Advertisement
Published: August 11th 2007
Edit Blog Post
We got the bus from 1770 to Hervey Bay at 6.30am on Sunday & arrived just before midday. We checked in the hostel & went for about but there wasn't a lot to do & the weather was rubbish so we caught up on some sleep, wrote in our journals & had some food.
On Monday we got up really early & had our briefing about Fraser Island & got put into three groups for each 4x4 van, there was 23 of us in total, seven of us in our van, Edward & Hayley, a couple from somewhere down south, George & Abbey, 2 cousins, also from down south, James, Claire & me. Claire & I tossed a coin to see who would drive the van first, (James hadn't driven in 10 years, so didn't want to drive first, neither did Ed, Hayley didn't have a license & George & Abbey were under 21 so too young for insurance purposes so that left Claire & I). Claire won the toss to drive first & the weather looked all set to be sunny!
We went to the supermarket & did our shopping for the three days before getting the barge
across to the Island at about 11am. When we arrived on the island we headed across the from the west coast to the east & drove up the beach; the three vans pretty much stayed together & within the first hour one van nearly tipped over the roots of a tree.
We stopped for photos at Maheno Wreck which was great & then drove further up the coast to Indian head where we climbed to the top of the hill & onto the rocks to a lookout. We saw a couple of humpback whales, a shark & about 4 or 5 Eagle Rays, it was at this point it started to drizzle on & off.
Not letting the weather put us off our trip to Fraser we headed to Champagne Pools, named so because of the way the water spills over the rocks & looks like champagne; where our group was the only group to get in the water, it was cold but good fun. From here we drove to Dundubara & set up camp for the night at about 4pm. We had all three vans within close proximity just off the beach & as there wasn't anything
else to do we all started drinking & chatting & playing games. Everyone got on really well with the exception of one guy who got on everyones' nerves moaning all the time. We had a BBQ a bit later & played "G'day Bruce."
The idea of the game is that everyone starts off as a Bruce, the first person starts turning to the person on their left & says, "G'day Bruce!" The person replies "G'day Bruce!" The first person then says to them "Say G'day to Bruce, (meaning the person next to them) Bruce!" It goes around in a circle & if you make an error, or hesitate you go from a Bruce, to a Sheila, to a Wazak, to a Flaming Galah, to a little beauty, finally to a ripper, before being out. As you can imagine with 23 people talking, drinking & getting distracted it gets very messy & every funny, the idea of the game is also to see who can do the funniest voices.
It chucked it down with rain all night long but it didn't stop our fun, even though our tent leaked & we got soaked; in the morning I had to
wring my sleeping bag to get all the water out!
On Tuesday we drove to Eli Creek & had a bit of a splash about, floating down the creek. We went on to Lake Wabby, after a couple of kilometres of walking we reached a massive sand dune which we climbed up & then down at the bottom of the other side was the Lake, where we had a swim. I had a little drive of the van & it was really difficult to control on the sand & over all the tree roots, I went a bit too quick over a tree root & made everyone jump off their seats which made me feel bad.
The Island was so pretty, it would have been better if the weather wasn't so cold & rainy but we still had fun. We set up camp just off the beach again, just behind the dunes & Claire was chief cook for the evening, making our van a huge Chilli for tea. We played more G'Day Bruce, drunk more Goon & had lots more rain. Again the tent leaked & when we got up there was actually a swimming pool in our
The view from Indian Head
(As the weather started to make a turn for the worse) tent & we were cold & soaked & it was still raining!
On Wednesday two van's, (one being ours), headed to Lake McKenzie & had a swim, it was really cold & it was still raining a bit but the water was so clear, if you opened your eyes under water you could see! When we got out some girls came over & said that the other van had got a flat tyre & we had to go back & give them our spare tyre, (they had already had one flat so had used their spare). The other van we were with didn't want to go back as the guy that got on everyone's nerves was in the stranded van so our van went to help them. We gave them our spare tyre & took their flat & they drove off.
It was at this point that I thought I would have another go at driving, I was a bit worried about going over the tree roots to quick after making everyone leave their seats the day before & with the rain being so heavy I was being quite cautious. I went over a big tree root &
the van would not do what I wanted it to, I lost control & it tipped onto it's side. As you can see in the photo it was resting on a high bank & I promise you the photo looks worse than it actually was. Luckily everyone was fine, in fact everyone thought it was great except for me of course & I was really upset.
We had to wait for another vehicle to come along & find us, (of course we were blocking the road!) Two vehicles came, one from either direction, we asked both people to call the breakdown as there is no mobile signal on Fraser Island & the number we had been given to connect to satellite in case of emergencies didn't work. It was still chucking it down with rain & so the others hung up the waterproof sheet for us to sit under & played eye spy to pass the time.
I thanked my lucky stars when the breakdown man came & managed to get the van up on all fours again, especially as it was only about an hour before the barge back to the mainland. Claire was a star & tried to comfort me & drove the van back to the barge afterwards; to look at it there was only a small dent.
We made the barge with about 10 minutes to spare & everyone was asking where we had been & loved the photos of my handiwork. I swear I have never felt so low & that day will haunt me for the rest of my life. We got back to the van place, unloaded all the stuff & they had a look at the van from underneath & from the inside where the little dent was.
They said they would keep our deposit to cover the call out of the breakdown & the dent. Everyone had put toward the deposit so I made sure that I gave everyone their money back. We purchased some more Goon when we got back to make me feel better, although it didn't help, my phone had also got wet trying to connect to the satellite so that wasn't working either. All in all I felt really sorry for myself, however despite the accident I really enjoyed my time on Fraser Island, we had a really good group, a lot of laughs & it was beautiful - even in the rain!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.048s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 9; qc: 23; dbt: 0.0278s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1mb
Andy
non-member comment
You are a legend!!