Australia

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It was spitting with rain when we woke up, and the sky was gloomy. It was the sort of day where you wanted to roll over and go back to sleep rather than getting up at 6am to go on a tour.

Matt tried to tempt me to cancel the trip and lose the £30 deposit we’d paid but I really wanted to see Fraser Island and was trying my best to be optimistic about the weather clearing up, so I dragged him out of bed.

Our tour bus was waiting for us when we arrived at reception. Our guide for the day was a jolly, tanned German man called Henring. He looked a bit like my favourite travel journalist, Simon Calder, and sounded like Arnie - a weird combination.

Our tour was called the ‘exclusive’ day tour. It cost £16 more each than the standard day tours on offer but this one had 16 people on the bus rather than 40, it included a steak lunch with wine, and it went to a freshwater lake to see turtles.

After Henring had picked up all of the other customers, we boarded the barge over to Fraser Island. He told us that we were getting a ‘special tour’ and would have an extra hour on the island than the normal day trip allowed. He didn’t really explain why but it sounded like there was a problem with the barge they usually use so we were going to come back from a different part of the island. He bigged up the fact we were getting a special tour not offered by any other company. I smelled something fishy and thought he was trying a bit too hard to persuade us we were getting a good deal.

The barge crossing wasn’t fun as it was rainy and the inside cabin was full within minutes, so we had to spend the journey standing by the coaches on the ferry deck. The sky looked grey in all directions and I couldn’t see any blue peeking through so it wasn’t looking hopeful.

When we disembarked and came to get into our small 4x4 minibus, we found out that it was broken so instead we had to travel in a full sized coach. In the end it was quite useful as it gave us all spare seats on which to hang our dripping raincoats in between stops.

Our first port of call was Lake Birrabean. We were told the blue rainwater water pool was filled with a variety of nutrients from the vegetation (such as tea tree, eucalyptus) which reportedly gave it anti aging properties. It was fringed with a narrow bar of white sand, backed by trees. The heavens opened as we arrived, but Matt and I decided to be brave and at least have a paddle. One German lady from our group stripped down to her bikini and jumped right in, but everyone else just looked on fully clothed wrapped up in their coats. The water felt warmer than the air temperature and all that put us off joining her for a swim was the fact we’d have to either get changed on the coach or stay wrapped up in a towel for the rest of the morning.

Then the rain really started to come down. By the time we got back to the coach a few minutes later our shorts were soaked right through and were sticking to our legs so we had to get wrapped up in towels anyway.

Henring was in a rush to set off as noon was high tide and we had to drive along the beach to our lunch stop before we got cut off. To get there we drove through some dense rainforest. The roads on the island were rough and it didn’t help that we were in a full sized bus. We were glad to be strapped in as we bounced up and down over the bumps. He kept reminding us that today we were on a special tour and many of the roads we were using were rarely used by coaches. The streams of rain on the windows fractured the light enough to make the passing trees look like a disjointed cine film - it reminded Matt and I of the film artist whose work we’d seen in the Christchurch gallery.

The tide was already high at 11.15am when we started the journey along the beach. Just as we turned onto the sand we saw a young wild dingo but unfortunately we couldn’t afford the time to stop, otherwise we risked sinking. As if to demonstrate how easy it was to get stuck Henring spent the next half hour retelling stories of people getting stuck in the sand (including how he had got stuck for an hour the previous day) and suitably worried us all with shouts of concern whenever the water swished under our wheels. By this time the rain was coming down heavier than ever and we could barely see out of the windows anymore as the tide came in ever closer.

Finally we arrived at a place called Happy Valley where we due to eat lunch. Everyone grabbed their seats and Matt and I were left without anywhere to sit (there were two chairs spare but they were on different tables at opposite ends of the restaurant) so we asked if we could sit on another table. They said no as they were all reserved for other groups, so we ended up being directed to sit at the bar on our own. We were even more frustrated when they brought out bread and dips for all the tables and we realised they weren’t giving us any. We asked another member of staff and this time he was actually helpful and found us an extra chair so we could both perch one the end of one of the tables where the group had already pretty much finished all the shared starter. I was annoyed even more when I saw that other tables had been given bottles of wine, but as there had only been two of us at the bar we had only been given a glass each (the other people on our table werem’t drinking). It meant that when we’d finished our glass we had to ask for another but all of the bar staff had conveniently vanished. It wasn’t all bad though - the food was excellent. It was the best tour lunch we’d had in a long time and it was a nice change being able to enjoy it with the unlimited drink which was included in the tour price. Our steaks were even cooked by our multitasking tour driver and guide!

At one point during the meal Matt went over to Henring and asked whether we were going to see the turtle lake next. He said that we were no longer going to see them as he took us to the lake already instead. The excuse was that customers prefer a lake with white sand around it to a lake full of turtles so he’d made the choice to take us elsewhere. It was a real shame as that was something we’d been looking forward to.

Feeling full, slightly tipsy and glad to be finally dry, we got back in the coach and drove further up the beach. The ocean around the island has a shelf 4000m high making it unsafe for swimming due to currents. If that wasn’t enough to put you off there were also box jellyfish, various other stingers and sharks just off shore all of which had the ability to kill you. We weren’t even a little bit tempted to jump in.

The rain lifted as we approached the pinnacles (some pretty colourful rock formations) and the remains of a ship wreck that was being battered by the waves. At Eli Creek it was almost warm so we were given time to walk up the creek through the bush, get in and follow the route to the ocean. The water was cold and I misjudged how deep it was going to get so halfway through had to try to take off my rolled up shorts to finish the journey in my bikini underneath. Matt laughed at me a lot as I tried desperately to take off my shorts witout getting them any wetter than they already were.

Apparently 4.5million litres of water an hour passes from the creek into the ocean although it really didn’t look that much to us, even on a wet day. Another random fact is that Fraser Island is a sand island and there is more water in the sand on the island than there is in Sydney Harbour!

Lunch didn’t feel that long ago but it was already time for afternoon tea back at Happy Valley. This time we made sure we got a seat quickly before they were all taken up. To munch with our coffee came freshly baked danish pastries, chocolate chip muffins that were still hot from the oven and slices of fresh fruit. We weren’t even hungry but still managed to eat at least one of each.

With our bellies far too full, we got back into the coach to travel to the other end of the island for the ferry. On the way we stopped in the rainforest where it was, quite appropriately, raining. A couple of brave people got out to do a half mile walk through the bush but we stayed put as I really didn’t want to get soaked again.

The journey back was uneventful. We travelled on lots of uneven, bumpy roads and had one hairy moment when we met a 4x4 coming the opposite way down a track which wasn’t wide enough to pass. As Henring rightly stated - the larger vehicle has right of way - so the poor guy had to back his car up a long way to let us through the narrow gap.

We were pleased to finally arrive at the beach to see the barge pulling in. It was a shame - had it been sunny we’d have had a fantastic day, but in the rain it just wasn’t that fun. I also felt that the fact we were on a ‘special’ tour had given us less time at the places we did visit (as the return barge was much further away from the main attractions) so most of the day was spent on the coach driving through the bush.

As we departed we stood on the top deck of the ferry, trying to appreciate the white sandy beaches around the island, until more rain came down and we were forced indoors for the long journey back (which was even longer than usual due to us going to a different ferry port).

It was late evening and dark when we finally made it back to our campsite. It had been a long day and we were so happy to finally get into a hot shower to warm up.

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Photos

A dingo
It's not a great photo as we had to rush off so that the tide didn't get us