FRASER!!.. and then some

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Apr 29 - May 2
Pretty Much all I can say is wow. The past three days have been spent in one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. I went on a two night/three day self drive 4x4 tour on Fraser Island, the biggest sand island in the world. There’s so much to tell that I will most likely forget half of it but here goes anyways. I’ll start chronologically:

DAY 1
The Story starts in Hervey Bay where we were staying at a hostel called Beaches. We got up bright and early and packed one small backpack full to the brim with three days worth of supplies then met in the Hostel Bar for orientation. The bar was shit and had really expensive breakfast ($8 seems like a small fortune to me now, I feel like that should buy me a mail order bride from Thailand or something) so I went hungry for the morning. Damnit, now that I’m talking about food I’m hungry now. This entry may have a bit of a tendency to lean towards food. Shit, I have to stop blabbing, or I’ll never get through this. I think I’ll just get to the point. Ahem..
So we got in our groups, it was the 8 people we’ve been travelling with plus Nathan who we hadn’t seen in a few days and Lucy who is Heather and Claire’s friend who they met in Thailand. The group was made up of 11 people, that leaves one more: Dr. Phil (that’s what we called him at least). Phil was a character to say the least. He’s a 12 year boy with raging hormones trapped in a 30 year olds body. The group was split up into people getting groceries, drivers, and people packing the truck. Kath and I were on Grocery duty and had a very limited budget of $110 between 11 people: this was the most senseless decision we could have made. We bought all black and gold products (no name brand) and our cart was shining with yellow packages. We ended up spending $107, right under budget without bringing anything back, I’m turning into quite the thrifty shopper. We finished packing our truck and we were off to Fraser Island where the fun begins.
{I’m going to just cut to straight events or I’ll never finish this damn thing}
There’s something about driving down a white sand beach with beautiful shark infested ocean to one side and a lush green forest to the other that really makes you appreciate everything. We went to a really beautiful lake called Lake Wabby. (The names may not be real because I forget lots, so don’t go to Fraser Island looking for these sites, you most likely wont find them). The lake was on the side of a large sand dune that Tom and I rolled down just like at Rainbow beach. This was after scrounging lunch which consisted of a Jar of Peanut Butter, one knife, and a few loaves of bread. Our food situation was beginning to look dim, $10 for 3 days food really was not enough. The lake was full of ugly catfish but It was still so so nice to swim in fresh water which I haven’t done since I’ve been to Australia. From Lake Wobby or Wabby or whatever we headed to see ‘the wreck’. Lucy Fraser (can’t remember her first name) was shipwrecked on Fraser Island many years ago (note the name of the island named after her) and the wreckage is still there today sitting on the beach. After a quick photo sash we drove to base camp and got stuck for the first time in the sand on the driveway in. We set up camp along with 2 other groups that left the same day as us and from there on in just relaxed, ate one of our few good meals (BBQ) and as per usual: drank. ‘Twas a grandiose first day.

DAY 2
We tried to wake up bright and early but had difficulties due to previous nights drinking games and beaching. Because of our latish wake up (still up by 6:45, but should have been up for 6) we had to leave the camp close to high tide and on the way to the ‘Champagne Pools’ the tide was coming far too high up the beach for comfort. Emily (or as Tom and some of the other group call her, Kelly) was sitting in front of me a complete stress case. We managed to make it to the drive-up off the beach to the champagne pools which was very deep loose sand: very difficult to drive in. We managed to get up in two try’s but the group behind up wasn’t as fortunate and needed all of our help pushing to make it through. When we managed to get to the Pools, the tide was too high to actually sit in them. The champagne pool is basically a pool of water made by rocks on the beach, the water bubbles in the pool like champagne. Makes sense eh? I sat nice and close to the waves which were crashing right in front of me, I got more and more daring and kept getting closer to the crashing waves until they were spraying me and soaking my clothes. Tom came down and joined me until the tide went back down and the waves went down so we were able to leave and head off to Indian Head. It was a short drive and well worth it; Indian head is essentially the Eastern head on Fraser and allows you to look up and down the beach and into the ocean. I tried to conquer my fear of heights by climbing out onto the rocks with Clemmy but I was still scared shitless. Either way, the sights were beautiful but unfortunately we didn’t see any sharks or turtles or sting rays or any other creatures that were apparently easy to sere from Indian head. From there we took our sweet little truck off to what I’m going to call Turtle Lake. We scrounged up some more food before heading down to the lake. This consisted of (I would stop reading if you’re feeling at all hung over or squeamish) cheese and butter that had both been soaked in water so it was gooey and very soft. We cut off some of the slimy shit on the outside and hopped to her. Really sick. There is only one place to access the lake, at the bottom of a set of stairs is a little point which is shallow enough to stand in up to your ankles. If you clap your hands under water, about 15 little turtles come and swim at your feet. We headed to a creek that you can float down and then played soccer with the Europeans who kicked our ass. But I got a goal and an assist on our only other goal, so Hoorah for that. From there we went back to base camp, made some pasta which was actually pretty good and then drank the night away (I didn’t drink all that much this night because I don’t want holes in my liver).

