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Indian Head Cliff Top
We didnt manage to see any sharks!!Hervey Bay
Arriving at Hervey Bay, we were greated by the Koala mini bus waiting to transfer us to the hostel and a short drive later we had checked into the hostel and dumped our bags in the room. Our room was not particularly nice, however we did have it to ourselves which was a bonus. After a much needed long, hot shower we were tucked up in bed desperate for a good nights sleep. Unfortunately the group excited about their trip to fraser island the following day congregated outside our room with a few drinks, cheering, laughing and singing. A few hours later they were told to be quiet from the hostel workers, however it seemed to take a further few hours for them to comprehend what had been asked of them. Glancing around the group of people, Gary and myself were relieved that we were not stuck in a group with them and prayed for a nice group the following day.
Awoken early by the noise of the grumpy group leaving in the morning, and realising that I would not be able to get back to sleep despite still being tired, I headed to the hostel laundry
Group Photo 1
Waiting to get back onto the boat at the end of our trip. in an attempt to wash some of our clothes for the trip ahead. We had two loads of washing and luckily there were two washing machines free, perhaps due to the time of day, I decided to load the two machines at once in order to save some time. When I returned to the laundry later I discovered that the spin cycle on one of the washing machines was not working and the clothes were soaking and none of the tumble dryers were working. Luckily the hostel had a washing line facility where I managed to hang the majority of the clothes and the rest I decorated our hostel room with.
We headed out along the main street of Hervey Bay in search of some food and the internet, as the internet in our hostel was also down. Shortly after we finished breakfast it started raining so we had to run back to the hostel to try and save our clothes. As we waited for the rain to stop we managed to fill in our tax forms and get them posted off, in the hope that we can get our tax back before the end of the trip. We
also managed to get a few hours in on the internet at a cafe on the main road as we needed to catch up on a number of blog entries, due to our action packed adventures in the bush.
Around 3pm we had to attend a meeting with the rest of the people leaving for Fraser Island the following day. We sat patiently in the bar, scanning all the faces that came through the door, praying that we were not going to be in some of the 'lads' groups. Thankfully we were placed in a group with an Irish couple, a French couple and 3 Swedish people, all of whom seemed to be nice and quite mature. We were given our instructions and after the meeting we went as a group to buy our food for the next 3 days. We did our group shopping which went pretty well so it looked like our group would be OK. As a bonus, our hostel bus shuttle drive took us to Aldi, so it was cheap food all round.
As night approached our washing was still nowhere near dry, and conscious that we needed these clothes for the trip the
Lake McKenzie 1
Before all the tourist arrived!! following day, we went in search of a launderette. We were informed that the hostel next door had dryers that we could use, however we were not the only people looking to do laundry on Tuesday night and we had to wait around an hour and a half for a dryer to come free.
Relieved that our washing was dry and our bags were packed we headed to bed slightly later than we had hoped excited about the early start the following day and the adventures that we had to face on Fraser Island.
Fraser Island Adventures
Fraser Island is the largest sand island in the world at 1630 km², and is located along the southern coast of Queensland. Our trip consisted of driving around in a 4x4 taking in all the sights of the island and camping two nights at different locations on the island. We were given a brief itinerary from Koala which we could follow so that we did not miss out on any of the spectacular sights that the island had to offer. Most of the sand roads on the west side of the island were off limits and many of the
campsites were also closed due to regeneration projects that were currently underway. Due to the freak weather that the country has received this year Fraser Island was actually closed for around 3 weeks earlier in the year, and some of the roads were still questionable.
The movement of the 4x4 on the sand track roads took some getting used to, however before long we were off the ferry and had reached "Central Station" which offered a number of bush walks and a chance to speak to the ranger. Unfortunately the ranger was nowhere to be seen and it was beginning to rain so we headed back to the van and decided to head to the next point on out itinerary lake......
Being the first of the groups to arrive at the lake it was great to sit and take in the unspoilt view. The rain never really came to anything and the sun was out and quite strong by this point. so we all spent some time at the lake, splashing around and paddling in the clear water. As we took a walk along the waters edge we were able to spot some tadpoles however there was very
little other aqua life in the lake. As the other groups arrived at the lake we headed over to the picnic area and enjoyed some sandwiches for lunch before heading onto the final destination for the day, our campsite for the night, beside lake....
We enjoyed the night by torch light drinking and getting to know some of the people in the other groups. One of the groups constructed a camp fire on the side of the lake where everyone later congregated. Well aware that we had a 5am start the following morning in order to coincide with the tides, we headed off to bed relatively early.
We were the first camp group awake, packed and on the road in search of our next stop Indian Head. As we left the campsite only one of the other groups had surfaced so we were not expecting to see many of the other Koala groups at Indian Head. The early morning start was well worth it as we managed to get onto the beach and hit the major sights before anyone else, making the view much more spectacular due to the lack of tourists there. It was around a 2
hour drive along the beach to Indian Head. We stopped on a number of occasions on the way to take in the view and also to allow the Irish girl in our group to be sick, this had less to do with the bumpy roads and more to do with the volume of goon consumed the previous night. It was a shame really as she ended up sleeping in the shade when we got to Indian Head. Goon is evil!! We took a walk to the top of the cliff edge in order to see if we could spot any sharks in the water and also to take in the view over two of the beaches. Unfortunately the sharks were not out playing when we were at the cliff top, however a Swedish guy from the other group said that he spotted two sharks later on.
Back in the van we drove off again and stopped off at the famous ship wreck and then a picnic area further down the stretch of beach for lunch. We jumped off at Eli Creek and had a paddle up a small river which was some much needed refreshment. We arrived at our
second camping ground in good time, however the weather was not particularly great so some of us rested in the back of the van chatting for some time. When one of the other groups arrived we decided to take a walk to Lake Wabby which according to Koala was only a 25min walk from the camp ground. Happy that we had around an hour and a half of sunlight left we headed off without a tourch. The hike turned out to be more like 1 hour there and back and by the time we reached the lake the sun was beginning to go down. The lake was beautiful and well worth the hike over the sane dunes, however conscious that we had to get back throught the rough track and over the sand dunes before complete darkness we headed off. Thankfully we made it back alive although Gary did walk straight into a hugh spiders web, luckily the spider did not hitch a ride back to the camp with him. As we arrived back at camp the other Koala groups had caught up with us and had set up camp, slightly closer to us than we would have liked however
Our first camp
The goon was flowing!! we thought that the groups might be a bit more subdued on the second night after their fun and games the previous night. Unfortunately one of the groups were up for a party and members staying nearby from a competitive company joined them later in the evening, one of which was this really loud Scottish girl, although Gary and myself were in bed by this point and never met the girl, we knew her life story and got the pleasure of listening to her "beautiful" singing voice.
Our last morning and again we were up and away before the other groups. We were all eager to get to Lake McKenzie as we had heard so much about it. We were not disappointed and it was great to get there before the crowds as a few hours later the beach was full of tourists. We had a good few hours to relax by the side of the lake before we had lunch and headed back to the barge for the afternoon ferry. The water in Lake McKenzie was very cold so I just had a paddle but Gary was right in there!!
Arriving back at Koala's we collected our
full deposit and managed to have a shower and freshen up before heading to the bar for an all-you-can-eat mexican. We joined the Irish and French couple for a few drinks in the hostel club/bar before catching the overnight bus to Rockhampton which left around midnight. We also managed to win the pub quiz and bagged ourself a $50 voucher for any of the Koala resorts which should come in handy in either Airlie Beach or Cairns.
A great few days, although we were thoroughly exhausted by the time we boarded the Greyhound.
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