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Published: April 17th 2007
After a delightful 13 hour journey through the night we arrive at Hervey Bay coach station, where i see someone i used to work with in M&S - small world, but he's heading down to Sydney, so i might meet up with him there!
Get to our hostel and a few hours later we are reunited with Neil! We have a laze in the sunshine by the pool - you know how it is!! Then later we head into the town in search of the mexican all you can eat buffet - we'd seen a sign earlier in the day for it. We manage to find the 'buffet' can't believe they called it a buffet, it was a lousy attempt in a hostel and looked like a school dinner and there was no food, so we had fish and chips instead!!
The next day we booked our Fraser Island trip - Fraser Island is a little island about a half an hour ferry ride away from Hervey Bay. The place is made completely of sand and the only way to get around it is by 4x4 wheel drive. The self drive safari tours to Fraser are a must for all backpackers so thats what we did!!
The next morning we're up at 6:30am eesssshh nasty pasty, then its into the meeting room to go through all the last minute details and safety rules! Apparently if we see a dingo over there we're to stay still and not move, keep calm etc etc BUT if a dingo attacks us we're to fight back aggressively - how delightful to hear first thing in the morning, especially since in the news a few days ago a young girl was attacked by a dingo on Fraser Island - joy joy joy!!
After we get through all the trivialities we finally get put into our groups and get to mee t the people we will be sharing the next 3 days and 2 nights with!!
3 Swedes, 2 Fins and 2 gay guys later we're in our team!! We've all put into the food kitty and of course most importantly the alcohol kitty - look slike most os us will be on the goon - hurrah!!
That sorted its off to the hire car shop top ack the kit into the jeep and get yet more safety talks! Have a bit of a run in with the fat jeep hire man - i'd asked if they did ipod adapters for the jeeps and he said we could hire them, then the fat idiot goes and hires them to all the other groups and hasn't got one spare for our group!!! Seen as it was my suggestion i wasn't very happy to say the least and rage on and on until the fat man is scared for his life and produces an adaptor with a wonky wire - its only when we get into the car that we find out hes actually given us a duff one - probably just to shut me up, but you know its the principle of the matter!! hehe
That sorted and we're on our way to the ferry, however on the way we realise we've forgotten to buy a really essential piece of equipment! The food shoppers realise we don't have any tinfoil, so we make a quick stop off at the supermarket, get the tinfoil and some beers for the ferry and then we're on our way, again! We get to the ferry port just in time - because of our little detour for tinfoil, we nearly missed the ferry! We literally reversed onto the boat as the platform was being raised - that was a close shave and hence where the team name came from! Team tinfoil!! Pure genius - well done Ed!
So we get over to the island and its all systems go - the jeeps put into 4 wheel drive and we experience just how sandy this island is! Its very bumpy in the back but it all adds to the experience! Our first stop on the map is to Wabby lake - this place is amazing, its literally a vertical sanddune that ends in a lake. The trick is to either run or roll down the sand dune and into the lake, hours of fun. When you trek up the sand dune and get to the top all you can see is sand for miles, its pretty cool. After a dip in the lake and the massive trek through the rainforest back to the jeep. At the beach we stop and have a spot of lunch and see our first dingo, he's scared off though so we head along the shore to our next stop, the shipwreck.
A few km down the beach - the beach by the way is like the motorway on this island, busy with jeeps going up and down it. Anyhow further down the beach is a shipwreck and we have a mini competition to see who can take the best photo- Neil the resident arty photographer pips us all to the post, damn him!! After the shipwreck its off to Eli creek - apparently the best time to visit this little gem is just after its rained, its meant to be able to transport you the length of the creek - but alas when we were on Fraser we were blessed with sunshine - it was scoricho, scoricho, scoricho - its a hard life you know!!
After the creek, we have to get off the beach before the tide comes in and we head to our base camp - yes thats right we opted for the slightly more expensive base camp option on this camping trip - what did we pay for toilets and showers of course, its luxury all the way for us - well it was either that or a spade as the toilet!!
We get to base camp and eventually set up our tent, then we get another 'welcome brief' from Macca the guy who runs the camp. He is quite possibly the most mental bloke ever - think hes been on the island for far too long. After the meeting its down to business - cleaning up and getting the barbie started! After the experiences in Cape Trib i know have a thing for checking all outside toilets for any unwelcome guests - i'm pleased to report there were no unsightlies!
Its with regret i have to inform you as well that we did not have shrimps for the barbie, thats right no shrimps for us - but we had a box or 2 of goon to make up for it!! After dinner it was a trip to the beach to look at the stars and then bedtime - our first night in the bush!!