DAY 3
This day we really had to be up early if we wanted to get out before high tide and pack up our tents and crap. I was really frustrated setting up the tents because I’m so used to setting them up alone from working at Coast that it took 3 times as long as it would have taken me to do alone. I took initiative and took down both tents in the dark and put them away with just a little help, its weird but this put me in a good mood. This was quickly put aside when I had to wait 10 minutes on the roof when I was packing for the girls to have their morning coffee when we were already running late. When we hit the road and saw the most beautiful sunrise I have ever seen, I was back in a chipper mood and Tom and I were pissing off everyone with our signing once again. We played a bunch of stupid games like eye-spy and that game where you have to slap your knees and then shoot each other. I’m sure someone knows this one. We headed to some Stump lake which was pretty ordinary but was surrounded by a sand dune so it still had some charm. The other group showed up and we decided to play some American football; it was the North Americans versus the Europeans. Can you guess who won?

After this we drove off to a lake with picturesque blue and turquoise water called lake Birabeen. The sand was apparently good for cleaning jewellery so I had the girls clean my ring as I played some more football with the boys. We drove back to central station where we all took turns taking one spoonful of the leftover pasta until it was all gone. We also each had 1/3 of a piece of bread, pathetic I know, but its all we had. We finally went to the beautiful Lake Mackenzie, the water was similar to Lake Birabeen but the sand was nicer; Tom and I went for a run around the lake and then swam back. Its about twice the length of swimming across white pine from the beach to Sasamat so it was quite the feat. I had one of the most relaxing naps of my life on the beautiful white sand then we headed back to the ferry to end our Fraser Island trip. I recommend Fraser to anyone who goes to Oz.

While waiting for the ferry I managed to talk an older couple into giving us a pack of yogurts. We took the ferry back and I bought a rank sausage roll that shouldn’t have but tasted so incredibly good. It was Clemmy’s birthday so we decided to spend the night at the hostel bar which I was complaining about earlier in this entry, this turned out to be a killer night. After eating way too much pizza we headed to the bar for quiz night. We sang Happy Birthday to Clemmie for the 167th time and then the quiz started. Our team was the Unicorns in Hot pants and we lost every round but managed two free jugs of beer for our good answers and for volunteering to sing ‘In the Jungle’ (a song Tom and I haven’t stopped singing, we sang this a lot on our Tijuana Tour as well). After these Jugs and a few others Tom and I were getting pretty pissed . Phil’s dancing is quite the spectacle and also quite feminine so Tom decided to copy him. I joined in and the dance floor cleared so it was just us three dancing. The whole bar was in hysterics and at the end of our dance, we were called to the bar. The barman told us that it was the funniest thing he has ever seen and gave all three of us a free pitcher. I have a short video footage of the dance. Ask me when I get back to Sydney for it and I’ll send it to you.

The next morning we were off early to a cattle station called Kroombit. Here we went horseback riding and mustered goats with yelping and screaming when on horseback. I was screaming my lungs off with high pitched noises. From there we went goat wrestling and I did horrible my first round. I went again though and managed to do a lot better. Then because I was acting cocky they pulled out a massive goat for us to wrestle and I managed to catch him even quicker: good fun. We then went back for an awesome Roast Dinner, our meals have done a complete 180 turn. We then went to crack some ships which I couldn’t do but then the real fun came. Mechanical Bull. I had to redeem myself for my inability to crack the whip so I volunteered to go first. I ended up staying on for 37 seconds and didn’t even get bucked off, my hand just hurt a lot so I jumped off. The next best time was by Clemmie with 25 seconds. We both won a free drink. Most of the group went to bed but a few stayed up and we played observation games.; from there was bedtime.

That brings us to today, we’re on the road again with a whopping 11 hours of driving until Airle Beach where we will be starting our Whit Sundays tour tomorrow morning. We stopped at a free zoo earlier where there were the usual Koalas, Emus and Dingoes but they also had Baboons and Chimps which I have never seen before. They are the neatest creatures I’ve ever seen. We have another hour until we’re going to be doing some lawn bowling and then another 2 hours until Airle Beach.

Sorry for the long entry but a lot has happened in the past 4 days. Another big Kudos for those who managed to read through it.

Cheers

WORD COUNT: 2212 words.. Eek.

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