Fraser Island

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Hello All

I haven't written about the Whistsundays yet (it wil come soon) as I really want to concentrate and put all the names down etc but at the moment I'm too excited to concentrate to that extent!!

So, what have I been up to since I did the Whitsundays? Well, I got back from there on the Wednesday at about 5pm, and after checking back into the YHA hostel and having a shower (you weren't able to have a shower on the boa!!), I met the rest of the people from my boat in the Beaches hostel bar for a drink. We were meant to get a free pitcher of beer for every third person that joined our table, but I don’t think it really worked! It was nice though to sit and have a chat and afterwards we went back to someones hostel at Magnums. Magnums is huge, and all the rooms are like little beach huts, they must make a packet there!!

The next day I don’t think I did anything too exciting, the internet etc, and then that night went back to magnums, had some beer, and said buy to everyone as I was leaving the next evening. The next day again, didn’t do anything that notable. TH people in the YHA really weren’t very friendly, I think it would have been better if I’d stayed somewhere else, but never mind.

That night, which was Friday the 23rd, I got the overnight bus to Hervey Bay. It wasn’t that bad, I actually managed to get about 6 hours sleep I think, as there was no-one on the seat next to me and so I could lie down. When I got to Hervey Bay, I called the hostel and they came and picked me up. The hostel was quite nice, little units with a few bedrooms all sharing a kitchen, bathroom and living room. It’s run by a family and so it feels nice and cozy like home. However, the people that run it are really controlling. They’re constantly popping in and out of the units and I felt like I couldn’t relax. At one point, she came in and was like “Girls are you going to put those pots away?” Lordy, honestly! It is really clean and I guess one of the reasons for this is because she’s like that, but it just meant I didn’t feel relaxed, and you are paying to stay there!

Anyway, on the Saturday morning I went for a run and then a mooch onto the main street. There was a German girl sharing my room and we watched a DVD that night. We went to bed quite early as I was knackered from not having slept properly for a few nights. When I got back from the Whitsundays I was in an eight bed dorm and there was this really rude French girl ( I think she was anyway) in the room and I didn’t sleep properly all night! The next day, I went for another run and I was going to borrow a bike and have a look around, but it started to rain really heavily and didn’t stop for ages.

When I got back some new people had moved in: two English girls and two German couples. Honestly, talk about unfriendly!! A girl from one of the German couples didn’t even look at me let alone smile and one of the English girls really thought she was completely superior!! She was so condescending and obviously thought I was the thickest person on the earth! She might actually be right about this but there was no need to show it. Also, the mingingest German couple had sex in out shower, eughhhhh!!! How minging is that! I wouldn’t have minded so much if they were attractive but they weren’t so not only were people having sex in a shower that I had to stand in, but there were ugly, unfriendly German people having sex in my shower, eughh!!! I hate to say it but this sparked a ‘crap period’! It turns out that the two boring girls were in my dorm and on my Fraser Island trip. I should have known from this and also when the woman in the hostel said “oh that trips good you’ll really enjoy it” that I should have probably changed it then!

The Monday morning, the bus came to pick us up for the Fraser Island trip and I was really excited. Apart from the Whitsundays, this was the next thing that I was most looking forward to. In particular because they have blue lakes on the island, where because of the minerals in the water and the bright white sand, the water is a striking turquoise blue. You can see the island in two ways. The roads are just sand tracks really and so whatever, you have to travel in a four wheel drive. Most backpackers do a self drive, where they pile between eight and ten of you into a 4x4 and give you a map and a suggested itinerary and off you go. You camp where you want and sort your own food out etc. Or, you can do a guided tour, which is where they drive you around, they cook all your food and you stay in either fixed tents that have beds or caravans etc. I decided to do a self-tour, as I’d heard some bad things about the self drives, like not getting to see anything as people are too hungover to drive or just pissed all the time etc. What a mistake!!!!!

When I’d booked it, the travel agent had called up as I wanted to check that the tour definitely went to a blue lake. The main one is Lake McKenzie, but this wasn’t listed on the tours (there’s a choice of two tours with the company that I went with. Apparently one of the other tour operators has a monopoly on Lake McKenzie and so no other tour operators can go there) but lake Birrabeen and Lake Wabby were. The Lake Wabby tour fitted into my schedule best and they assured me that yes, Lake Wabby was a blue lake. So, the bus comes to pick us up and slowly and surely its filing up with OLD PEOPLE! Yes that’s right, OLD PEOPLE! Two thirds of the bus were over 30 and at least half were over 45. Yes that’s right OLD PEOPLE!!!! The remaining young people weren’t very forthcoming, and lets not forget the two English girls.

