Island Adventure

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We arrived in Rainbow Beach the day before heading off on our Fraser Island adventure. We checked into a hostel called 'Frasers' and later that day had our briefing for the next three days on the island. We got to meet the group that we would be spending a few days with, 4 of which were French and the other two were an Australian couple from Brisbane. After the safety briefing for driving the 4x4 correctly, we put together a list of the food we would require and headed to the supermarket. This is when we noticed that the 4 French people couldnt speak much English atall, and although we can just get by in a couple of other languages, French isnt one of them. When we got back we had a drink with the group and then headed to get some dinner with Ben and Leah ( the aussie couple).

The following day we had a 7 am start, and loaded all the food and equipment onto the 4x4. We then went to pick up our pass tickets from the National Park office and made our way to Inskipp Point to catch the 8 minute ferry over to Fraser Island. We were told that we might see dolphins on the way over but unfortunately didnt.

Martin took on the driving for the first part of the trip and it was quite a challenge coming off the boat and hitting the virgin sand, we had a particularly scary moment where he managed to swerve two bollards after coming off the sand onto a bumpy road, with everyone screaming in the back. After a few kms of bumping up and down this road we hit 75 mile beach again for some smoother travelling. The driving was new to most of us, but didnt take too long to get used to the gears and how to drive on the different types of sand. We also splatted loads of washed up jellyfish along the way which we found amusing, until later we discovered they had stuck to the bottom of the car and the stench was pretty bad.

The first stop was Eli Creek, and it was here that we would also prepare our first group meal. The Creek was pretty, but the water was freezing so none of us went in for a proper swim. After lunch we ventured further up the beach to stop at the Maheno Wreck, which is is a ship wreck from 1935.

We then headed inland to Lake Allom, which all of us were excited about as we had been told that you could swim with the baby turtles there. Sure enough there were loads of them, and they would come right up to you if you remained still. We all had a much needed swim after all the driving. It was such a lovely warm lake which was great to swim and relax in as there were hardly any other people there. We had originally decided that we would probably stay in the Aboriginal Campsite down the road for the evening, but changed our minds after seeing how nice it was around the lake and we set up camp here for the night.

Once all the tents were up we cooked spaghetti bologneise for dinner, which was an experience as it was pouring down with rain so we had to keep draining the water off the meat every few minutes. The Frenchies seemed quite happy to let us get on with most things, cooking and also driving- most of which was split between Martin and Ben, but Leah and Laura also had a go. Bit surprising really as they had all signed up for the driving too. I suppose this was better than being in a group of people with strong opinions on everything as the 3 days ran quite smoothly.

Dinner turned out great in the end, and we all piled into the 4x4 to eat. We spent the rest of the evening drinking and chatting with the group, Laura and Leah also decided to go for a swim in the lake in the dark, glass of wine in hand. One of the French guys also managed to absolutely stack it on one of the ice boxes we had on ground and land in a massive puddle- very funny!

We were all up quite early the next day, it was lovely waking up in the middle of this forest by the lake. There were a few Monitor Lizards hanging around our tents, they were pretty big too. After breakfast we packed up and headed back down to the beach and made our way north to Indian Heads. This is the furthest point north you're allowed to drive to and you climb up the headland for a nice view over the water and beaches. Apparantly you can see Tiger sharks swimming of the headland, we however didn't spot any, but others in our group did.

Lake Wabbi was our next stop and this was quite a long drive inland. The roads (if you can call them that) were really bumpy and at points difficult to manoeuvre. There's only room for one 4x4 too, so when you meet another one coming in the other direction one of you had to reverse back which was quite difficult. It was raining quite hard when we got to Lake Wabbi so some of the group decided not to go down but to look at it from the lookout point instead. Martin headed down for a look and a swim. It was a strange place, a huge sand dune that was really steep and on the other side a beautiful lake. The water was once again clean and warm to swim in and there were quite a few Catfish swimming around.

That night we decided to camp on the beach, and got the campsite set up nice and early with a rain cover this time. After a nice steak dinner, which was full of sand, we chilled out with some beers and sat up with Leah and Ben having a chat. Funnily enough there was no rain that night- typical, after putting the rain cover up. It was nice to be on the beach, and as it was such a clear night the stars looked amazing.

We got up really early in the morning to head to Lake Mackenzie as we wanted to get there before the hoards of tourists piled in. It took us about an hour to get there and it wasn't in vain, absolutely noone around, result, just us and a few dingoes that followed us around. The lake was stunning, crystal clear water on the shallow part then theres a big drop and the water is darker from there on. About 30 mins later you could hear the tourist buses arriving then suddenly the beach was awash with people, damn it, back to the 4x4 for breakfast with the dingoes..

At our next stop by lake Birrabean we noticed we had diesel leaking from the tank, panic. We checked it out and decided we should contact the 4x4 rental company before driving it anymore as we didn't want to be responsible for any more damage after that. We also noticed how this hole had previously been filled with putty but it had come loose causing the leak. There's no phone reception on the island so we risked it and drove back to Central Station where we knew there was a phone. The rental company told us that if the leak wasnt too bad we should carry on and head home as planned. We had our final meal at Central Station before heading back down the beach to be in time for the last barge back to the mainland. The journey back was great as we got to see some dolphins swimming along side the barge and surfing the waves.

We were worried that we were going to have to fork out for the damage to the diesel tank, but when we got back to the rental company there was a different guy there than who we had spoken to earlier, so decided to keep hush. He ran all his checks and obviously wasnt that thorough as the hole in the tank wasnt spotted. All good, we headed back to our hostel for a much needed shower and our own room for the night after saying goodbye to our group.

Fraser Island was by far the highlight of our travels in Australia, it's such an interesting place with amazing wildlife and natural beauty. Hiring a 4x4 to drive yourself and camping out is definitely the way to do it, you have the freedom to do what you want at your own pace and it's a real laugh tackling the different terrains. We saw a few big tour buses driving around and we were so glad we didn't sign up for one of them as its good fun being put with a group of strangers and having to rough it yourself.

Next stop Noosa..

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Photos

Look out- Plane on road
The 75m Beach was also a landing strip, so you had to be vigilent driving

Lake Wabbi
This is the view from the lookout, Martin headed down for a swim

Martin in Lake Mackenzie
The darker water behind is where the ledge drops sharply

Goodbye Fraser
On barge back to mainland