Fraser Island

---

12.2.2012 Fraser Island

Some facts about Fraser Island - it is an island off Queensland, the largest sand island in the world and is a world heritage site.

Up at 05.30 to leave for Fraser Island in our safari 4x4's. Once off the ferry we put the 4x4 into 4wd for driving on the sand dunes. All the roads were made out of sand and were really steep in places. There was a convoy of 7 4x4's, with two driver guides in two of the cars. We had only been driving for 5 minutes and one of the 4x4's broke down! So we were waiting around for ages, the exhaust had fallen off, but they managed to secure it with some tape. Our 4x4 'Frank the Tank' was probably the oldest out of the lot and was so big and bulky. We eventually made our way to a lake, it takes about an hour to go 10km, as the roads inland are so bumpy and unstable, its all one way traffic aswel so if someone gets stuck or any oncoming traffic then it takes forever. The lake was beautiful, not sure what it was called though. We all went for a swim in the crystal clear, warm waters, was so nice after driving all morning in the heat.


Our next stop was another lake, the world famous Lake McKenzie. We quickly had our lunch out the back of the 4x4's so we could get down to the lake quicker. This lake was even nicer than the first. We took hundreds of pictures which you have probably seen on facebook by now. The sand was so white and soft, that you can wash your hair with it, exfoliate your skin, clean jewellery, polish sunglasses, and even brush your teeth! The water was so warm and clear, we could have spent hours here but unfortunately we had other places to go. Michael then took over the steering wheel and had a go of driving on the sand roads. He loved it, and was good at it too, probably helped that he had farmer offroading experience ha! We visited a look out which overlooked stonestool sandblow, then made our way there, we did a 30 minute walk over the top off the sand dune and down to lake wabby for our last swim of the day. There was loads of catfish in there and it was murky so I didn't last long. That was our last stop before arriving at camp. We chose our tent, 3 to a tent, so shared with chris (one of the guys in the 4x4 with us) then we had a quick briefing and talk from our guide Rango, who explained how to use the 'Shit shovel'. Basically there was no toilets so if you needed to go you had to dig a hole in the sand far away from peoples tents, perch on the handle of the spade with one side of your bum, then bury it afterwards. Thankfully we never had to use it!! He also explained the Dingo's to us - wild dogs who are very smart and violent. If you leave your car door unlocked and closed over, they can open the door open the eskie (cool box) and steal your food out of it. So we had to always make sure our tents were closed and the cars locked up. Our welsh friends who had been to Fraser Island before us had one of their bags stolen. As they were sat round on the beach, a Dingo opened the car door and ran off with one of their bags in its mouth!! We had a BBQ for our tea, then the drinking commenced. The goon AKA devils juice was flowing nicely. Drinking games started, 'the pyramid card game' 'arrogance' etc. Loads of Dingos came to our camp to have a nosey and sniff around the BBq area, everyone responded by shouting at them, making loud noises to scare then off and shouting at the top of their voices "fuck off dingoes" - which was apparently heard by the other camp! We all had an astronomy lesson on the beach as the sky was amazing, you could see so many stars and the milky way as hardly any light pollution. We even found the southern cross! Some people even ended up sleeping on the beach!

13.2.2012


A lot of sore heads this morning! Me and Michael felt ok so Michael drove. Beach driving today, which was fun. Driving along the 71 mile beach. We made a quick toilet stop, which everyone went, I'm guessing everyone wanted to have a poo in a proper toilet rather than using the shovel! We visited a creek, called Eli creek which was a fresh water stream, which was freezing cold, we only stopped for 10 minutes just so everyone could freshen up and to wake people up. We were going back later in the afternoon to enjoy it properly. We must have been a bit behind schedule as trying to keep up with the driver guide was hard whist dodging waves, we were driving so fast and the tide was coming in so it made us hard to avoid the waves, we ended up driving through one which covered the car in salt water. We came to an abrupt stop as Rango got out his car and gave us a bollocking saying we had all lost our deposit (so he said) as it ruines the car. To be honest they told us not to swerve the car as it makes it tip so trying to avoid the waves on a thin strip of beach was hard.

We got to our next stop - Indian Head, after a bit of a struggle. Craig was driving and we got stuck in the soft sand. We attempted to get through a couple of times, on our 5th attempt we did it, Frank did't let us down. Apparently a lot of people get stuck in it, a couple fo the other cars did aswel. We had to get out and push it. Took over and hour for all 7 cars to get through! We walked up Indian Head (a rock face) and spotted sharks, and stingrays down in the sea. We had our lunch and moved on to the Chapagne Pools - which are large rock pools where the waves crash over the top and produce little bubbles which feels fizzy. We sat in them for a couple of hours, until one of the girls got nipped on her finger by a crab, by which time I had had enough and got out. We then headed back to Eli creek, where me and Michael walked to the top of the creek and floated all the way down, it was freezing cold but nice and refreshing. We tried to have a quick wash as no showers but failed, as sand just seems to get everywhere. We also fed the fish with massive marsh flies. The flies are huge and they bite you a bit like wasps, but if your quick enough you can swat them then throw them into the creek and watch the fish jump out the water to catch them. We also spotted tiny tiny frogs which had just changed as you could still see their tails.

Frank the Tank was then renamed as Stinky Frank, as the smell was not nice, 6 people in one car in the baking heat, no one having showers, and everyone smelling of alcohol from the night before, delightful. We got back to camp and all the boys had a game of football on the beach, Skandinavia against the rest of the world. We won of course, Michael being the star of the show as usual. We had another BBQ and the second round of drinking began...

More drinking games. Arrogance made an appearance, making some people rather drunk. Cooper (american guy) being extrememly arrogant poured an awful lot of vodka into the bowl only to loose out on heads and tails, he downed the contents of the bowl, followed by bringing all the contents of his stomach up into the nearest bin and this was all at 19.30! A long night ahead of us. Pink elly then came out, the pink elephant arm band wrapped around a suspicious bottle of alcohol, no one knew what was in it but it got passed around all the same. Craig was on top form, drinking anything in his sight, to only pay the consequences, being sick 15 times, and having a dip in the shark infested sea, he was asleep by 12. We had a big party, dancing on the tables and benches, some being broken, Michael was the DJ and doing a fantastic job until the speakers got broken. All that was left was to play a game of Bungalow, which was introduced by the Sweedish. There was about 20 of us playing bungalow and singing it at the top of our voices early into the morning, "my hands are high, my feet are low and this is how I bungalow..." We must have played for about 30minutes, no idea how or why we loved it so much as we found out in the morning it wasnt a drinking game.

14.2.2012

Happy Valentines Day!

Everyone was hanging. I was still drunk. The only thing for it was to get back into lake McKenzie, our guides knew what we wanted and took us back there. We spent the whole morning swimming and sleeping on the beach. We even washed our hair in the sand, it made it so soft, and Michael brushed his teeth with the sand! We then all drove back to the port, but not everyone could fit on the ferry back, so we offered to stay behind (as we knew there was a pool next to the port) so that is what we did until the next ferry. Chilled out at one of the resorts swimming pool. We got back to Hervey Bay where I treated Michael to all you can eat Dominoes pizza for $10 back at the hostel with everyone else. We had such an amazing time at Fraser Island, definatley a highlight of Australia! We treated ourselves to a double room instead of bunkbeds, it was luxury compared to the tent! S x.

---