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Published: March 18th 2009
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Shipwreck
Fraser Island #I want so much more than the boy next door, I want hell on wheels#
Yes it may indeed seem strange to mention Grease 2 for the second time during my short blogging history but it's so necessary! As a stop off between Airlie Beach and Rainbow Beach I decided to spend a night at 1770 (named imaginatively after the date it was 'discovered'!) or more correctly in Agnes Waters which is the smallest, sleepiest little town that is nearest to 1770 point. There isn't much to do here but I had a lovely walk along the beach and even had time for a nap before the 'Scooteroo' tour! Which was actually a bit of a problem, I over-slept my alarm and missed my pick up; resulting in the reception guy from my hostel coming to my rescue, hauling me into his pickup and racing to the Scooteroo HQ! (Why is it only me that ends up doing these stupid-ass things!) The Scooteroo tour was actually quite nice, you drive your own motorbike and head out into the countryside to 1770 point just in time for sunset! (One of the only places in the east coast to catch a decent
sunset) I did indeed almost kill myself at one point on the road coz I lost my balance and found it difficult to direct the bike. I ended up veering almost onto the wrong side of the road at a blind hill .... at 70km ... ooops! Luckily I managed to rectify myself before any disaster struck 😉 The sunset was beautiful and a big meal cooked up every night at my hostel Cool Bananas (shame about the name hey?!) was a brill end to the day. Definitely worth the stop off!
There is a very well dressed Dingo somewhere with an Oakley cap and Billabong flip flops...
Fraser Island is a huge sand island just off the east coast of Oz and accessible from Hervey Bay or Rainbow Beach. I organised my tour when I booked the Whitsundays one and got another thrown in free (It all got screwed up but you can get some really good deals, I suggest giving yourself time and shopping around). We got given all the equipment and a massive 4x4 beast. After of course all the informational videos about the island and the saftey video about the 'dangerous' DIngos. Apparently once
Cool Rider
Scooteroo Tour a dingo ate someone's baby, but the guy who owned our hostel said they actually used to be the pets of the Aborigines and so are used to being fed and there is no natural food for them to hunt on the island; it's all a bit of a contentious issue regarding whether or not they are a menace and whether they should be fed or not. But we were just told to steer clear and cross our arms over our chest if we came across one! I was thrown in with a group and there was 2 car loads of us making about 15 adventurers in total. Fraser Island is really just alot of people running around in 4x4's, swimming in beautiful freshwater lakes and having a drink or 3 at one of the many campsites. But I will admit, it's kinda fun and our group got on really well, which was such a relief coz there's been some real Fraser Island horror stories (including a couple of girls so scared by a group member's driving that they got out and hitchhiked back)! Lake Mckensie was of course our first stop and was so incredible, even on a cloudy
day the water was clear and blue if not a little cold 😉 which was perfect for swimming and keeping the beers cool.
That night, knowing we were all going to have a few drinks and get a bit loud past the 9pm 'quiet time curfew' of the campsite we set off into the bush and hung out, like 14 year olds with their white lighting in the park, at some picnic benches. Brilliant night until getting back at the campsite and realising that Andy and Mark, 2 of the guys from my car, were in fact missing. Shit. It was about a 10 minute walk from point to point and Keiran and I were pretty sure they were with us when we left the benches. They had been completely legless and must've taken a wrong path at some point, something I had almost done a couple of times. Siobhan, Andy's girlfriend, was of course freaked out and so were we when we realised they weren't back yet. We retraced our paths a dozen times shouting their names but not wanting to get lost ourselves. There was only the light of the moon and no signs to figure out
where we were going or how to get back. I actually can't explain how scared we were (well apart from Drew, Marks best mate, who made a slight worried moaning sound and then feel promptly back asleep!) The Island is pretty big and although there are lots of people on it they are pretty much just confined to one area; the other side being very wild and all of it covered it dense forest which was home to a smattering of wild dingos.(Remember - Be Dingo Safe!) They were drunk and lost in the dark and we were very scared of the very real possibility of not being able to find them at all the longer we left it. After not being able to find them anywhere near our campsite or picnic benches, we decided to phone the satelite emergency phone number which was meant to work on the island, did it fuck. So we took to more walking around in the dark shouting their names ... for hours. When we at last heard the sound of Andy shouting back we all just starting running towards the sound, it was the weirdest sensation and Siobhan was of course ridiculously happy
to see him, only downside was that Mark wasn't with him. He had no idea how they got separated and we had nothing else we could do but wait till morning and hope that he found his way back in the light. I barely slept, worrying about the next day when we may well have had to actually get hold of the proper officials, until at about 7am I heard Mark slump into camp. He'd lost his phone, camera and brand new Oakley hat, along with his shoes. He came out of it with feet and legs covered in cuts and blood and an awesome story to tell back home about the lake he found in the middle of the night (10km from camp, according to the map we looked at later!) and his true Aussie Walkabout!
The rest of that day we got ina few sights around the island, Maheno Shipwreck, Indian Head and I even got to see the Champagne Pools coz I lost all the others and thought they'd walked up there. It's a pretty long walk up the beach from Indian Head, it was bloody boiling and I was bursting for a pee! So on
my way back I saw all these people bombing past me in their 4x4's without so much as a glance or an offer for help, but guess what? The minute I thought since I'm alone and i'm dying of heat exhaustion it's Ok for me to take my top off and just walk along in my shorts and bikini top, a 4x4 full of drunk Aussie fisherman rocks up beside me and offers me a ride back .. how thoughtful 😉 That night we slept in a different camp and it was really lovely; owned my a couple of Aborigines (who asked us kindly not to throw rocks at their dingos coz they were perfectly safe) and we were treated to a real bonfire and some diddgerido playing. But the women had to practise their technique on a piece of plastic pipe because only men are allowed to play the real thing and he said he'd get very offended if we touched it; I know it's their culture and everything but I was a little miffed 😉 On our Last day on the island we saw Eli Creek and Lake wabby, which included a 2km walk across sand dunes in
blistering heat, but was very beautiful. At the very end while waiting for the ferry back across we were treated to the sight of a small pod of dolphins just off the shore line.
Because of 2 free nights at the hostel the next 2 days were spent drinking with the locals at the bowls club, a crazy party at the barmaids flat, loitering on more park benches, being told off by a police woman in her pyjamas and seeing my first and only east coast beach sunrise.
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