Dune

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Ok, so we were on our own and on an adventure. The boys were doing boy things. We had booked ourselves onto a 3 day, 2 night, Fraser Island self drive camping trip. It was organised through a backpackers hostel called ‘Palace’. Now, I was a little sceptical about the whole hostel thing. So far, we used them out of necessity only, now we were arranging a whole trip through them. I had visions of us being surrounded by 18 yr old gap year students with no idea, just on a mission to get as wasted as possible - well maybe it would not be unlike a weekend with my mates after all….

Lisa assured me it would be ok and there would surely be other like minded 30 somethings, ok I know you are not 30 yet Lis, but you’re not too far off it! Anyhow, we firstly had to get to Hervey Bay for an overnight stop in the Palace Hostel, so we decided to give the overnight 8 hour bus a miss and catch the 3 hour afternoon train, and pay a few extra dollars for the privilage. It was a fancy tilt train which came with in service meals and movies! It was a good start. Lisa slept through most of it. I thought I would tell her about the dribbling later.

We arrived in Hervey Bay quite late and were assigned our 6 bed hostel room, fortunately it was just us so we had no worries about a good night sleep, provided Lisa didn’t do her usually screaming in her sleep ‘it’s a spider help me’…..
We weren’t quite ready to sleep yet so we thought we would explore and go for a drink. Now Hervey Bay is firmly on the backpacker trail so you would think it would have a lively night life, and we were assured there were plenty of bars just a few hundred metres away. Well after walking around in circles for 45mins and being joined by an Austrian girl who was also lost, we finally found a bar. Relieved, we had a beer and relaxed. It was kind of pikey though, a bit like a bar in Barry, so we headed on after one. The only place still open was the imaginatively named ‘Koalas’. It was loosely termed a nightclub, with an eclectic clientele and dodgy music, but there was a sizable group of travellers who had just returned from their Fraser adventure who filled us with good thoughts and stories about the trip ahead. As it was now getting late we were thinking of our 6.30am start and did the sensible thing and headed back to bed.

We had to meet for our briefing at 7am. It was an intense 2 hours. We were instructed on all the rules of what to do and not to do, how to drive a 4WD, and how to get out if you were stuck, and what to do if you were attacked by dingoes! After that it was signing disclaimers, giving money and off to the depot to load the vehicles with the gear. I was nominated as a driver, as I had my license on me, and had to drive one of the 4WDs to the depot. It was a disaster, the handbrake was stuck on and didn’t work anyway, which made my hill start interesting, although I managed to not roll back into the vehicle behind unlike one of the other drivers….not so good start, all in all the vehicles were not in good shape.

In the meantime we were put into groups. Fortunately there was 1 person older than me in our group of 10! Having only just met, we then had to go to the supermarket and buy food for the next 3 days as a group. I left it up to the veggo to make sure we had everything we needed. It was kind of weird arguing over burgers and veggie fingers when we didn’t even know each others names yet.

Anyway the group turned out to be loads of fun. There was Sophia and Johrun, and Marjoline from Holland, Delores from Argentina, Hannah from London, and Mark, Jason and Tom, from up north. The 3 boys were newly qualified Drs, and were very proud of their achievements, and told us all how they would look after us all, and were really quite sweet, but very full of themselves. I thought I would let them have their glory and when I was asked what job I did I said I worked with Lisa for the government and she blinded them with science and technology (Something that she has never done in work - genetics? They took upon themselves to consider us as government agents or spies for the rest of the weekend, which suited us fine. There were a few comedy moments later in the weekend regarding medical conditions, but by this stage I couldn’t bring myself to tell the truth.

Now I should explain Fraser Island is entirely a sand Island and is 4WD only. There are a few campgrounds and 1 or 2 hotels and little else. It is about 90km long and the main highway is along the beach, which is also the runway for small planes. It is an area of outstanding natural beauty and is the only area in Australia with pure breed dingoes remaining. We were going to stay with a group of strangers, wild camping, for 3 days.

So all stocked and introduced we decided that Johurn being the oldest (35 - phew!) and by far the most sensible and capable should do the driving. When fully loaded there was little room in the back of the 4WD with 8 of us and gear. We caught the barge over to Fraser, collected our permits and off we went. It was a bumpy, tricky drive through the tracks of sand through the bush to the middle of the island to our first stop Lake Wabby. Wow. What a place. There was a climb down through bush and then up a huge sand dune onto a large green freshwater lake which apparently had turtles and catfish in it. We all took the plunge and dived in - which was a relief from being squashed in the 4WD. After a short stop we headed to the beach to find a spot to make camp.

