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Published: October 24th 2009
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Typical Fraser Island inland road. This is one of the better ones. We didnt take any photo of the bad roads as we either didnt want to stop for fear of lossing momentum or were too busy digging the car out. Hello
On Saturday we had a bit of a relax and took a walk to Queensland Museum where they have awesome Muttaburrasauras bones.
On Sunday morning we checked out of our hotel and picked up our hire car at 7:30am and made our way to Hervey Bay.
On the way to Hervey Bay we stopped in at Australia Zoo (the late, great Steve Irwin’s Zoo). We got to see a whole array of lovely animals, the Wildlife Warrior Show at the Crocoseum and we also got to pet some more koalas, roos, wombats and some other barn animals (which included some babe like piglets). We also got to feed some massive Asian elephants and there was also an excellent tiger show, where they were swimming about and playing with their trainer.
We finally reached our motel in Hervey Bay about 7.30pm (Hervey Bay is about 300KM from Brisbane). We still had to do our food shopping for Fraser Island, so went and did that in “Woolworths” of all places!! We drove around for ages looking for a shop that sold alcohol, but due to the strict licensing laws most supermarkets don’t sell it and all the liquor
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Anne bathing in Lake Mckenzie. It was fresh, but not so much after she was done. stores shut dead early. We managed to stock up on the essentials - chocolate, biscuits and crisps.
The motel was nice and clean, we didn’t see much of it though as it was dark when we arrived and the sun had just come up when we left. We had to be at the 4x4 place for 6 for a briefing. Fraser Island is 100% sand, and is the largest sand island in the world - its inhabitants are mainly - dingos, lizards, birds and of course a few people. There are many fresh water lakes (including the world famous Lake McKenzie) but you can’t swim in the sea due to the sharks. The briefing went over what problems we may come up against and how to drive on soft sand (bloody fast would appear to be the answer).
We hired a Suzuki Jimny that was equipped with camping gear and cooler; we got a barge from Hervey Bay to Fraser Island to start our adventure. We had to reverse the 4x4 off the barge (which is a bit nerve racking for a car you have never driven before) then right into the thick of things. We couldn't drive
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QLD Museum - them bones, them bones need calcium...... on the beach yet as it was high tide so we had to use the inland sand tracks. They were horrendous, the sand was dead soft and due to heavy traffic and no maintenance program there was heavy tyre tracks in them with mounds of sand in the middle.
We were warned that we would have to drive in 4x4 low range in soft sand but nothing prepared us for the onslaught that faced us. We made our way to Lake Birrabeer, the road was up and down like a yo yo and very bumpy (didn’t get any pics of it but will try to get something off the net to show what it was like). On our way there was a 4x4 with 7 people got stuck in the sand in front of us, we help them dig it out and push them till they got moving. They let us by them, then we got stuck - they pushed us out (this was the pattern for the whole day, meeting people and helping them out), we only got stuck twice on the first day - all the other tourists were really friendly and willing to help out (thank
god). The driving was nerve racking - we soon realised that everywhere had to be floored in second gear which was pretty exciting but when you got up a hill then hit a bump, it fair threw us about. The back of our Jimny looked like a scene from a space movie with bags, coolers, loose food and camping equipment flying around in mid air.
At one point I had been pushing, Anne was driving -we got going, I jumped in and Anne was flooring it. We were going up hill; the car was bouncing around everywhere, totally out of control. Someone up ahead who was heading in the opposite direction had pulled in to let us by. We fractionally missed them but I don’t think Anne was for stopping - our faces must have looked like 2 people that had just gone on the slow uphill climb on the big dipper, got to the top, looking down over the edge and where just about to hurtle downhill at speeds of 100MPH+, we were terrified!! Ecstasy after Anguish, how we laugh now!!
The lake was beautiful, after that we headed for the beach as high tide had passed.
Driving on the beach was very smooth, big difference. Could go up to 80KPH, quite exciting crossing streams, but we were warned to stay out of the salt water as that would ruin the engine. We went to a small shop just off the beach front and stocked up on some vino. We also stopped at the Maheno shipwreck which is totally rusted now and marooned half way up the 75 mile beach. We set up out tent just off the beach, Anne made hamburgers using a small gas stove - pitch black by 7pm, good times.
On the 2nd day we got up, took down our tent and set off at 6am. We went to a place called Indian Head and got stuck in some soft sand. We were there for about an hour, I was pushing as Anne went backwards and forwards then another couple that we had met the day before came by and gave us a helping hand, we were ready for giving up. We went up India Point (which was a bit of a hill with a view point on top) and could sea turtles swimming around in the Pacific below. If your lucky
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Feeding time at the zoo! The water dragons are wild, they just like to steal the turtles food. He tries to catch them but he hasn't got the speed! apparantly you can sometimes see sharks and whales too. I couldn’t really relax though as I knew I had the soft section of road to drive back on. On our way back, I just floored it all the way, I think we may have got some air, we hit the ground hard at one point and sand flew right over the bonnet and windscreen - YEEEEHHAAAAA!!
We headed to Lake Wabby, which had amazing water and desert like sand. We camped not to far away from there, again just off the beach. When Anne was making dinner (beans and sausages) a dingo came right up to her, must have been the sausages. We were warned not to feed them as they can turn viscious. It came back a further 3 times during the course of the night, I was really tempted to feed it but prob best not too. At one point it made for our tent peg bag (heavy canvas material) and ripped a massive hole in it.
On our last day we headed to Lake McKenzie. The Lake was inland so we had to go back to the terrible soft sand tracks. We only got stuck
once, but we reversed back a bit and gave it some and eased through. In total we were held up for about 3 hours during the day with people getting stuck in front of us, bit of a nightmare, we were worried that we would miss the barge back but we left with plenty of time. The road to the barge was prob the worst on the island, I think they need some major investment in the Roads Department. Maybe I will get a free transfer from SLC to Fraser Coast Council but I don’t think I am that lucky.
We got back to Brisbane late on Thursday night and have just arrived in Sydney (9 flights down). Weather is a bit cooler here, think we will head to the Harbour tomorrow. Hope all is well back home.
Take care, love Russell and Anne xxxx
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sandra taylor
non-member comment
your travels
Boy what adventures your having and what memories you are laying down. Fantastic for us back home to be keeping up with you. Your stories and pictures are amazing. Stay safe and keep enjoying it all. Much love from S xxxx