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Published: October 14th 2006
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Beach driving on Fraser Island
And then we all yelled out "Wash out!" and Dan would slam on the brakes... Part 1 - Airlie Beach to Agnes Water Back on the road after the Whitsundays and we had some miles to cover and some budget to clawback, so we drove all day and through our first real downpour down under, and - after an emergency duct tape repair to a dodgy windscreen wiper - we camped in Rockhampton: beef capital of the East Coast. Sure enough, our camping curse kicked in and it rained more overnight.
Unfortunately, the rain continued for most of the next few days while we were staying on the Discovery Coast at Agnes Water, which is a tiny place just down the road from the Town of 1770: another tiny place. We’d heard great things about Agnes Water and Town of 1770 although the rain meant that we didn’t see it at its best. Since there’s not a great deal to do during rainy evenings in a small town, we played scrabble but then Rod invented outlandish rules just so he could win and it all turned nasty (note from the editor: I have recently proven that I won fair and square but now Rach is claiming that the Collins English Dictionary is inaccurate :o)
Dune jumping
Dan and Stu dune jumping on the way to Lake Wabby Fortunately (for our relationship :o), this area is the first part of the Queensland coast where it’s possible to surf - the Great Barrier Reef cuts off the surf further north - and the rain doesn’t really matter when it comes to surfing. It’s also one of the cheapest places to take a surf lesson, so Rod signed up for a budget-friendly group lesson, which included 3 blokes from Bury! The pros say they’ll have you standing on the board within the first lesson and, sure enough, Rod was soon on his feet despite the choppy conditions
The rain just managed to ease off on our last day in Agnes Water, so we enjoyed an afternoon stroll along 1770 beach and around the headland.
Part 2 - Fraser Island Next we set off for Rainbow Beach, the starting point for our 4WD adventure to Fraser Island. Fraser Island is the world’s biggest sand island (at 120km by 15km). It has tropical rainforests, freshwater lakes and gorges, as well as the most genetically pure population of dingos in Australia.
The only way to get around the Island is by four-wheel-drive vehicles, and a self-drive camping
Dingo!!!
A dingo that took a shine to us (and tried to nab off with someone's sunscreen of all things) trip on Fraser is on nearly every backpacker’s ‘must do’ list. Unfortunately, the idea of ‘hooning’ around the Island tends to appeal most to the big proportion of backpackers on the East Coast that are very young, very stupid or both (e.g. the Irish lads downing beer through a didgeridoo and dismantling the hostel bar on the night we arrived in Rainbow Beach)…so we were slightly concerned about the kind of group we’d end up in.
On the day we began our Fraser Island trip two groups left from our hostel. Our group (Team A) consisted of us, Hans and Nadine, who were quiet but friendly Swiss Germans, and ‘the southerners’… AKA Stuart and Caroline from just outside of London, and Dan and Caroline (yes, that’s two Carolines) also from just outside of London. Hans and Nadine didn’t seem to know what to make of the Southerners (think: gobby cockneys) and Rod and I weren’t too sure either, but after several drinking games to break the ice we ended up having a good laugh. Stuart turned out to be a complete comedian and Dan happily relieved the rest of us of the responsibility of driving in Fraser’s challenging terrain.
We’d all heard many stories of backpackers turning cars over….and even with Dan doing a great job it was a group effort just watching for landing planes and the ‘washouts’ caused by rain water running down the beach to the sea.
Team B was a mix of Brits, Americans, a guy from Chile, and a couple of young German girls who’d been up all night drinking with the Irish lads and were suffering for it. We hadn’t even made it to the ferry before one of the German girls chundered down the side of Team B’s car!
After setting up our first camp on day one, we all set of on a walk inland and over huge sand dunes to Lake Wabby. It was a bit green-looking (alledgedly from the tea tree oil that’s washed in to it by the rain) and full of catfish…but we’d been told that the moving sand dunes mean it may not be there for much longer so we took our opportunity for a swim. The highlight of Lake Wabby, though, was our one and only dingo sighting. We’d been warned not to encourage them (and definitely not leave any food unsecured)
Us at Indian Head
The stunning lookout where we watched the tiger sharks, dolphins and giant turtles swimming round because they’re potentially aggressive, but this particular dingo trotted along beside us as we began our walk back to camp.
Day two, and Rod got up for sunrise (nutter) - needless to say I slept through to breakfast. After packing up the camp we drove to Indian Head, a rock outcrop where you get spectacular views back across the beaches and down to the sea. We saw dozens of tiger sharks cruising the waters (that’ll be why swimming off Fraser Island is discouraged) and we also saw dolphins and giant turtles.
The next highlight on Fraser was the shipwreck of the Maheno (a former passenger liner that was blown on to Fraser’s shore by a cyclone in 1935), which makes for good photos. After the Maheno, we set up camp again and walked to Eli Creek, where rain water runs out to the sea. We’d heard that the Creek runs quickly and you can have a relaxing float along it…to be honest, it was a bit short and shallow for that, but still nice enough.
This was our last night on Fraser, so the team rivalry we’d been hamming up was put aside and the drinking games
got serious. Ridiculous amounts of ‘goon’ (cheap and nasty boxed wine, for the uninitiated) were consumed and I got hammered, as you can probably tell from the group photo.
On our last day, we woke up to drizzle and I woke up to a very bad head. I just about managed to keep breakfast down despite the horrendously bumpy ride on the inland dirt road to Lake McKenzie, which was definitely our favourite part of Fraser Island. It was absolutely beautiful (despite the dodgy weather) and we had a long swim there before the long and bumpy trip back to the mainland.
Part 3 - Our last day in Rainbow Beach We had another day in Rainbow Beach before we moved on and we’d already signed up for a sea kayaking trip to see dolphins. The weather was terrible and I was secretly hoping it would be cancelled but no such luck. After being drenched by several huge waves and getting a severe ear-bashing from Rod about my rowing efforts in our double kayak, we finally spotted our first dolphin, and then another and another…eventually there were probably about 30 dolphins around our five kayaks. We didn’t
get any extreme close-ups, but it was pretty good anyway. We also came across a whale on our way back to shore, but I can’t say I really saw it. By the time we reached shore, we’d been capsized and I was tired and grumpy….but nothing that beans on toast, a big cup of tea and a Tim Tam couldn’t fix.
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chris
non-member comment
creek pee
Did you pee in the creek Rod?