Mother of all entries, part 2

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Alright where did we leave off?

I think we were all scrambling to the bus station so that we could catch our bus to Hervey Bay on time. Well, we caught the bus, so it was no big deal. We stopped a couple of hours into the drive in Brisbane to change buses, where I had McDonald's for only the second time in Australia. I still don't like it much. We had to weigh our bags at this terminal for some strange reason. Mine was 14.6kg, well under the 20kg limit. A couple of girls were charged $5 because their bags weighed too much. Sooo we kill some time wandering around the giant bus station until I see ours finally pull up. We all climb aboard and make our way to Hervey Bay.

When we arrive, there's already a pair of shuttles waiting to take us to Palace Backpackers, and since it was around 6 pm, we were able to check in right away. After we set our bags away we were given a lift to a drive-thru bottle shop to buy alcohol for the next few days. We were going camping on the world's largest sand island, Fraser Island, for two nights. I picked up a box of goon and a six-pack of XXXX, the local generic beer. We head back to the hostel and wait around for the guys there to cook us dinner. Free barbecue night. I had some delicious steak sandwiches, but the burgers and sausages weren't too great. After we ate we went back to the room for an amusing game of Asshole and an even more amusing game of Kings. You weren't allowed to say anyone's real names, and you had to say the last word of every sentence twice twice. A few beers later, everyone sort of lost their attention spans so we called it quits and some people headed to bed. I hung out with Sean, Tiffanie, and Pritesh in their room for a while before I decided to crash. At one point in the night I told someone that they were speaking like Yoda, and Tiffanie asked "Who's Yoda?" All of us dropped our jaws in amazement. I asked if she was joking and she said "No, I really don't know... where's Yoda from?" and I replied "Dagobah."

So, off to a great, uninterrupted sleep until 6:30 which is when we had to pack up all our crap into a bookbag instead of a suitcase, because there wouldn't be room for everyone's luggage. We zombie-shuffled into the video room where we watched a briefing on the island. Don't hurt the wildlife, dispose of garbage, pee away from the campsite, what to do if you see a dingo (The Reverse Totem Pole), and don't drive like an idiot in the sand or you will get stuck. After the awesome video, we split into groups. My group was myself, Ulrich, Zach, Hayley, Dana, Kristen, and Stephanie. Zach and Hayley were kind of talking, Ulrich and Dana, were kind of talking, and Kristen and Stephanie were longtime friends so I was sort of like a 7th wheel, but I got over it. They're all nice folks. I provided the comic relief. Anyway, after splitting into groups we dropped a $500 bond on the 4WD vehicle we would be loaning from Palace Adventures, then drove off to the "Camp Shed." Ulrich and Zach were our only drivers for the trip because you had to be 21 and know how to drive manual. Which I don't. I didn't want to learn on one of the most insanely narrow, treacherous roads I've ever seen in my life, either, so I gladly accepted my role as passenger.

We arrived at the camp shed and got a briefing on all of our equipment and how to load it efficiently. Extra fuel for the car, tents and tarps, cooking gear, toolbox, sleeping bags and pads, etc. After all that crap was done we had 45 minutes for some grocery shopping before dashing off to the ferry. We pulled into Woolworth's at sort of an angle, since it was a big 4WD truck. We decided that since we were pressed for time that we didn't really need to correct our parking. We ran in, gathered some burgers, sausages, snacks, toilet paper, etc. etc. and headed back to the vehicle, where we found a nice note from a stranger! I'll post the picture along the sides here.

So we drive, drive, drive to the ferry and get there with plenty of time to spare. We hop out and walk along the docks and spot a group of dolphins hopping out of the water. I tried to take pictures but was consistently unlucky with timing so I gave up. The ferry comes and we drive/walk onto it and hang out for a while, checking out the cool island we were about to explore. At this point we let a bunch of air out of our tires so that we could drive more safely on sand. We pulled into Kingfisher Bay and got lost trying to find the place to pick up our permits. When we finally found it, they told us our permits weren't ready yet, so we killed time in the parking lot talking to some Brits and Dutch that were also with Palace Adventures. We didn't see much of them on the trip though. Finally we get our permits and head off into the jungle, from the west coast of the island to the east.

And what a jungle it was. The roads really emphasize that this is the world's largest SAND island. Nonstop bumps for nearly 2 hours, never moving faster than 35km/h. The roads were 1 lane only as well, with little passages here and there in the event you ran into someone going the other direction. I didn't get any great pictures of the jungle driving, but I did take a video that will appear somewhere, sometime. At one point we nearly flipped trying to let another car get past us. We took a pit stop at central station for some reason. There was some sort of jungle trail but we all decided we were ready to be out of the jungle. When we popped out on the east coast we all breathed a sigh of relief, as there wasn't much daylight left to set up camp with. We drove along the beach past a few campsites until we found a suitably empty one for the four trucks we had in our group. Our group got the best spot, well protected from wind and somewhat shady, with grass growing instead of just piles of sand. The other groups didn't exactly get the sweetest of spots. As the sun went down we ate dinner and started drinking. We weren't allowed to swim in the ocean anyway, what with the mako sharks breeding and the 5 types of fatally-stinging jellyfish, not to mention the rip currents that could take you away never to be seen again. We saw some dingoes, but they stayed pretty far away from us. At one point I was within 10-15 feet of one, but he grew bored with me and walked off to check out some other people.

