Fun for (almost) All the Family in Fraser

---

When we heard we were going to self drive a 4x4 and go camping on the world's largest sand island we thought it sounded like paradise....... which it was, except for all the sand, other people and numerous dingoes! We spent 3 days swimming in amazing freshwater lakes (McKenzie Wabby) as well as Ely Creek and the Champagne Pools. Indulged in a bit of shark spotting at Indian Head and saw a beached shipwreck. On paper, this sounds like a fabulous way to spend a few days, but imagine if you had to take 8 children with you! Right from the word go, we were designated as the responsible adults of the group. Becky gained the nickname of Mum in the supermarket barely 2 hours after meeting the rest of the group due to her militant management of the group shop and Rosie took on the Fatherly role by being the first to step up into the drivers seat of the enormous 4x4 vehicle. This set the tone of the whole trip. We were with mostly 18 year old Oz Experience gap year kids who were too young to drive and too lazy to do much at all, so we were constantly in charge of the itinerary, campsite and mealtimes - a pretty stressful job! While we were doing this, they experimented with soft drugs and drank copious amount of 'goon' (the Aussie name for wine in a box. Classy stuff) mixed with Sunkist. It was actually pretty tasty but we weren't going to admit that to them in a hurry! We were also much more concerned than the others about being 'dingo safe' and while Rosie was on Dingo spotting duty and getting as far away as possible, Pat and Jon preferred to run directly at the beasts, in part to chase them away, but mostly to try and see if they could catch them! Luckily they never succeeded! Despite high tensions and the stresses of driving without getting buried in sand or tipping over, we actually quite liked our 'kids' in the end and were sad to leave them in Hervey Bay when we left for Bundaberg.

---