Now, it’s always a bit difficult when you first meet people and have to organise such things, and I know I may have appeared a tad bossy at first, but I am certain that everyone was pleased with our chosen spot to camp, despite us moving 3 times - when I saw it I knew it was right, perfectly sheltered from the wind and with trees to hang the tarpaulins. Pitching the tents was no easy feat as they were the old heavy canvas army tepee style tents. But I am sure Lisa and I shouting instructions from the sidelines made it easier for the boys in the group- who did a fine job.

In fact we were so pleased we left our stuff there the whole 3 days despite warnings not to do so, as dingoes would attack the camp if left unattended. The dingoes were not the problem, but the decision nearly got us into trouble later in the weekend.

We were feeling pleased with ourselves. Everyone was getting on really well, we had got the camp all set up before dark and it was a beautiful spot. Tom took charge on the BBQ and we all had a few bevies to celebrate. As the moon was so bright we all went down to the beach after dinner and as the drink flowed so did the conversation. Soon the 3 Drs were providing musical entertainment for all, blasting out pop classics, and had made up songs for everyone - they fancied themselves as ‘Boyzone’ I think - they were certainly not bad, at least that was after a few vodkas, so any music sounded good.

However, I felt that it was sad that Stuart could not have been part of the experience as he would have loved it and we both commented on that fact several times over the weekend.

Lisa and I retired to our tent with the other girls and I’m sure we spotted some dingoes in the shadows.

The only recurring problem for most people was the toilet situation as we were provided with a spade and instructions on digging deep holes. For us, as experienced campers we managed fine, but many of the others were experiencing camping for the first time, and it was pretty extreme. I thought about Dunc’s decision not to come…… I am sure he would have gladly swapped it for the Versace hotel!

During the night it rained so it was a soggy camping morning, but the tents kept us dry. The days schedule was to drive up the beach highway. It was sunny in the morning and the scenery was fantastic. The sea around Fraser is pretty rough and has lots of sharks, so it is not suitable for swimming, but certainly is moody. We stopped at the Maheno wreck, and then pushed onto to Indian Heads which is a look out spot where you can see all the eastern side of the island, and we spotted turtles, rays and dolphins from our vantage point.

In the pm the rain came down hard, so we spent some time in the van, which was not so good, as it was pretty cramped and smelly by this stage, but after it settled we visited the Champagne pools. These are huge rock pools filled with the sea splashing over the top, creating the champagne effect - and was the only saltwater safe for swimming.

By now we were hungry and we had a lot of washing up to do. So with no water supply we had to head to an official camp area. It was very beautiful so we lingered, did our washing up and had another BBQ followed by some footie for those who wanted, while the girls relaxed. We got a little carried away and thought ourselves invincible for a while as we did not take head to the warnings given on the first day.

As we left our camp in the same spot, it was much further down the beach than we remembered. The rules were to only drive on the beach a few hours either side of low tide, which meant between 8.30am and 3pm. Hmmm…..it was now about 4.30pm, and we had a good hours drive to get back. Johrun approached the driving with skill and concentration and we held our breaths. The tide was coming in and the beach was getting narrower, and narrower, and as it had rained so much the sand was very soft. We skidded and slid about, willing the wheels to not dig us into the sand. If we had got stuck, we would not have been able to dig out in time, and the sea would have engulfed the van. Really though we were all thinking about that insurance clause…..we are not covered by sea water damage or if we drive at night, and it was getting dark. We had to take a diversion off the beach to avoid some rocks, and with some advice from some fisherman we were soon back on track. But we reached our camp intact, with a big round of applause for the driver. We again celebrated with a drink and general chatter until we felt sleep calling.

It rained again during the night, by now everything I owned was wet through and although we had had a great time it was extreme camping and we were all looking forward to heading back today. There was one more treat before we left, probably the best was last. We headed to Lake Mackenzie, which is a massive fresh water lake, set on a white sand beach. It was stunning, and the sun had come out, so we were able to stop and relax and swim a while. It really was one of the best moments. It was topped only by a French bikini clad lady shouting obscenities, running down the beach after a dingo running off with her bag.

We had a ferry to catch, so after the previous days efforts at time keeping we set off early and headed back to Hervey Bay.

As it was a late arrival we stayed at the hostel another night, and caught up on the news from other fellow campers. Over an all you can eat pizza buffet we discovered that we probably had the best group as it we all got on really well and had a real laugh. All in all Lisa was right and I did really enjoy it, I missed Stu not being there though, and I was glad to be heading back to civilisation the next day.

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Comments

[Lisa]

Bra's and farts!!!!
Hey guys, great blogs - making me wanna be back there again! Thanks for sharing my bra size and mine and Emmas wind problem with everyone!!!! Fab photos too! xxx