Blogs from Fraser Island, Queensland, Australia, Oceania - page 14

Ok so Fraser Island has to be the best experience I have had so far - absolutely a great laugh. We arrived at Hervey Bay and stayed at a hostel called Beaches. It is through Beaches that our Fraser Island and Whitsunday packages are booked through. We stayed on night in Hervey Bay, getting ready for the trip to Fraser the next day. Basically, you get put into a group of 8 and share a 4x4 vehicle. Anyone with a driving license more than 2 years old and is over 21 can drive. Luckily for me and Lynsey, we were the only drivers! Scary thought right! So while me and Lynsey get taught about the vehicles and how to drive in sand and off road, the others went shopping for food and drinks. I was a ... read more

Day 27 Hungover… but not to bad I am up and moving at 8am still after shutting down at around 1:30am that last night, but do I ever look in rough shape, and what better way to cure a hangover then a nice 4 hour walk in a sandblow with direct sun and no shade… Now this is something everyone should have to do, and I don’t mean walk it hungover, but check out some big sand dunes and go running down them. Omg… so much fun was had. We found an odd spider with 2 yellow stripes even, by the end of the walk I was feeling a bit better but not much, Sean and James were starting to burn. About 3 hours alter Sean had a healthy red glow to him if you can ... read more

So after surviving the night on Crocodile beach we head off across the Island to Happy Valley. The road across is a challenge and Shenton gets lots of practice using his 4wd skills. The track changes from sandy desert like conditions to lush rainforest and back again. It does take us a good hour to get across to happy valley and we all need some breakfast after our long night! After brekky we head off on our first part of real beach driving. This is fun, the sand is harder and everyone drives on the waters edge with the waves almost touchng the tyres. The beach is beautiful and the surf looks great, but we have to stop Shenton from going in as this definitely is not advisable due to the sharks and crocs in the ... read more

Today we are going to explore the north of the Island, the whole beach coast line is 75kms so in the morning we head off on the beach again towards Indian Heads. A short walk up the headland gives super views in both directions and the surf does look very tempting but we have to remember that there are all kinds of lethal animals in there so no surfing today. After Indian heads we have to manouver the Tank on a very sandy road behind Indian Heads, which Shenton manages no problems and then we reach the Champagne Pools. These are called this because as the waves break over the pools the bubbles look like Champagne. We have a lovely refreshing dip here before we are off up to the northern most point. I ve had ... read more

There were really only two things I knew about Fraser Island as I arrived at Rainbow Beach in advance of starting my three day trip to the island; first that it was a big sand island and second that people often died there as a result of driving accidents. I'd booked on a self-drive tour, where me and seven others would hire a 4x4 and camp on the island. Luckily, I knew two of my jeep mates - Olie and Leanne, who I'd travelled with through Africa and had since been working in Western Australia. They were moving south from Cairns and we met at Rainbow Beach, so it was great to catch up on eight months of stories. We met the rest of our group (Caroline from England, Tom from Quebec and David, Sophie and ... read more