Australia - Frazer Island - 4x4’s, camping and seven girls in my car! Let the fun and games begin.

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Australia – Fraser Island – 4x4’s, camping and seven girls in my car! Let the fun and games begin.

After spending the night at Rainbow beach I would be heading off the following morning on a tour of Fraser Island, the world’s largest sand island. There would be fifty four of us in total forming a convey of eight jeeps. I was put in a group with seven other girls, which for some of you might sound like a dream come true but I soon realised it was going to be challenging when we got in the car and the I-pod’s were plugged into the stereo and the first request was “have you got any Britney!.” Anyway more on this later, back to the tour.

After a short drive we got onto the ferry and headed to the island where the fun began, I was first in the driving seat and heading along the beach at 80kph with the sea on one side and the sand dunes and mountains on the other, it was all looking good apart from the slight mist of rain in the air and the non-stop hideous dance/pop music going on at full volume in the car. The group in my jeep consisted of one English guy namely me, two Scottish girls, four Irish girls and a Dutch girl, surely there has to be a joke there somewhere. In all fairness the Scottish girls and one of the Irish girls were a good laugh and easy going but as for the rest what a bloody nightmare. One was so incredibly stupid that the questions coming out of her mouth left me lost for words, here are a couple of examples of the verbal delights I had to endure for three days:

a.) Do you think for dinner tonight we will all get a steak each or one big one that we just chew around?

b.) So just to clarify when we go into the lake it goes from shallow to deep and not deep to shallow because I’m not a great swimmer.

c.) Is there anywhere I can go to do my blusher and eye liner!!

This was just a small example of the endless dribble that seemed to flow seamlessly from her mouth, I decided for the sake of group harmony to remain silent and not rip her to bits but by the end of the trip I have to confess I couldn’t bite my tongue anymore but thankfully it never got out of hand.

As you can tell my group was far from perfect and I was more than happy when we stopped and met up with the rest of the cars so I could interact with more normal people and actually chat about something other than, boys, drinking or make up, honestly we are on a camping trip and these girls have brought full on make up with them, completely priceless.

I got a little side tracked there, back to the tour, we headed straight to our camp site after the ferry ride to set up the tents and on completion we made our way to Lake Makenzie, as you will see from the photos it’s a very beautiful fresh water lake contained within the sand island, with incredible white sand and thankfully the sun decided to shine for us which picked up the mood in the group as we were all feeling a bit annoyed by the weather. After a couple of hours there we headed out for a drive around the island before making our way back to camp to cook dinner, where we would surprisingly get one steak per person and not half a cow to share!

After a few beers or goon (boxed wine) we cooked food on a very primitive camp stove with minimal utensils and cutlery and all mixed with sand for good measure, it actually tasted pretty good but sadly our four comedy tag along girls decided it was best for them to sit and chat rather than help out. But it turned out ok because they had to wash up in the dark and in the sea! We all decided to crash around 2am for a pretty uncomfortable night’s sleep with everyone fearing spiders, snakes and dingos’. Added to this our tent leaked and it was raining so we were all a little damp by the morning. This was all proving a very stark reminder why I don’t go camping!

The second day arrived and we set off for more sights such as Hangover creek and Indian Head that were both very nice, as with a lot of Australia’s attractions they are all very similar, so every time we reached another “must see” stop on the tour most of us were thinking well it’s not that different from twenty minutes further back down the beach. The highlight of the day for me was some of the girls driving, now I’m not being sexist here but because I only had girls in my car I can only comment on their driving and to say it was making me nervous is a mild understatement. At one point we were heading for a tree sideways and the next we are snaking out of control in deep sand. I just tried to blank it from my mind and let them get on with it but there were a few times I was thinking please just let me drive.

After another good day exploring the island and taking in the rain and the sun when it decided to appear we headed back to camp for more grub complete with extra helpings of sand. During the night we would get regular visits from Dingo’s but no one was attacked and they appeared pretty harmless. I decided early I was not having another night on the floor with no padding so I opted to sleep in the jeep, I thought I was being cunning but when I opened the door two people were already asleep, so I was left with the front seat but I still got a good six hours in which was great.

After waking up early and clearing up camp we set of in the rain for our last day on the island, it was not a great day because of the weather and numerous hangovers in the group so it turned out to be more of a lazy day just driving around waiting for our ferry back.

All in all Fraser Island was nice and the weather really makes or breaks the trip along with the people in your group. But for me I don’t think Australia’s Islands come close to some of the Islands around Thailand and Malaysia so I was a little underwhelmed by them.

It would also appear I will be entering more and more heavy rain the further North I go, I really hope the rain stays away for my sailing trip at WhitSunday’s because it could be a wash out otherwise, I have everything crossed.

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