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OK, so this has been long in the coming... I've been a little busy with Uni, and have gotten really far behind on my travel journal. So here it is, the much belated trip diary!
Fraser Island is a beautiful island about 2 hours drive north of the University of Queensland. I went there as a birthday trip to myself, the long weekend before my birthday. I caught a very early cab into the city to meet the Bushwacker Ecotour group that I was traveling with at the Holiday Inn on Roma Street. There were two jeeps full of people, with our stuff on the roof rack. All the trucks are named: we drove in 'Tommy Truck,' who was due to retire the day after we finished our trip. A long drive up to Fraser, where we stopped for a coffee break about half way there (coffee and fresh donuts--yum). We arrived at Fraser about 9:30 AM, having taken the short (10 minute) ferry ride to the island--it looks like you could swim it, but the current is evidently strong and there are sharks; none of us really wanted to risk that. ^__^
Arriving on Fraser, we were told
that there are no sealed (paved) roads--all the traveling is done either on the beach or on bumpy tracks carved out in the rainforest. We had to drive to our hotel to drop our stuff off before lunch, which involved some rather exciting beach driving. At one point, we had to drive a good deal into the crashing surf in order to navigate around a downed tree that was obscuring our path. We made it around all right, but had to stop shortly after bypassing the tree because the other truck we were traveling with was having engine trouble. Despite the scare, we were lucky that it was just a wet fan belt, which made an awful squeal and burning smell that quickly got better as the belt dried.
On our way down the beach, I spotted a dingo on a sand dune. Our truck did a quick turnaround and went back to watch the dingo. There are lots of dingos on the island; there are signs everywhere warning tourists not to leave food or children unattended, and not to harass the dingos. They may look like dogs but are more related to wolves; they can be dangerous too.
A few years ago, a young boy (not being watched by his parents) was teasing a dingo on the beach with some food before it got angry and killed him. The island, which is a national park, made the decision to cull the dingo population, which has subsequently ended up causing a dingo population boom. While this was the only dingo we saw, we saw evidence of other dingos, including lots of footprints all over the beach.
After a lovely lunch at Eli Creek, we went for a dip in the cold, refreshing stream water. The water on the island is pure because the sand acts as a natural filter--you can drink straight out of the streams and lakes on the island. We waded down the creek, enjoying the rainforest that overhangs the stream. After walking down Eli Creek, we went to see the Mahino, a large shipwreck on the island. She was a luxury cruiser, and had the distinction of being the fastest passenger ship for many years. After a life of luxury cruising, to acting as a hospital ship during WWI, to more passenger ship duty, she was finally sold for scrap to Japan. The Mahino was
dismantled and all her interior sold before the trip. A freak storm blew up on the slow tow to Japan, and the Mahino ended up breaking her lines and wrecking on the shore of Fraser. She has stood there ever since, and has acted as a tourist attraction, target for practice bombing during WWII (unexploded bombs were found as late as 1970 around the ship), and even a chapel (she was the site of a marriage shortly after wrecking on Fraser's shores). Although she doesn't look very large height-wise in photos, evidently there are another 6 stories of her buried beneath the sand.
After photos at the Mahino, we took a hike to Lake Wabby, over a giant sand blow. The water in the lake is fresh, and the shore drops off steeply. This wasn't always a lake, but used to be a stream, which was cut off by the sand blow. It is now a lake with a very steep drop off as you walk into the water (and up the shores, which are on a steep dune). The water was lovely, and we had the entire lake to ourselves as we took a swim.
After dinner,
I went with a bunch of folks that I met and we went star gazing. Away from city lights, the stars down here are really quite brilliant. We had a good time looking for shooting stars, watching satellites move across the sky and enjoying the night lights.
The next day we had an early start for a rainforest walk. The walk was nice, but overcrowded. Unfortunately our jeeps got to the walk just as another large tour bus showed up. Fraser's rainforest is unique in that it grows on a sand dune that is constantly shifting. Also, you also note that the streams that cross the island run completely silently. There are no rocks on the island except for Indian Head, the rock that formed the island, so there is nothing to hinder the stream's flow. Indian Head is the only rock on the island, which catches sand as it flows along the East Australian Current, such that the water is clear further up the current (hence, the Great Barrier Reef is able to exist, because the water is so clear). If you see anything on the island that looks like rock, it's actually 'coffee,' compressed sand and vegetation.
Creek Crossing
The water is colored because of tannins from leaves in the rainforest We went for an afternoon swim in Lake Birabaum, a lovely, crystal clear lake on the island. It's actually larger and more full of life (ie: turtles and fish) than the more popular Lake McKenzie, and we had the lake to ourselves except for another small tour group on the far side of the lake. Fantastic! The water is so crystal clear, it's like swimming in a pool.
After a lunch at Lake Birabaum, we had to drive back to Brisbane. Our truck blew a tire driving back on the mainland road, and we hit really heavy traffic outside Brisbane. The ride back was still enjoyable though, as our truck, full of people of lots of different nationalities (I was the only American, again) and we talked about different customs and 'tourist sights' at home and about things we'd seen around Australia.
I got back late and was very tired, and popped in for a quick visit to Nell and Katy to let them know I had survived my trip, and a quick hello to Casey before I requested my packed lunch for Monday and went to bed.
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