After sleeping like babies we were up at first light, to be out on the road to miss the tide coming in. After the first day it seems tinfoil has now got a bit of a reputation for being the last group to arrive at every point - today was no exception, ahem some of the team - i said some of the team - were feeling a little worse for wear, i shall mention no names we all know who we were!!!! Anyway our first stop off today was the turtle lake and on the way we bumped into team b - literally bumped into team b as we went down one track off the beach and there was there jeep stuck in the sand! Getting out we helped give them a push - well i think Neil did, the rest of us girls just cheered encouragement, after they made there way we followed. Arriving at turtle lake we found out that team a had got stuck in the sand as well. However, team tinfoil did not get stuck in the sand once, the whole time we were on fraser and thats down to a female driver - read it and weep boys!! So turtle lake, slightly disappointing - its a lake but if you clap your hands at the waters edge it brings a whole host of turtles to the service, think we managed to attract about 6!
Next we got to stop and have a sunbathing session at the beach and we were literally left stranded when our finnish friends decided to go for a 'walk'! All the other teams were long gone and our driver and friend had been gone for over half an hour and there was no sign of the car key - eek!! After some investigative work we found the key and found the missing persons and were back on track.
We missioned up the beach and passed the Pinnacle rock formation and landed at India Head - a huge cliff that we climbed to get some of the most amazing views over Fraser Island - well worth it. Then it was time for lunch, which turned out to be very eventful when a drunken aussie decided to invite himself along - although i don't think he realised we weren't at the nudist beach and we weren't interested in chipolata's! I'm sure the dingo we spotted might have been though! hehe
Then it was a mamouth walk down the beach to reach Champagne Pools, a collection of rock pools right at the shores edge - unfortunately we couldn't find any champagne!
Hehe then came the best part - our day of activities was over so we had to drive back to base camp, only this time the back seat drivers were set loose in the drivers seat!!! We all got to take it turns to drive along the beach back to base camp, bearing in mind i hadn't driven in 3 months its amazing how the knack just comes back to you - and surprisingly i didn't crash - winner!!
Back at base camp we went on macca's guided tour of the campsite to hunt out all the beasties. Theres this amazing spider over here that produces a web thats as strong as violin strings - you can literally pluck it, although Macca took it to the extreme and started shaking this spiders web and took great delight in seeing it crawl away - the rest of us weren't amused!! Then he proceeded to scare us with scare storied about people who'd been bitten on the campsite by brown spiders and missed death by a whisker - nice! We saw lots of holes where this special breed of rat live and we saw a cyanide plant - basically don't mess with me now! Along with the swedes we were the ones who braved a trek through the bush to see one of the deadliest spiders in Oz!
Then back to camp to clean up - spag bol was on the menu tonight along with another couple of boxes of goon and a few drinking games, then it was time to hit the hay.
Another early wake up call to me out before the tide comes in, but we had to be up even earlier today as we had to pack up camp!
Today we're driving on the tracks through the island - no beach driving today, as we have to make our way back to the ferry port.'
First stop off was Lake Birrabeen - a lake which contains tea tree oil, so we all had a bathe in that - not that we have many impurities! On the way back up to the jeep we saw the most amazing parade. There were 160 little spiky caterpillars all in a line crawling to a destination that was unknown! It was really cool to watch them.
Onto Lake Basin, where due to the lack of toilets some of us experienced our first proper bush toilet!! Luckily no one was bitten! Then it was a picnic lunch and onward bound to our next destination, as true to form tinfoil was behind schedule!
Central Station and the rainforest boardwalk were next - the rainforest was pretty amazing and we saw lots of massive redwood trees. We didn't spend to long here either as we wanted to give ourselves plenty of time for our last stop off - Lake McKenzie and boy was it worth it!! The whitest sands and a pure, clean, clear freshwater lake and time for a spot of sunbathing!!!
Then team tinfoil were the first to leave as we wanted to actually be the first to arrive at the ferry port - a rocky road later and we were first to arrive - hurrah!!! Although standing at the ferry port we ended up getting bitten to death by sandflies!!
Back to Hervey Bay and we handed over the beloved tinfoil jeep and got back to solid ground and a nice hot shower at our hostel. Then we had our last team tinfoil supper and bid our farewells, one day to reunite again!!!!
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The great wise one
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Tinfoil
Gosh, it all sounds very exciting, sand, sun, boxes of goon followed by spag/bol and driving a 4 wheeler with the international set. Good for you, go for it, when you get to civalisation ( Sydney/Mel ) I guess things will change--maybe not for the better !!!! big city life , for 2 girls from the back of beyound, in Sydney don't forget to try the bar with its own brewery on the harbour and maybe the Irish named market with about 400 stalls, from memory I think its called guess what "Paddy's Market" for you female shoppers its worth 1/2 day there. Don't buy from the first stall, shop around and if you see something make an offer, if they refuse go on to a similar store and bargin with them. Part of the fun. Good hunting .