Fraser Island

We took a short flight north to Hervey Bay and stepped out into warm beautiful sunshine. Our hostel is small and spare but close to the beach. Hervey Bay is a really small beach town north of Brisbane known primarily as a launching point for whale watching trips and tours of Fraser Island. Having only a few days here we decided to spend the first lazily laying on the beach (kicking off Garron sunburn watch, part deux) and the next two days touring the island.

Fraser Island is the world's largest sand island and amazingly has an abundance of plant life growing entirely in sand. Everything from sub-tropical rainforests and crystal clear freshwater lakes to centuries old colored sand cliff formations and desert-like sand dunes. I don't fully understand how it's possible for a rainforest to be growing on an overgrown sandbar in the middle of the ocean - something about the water table (the island gets much more rain than the mainland) and layers of compressed plant material running through the sand which give plant root systems something on which to feed. Whatever the science behind it, the result is spectacular. We drove all over the island in a big 4 wheel drive, 6 cylinder tour bus-machine. Up and down beaches, through eucalyptus forests and rainforests and along rough tracks -- felt something like an amusement park ride and the bouncing nearly made us sea-sick but was really fun. We saw a couple other small 4WD vehicles stuck in the sand but thankfully never had to dig our 30 passenger bus out.

The wildlife was great - we saw whales, an eagle ray, and a large sea turtle off the coast of the island and there are too many birds and small animals living in the forests to count. The only thing we didn't see was a dingo...still holding out for that one.

One of the most fun parts of the trip was camping for the night at Cathedral Beach. Our tent had two twin beds, plenty of blankets, and hot showers near by (about as close to camping as I like to get). It was so dark in there at night and the only sound was of waves crashing onto the beach - heaven. The people on the tour were from all over with Italy, the Netherlands, Ireland, the UK, Austria, Belgium and Australia represented - we were in pairs, just like a United Nations Noah's Ark. Garron and I made friends with the Belgian couple and he even got their email address for when he moves there. Score! All in all, a great time and after 2 days of hiking and simming all over Fraser Island we returned to Hervey Bay exhausted.

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Part of trip: Summer Travels 2006

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