I had to still pay for the remainder of the balance, so I asked if I could cancel and she said that no, I’d still be charged for it and that no-one had ever complained before about the mix of age groups! Is that right! Feeling very dejected I got on the ferry to the island and tried to convince myself that I would still have fun. I had actually come around a bit and started to enjoy myself a little as we began traveling around the island. The tour guide was really knowledgeable, and there were a couple of Scottish women on the bus who looked like they might be fun. So all was not going too badly until, I find out that no actually we don’t go to a blue lake, that’s the Lake Birrabeen tour!!! I cannot tell you how gutted I was. To see a blue lake had been my primary reason for doing the tour, and so now not only did I have to share my space with older foreigners, who were foreign and weird and old, but also I wouldn’t be able to see the one thing that I’d done the trip for in the first place! I was sooooo upset, but there was nothing that I could do! To be fair to the company, the trip was very good. We saw loads of things the food was good, the accommodation was good and the guide was very good, it just wasn’t what I wanted (ooh yes Antiques Roadshow has just come on the tv, hurrah!!). To make matters worse, where we were camped there were loads of backpackers camped too, and they sounded like they were having so much fun, I could have cried!

Anyway, the first day of the trip we went to:

• A rainforest, which we had a walk through (down the road only). I went for a wee in the rainforest behind a tree, very exciting.
• Lake Wabby. This was actually green and very cold, but refreshing to swim in. To get to it, you had to walk about 2km through a mini sand desert, which was something that I’ve not done before.
• You drive on the beach on Fraser as the roads are so bad it takes ages to get anywhere, and whilst doing this we saw loads of dingoes which live on the island. We actually saw about six in total which apparently is unheard of so that was good.
• We also saw the Maheno Shipwreck, which is a boat that was shipwrecked on the beach a number of years ago. Apparently, it used to be very grand but the Japans were originally shipping it back to Japan to sell for scrap metal and so they took all the posh bits then. I was really looking forward to this and it was as good as what I thought it would be, although I don’t think we really got to spend enough time there, and my photos were all rushed.
• At the end of the day we went to Ellie Creek. The water was really really clear and we walked down it back to where the bus was. That was quite fun as well as I was doing it with the Scottish women and we only had shorts on and some bits got quite deep!

At the end of the day we went to the camp ground which was very good and had a bit of a drink. Our guide also brought out his didgeridoos and we all had a go to play them. I actually couldn’t do it, but some people could!

The next day we went to:

• Coloured Sands, which is a sand mound that is all different colours because of the minerals in it
• The Champagne pools. This was so beautiful, even though the weather was shit. The water breaks over the top of the rock into some pools. They get their name because the water froths and looks like champagne! The water is so clear and I was tempted to go for a swim but it was quite cold that day and no-one else was.
• Indian Head. This is a massive cliff head and from there we saw whales (I saw these through the binoculars which was fantastic), a school of dolphins swimming in the surf and sea turtles. We also saw the odd sea eagle flying around so we were very lucky.
• In the afternoon we went to see another sand blow, which is what they call the mini desert areas and had a lovely walk through the bush. It was raining but that didn’t spoil it. In fact, I think the walk though the bush was actually enhanced as there was a mist all around that gave it a fairytale look
• Then Lake Allom. There were loads of little turtles here. The sand in this region is made from pure silica and here it was particularly fine, so, on our guides suggestion we used it to exfoliate ourselves, then washed in the water afterwards which is high in tannins and so has a lightly acidic ph, leaving your skin silky smooth!!

And that was it! So you can see, I saw loads and it was really well organised but it just wasn’t what I wanted!!

That night we returned to the hostel, yes the same one and the next day I got the bus to Rainbow beach, and that’s another entry!!

Bye

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Photos

The Hostel In Hervey Bay
The kitchen

The Hostel In Hervey Bay
The living room. It looked very nice but jesus it was boring!

The Rainforest
So you can see how tall the trees are!

Some Bush
On the walk to the lake

The Mini Dessert
Have I spelt pudding there? My apologies if so!! the Ozzies call this a sand blow, as the sand blows in the wind!

The Sand Blow
A better picture!

Lake Wabby
See, green not blue!!!