Days 47-50

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We made it onto the standby list for Frasers and it was pretty good fun! Fraser Island is the biggest sand island in the world; the tour was basically us and 9 other people given a 4x4, all the camping gear we could need, and all the food we could need , we were given ferry passes and let loose on the Island for 3 days! On Friday we had to watch a safety video about littering and not driving at night and also about being respectful to Dingoes - they are the purest in the world on Fraser. Then we managed to blag a free shower, cheap dinner and a parking space inside the hostel which was good as it meant we could use the bar and the toilet! There really wasn’t much to do at Rainbow beach so we just sort of walked around town and watched some surfing on the beach. We just found out on Friday that MJ was dead so the bar was playing all his music and stuff so that was all good. That night the heavens opened and it POURED down with rain; there was an almighty thunder storm that woke us up at like 3 in the morning and the sound of the rain on our little camper sounded like bullets - it was awful! We had to be up at 7 to start loading the vans and stuff for the trip and it was still pouring - it was coming down in sheets! Andy went to go find out if it was still going ahead and it was; we debated not going to be honest as we did not want to spend a weekend sleeping in a tent during a storm! How and so ever, we battled on and by the time we had eaten breakfast and began to pack up the van it had actually cleared up! The packing took about an hour in total because everything has to go on in a certain order to distribute weight etc. and also the drivers had to have a quick lesson in how to drive a 4x4. The whole three days were really good fun, Andy was driving first and he said it was pretty tough; there were rocks and uneven sandy surfaces and all sorts. The first day we drove to Lake Mackenzie and it was beautiful! The water was clear and the sun had managed to come out so, with the sand combined, it looked more like the Caribbean Sea then a lake! The water was kind of cold though but everyone managed to get in. We chilled there for a couple of hours and then drove across the island to a camp spot for the night. After we got all our tents and gear set up we cooked dinner (steaks) and proceeded to have a bit of a party. From the tour group we went with there were two cars so we stayed together and all got to know each other in the evening drinking and dancing. The next day was pretty much the same; we drove around the island (everyone taking turns) and went to a place called Indian head which was the highest point on the island. We were really lucky because whale season in this part of the world has just begun and we could see a few swimming around and jumping out of the water just out to sea. Later, we took a walk along the beach and came to this place called the “champagne pools”; they were kind of like giant rock pools that the sea spills into, this causes all the water to splash into the pools and bubble up. We had lunch on the beach and then set off across the island again to find our last camp spot. After dinner the two groups got together and we all played charades which, despite some people being reluctant to play at first, was great fun. Obviously our team won, and then we split it into boys and girls and, despite the boys giving us things like “Herbie rides again” and “Bourne identity”, the girls triumphed! In the morning we drove out to Lake Wabbi which was at the bottom of this HUGE sand hill so everyone was running from the top and finishing up in the lake. Due to the tides we could only stay for a short while so after some group poses in the sand we headed back to the ferry. After giving the cars back and cleaning everything out and checking everything was there etc we all went back to the hostel. Fraser island was really good fun and we totally enjoyed the whole experience but the group we were with were nothing like the Whitsunday’s group; they were all really nice people but by the end of the three days some of them had started to get on my nerves no end. When we got back to the hostel we were going to stay another night but we thought we had better hit the road (before I ended up hitting one of them! Joke! Lol!) We are now about 6kms from Australia Zoo and that is where we are going tomorrow!

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