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Published: February 23rd 2009
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So i decided to do a 3 day 2 night self-drive and camping tour of Fraser Island. There were about 25 of us doing it at the same time so we were split into three different cars. There were loads of english guys, some americans and canadians, etc but my group was made up of two belgian girls, two german guys, four koreans, who didn't speak english and me! They were all nice though and as it turned out, all three groups spent most of the time together, especially in the evening. So the night before we left we had to have a really long safety briefing about not driving in the sea or getting attacked by a dingo etc - quite boring but was followed by an all you can eat mexican so not too bad! The next morning we arrived to collect our massive bright pink four wheel drives and head off to the supermarket to stock up on food and booze for the next three days before catching the ferry - and yes i did say bright pink! So my group was a bit of a nightmare, deliberating over every single item but we got it done in
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Me driving our beautiful four wheel drive in the rain! the end and set off just a couple of minutes after one of the other cars. However when we arrived at the ferry port, we saw a ferry with a pink four wheel drive on it sailing off into the distance! To our relief, the other pink four wheel drive had somehow got lost on their way to the ferry and arrived just after us - luckily there was another ferry half an hour later because it was a weekend so we didn't miss anything but apparently if it had been on monday we would have had to wait til the afternoon! So not a great start but we arrived on the island and drove through the stunning and incredibly bumpy rainforest to our first destination of Lake Wabby, which is a beautiful, peaceful lake surrounded by rainforest on one side and huge sand dunes on the other - v.impressive! It was a pretty hot day and after a half hour walk to the lake I was ready to cool off so me and Lukas (one of the german guys) ran to the top of the sand dunes and sprinted down head first into the water - so refreshing! Anyway
we spent a good few hours there just chilling and having a few beers in the lake and it was really nice because our 3 groups were the only people there. Eventually though we had to leave and make our way back to the cars and to the beach so that we could drive to our campsite before the tide came in! The first night was great - i was just chucking an american football around on the beach and talking about the wales v england game with one of the guys from the other groups when i noticed that our group hadn't started thinking about cooking and the other groups looked almost finished - i was doing all the driving so kinda thought someone might have sorted the cooking but no! Anyway i started our bbq and the other groups laughed as i spent hours cooking everything on a crap grill in the dark! And then we finished the night of by listening to some tunes on the ipod speakers, playing some kings and doing some stargazing - the sky was so clear and i've never seen so many stars! The next morning we were all up at about
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I don't think political correctness has reached Australia yet! 6am so we cleared everything up and i drove us to indian head and the champagne pools. I did all the driving for our group cos none of the koreans could drive, the belgian girls didn't want to and the two germans tried but one couldn't change gears at all cos he'd never driven a right-hand drive and the other was useless and got us stuck in sand after about 2 minutes of driving! Anyway indian head was just a sort of cliff really but we could see a big stingray in the sea below really close to shore and some sharks a bit further out! The champagne pools were ok too but quite small and really crowded - they were so much better when everyone had left! It's just a small bay really where the waves crash off the rocks and spray you as if a champagne bottle's being opened - it was great weather though and we spent most of the day there before heading to our new campsite for the evening. We stopped on the way back to do some washing up and have a shower and nearly got stuck because the tide was coming in and
there wasn't much beach to drive on. We made it in the end though and settled down to a more boring but quicker dinner of pasta and sauce! Then more beers and Brandon, an American guy, was teaching us to shotgun cans by cutting a hole in the bottom so it flowed quicker and u could drink it in a couple of seconds - it was a good night anyway, just drinking and chatting and listening to music. So again up at 6am the next morning and off to Lake Mckenzie (the main event really). We got there very early after a short stop at central station, where they used to cut down trees and now they don't - that's about all it tells you and there's nothing to see there so very boring. It was very cloudy and dark when we arrived at Lake Mckenzie so even though it was beautiful we couldn't get the full sense of how amazing it was with the sun glistening off it and all the colours. It was really nice though and we just relaxed in the water for a while before it started to rain - quite heavily but it didn't deter
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They have these stands in shops all over Australia - looks a bit dodgy if u ask me! us and we stayed in the water. However shortly afterwards we heard the loudest thunder i've ever heard and there was lightning right over the lake so we did make a sharp exit at that point! It was a real shame that we had to cut Lake Mckenzie short because it is supposed to be the best place there but we had been so lucky with the weather compared to other people and we still got to spend a couple of hours there. We had nothing to do after that though apart from drive in convoy to the ferry terminal - unfortunately we couldn't get an earlier ferry so just had to sit and wait under a sort of bus shelter for two and a half hours until the ferry arrived! It was an amazing trip anyway and the people were quality and it was really good to spend a few days with the same people and actually get to know people a bit more. Unfortunately, no sooner had we arrived back in Hervey Bay than I had to gather my stuff and make my way to the bus station to catch the Greyhound 13 hours up the coast to
Airlie Beach and the Whitsundays!
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