Nothing crazy happened except for Larry trying to drunkenly swim and two of his buddies tackling him into the ocean. We also built up a bonfire which was pretty fun. The tents we had looked like old WWII tents and were supported by a metal rod in the center. They looked like they would collapse at the slightest gust of wind. Our group had two tents, one for guys and one for girls. At some point while I was wandering from group to group hanging out, that plan changed and I realized both of our tents were "occupied." (Warning: the following story might be embellished, or not true at all.) I ended up passing out in the sand somewhere, and woke up a few hours later in a cave surrounded by dingoes. One of them was laying across my legs to keep me warm, how nice. I figured I was safe here, and didn't want to risk walking back to wherever camp was in the dark, so I fell back asleep. In the morning I woke up to a dingo pup licking my face. I followed the alpha dingo to the entrance of the cave, and he then pointed his head in a direction that I took to mean "That way to your camp." I bowed to the friendly dingoes, and then killed all three of them and ate them for breakfast. Who wants to wander around the jungle on an empty stomach? I could be out there for days. Anyway, ten minutes later I was back at my camp and ready to explore more of the island!

I heard from one group, we'll call them Team Australia, that their tents had flooded and fallen over during the harsh wind and rain throughout the night. I told them all my incredible dingo story and they were hugely impressed. All of our groups packed up our tents and stuff and made our way north along the beach to the incredible Indian Head rock formation which is basically the beginning of all my picture-taking. The views were really amazing. It was a steep, rocky, windy climb but we all eventually made it up there and hung out for a while taking pictures. We climbed down safely and headed to our next stop, the Champagne Pools, where we were told we could swim for a while. We were all expecting some sort of huge ocean bath that all 33 of us could swim around in. That was not the case. It was more suitable for about 10 people to swim in, preferably children-sized. The rest of it was just your typical sand and rocks. Though we were underwhelmed, the pools were still kind of pretty, so I took a few pictures.

On the way back we stopped to look at some sandstone mountains, a shipwreck, and Eli Creek. We were told that Eli Creek was a nice freshwater stream that you could hop in and float down to the beach over and over. Turns out it was just a shallow creek that you could wade around in... I'm not sure it could really carry anyone very well, but whatever. Also, I saw a snake as soon as we got there so I opted not to get in. Ulrich told the girls some war stories from his time in the German military. Just the mandatory basic training though, nothing major. We drove back to a place called Happy Valley to stop for lunch and toilets.

We looked for a different campsite to set up at this time, but they were all full so we ended up back at the one we had vacated. This time, we set the tents up closer together and in better spots to protect from wind. We also put tarps up over all the tents and dug moats. When we tried to cook burgers, a huge dark rolling cloud started to roar in from the coast, and we all decided that this wasn't a puny 10-minutes-and-done shower, but possibly an all-nighter. Ulrich and some others set up one of our tent tarps over the barbecue and attached it to our 4WD which was pretty clever, but somewhat unnecessary since the huge dark rolling cloud ended up being a puny 10-minutes-and-done shower. We ate our sandburgers in peace and started drinking. We built another fire and hung out in and out of the vans since the rain was such a nuisance. Another mostly-uneventful night as most people were either too tried, drunk, or fed up with the rain to stay up. I tried to fall asleep in the driver's seat of the 4WD and failed, then moved to an empty tent using a mattress pad and my own jacked for a pillow. I woke up several times during the night to avoid new puddles, since it indeed rained all night, and the bottom of the tent was not 100% sealed.

When we woke up we repeated our tent-packing-up ritual and headed back into the jungle in search of the beautiful perched Lake McKenzie, which really is one of the most beautiful, crystal-clear waters in the world. Except it was overcast, rainy, and chilly outside so it kind of sucked. Haha. We stayed there for a good hour or so before we decided we needed to head out to get lunch at Kingfisher Bay before catching the ferry back to Hervey Bay. We ate lunch at some 5-star resort and caught our ferry with time to spare. I talked to the Dutch girls I met at the beginning of the camping trip and ended up hanging out with them back at the hostel while we all waited to be shuttled to our next bus ride. I also stole some of their pizza and booze. When we got shuttled to the bus stop, I chugged a bunch of goon to help me sleep on the bus since my last overnight trip sucked really bad. Guess what? It worked well and I slept like a baby the whole way. That's it for Hervey Bay and Fraser Island. The first week of our trip is basically over now. More to come in the next few days. Love and miss you all!

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Photos

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Our 4WD

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Beach

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Me! Indian Head.

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Sean, me, Pritesh at Indian Head

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Indian Head from the Champagne Pools

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Champagne Pools

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Beach driving

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Dingoes!!!

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Eli Creek

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Tents and Steve

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Camp-cooking

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Beach

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Tarp cooking

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Lake McKenzie

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Lake McKenzie again

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5-star resort

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Ulrich driving onto the ferry

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The note left for Ulrich at Woolworths