Blogs from Fraser Island, Queensland, Australia, Oceania - page 8

Geo: -25.2168, 153.133We left our camp early today and headed back towards the southern part of Fraser Island. Along the way we stopped at the remains of the "Moheno", once the most luxurious ocean liner before they built the "Titanic". She was shipwrecked on the island during a cyclone in 1936 on her way to a scrap metal shipyard in Japan. After the wreck was photographed from every possible angle we moved on to spend some time at Lake Wabby. After a 30 min hike through a eucalypt forest we reached the lake which is surrounded on three sides by dense forest while the fourth side is a gigantic sand dune or sandblow. This place is not far from an old abandon army camp on the west side of Fraser Island where they used to train ... read more

Geo: -25.2168, 153.133Packed all our stuff, food and water and beers onto the beaten up Land Cruisers and headed for the ferry to Fraser Island. The worlds largest sand island (75mi by 15mi). After driving along the beach for a while it was my turn to head inland through the rainforest to the crystal clear Lake McKenzie for a swim. So much fun steering a 4WD through sand :)On the way back we had a picnic by the beach and were greeted by an aboriginal guide before we headed far north to our camp. After some chaotic cooking the kids took over partying 'til midnight...Packten all unser Zeug, Essen und Wasser und Bier auf unsere zerbeulten Toyota Land Cruisers und fuhren in Richtung Faehre nach Fraser Island. Die weltweit groesste Sandinsel (120km mal 24km). Nachdem wir ... read more

*This is our SECOND destination in Australia. Our first was Cairns, and we are still writing up that blog!* We left Cairns and boarded a 26 hour bus to Hervey Bay (pronounced "Harvey Bay" as Daves skydive instructor, John informed us). It was a long journey, but by now we were seasoned travellers so we didn't mind it too much. We arrived in Hervey Bay at around 2:30pm the following day, where a courtesy bus was waiting to bring us to our hostel. We arrived at the hostel "The Woolshed" and checked into our cabin. It was a great little hostel, in a residential area with a nice courtyard. We dropped our bags and headed for the beach to catch the sunset. Although Cairns is by the sea, there were few sandy beaches near us, just ... read more

Hi Everyone, Well it has been a few days now since I last wrote. I went to Fraser on Sunday morning and had a brilliant time there. We set off quite early, got our food and alcohol supplies, drove to the ferry and then travelled for 20 minutes over to the island. We had a massive 8 litre 4x4, it was awesome to drive and we all took it in turns. It was so weird driving on sand, but all the same, such an amazing thing to do. In our group there was Ian, Chris and Dale (all from Carlow town) and three girls from Derby, Harriet, Helen and Gemma. They were all couples travelling together. Myself and Mike initially felt quite old, as most of the people on the trip were 18-23, but as we ... read more

Still bemused from the sight of Santa and his drinking games the night before we woke up with the birds dawn chorus for our breakfast, although we were both still stuffed from dinner and turned down eggs and bacon for the healthier alternative of muesli and yoghurt; don't panic though, Will wasn't ill and it took a lot of deliberating to come to that decision! A short drive south along the beach was an area called The Pinnacles. Very similar to our experience on the West Coast this area involved sand, although these were sand dunes with somewhere in the region of 72 variations in colour. The second stop of the morning agenda was Eli Creek, although as we approached our attention was fixed on a four wheel drive partly submerged in the sand and the ... read more