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Published: June 29th 2008
The van and the team
Our 4x4 on Fraser IslandWe arrived into Noosa mid afternoon and checked into the YHA hostel, which was situated just a short walk from the beach. There was three things we hope to do while we stayed in Noosa: 1st was visit Australia Zoo, also known as the Steve Irwin Zoo; 2nd was to catch some more surf and sun down at the beach and 3rd was watch the Champions League final between Man Utd and Chelsea.
The first day we caught the free early 1hr bus, which takes you directly from Noosa to Australia Zoo. The zoo was founded by the parents of Steve Irwin and has grown from 4 acres to approx. 70 acres.
After a full day at the Zoo and Game 1 of the annual "State of Origin" Rugby League tri-series between Queensland and New South Wales (which NSW surprisingly romped) we caught an early night and rose the next day at 4:45am along with 25 other mad supporters to watch the football. That afternoon we borrowed free surfboards from the hostel and went to catch some waves. We all managed to get up on the boards, but unfortunalty the sea was a little on the calm side (not
Fraser Island
The largest sand island in the world the giant swells we had become used to!) and retired for some sun-worshipping.
The next day was a Greyhound to Rainbow Beach, where we were staying in the Dingos hostel, before heading off to Fraser Island. That afternoon we meet the rest of the 60 or so people heading out there and we picked our group to be joining us in our 4X4 jeep.
After an early start and a 2 hour briefing, we loaded the jeep and headed over for some 4WDing. The driving was amazing fun and with no signs or features it was sometimes hard to restrict the speed to 60kph (although obviously we did!). After visitng the absolutely turquoise waters of Lake Mackenzie, we drove further northward and parked up at a remote spot where we soon set up tents and the cooking area. A dinner of steak and potatoes was well received, as were the beers we had had chilling in the 'esky' all day. After hours of drinking and still turning in at about 11pm, the early start the next day did not seem so bad, and any hangovers we did have disappeared when we saw the view of Indian Head at
the northern tip of the island, and were completely dismissed with a dip in the hidden pool of Lake Wabby. Wabby is an idyllic little spot hidden behind fairly dense rainforest and is a little oasis that you only discover when you're right on top of it. The adjacent sand dunes made rolling and jumping from them into the water great fun, especially trying to land on the 2ft long fish swimming right near the surface.
More off-roading, photography and beautiful scenery filled the second and third days, made all the better by the perfect East Coast weather we had (we later found out that a week later the island received a storm warning and was closed for at least 5 or 6 days - a shame for the backpackers about to head out there as Fraser certainly has to go down as one of the highlights of Australia).
A second night party with 4 of the other vans was a really awesome experience, just camping out, barbecuing, drinking and gazing up at the amazing views of the cosmos (the absence of any artificial light gave us an completely new view of the Milky Way!). The highlight of
the third day was a stop along the beach at a stranded ship called the 'Maheno', where we stopped for some creative photography and splashing of the girls with water.
After a somewhat quieter third night, spent back at the hostel where we polished off any remaining 'goon', we continued on our route northwards and to our 2nd major adventure of the East Coast - the Whitsunday Islands.
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