Hervey Bay and Fraser Island

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Arriving in the early morning in Hervey Bay, we went for a walk through this town known as the jewel of Queensland crown, which we didn't really understand. We thought it was a cosy town with a beautiful beach, but a town without a centre or nice bars along the beach, which is a shame. It is also a spot known for its best whale watching views. Unfortunately, we were there a few weeks too early, but we did get the chance to see a little possum in the tree! We were super excited seeing this cute little animal and coulnd't stop staring at it.

Our stop in Hervey Bay was mainly to explore Fraser Island, which is the largest sand island in the world and the only one where a rainforest actually grows on sand. This world heritage classified island contains very diverse and gorgeous landscapes! Therefore, we left the next day early in the morning on a ferry to this magic island, which took us approxamately one hour of navigation. On our way, we had the luck to see some dolphins! On the island, we started with a guided walking tour through the beautiful rainforest, which had some very old trees. The reason this rainforest grows on the island is due to the naturally occuring mycorrhizal fungi present in the sand.

We continued in our four by four bus on the magnificient 120 kilometers white beach highway. Seeing four by four cars speeding on this beach was absolutely out of the ordinary. We enjoyed this long beautiful drive along the turquoise blue ocean a lot! We have been told that swimming here is really dangerous as you can find the most dangerous species such as great white sharks, bull sharks, tiger sharks, box jellyfish, etc. We made a stop at the famous Maheno shipwreck, which is an New-Zealand hospital ship that served during the World War I. As we were there on the Memorial Day, we had the chance to see the ship fully decorated with beautiful flower crowns. Nearby this shipwreck, we also saw cliffs of stunning coloured sands.

After our delicious lunch, we drove to Lake McKenzie our last stop of the day, but before arriving there we had the luck of spotting a Dingo! This is a wild sand coloured dog generally believed to be descended from semi-domesticated dogs from East or South Asia, which returned to a wild lifestyle when introduced to Australia. Dingoes were once common on the island, but decreased a lot over time. The Fraser Island dingoes are reputedly some of the last remaining pure dingoes in Eastern Australia. In 2015, only 200 dingoes remained on this island, so spotting one wasn't a easy thing. We were once more very lucky! Finally, we arrived at the most beautiful freshwater lake we ever saw in our lifes, the gorgeous Lake McKenzie. Fraser Island has over 100 freshwater lakes, which are some of the cleanest in the world.

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