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Published: February 25th 2008
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We left the caves on Friday morning and drove down to the Fraser Island ferry port. The weather was gorgeous again and our crossing was in brilliant sunshine. Fraser Island is the world's largest sand island and has an amazing variety of environments - there are five distinct types of landscape (subtropical rainforest, heathland etc) and if you wanted to see them all on mainland Australia you'd have to drive for 1500km. I went on a day tour of the island to see as much as I could, and it was a brilliant trip. We started off by visiting Lake McKenzie which is one of the most gorgeous places I've ever been to. A huge lake in the sand dunes, it's formed from rain water and is crystal clear even at great depth. The beach round the edge is made of pure white sand and the water goes from clear to turquoise to deep green as you swim further out. The water is at pH5 which is apparently the same as human hair and skin, so you feel very soft when you get out and you can use the sand to wash your hair, exfoliate your skin and clean gold jewellery!
Hopefully you can get some idea of how amazing it is from the photos.
After the lake we drove on to an area of sub-tropical rainforest for a guided walk. It was really beautiful there and a completely different environment, with tall trees and high humidity levels. We walked for 45 minutes which was quite hot and sticky, but were rewarded with lunch at the end of it - yet another yummy buffet. We then drove down to the beach, and onto the sand! Seventy-five Mile Beach is officially listed as a highway and you have to drive on the left, obey the speed limit and look at the road signs which have been put up there. Pedestrians have to look both ways before they go down into the water! It's really bizarre. We drove along for quite some way, to see the wreck of a cruise liner which ran aground on the island in 1935. People used to camp there before it rusted away and it's quite a sight to see perched on the otherwise empty golden sands.
Our final stop of the day was Eli Creek which is a freshwater stream that runs onto the beach
and into the sea. There's a boardwalk that you can walk along and then paddle back with the current to the sea. It gets quite deep in places and it was fun trying to keep our clothes dry and avoid the enormous spiders that were hanging in the trees. After we'd finished paddling we sat on the edge dangling our feet and listening to the music that people were playing in their parked cars. The whole trip was a great day out and I'd really recommend a visit to Fraser Island even if you only go to Lake McKenzie - I guess it helped that we had gorgeous weather, but it really was the most beautiful place and I could have stayed there for hours.
We left the island yesterday and drove to Brisbane where we stayed for only 2 hours. I think we should have had a whole day there and one fewer day on the Whitsundays, as we all wanted to do some shopping and also had to have lunch, so we didn't really get to see any of the sights of the city. Everyone loved Brisbane - there was a real buzz about it and it
Shallow water
The water was amazingly clear actually had some decent architecture which is quite rare here! The weather was lovely again which of course always helps. I'd love to go back - it struck me as the kind of place for a really enjoyable city break - but of course it's quite difficult being as it's on the other side of the world! Ah well, I'm sure I'll make it back one day.
Yesterday afternoon we arrived in Surfers Paradise which is part of the Gold Coast. We all went on a big group night out to the Hard Rock Cafe and then on to a club, where we had a few free drinks arranged by our tour leaders. It was a fantastic night out - I've met so many fun people here and it was great to get merry and dance and generally go a bit mad. We have to get up early so often on this trip that I think the prospect of the hotel breakfast being available until 10 made everyone really up for it! I had a rather interesting hangover today but made it to breakfast (I went back to bed afterwards until 11.30 but we won't mention that). Today was
a free day and it rained, so I wandered round town for a couple of hours and then spent this afternoon enjoying the hotel room and watching lots of Aussie tv.
Tomorrow we're moving on to Byron Bay, then Myall Lakes on Thursday and we finally hit Sydney on Friday! I can't wait...
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