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Published: October 13th 2008
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camping gear
not even half of what we had to take! On arrival at Hervey Bay we didn’t have anything planned for the first (half) day we were there - thank god because after the terrible bus ride we ended up sleeping for a good few hours, I know afternoon knaps are sooo unlike us!! We were sharing a 4 bed dorm, made up of 2 bunk beds. Pre afternoon snooze we noticed the other 2 beds had already been spoken for and wondered what they would be like.
After our snooze we headed out for some grub, we had some dinner in an Irish pub just around the corner. After which we headed back to the Palace hostel - it wasnt exactly a palace, but if stayed in worse places! Our ‘roomys’ were two American girls, I asked where they were from (i didn’t want to assume they were American in case they were Canadian! Or vice versa - they all sound the same to me! After some chit chat ‘where you been’ ‘oh wow...’ etc etc I soon got bored of their need to repeat everything repeat everything we said, followed by ‘oh my gosh’, or ‘wow’. Never mind time for bed needed an early one- we had to be
up and out of the room by 6.15am ready to receive our pre Fraser Island ‘talk’ at 6.30am.
The pre talk basically consisted of a dvd, what to do and not to do on the island, how and where to drive etc etc. This was followed by a ‘if you break it you pay for it’ talk, which was nice! He guy split us into groups - 3 groups of 8 and 1 of 9. We had nine in our car, our American roomys from the previous night, 1 German guy, 1 Spanish guy, 1 English women and 2 Norwegian girls - we were ‘Group 1’.
We drove by convoy to a warehouse to collect our camping equipment. We had 3 large tents, 2 cool boxes cooking stuff, all we needed. Now came the fun part - getting it all in the car, it was interesting, but we made it fit - just. We left the warehouse - yoil stepped up to the plate and offered to drive straight away - fair play! Before we could get the ferry across to the island we stopped for supplies, which was a pain in the arse to say the least, 9 people
trying to shop together, deciding what to eat - it was like watching big brother when thye’re trying to write the shopping list. But we got there in the end, and it only cost $15 each - bargin! After we’d stocked up of beer we headed to the ferry.
Once on the world’s largest sand island we let down our tyres and we headed into the jungle - still with yoli behind the wheel. The first couple of km were pretty rough steep bumpy inclines and declines, quality! It was all going really well, then we reached a soft sand hill that we couldn’t climb. We decided to turn around and find another route to lake wabby. We drove for a good hour thourgh the jungle, eventually reaching a hill. Afer a few minutes we realised it was exactly where we’d been before - we were gutted! But with a few more attempts we managed to get to the top! The sun was beginning to set we were close to lake wabby, even idf we just got a sneak peak we’d be happy. We reached the lake look out to discover a 30minute walk lay ahead of us - we
had to keep drivin.
We were told earlier that day that driving at night was not permitted, but as we were still sat in the middle of a jungle we decided to keep going. We eventually reached the eastern beach, bumping into another one of our cars. We set up camp right next to the beach. We got sorted pretty quick considering it was dark!
As we’d lost so much time on the first day we had some catching up to do, we’d been advised to camp as far north as possible to reduce the drive the following morning. We’d managed not a lot really so we decided to get up early and hit the road, well the beach.
Before we knew it morning had arrived, well 4am, the other group were still stiring whilst we de-erected tents and tidied away. Yoil and i stood and watched the sun rise for a moment, it was spectacular. as we were leaving camp we arranged to meet the other group later on.
We drove down the beach admiring the early morning views, stopping at an old ship wreck on the beach to take photos and have a noisey around. We carried on
First cooked meal on Fraser Island
thanks to Corina and Hilda - we needed it! up the beach, i took the wheel. We were headed to champagne pools at the north end of the island. We arrived after driving through a couple of sticky patches, but i didn’t get stuck - result! - to find two other groups had just arrived. To our relief they didn’t see lake wabby the previous day either, they had however managed to get further up the beach, allowing them a lye in, lucky so and so’s. We did feel better when they told us that they had left one of their coolers out, and dingos had eaten all of their meat! Now I didn’t feel so bad!
The champagne pools are basically a group of rocks along the coast, these form a series of pools when the tide comes in. The water crashes over the top of the rocks, forming bubbles looks just like champagne, hence the name. Due to teh tide times we had most of the day to spend here, which was nice, but there was little shelter and the sun was seriously hot! Mid afternoon we headed south to Indian head, a large hill / mount. We took a trek up to admire the views of
sun rise
very pretty, but it was 4.30am! the beaches below. Indian head looks out over the sea, we could see a school of whales swimming past, that was smart!
Before dark we’d been told its best to camp as far south as possible so we headed back down the beach, stopping to look at some massive jelly fish that had been washed ashore. All four groups camped together near eli creek, we’d pop there the following morning for a fresh water dip - we needed it!
The next morning after refilling the car with all our stuff - again, only this time it was more difficult - sand, shit and general lack of sleep all contributing factors! we all piled down to Eli Creek - a fresh water spring located just inland from the beach. We took a walk into the gorge where the spring starts, initially i said id just have a paddle down - as i didnt have my swimming shorts on, well that plan shortly changed - i stepped into the 'shallow' water to find it was virtually right up my arse - d'oh! i then decided to just embrase the water - leting it float us both all the way back to the
beach - it was so refreshing! once back on the beach i was reminded of being a small child as yoli held a tower around me whilst i changed my shorts!
Now dressed in fresh shorts we headed down along the beach and inland to lake Mckenzie. wow! White sand with the clearest blue fresh water - it was beautiful. we had a good few hours to lay and enjoy the view whilst soaking up the red hot sun, its a hard life!
Unfortunatly once we left the lake we had to head back for the ferry, back to civilisation.
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