Eungella National Park and Fraser Island

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We left Airlie Beach with the hazy plan of spending a couple of days making our way to Hervey Bay. We took a detour to visit Eungella National Park which was stunning - our flying visit didn’t do it justice at all. There were loads of waterfalls, walks and creeks/waterholes to swim in amongst the impressive wooded hills. We, however, had time for just one proper stop - lunch and a walk in the woods before a dip in a couple of the very picturesque (and cold!) pools. While we were eating we were closely watched by a huge goanna (a very big lizard thing - about a metre long) and a couple of kookaburras. The afternoon passed more quickly than we had realized and we ended up pitching our tent in the dark, in the back garden of a pub a few miles down the road in the village of Homebush.

A long drive the next day brought us to the uninspiring town of Hervey Bay. It is definitely on the tourist trail but only as a gateway to Fraser Island - the world’s biggest sand island. We booked into our hostel and chatted to various backpackers about the trips they had just come back from…adding to our excitement. The following morning we joined up with the rest of our 11 man group, packed up the four wheel drive with all the gear provided for us and headed over to the island. Caroline volunteered to share the driving and had a great time negotiating the sandy tracks through the rainforest (yes there is a rainforest growing in the sand). On the first day of our two night adventure we visited Lake Mckenzie - beautiful white sand and clear water. It turns out we spent a bit too long lazing about here as we ended up arriving at the east coast too late to drive up the beach (high tide prevents driving on the beach at certain times) which meant we had to camp just behind the beach instead of making it to our campsite. We were also stuck behind lots of people getting bogged in the sand which didn’t help. Anyway, it turned out that our camping spot was lovely, and we enjoyed a good chat under the stars on the beach with the rest of our group into the night. When the others had gone to bed I figured that this was the perfect opportunity to propose to Caroline - and she said yes which was a bonus! Yes I did do it properly - well nearly - on one knee but no ring (and no permission from Mr. Bibb!).

The rest of our trip to Fraser Island was really enjoyable - visiting a shipwreck, a lovely creek, Indian Heads (a headland with fantastic views), Champagne Pools and camping at a very entertaining site ran by a lovely aboriginal couple. On the second night, after an evening of eating, drinking and singing around the campfire we managed to lose the keys to the car so the next morning was a frantic search before our drive home! Back on the mainland we met back up with our group, cooked up all our leftover food (we went a bit overboard on the original shopping trip) and enjoyed a couple of farewell drinks before hitting the sack ready to move on in the morning.

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