East Coast Road Trip - Day 10, 11 & 12 - Hervey Bay/Fraser Island

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Day 10

The sun is shining this morning and it is really hot so we take full advantage to top up the fading tans and head down to Hervey Bay beach. The tide is out so we stroll along the sand and see armies of little blue crabs skittering along the beach. As soon as you get close to them they disappear down into holes in the sand. There are loads of little rock pools too with fish in them- I try to find nemo but he must be sleeping or something. All this sunbathing makes us thirsty and there’s nothing more appealing than having a cold beer on a hot day. We find a little pub on the promenade and have a few tooheys and watch the afternoon slip by. Back at the hostel, we are cooking our dinner when some Germans walk into the kitchen and stand next to me with their arms crossed. I smile and they rudely ask if I am finished when quite clearly they can see that I’m not. I say I won’t be long and they just stand behind me glaring until I am done. Nice to see some friendly Germans for a change lol. We make up for it by hogging the T.V in the lounge to watch Neighbours and Masterchef.

Day 11 - Friday 5th June

Our tour guide for Fraser Island picks us up at 7.30am this morning so another extremely early start to the day. When we are waiting for the bus, I notice one of the friendly German girls standing waiting too. I pray she isn’t on our tour and thankfully another bus picks her up 5 minutes later. After toying with the idea of self-driving ourselves around Fraser Island, we decide to do a 2 day/1 night guided tour instead. Our group is really small- there are only 5 people in total including me and Greg, 2 English girls and a French girl. Our tour guide is a crazy Austrian/Australian called Fritz who strangely has a South African accent. He is very entertaining and soon has us all talking amongst ourselves. Nothing can prepare you for when you arrive at Fraser Island- it is all sand roads and it takes us a bumpy and slow hour and a half to reach our hostel. I don’t usually suffer travel sickness but feel rather queasy. Fritz is very informative though and helps to point out all the surrounding trees, plants and animals along the way. He is excited by everything, including a nectar producing plant called Melaluka, which he points out at least ten times along the way. It’s amazing to think that absolutely everything on the island is entirely grown from, and lives off of, sand. By the time we get to the hostel it is lunchtime and they have laid on a buffet style lunch for us. Fed and watered, we head along the beach towards Indian head and the champagne pools. Fritz points out to us that you can’t swim in the sea on Fraser Island as it is too dangerous. I ask why and he tells me it is two reasons- first is the strong currents, and second is all the man-eating sharks. The sea gets deep really quickly and has pockets of fish trapped in openings all along the beach, so it is not uncommon for the sharks to come in really close to shore to chase the shoals of fish. Well, think it’s safe to say I won’t be swimming in the sea here anytime soon. As we are driving along, a dingo appears in front of us from the trees and onto the beach. We get some great pictures and are lucky to have spotted one close up in the wild like that. Fritz tells us that if we ever encounter a dingo, we should cross our arms and say in a bold voice “What are you doing you naughty boy?” It’s really amusing the way he says it in his Austrian/Australian/South African accent. The champagne pools sound like they should be heated spas, but in reality they are freezing cold rock pools next to the sea. It’ still good fun though. On our way back we stop off at Eli Creek, a freshwater creek which leads out to the sea and is really pretty. We also have a quick stop at the Maheno shipwreck (built in Dumbarton none the less) then back to the hostel for our evening meal. It is steak tonight and it is absolutely beautiful- hardly an ounce of fat on it. I am a complete convert as I eat it medium cooked and really enjoy it. That’s one thing I’ve learned over here- steak tastes about a million times better if it’s not grey and cremated. No one in our group really feels up for partying so we head back to the room and Greg and I share a beer or two before crashing out.

Day 12 - Saturday 6th June

Have to keep hitting the alarm clock to snooze this morning as we are so tired, even with 9 hours of sleep. We don’t make it to breakfast until 8.15am and everyone else has already eaten. It’s another beautiful warm day and we start off by heading to the knifeblade sandblow (basically a big sand dune in the middle of the forest) and Lake Wabby. We have to trek through the sandblow in the heat and it isn’t easy going, but soon enough we reach Lake Wabby, which is a gorgeous emerald colour with turquoise edges. Although it looks pretty, it has an annoying downside which are all the flies. No matter where you go, about 50 flies land on you, it’s like being in a third world country and makes sunbathing pretty unrelaxing. We try to go a bit further from the edge of the water and it isn’t so bad. One of the English girls tells me I am really brown for a Scottish person (obviously they’ve never been to Maryhill before lol) and I’m secretly really chuffed. I have no idea what I’m going to do when I get home to Scotland… (Perhaps move to Maryhill LOL). It’s back to the hostel for lunch again and this time we are treated to some yummy homemade pizzas. Fritz continues to astound us with his knowledge of the wildlife and plants on the island- by now we know absolutely everything there is to know about melalukas, (with the sweet nectar which tastes like honey), banksias, squiggly gums (or as Fritz pronounces it “scwibly gams”) and carol (cawol) trees. By the end of the afternoon we even start to put bets on how many times he will say certain words, but I think he cottons on and changes his patter. Our afternoon stop is Lake Allom, which is a freshwater lake with turtles in it. The turtles are really cute but we feel a bit let down by the fact there is no beach to sit on and the water is a murky brown colour. Apparently this is due to the tannins in the trees, but doesn’t look very appealing to swim in. Fraser Island is completely amazing and an awe-inspiring, special place. One minute you are driving along the longest sandy beach ever, the next you are driving through tropical rainforest then turning into a beautiful freshwater lake or creek. Greg’s neighbor Eddie wasn’t exaggerating when he told us it was one of the best places he had ever been to. We catch the ferry back across to Hervey Bay and to top it off we see a pod of dolphins swimming just ahead of the boat. An absolutely top tour and one highly recommended. We spend the rest of the evening once again at McDonalds (well, just the car park) so we can use their free wifi. As Fritz would say “Rrrrrrrock and rrrrroll”. Our intinery says we should get wasted in Rockhampton tomorrow night, so we shall give it a good bash.

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