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Published: January 17th 2005
Exploring Fraser Island in a 4x4
This is the car we hired to take around Fraser Island. A group of 7 strangers stuck in the rain for 2 days on the sandiest island in Australia and possibly the world....Wow! I can't believe how HUGE Australia is. I don't know if I gabbed on this fact the last time, but it's enormous and I'm having a most difficult time fitting in just one side of Queensland into 2 weeks. I guess I shouldn't expect to see too much in that much time. I would think that if I did 2 weeks along the upper east coast of the US, I wouldn't see all that much either. *sigh*
Since the last entry, I've gone from Sydney to Noosa, which is in the middle of Queensland. I went to Fraser Island, which is reportedly the largest sand island in the world and has more sand than the Sahara! I guess I wouldn't really argue with those statements since many people lost their cameras to the sand and I still am carrying sand around from there. I joined a group of 6 other people, one of which I had been travelling with since Noosa (Hannah from England), on a self-drive 4X4. It started off a bit badly since it had been raining all day when we checked in and then the next morning we found out the company we were renting the
SAND
Sandy Cape. Need I say more? jeep from was broken into. Being such a small town, the police didn't show up for about 3 hours after the company had called it in.
We didn't leave until mid-morning and none of us knew where to go; which also was unfortunate since we drove the entire length of the 75-mile beach in one day. Of course 75 miles isn't all that far, but driving it on sand and in the rain, it took us pretty much the entire day to cover that distance. It was cool though because at Indian Head, near the end of the beach, we saw Manta Rays, Tiger Sharks, and Sea Eagles.
We spent the rest of the next day trying to stay out of the rain and get to more of the lakes in the island. Essentially that meant we spent all day in the car. But we did get to see some magnificant sand dunes and the upper tip of the island and more sharks! It's incredible the sharks- they were just hanging out about 2 meters from shore and you could see their fins....scary. Good thing it was raining and miserable, we might have lost someone to the sharks.
After the Fraser Island tour, Hannah and I went up to Airlee Beach. We booked a sailing tour, which was incredible! We ended up on a maxi called Apollo, which won the Sydney to Hobart in 1985! We were lucky to have a really awesome group of people on board and an incredible crew. It was again, a bit cloudy and rainy, but this time it was great because otherwise I would have roasted.
Tomorrow I leave for another boating trip to do some diving off the Great Barrier Reef. I'm excited, but it's been an exhausting, as well as exhilirating, 2 weeks getting myself up here to finally dive in the world's most famous reef. I'm told it isn't that great because it's been over toured, but I'll at least see more clown fish and hopefully some more turtles!
Now that I'm travelling in the western world, I feel like I'm really on holiday, not just backpacking. Haha...I guess you've gathered that already with the trips that I've done in Queensland, not the cheapest backpacking place in the world. Pictures to come after the diving....
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anonymous
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haha that was funny about ur "not the cheapest backpacking trips" cuz we got the credit card statement not too long ago....ahahaha :P - mememe