Oh woe is us we are baking

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While packing the tent up, remaining cautious about the terrain that we were in. Everything bites here, some things are poisonous but thankfully most things are not although they still hurt. I turn just in time to see a huntsman bounce (yes bounce!!) across the leafy floor of the national park and underneath Chelsea.

Following last nights drama in the loo’s and seeing various types of spiders including the hideously looking Huntsman I felt a bit vulnerable to the wildlife.

These Huntsman were a good 5 inches across from one leg tip to another, we did not measure it so just take our word for it! They are not venomous but they sure do look mean! Well they may say the same about us.

We got back on the road, or should I say off road and made our way up and down a very windy track and onto Rainbow Beach to get our permit for Fraser Island from the Queensland Park Warden. Being careful on the bitumen road as our tyres were soft from being let down to cope with the beach, so we had to keep our speed limit to a minimum, but this was ok as it is only a few kilometres to Inskip and the ‘Manta Ray’ Barge which will take us to Hook Point on Fraser Island.

At the end of the road there is beach and a long stretch of beach at that, at the end of the beach we can see the barge. It is currently empty and waiting for people like us. We bog down in the sand slightly as a car had stopped in the through path, which meant that we lost momentum.

Reversing ourselves out and ensuring that our path was now clear we made a run for it, Andy’s foot keeping the revs up on the accelerator as we make a beeline for the barge. During our beach crossing 2 women started to walk in front of us. The man on the barge is frantically waving them out of the way to alert them of an oncoming vehicle. Andy thinks he has a moving target to hit. Fortunately we miss and fly straight onto the ramp for the barge. Coming to a stop at the far end of the barge, we both breathe a sight of relief.

We wait a while and 2 more vehicles arrive. In the meantime Andy finds out that the crossing was $150 return. We knew it would be expensive we just were not sure how expensive, but for the experience of going to Fraser Island it will be worth every penny, or should I say every cent.

The surroundings are stunning the water is turquoise and the sand a beautiful vanilla.

We both feel a little nervous as this is more beach driving and the tide is coming in. You can drive most of the beach at high tide (75 mile beach) however you benefit more when the tide is going out you are left with harder, wetter sand which is compacted and easier to drive.

Finally after our short crossing we are off. Andy hit the pedals and before we knew it we were on the sand and flying towards the off ramp to take us to the inner track before we could rejoin the beach. Another white-knuckle ride, a sharp left hand turn up the wooden ramp and we are onto another off road track. This one very rough but not sandy.

We are off to a great start the ride is bumpy but that’s just the way its going to be for 14 kilometres until we rejoin the beach. The corrugations in the road are very close with sand on both sides and grit in places. You need to keep your speed up to try and get over the corrugations instead of feeling every one. The trailer is kicking up a huge plume of dust behind, but we don’t care as we are moving. It is not long before one of the other cars off the barge catches up and soon over takes us. We both beep and wave and then we are eating their dust.

The two ladies that were our moving targets were also on the barge. They were coming over for someones 60th birthday party on Sunday. They were going to be in a beach hut further up the beach than we were heading. It turns out that Pat was from Southampton and both Pat and Verna were £10 poms. They live in Adelaide and Melbourne.

Finally we are at the ramp to rejoin the beach, revs back up again and we are off. Suddenly we hear this squeaking/screaming noise as we start crossing the sand, thinking for a second that we have picked something up in the wheels, but then realising, of course it is the squeaky sand again. We have come across this before.

Adrenaline running, we make haste passing the car that we saw on the ferry, they had stopped to help someone who had become stuck in the sand. This is not good when you are below the tide line and the tide is still one hour from being at its highest of the day.

We cannot stop at this point as we knew the same would happen to us.

Another 5 kliks up the beach and we see the turning for Dilli Village, where we hope to set up camp for 2 nights. Keeping up with the revs, we turn only to become stuck, we reverse and move forward, nothing. We jump out with the spade, vital piece of kit for off roading, dig ourselves out and try again. Still nothing.

Fortunately as I look up the beach I see the car that shared the barge with us, as they passed they looked to see if we were ok. I signalled back with the thumbs down and they spun round to come and help. Three young chaps jumped out. We helped them with their tyre pressures on the barge and said that they would help us if we got into trouble on the sand.

Before long we were out and off the beach, but the bigger surprise was waiting for us over the bridge, a deep sandy track with a hill to climb. Oh no! In we went and we got stuck. Trying to get out of it Chelsea overheated, we had no option but to stay put until we cooled down.

The heat of the day was wretched. I think the hottest we have been so far. The sun was high and there was no breeze. After a while as Andy tried to open the bonnet he realised it was too hot to touch. The sun beating down on it did nothing to help cool down the overheated radiator.

Finally when we managed to pop the bonnet we put 5 bottles of water into the radiator. Waited a little while longer and tried again. Unfortunately we got stuck again.

As we decided to wait with the vehicle no matter what, which is what you are supposed to do, we came to the conclusion that people would have to help us as we were blocking the only way up or down to Dilli Village.

A convoy of 3 Toyotas came towards us and we explained that we were stuck. As they were a tour group with ‘paying guests’ they said that they could not help and then reversed back up the track to take another route much to our disappointment.

We both put our hats on and stood in the shade as you could not stay in the vehicle without air conditioning, we must have consumed between us 4 litres of water between us. This is the benefit of carrying 25 litres of water with us.

A vehicle came up from behind us and he got stuck but managed to get out and go round us and he said he would call us some help from the village.

Eventually a Park Ranger came down and saw our predicament. Someone else had stopped to help and suggested that we drop the trailer and move the car up the hill without the trailer but would then have to work out how to get the trailer. Just as we attached the snatch rope to the Park Rangers vehicle a V8 Landcruiser with huge knobbly tyres came up the side of us and asked if we were ok.

Explaining the situation to him he very calmly suggested that he would get round us and pull our whole rig up the hill. Andy was most impressed with his V8 power, the sound was awesome. He did not need to do this as the Park Ranger had already hitched the snatch rope and commenced pulling. Off he went with our Patrol, driven by someone else. Closely followed by the Landcruiser pulling our trailer, followed closely by Andy and I walking up the hill in soft sand, to find our Patrol left at the top of the hill with the engine running and no one else around.

Jumping back in and getting underway again, we had a short distance to go before getting to Dilli Village Camp Site, where Tony with the Landcruiser was waiting for us with our trailer. He was beaming because he was happy to help and of course prove that the money spent on his V8 Landcruiser was worth every penny to his wife who was sat in the passenger seat and very proudly telling his kids what he could do. Of course not half as pleased as we were!

For all I know the very kind Tony could have been someone completely different and we may never have seen the trailer again. However if I knew then what I found out tomorrow the onward track would have taken him quite some time to round with the trailer so it would hardly have been worth it, otherwise nigh on impossible.

We got into our campsite, set up the trailer and constructed the awning and had some dinner, we went to bed at 9.00 exhausted from the day.

We had all the windows open protected by mozzie mesh it was very humid and we longed for the breeze to come through the mesh and cool us down. We both slept on top of our sleeping bags all night.

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Photos

Long Road
Beautiful off roading.

The One Who Did not Make it
Not sure how long this Suzuki had been here but there was not much left. I do hope the driver was rescued.

On The Manta Ray
The Barge from Inskip to Hook Point on Fraser Island.

Eat My Dust
A fellow traveller hurtles passed us.

Empty Road
no one else around.

On the Beach
This drive is more daunting than Teewah Beach. The tide is on its way in and the sand is drier and deeper. Momentum is important.