay over to Fraser Island. Mike drove first but we all got a chance to drive if we wanted to. Down twisty sand roads with tree roots sticking out, big bumps, some steep declines and inclines; we were off on a sand adventure!
We drove all around the Island. Inland was no problem because we could drive at anytime. However we had set times that we could drive on the beach because of the tides, so we were a little limited to places we wanted to go if it had to be accessed by the beach. One of our first stops was Lake McKenzie. This lake was gorgeous. It is a fresh water lake and of course the bottom is all
sand. You could drink the water and it tastes like spring water. No chemicals, no weird flavour, just pure water. It is refreshing swimming in water like that; you kind of get sick of swimming in sea water all the time with all the salt. We then headed to the beach to go north up to our first campsite. Along the way there was tones of jellyfish on the beach that the tide brought in, some of them were huge! We stopped off at Maheno Wreck. The ship used to be a luxury liner and then was used as a hospital ship in WWI. It was then sold to Japan for scrape metal and when they were towing it they were caught in a cyclone and it snapped the line. The Japanese just left it, not knowing where it was, thus ending up on Fraser Island. During WWII the Australian Military used it for target practice.
The next morning we drove to the Champagne Pools. Champagne Pools is the only place where you can swim in the ocean on Fraser. The reason you can’t swim any where else is because of jellyfish, Tiger Sharks, other deadly sea creatures, not
Sunset
I could have spent another week on the Island just to see more of this. to mention the ocean here is very furious. Wave after wave crashing, it would rip you out to sea and you would never been seen again. At the Champagne Pools, the ocean crashes over some rocks and creates pools of foamy water. It was my turn to drive! YIPPEEE! I was given’r down the beach. I really just wanted to drive on the beach; I didn’t really care about driving inland at all. We were only suppose to go as far as Indian Head and then walk to the pools, as we would not be covered under insurance if we went past that point. Well………ya we did, or rather I took us right up to the pools. Oooopppsss! Guess I missed our stop. Some people seemed to be freaked out about the fact I just did something we were NOT suppose to do. Oh well, I figure who’s gonna know, as long as we don’t get into a wreck, no big deal. No sense worrying about these silly things. You aren’t really having fun unless you are breaking some sort of rule (hm this sounds familiar)! Anyway it worked out good that I did that because we were pretty much
Champagne Pools
This was taken later on in the morning when the crowds showed up. the only ones in the pools and the tide was quite low so it made it nice for swimming. Later on the pools just looked like part of the ocean because of high tide and the beach there was packed. So in the end, it all worked out and everyone was glad that I screwed up. Hehehe
That night when we were all sitting around talking we had about 3 Dingo’s join us. The instructional video and the warden tried to freak us out about Dingo’s. I guess a 9 year old kid got killed by one a few years back so now everyone is paranoid about Dingo’s. They say if you see one, to stay calm, cross your arms over your chest and back away slowly, never go to the toilet by yourself, always burry your waste and put your food away at night. They make them sound like man eaters and they will attack with no reason. They really look like dogs, malnourished dogs, and seem to be more curious then anything. I suppose they potentially could be dangerous, they didn’t really freak me out I guess I am just used to bigger badder things like cougars,
Indian Head
Taken at the top of Indian Head. The Champagne Pools are directly behind me farther down the beach. mountain lions and bears to worry about when camping, real KILLERS! HA! By about 15 minutes of them hanging around, we didn’t really even pay much attention to them.
The next day we cruised to another lake for a swim before heading back to Hervey Bay. I am glad I did Fraser Island. Anyone that comes to Australia, this is a must do! I was wishing that I had my Jimmy with me there or renting your own little Toyota would be cool. At night you could see so many stars in the sky, the sky was just full of them. With the sky full of stars and the sound of the ocean’s crashing waves, it was great to just sit, look, listen and ponder.
We were lucky as we never got stuck or nothing bad happened to us. One of the vehicles had flipped on a road going to a lake, another guy had a seizure in another vehilce and some girl was sitting on the rocks at the Champagne Pools when I wave came crashing over and drug her across the rocks, scrapping her leg all up. Yup the only thing bad that happend to us
Dinner Time
Cooking some dinner on our second night. The Dingo's must have smelt our food! was one of those Dingo's stole Mette's flip flop. Damn Dingo, I hope he enjoys wearing one flip flop!
That was Fraser Island in a nut shell. Great group of people, 4X4ing, swimming, endless beach, fresh water lakes, rainforest, it had it all!
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