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Published: June 10th 2008
We arrived at Hervey Bay around 9am, from our 13 hour bus ride (which Dan slept 11 hours of!!!). We were picked up by a rough looking bloke who called us scummers after seeing our passports. Fortunately he had only been to Portsmouth University so we had no trouble! Once we arrived at our accommodation we received the devistating news that we had yet another 7am start the following day 😞. We didn't do much apart from relax, pick up some alcohol for the trip (the first time I saw Fosters here!) and have dinner. The following morning we were up very early and ready to get our Fraser Island briefing. Now, for anyone who doesn't know, Fraser Island is the largest sand island in the world and we were going on a self drive 4X4 camping experience! Oh yes! We were put into two groups and told we needed an alcohol list (yes more alcohol!) and a food list for each group. Dan and I were in Team A with:
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Gilad - a bloke from Israel who had an American accent.
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Daniel - a Dutch guy who had broken fingers in a cast from a fight the
previous week (youngest member of the A-Team).
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Felix - a South Korean who's actual name was Sungsoo Park (no relation to Ji-Sung Park).
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Russ - an English born Australian who had lived in Sydney for 22 years (oldest member of the A-Team).
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Katie - a young girl from Donny, Donny, Donny! She was Russ's cousin.
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Lucy - an English girl from the midlands.
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Laura - a Dutch girl from Amsterdam who we named Team Leader.
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Therese - a Swedish girl who we put in charge of the food.
This team turned out to be Legend! Anyway, we set off for the 4X4 place to collect our camping gear and load the jeep. I was put in charge of loading the equipment and checking for damage. I loved looking after the equipment over the weekend and I always made sure that we had everything we needed for the excursions each day (this was my way of getting out of the cooking). Once everything was loaded we made our way to the barge to get to Fraser Island. First thing you notice about Fraser is that there is actually no roads at all. The entire
island is made up of narrow, off road, bumpy tracks and beaches. I couldn't wait until it was my turn to drive!
Our first stop was
Lake Wabby. We only planed to stay there for half an hour but actually it was more like 2 hours. We wanted a Picture infront of the lake but we couldn't get the camera in the correct position. Suddenly Lucy pulls a tripod out of her handbag! Everyone found it so funny that she would carry a tripod on her that the A-Team became
Team Tripod. Lake Wabby was like a desert but with this very green lake at the edge of it. I haven't ever seen anything like it before and neither had anyone else. We swam in the Lake and messed around in the sand until we realised that it was 3pm and we needed to be at base camp by 4.30pm. We didn't even know where that was and we still had to visit a shipwreck. So off we went and reached the wreck about 4.15pm. We quickly had some photos and then jumped back in our jeep. We arrived at base camp at 4.45pm and Team B had already
got their tents up. Before we could start on the tents we needed a briefing on how to behave in the campsite. Basically it was don't feed the dingos and after 9pm make noise down at the beach instead of the campsite. By the time we started the tents.....it was pitch black. Fortunately I had the brilliant idea of blocking the dirt track with our jeep, so that it faced the tents, and putting the headlights on. It wasn't easy but we eventually got it done! Next up, the food! Well I didn't do alot except watch and drink my Fosters, which Russ called Dingo Piss, but Dan was in charge of the sausages and did a fine job. We also saw our one and only dingo at dinner but it quickly ran off when 4 groups started taking pictures of it. After the bbq we headed down to the beach and played a game called
'The moon in the spoon'! This was very funny and took me a while to figure out but poor Dan, and a couple others, just couldn't get it and had to keep drinking. It was really strange the way everyone was getting on so
well and it felt like we had known each other for weeks. After a while we decided it was bed time and went to sleep on the very hard ground with no pillows!
7am came and I couldn't sleep so up I got, with Felix and Gilad, and started to tidy the jeep and get breakfast ready. Dan wasn't far behind and we both agreed that we would probably have slept better on a bed of nails! After breakfast we were setting off to
The Pinnacles and finally it was my turn to drive! 😊 It was an amazing feeling driving 95kmph....I mean 70kmph along a beach with nobody on it. The sad thing is that the beaches on Fraser were gorgeous but you can't swim in the sea because it is a breeding ground for Tiger Sharks! We were actually meant to go to the Pinnacles the day before but we had no time. It is basically just some big funny coloured sand rocks, but it will be remembered for the only dark moment of our trip....Dan's camera died! A fatal lens error saw the camera's short life taken from it without warning. Needless to say Dan was
distraught but the memory card survived and Dan's camera was to live on through Lucy's camera from time to time. Next up was
Indian Head. It is a really high cliff that we were told you can see sharks from.....I saw a grand total of 0. The view however was amazing and we got to see how crazy Felix was as he sat on the edge of the cliff!!! After this I drove to
Champagne Pools. I was a bit upset that I didn't get to drive along the dirt tracks but I soon forgot about that when I saw the pools. It is the only sea water you can swim in, on Fraser. This is because the sea water crashes into the rocks and lands in these little pools formed by the rocks. There were even little fishes swimming in the pools. We decided to head back and Gilad got straight onto cooking the dinner, whilst I supervised drinking yet more Dingo Pi....Fosters. The girls all decided that they needed a sleep and left everything to the guys! Just as dinner was under way I heard the word....
Snake! The ranger had found a wild snake and came to show
our camp it! All for tents gathered around taking pictures. I then asked the question "Can I hold it?". Everyone in the camp gasped and looked at me like I was crazy! "Sure" he replied which caused another one of those gasps. So there I was holding a wild snake, getting my picture taken and a queue started to form behind me of all the guys wanting to hold it too. Sure enough next up was my mate Willo and we were very proud that we were the first two to hold the snake! After dinner we played some cards and headed down to the beach again where I saw my first ever shooting star!! The sky over here has soooo many more stars than back at home and is very beautiful. Off we went to sleep on Fraser for the last time.
The following morning Felix decided to wake me up a 6.50am because he was bored and didn't want to sit around on his own! So once again we sorted the jeep out and started packing as much away as possible. The girls didn't get up until 9.30am and by that time we had two tents down
and were just waiting for them to eat so we could pack the food and their tent. We then found out that we would have to wait untill 11.30 to leave because of the high tide and our insurance didn't cover driving at high tide! A group decision was made to just go for it! So off we headed to
Lake McKensie at high tide, which was no big deal in the end because there was still plenty of beach to drive on. Lake McKensie was the most popular destination on the island and was like a beach. It was very beautiful and the water was completely clear! We took the alcohol eskie down to the lake to finish it off and played lots of silly games. It is amazing how close you can get to a group of people in such a short space of time and no one wanted to leave! We spent all day at the lake enjoying the sun until we realised that it was 3:15pm and we needed to be on the barge at 3:45pm!!! Panic hit and everyone was running around like crazy people. Finally I got my chance to drive off road as
I was nominated to get us to the barge asap! I didn't need a second invitiation and off we went flying along the narrow 'roads'. It was so much fun and I wished I had had a go the first day too. We made it to the barge in 20mins and still had time to spare! Once we had arrived back at the hostel we managed to get a room together so we could spend one last nite as a team. This has by far been my favourite part of the trip and everyone agreed that it was mostly down to the fantastic group we had. That night we drank lots of alcohol, had some delicious food and said goodbye to 8 great new friends. Now all we had to look forward to was our 6.50am Greyhound bus to Brisbane! Oh the joy!
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Lee
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I take my hat off, what another fantastic read. I'm dead jealous looks like you will remember this hoilday for some years. Just so much booze i bet after 7 weeks you will come back with small pot bellys :-). Keep up the good work and drink for us Brits!!! Lee