Fraser Island Safari

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Hervey Bay is yet another faceless beach town on the East Coast of Australia. Our main reason for coming here was to go on a three day self drive jeep safari on Fraser Island, the biggest sand island in the world which is a short boat ride away, but we arrived a couple of days early in the hope that the town might be a good place to chill out for a couple of days. Unfortunately there wasn't a great deal to do and we spent the next couple of days just hanging out on the beach between rainy downpours and wandering up and down the esplanade. We were staying in the Koalas resort again as they were the organisers of our Fraser trip and we got two free nights accommodation. Our room wasn't damp this time but it was right next to the shared bathroom facilities which on our second day started to leak human waste onto the pathway in front of our door. It wasn't nice.

So after a couple of days of just chilling out and generally feeling a bit bored it was time for our jeep safari. We had been a little worried about the trip as you are put into groups of ten or eleven and we feared we may end up with a bunch of ape like alpha males. We went to a briefing the night before the trip and we were put into our groups, we were very relieved with ours. It consisted of nine girls and two boys, me and a Dutch guy called Lars, we have found the Dutch to be some of nicest people we've met on our trip so we were happy. We also had to go and stock up on food and drink for the trip.

It was a very early start the next morning for yet another briefing. This time it was a safety briefing and the drivers were shown how to drive the 4x4's. The hosts of the briefing were three dim-wits, imagine the bastard triplets of Barry Chuckle and Tweedle Dum, who spent the whole time trying to be funny and taking the piss out of everyone. By the end of the briefing no-one really had any idea of what we were supposed to be doing but there seemed to be a lot of rules. The one that stuck out was DONT swim in the sea as it is a breeding ground for Tiger Sharks, luckily there are over 100 refreshing dune lakes which are safe and are amongst the cleanest freshwater lakes in the world. The safaris can be quite dangerous as basically they just let a bunch of youths free on the biggest sand island in the world in a 4x4 with a trunk full of booze. The terrain is treacherous especially the wash outs, ditches caused by the tide, which appear on the beach and just a couple of days previously a girl had broken her back when her jeep fell into to one.

We drove to the port to get the ferry across to the island and once back on land we got on our way. The driving tracks were very narrow and led us through the thick jungle which covers much of the island and after a bumpy ride we reached our first stop, an impossibly beautiful and clear fresh water lake. We spent some time swimming and then got back on our way in order to reach our camping spot along the beach before the tide came in and made access to the site impossible. We made one more stop on the way at a multi coloured lake that looked like a packet of fruit pastels, it was striped with red, yellow, purple and orange. When we left the inland tracks and started to drive on the beach it was incredible. The beach seemed endless and it was so wide and clean and peaceful, obviously apart from us tearing along in it in our jeep. We eventually reached our camp ground which was just of the beach and on our way up the track leading to it we managed to get our jeep stuck in the soft sand, it took us some time to dig it out. Once we succeeded we set up camp for the night, we got our own tent which was nice. That night while we were cooking we saw a few dingoes hanging around our camp, these are the wild dogs that live on the island. There were loads of signs around the island warning people to be 'Dingo Safe', there have been instances of them stealing babies, naughty buggers. After dinner we had a few drinks with some fellow campers before bed.

The next day morning we headed of along the beach, once the tide had gone out far enough for it to be safe, and headed towards the north of the Island to a place called Indian Head. We stopped at a little village on the way to get a nice cold drink and fill our cool boxes, which were full our bloody meat, with more ice. Indian Head is a cliff that juts out into the sea and from the top it offers amazing views of the beaches and ocean, the water was so clear and it looked so idyllic, paradise. We saw a couple of turtles and even a shark swimming in the waves. After spending some time here we headed back down the beach towards camp stopping at the Maheno wreck along the way. The S.S. Maheno was originally built in 1905 in Scotland as a luxury passenger ship. During the First World War the ship served as a hospital ship in the English Channel, before returning to a luxury liner. In 1935, the ship was declared outdated and on June 25, 1935 the ship was being towed from Melbourne when it was caught in a strong cyclone. A few days later, on July 9, 1935 she drifted ashore and was beached on Fraser Island. It's a real rusty old thing now but it was really cool to look around and quite fitting to see a shipwreck on a desert island.

That night the divide in our group which had been manifesting itself since the start became even more apparent. We didn't get involved but there was slight dispute between some of the girls about who was and wasn't pulling their weight. Who cares! We spent some time on the beach that night, it was so serene and it really felt like we were marooned, the only sound was the roar of the ocean and the moons light was reflecting of the waves.

On our final day Lil was the driver and we got up very early and left our camp at 6.00am to get onto the beach before the tide came in. We were only making one stop that day, Lake McKenzie. It is definitely one of the most stunning places we've seen so far and definitely the best place so far in Australia. Lake McKenzie has an area of 150 hectares and is just over five metres in depth. The white beach sand of Lake McKenzie is nearly pure silica and it is possible to wash hair, teeth, jewelry, and exfoliate skin with it. We were the first ones there and it was incredible, the water was so refreshing and crystal clear and it was surrounded by lush greenery. We made the most of this personal haven before the crowds of day trippers descended and ruined the peace. After this highlight we made our way to the dock to get the ferry back to the mainland.

We spent one more night in Hervey Bay and we treated ourselves to a Subway, it was a treat after the fairly suspect sweaty meat we'd eaten on the island. The next day we killed time before getting the overnight bus to Airlie Beach.

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