Advertisement
Published: April 25th 2008
Edit Blog Post
Video Playlist: 1:
18 secs
2:
40 secs
Ferry
The ferry to Fraser island, each vehicle a 4x4 So here I am, in the biggest city in Australia, Sydney, hanging out in a free internet cafe...actually, it's a travel agent who offers free internet to entice you to book tours with them...yesssssss
Today is Anzac day, or Australia New Zealand Army Corps day, where Australians and Kiwis parade, hold celebrations, drink, and remember their war dead who fought against the Turks in 1915 at the Battle of Gallipoli during World War I. It is a bleak, moderately rainy day out, and nothing will be open until after 1pm out of respect for the vetrans and in honor of rememberance.
I suppose, before I continue the journey onto the continent of Asia, I should finish up the story of Australia...
SOoo here goes yet another recap...
After the town of 1770, we hit up another Greyhound bus and headed to Hervey Bay, the town which is the taking off point to Fraser Island - the largest Sand island in the world. Fraser Island is frequented by travellers looking for adventure, sun, dingo sightings, and remote natural surroundings. We booked a 4x4 self drive adventure back in February in Byron, and didn't really know what to expect.
Mackenzie beach
Volleyball with the boys Basically we knew we would be touring an island in a 4x4 vehicle with 9 other people, camping out and making all our own food, for 2 nights and 3 days, and that the weather forecast was RAIN...no worries, mate!
We had a debriefing that day, met our crew, went grocery shopping and got a good nights sleep...at 7am the next day, we headed over to be given our camping supplies, ice, eskies, and our cruisers, and headed out around 10 to catch the ferry to Fraser...our group consisted of 2 girls from England, 2 girls and 2 guys from Sweden, 2 boys from Holland, and Kat and I...it's funny when you get a bunch of different people together, let alone ones from different cultures, and get them to organize food, direction, driving, prepping the vehicle, setting up camp, and everything else in between...it could have gone terribly wrong, and we have since heard horror stories about people whose groups didn't mesh, but we had a blast with ours!!
As most of us were pretty indecisive and on vacation, I decided to try and be a 'leader'and took control and was the first to drive...I was also the
DINGO
See! So cute...I had to chase this bugger down though person responsible for paperwork and deflating the tires to the appropriate amounts for driving on sand whilst we were on the ferry, but I was definitely the drunkest on the way home, 3 days later and was in no shape to drive back to the hostel...
There are no paved roads on the island, it is all sand through trees, or driving on the beach between the surf and the shore, and trying not to flip your vehicle...
Although the cruiser looked pretty nice from the outside, the inside was crap! Including things that broke or didn't work were our horn, stereo, one seatbelt, the sunroof which flew off in the rain on the 2nd day, and the back door which didn't open from the inside.
Some highlights of the trip were the amazing lakes...as we were about to get in the water on Lake Mackenzie, I was one of the last people on the beach and turned around to see a Dingo walking towards me...in the briefing, we were warned that dingos (wild dogs), can be dangerous, and are becoming increasingly unafraid of humans...they occasionally attack, and have the physique of a starving dog which is why
Trees
Driving through the trees on sandy terrain many people want to feed them...they are also extremely cute! We were told that when we see one, scream dingo dingo dingo! and back away slowly, kick sand at it, or if needed, give it a tap with the shovel on the bum to scare it off...I did the DINGO DINGO DINGO thing when I saw this little cutie, but he picked up Jo's bag and started backing up with it! I had to chase him and throw sand at him to get it back - little bugger!!
We were told by the guy who briefed us on the trip that at McKenzie lake, a glorious huge fresh water lake, that there was a shallow bit in the middle where the sand continuously filtered the water to make it so fresh...he said it was possible to swim to the middle of the lake to stand on it and feel the pressure of the filtering sand. SOO, Per and Andreas and I decided to try and find it...an hour later after swimming across the lake, we had found no such thing! We walked back along the side just as the last bit of sun for 2 days hid behind the
Night #1
Here is part of our crew preparing dins clouds...another lake we hit up on this first day was a lake surrounded by tee trees...the oil from the trees seeps into the lake and creates a bracken colour...we all know the benefits of tee tree oil, so spent our time in the lake under the water, smearing the mud from the bottom on our bodies, remarking how much more beautiful we all were when we emerged...what a great day!
We set up camp that night on the beach next to a bunch of other 'Koala' cruisers (there were 4 other groups through the same company which headed out on the same day), and cooked a sweet spaghetti bolognaise...here is another time where my headlamp came to excellent use, as it was spitting rain and dark by the time our dinner was over...
With a beer in one hand and Jo in the other (a Swedish girl from our group), we walked through a few of the other campsites in search of Jack and Ash, who were with another company...as we were walking through one site, I felt a hand grab me and pull me backwards - hello Mike Danskin, once again! Mike is our buddy from home
Mike!
We ran into Mike Danskin...Per, beside me, is from Sweden but lived in Victoria for a bit and him and Mike know the same people - small world! who came to Kangaroo Island to visit us for a bit, who we knew was on the East coast, but weren't sure where. We brought him back to our site to have some beers and hang out with Kat...what a nice surprise!
The rest of the weekend was spent watching planes land on the beach, checking out the amazing ship wreck on the island, climbing up to Indian head to search the surf for sharks (once again stingers and sharks make it dangerous to swim in the ocean here), swimming in the champagne waterfalls (which are salt water but protected by rocks and tide pools), driving on the beach while keeping watch for wash outs (areas where the tide has created deep valleys which are dangerous to drive through at high speeds), playing drinking games in the back of the cruiser, avoiding the rain which kept coming town in 10 minute torrents, looking for dingos, swimming in lake wallaby where I cut open my leg sliding down the sand dune into the lake, partying under the huge tarp that the company came over and set up as a beachside rave, learning bad words in Swedish, and trying not to
Driving
Driving on the beach, stay to the left except to bass! flip the vehicle...we had 2 vehicle mishaps, only one where I was driving!
We were taught how to get out of the sand if stuck, and how not to get stuck, but we weren't taught how to fix a flat tire...good thing the boys we were with figured that one out minutes before we had to be at the ferry terminal - we barely made it to the ferry on the last day!
While driving up a steep hill, I was the first one to get stuck, but we simply dug out the tires, everyone got out, and I put it in High to drive up the hill...no biggie! Andreas was the cause of our next scare when he tried to pass another car going up a hill onto a big dune and we proceeded to slide sideways down the sand to stop what felt like inches beside the other vehicle....we dug it out again, however and he sped up the hill with us running behind...our flat tire incident was no ones fault, but happened while driving cautiously over some bumpy tree roots...we were on a hill though, which made it a bit tricky to fix the tire,
Driving!
Yay! Driving the cruiser and we were 1/2 hour away from our soon departing ferry...
Upon returning to Hervey bay, we had a relaxing night of popcorn and card games, and got up early the next day to catch a bus to Noosa...the longboard surfers paradise of the East Coast...
Phew! Almost there! More to come, stay tuned...
Advertisement
Tot: 0.099s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 13; qc: 49; dbt: 0.0449s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb