The most action packed 6 days of Australia (Fraser Island and the Everglades)

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Fraser Island was one of our more extravagant spends of the Australia leg of our journey, similar to that of the Whitsunday islands. We had a couple of spare days before in Noosa, a beautiful little place where the rich and famous like to kick back and relax. Although we didn't see any celebs, we did see a lot of money flying around with Hugo Boss among the shops on the Main Street. There were yachts galore in the lakes around the town, many of them putting our Whitsunday Adventurer to shame! We had New Years here which I cannot remember an ounce of, but we ended up down at the beach with a load of friends watching the fireworks and then headed back to the hostel where the party was.

New Year's Day was almost a write off. We rented out the free surfboard from the hostel and attempted to self teach ourselves how to do it. I had managed to stand up but by the time I got up the wave had become none existent, the board did make for an excellent bed to lay on a the beach though so it was a win win situation. By the time the hangover was wearing off we were called for our Fraser Island briefing for the up and coming next few days. The concept of Fraser Island is to take some huge 4x4s onto the World's largest sand island, drive them in extremely deep sand, get stuck and also visit loads of natural wonders! The briefing told us all of this plus additional advice on what to do in case of a dingo attack and how to avoid waves hitting the car.

The morning after though at 7 30 we were in the cars ready to drive back up to rainbow beach, where we had already been and board the ferry and then get onto the island. It took us 2 hours to get up to rainbow beach and onto the island, getting to the ferry was one of the ore challenging parts as the sand was ridiculously deep and threw the car round like a rag doll! We made it to the hostel by lunch time, unpacked and ate and then set off around the island. In the 2 day trip we had over 500km to cover so we all (6 of us in the jeep) got our fair share of driving. We visited a natural lazy river where you just jump in the water and then relax and float down stream for 5 minutes or so in water clean enough that you can actually drink it, so long as its from the top and not the bottom, child infested waters. From there we went to a lookout point called Indian Head, to try and unsuccessfully spot bull sharks, stingrays and turtles. Even still, shark or no shark, the views were amazing of a 100km long beach. On the way back we stopped at the islands only shipwreck, a 20th century warship come old school cruise liner that is washed up and marooned for all to see down the beach. The Australian airforce used to use it as target practice when dropping bombs. It had only been hit by one in the whole time they practiced, I think the airforce won't be getting called upon soon! We spotted a handful of dingos on the way home, which are nothing more than a wild dog we saw all over Asia. But apparently these are some of the purest dingos in Australia.

The first day went quickly, topped off at night by steak and a fair few beers. The only person who had actually had way more than the should have was our guide, he couldn't speak! The next morning though, somehow, he was as fresh as a daisy. We were all fine and ready to go again. We had early starts both mornings to make sure that we made the most of or time on the island.

The second day on the island was the challenging driving, lots of deep sand, bumps, trees and hills. We had 2 close calls, one where we were inches off hitting a tree. And if you were sitting it the back, you spent more time off the seat than in it, the bumps would catapult you into the air. We only made a couple of stops that day, one in the middle of the rainforest and another at lake Mackenzie, a perch lake situated 100m above sea level and filled with fresh water, the only source being rain. I've no idea how all the water stays there because its above 30degrees most days and there are very few where it rains. The lake around the edges was turquoise blue, going darker in the middle because of the increased density of trees around the edge.

The best part of the trip was the driving though, taking a huge jeep through sand at speeds of 50km/h was awesome. We got stuck only once and through no fault of or own, the car in from stopped making us stop in the deep sand too and therefore get stuck as well. It added to the trip though. We were back in Noosa by 6pm and needed to get a move on because we needed to do a shop for a camping trip commencing the next morning. Shopping over and it as free food and drink time with the Fraser islanders to finish off the day.

We hadn't been out into the bush for a while, up in Cairns was the last time. Noosa has an awesome national park within 20 minutes and its possible to rent out a canoe and all the camping equipment you need and paddle off upstream with a load of new people into the middle of nowhere. And that's exactly what we did. The group couldn't have been better, with people from all over Europe, all very like minded, decent people. We got a ferry to the start point of the river and from there we had a 2 hour paddle to the campsite. In each of the canoes we had all the baggage, food, equipment and water we needed for the next 3 days, hence making them pretty heavy.

We had no rush to get up to the campsite, stopping a few times on the way to check out some of the trails in the woods. The river was surrounded by thick bush land, with over 50%!o(MISSING)f Australia's birdlife here it was much different to the beach towns that we had become accustomed to. We had been warned on the ferry ride about the sharks in the river, snakes in the bush and spiders in the trees! We definitely were in the sticks. Camp was set up almost effortlessly, and everyone needed food! So food down, camp up and everything sorted and we wanted something to do. There were loads of trails all over these parts but we quickly found out that they are all but one closed due to forest fires and flooding. This left us paddling up and down the river in search of an open trail but to no avail. In the end we got out the rugby ball and spent way too long playing the games I used to do with the kids at work. And even though there are shark warnings everywhere, we still couldn't resist a dip in the warm waters of the river.

By 7.30 it was pitch black, all of us had eaten and we ended up playing the longest game of rummy, lasting for hours until we eventually gave in (not a game for 10 people). We'd planned for an early start in the morning so that we could get off and do something.

10am the following morning we were all about ready to embark on our journey. We'd decided to run the risk of being caught by the ranger and venture out on one of the tracks we had heard good things about. It was a 6km paddle away followed by 6km walk to the top of a hill through the burned and regenerating bush land. The leaders at the front were on constant snake and spider lookout. Luckily we didn't see either, only a monitor lizard or two scurrying up the blackened trees. An exhausting hour and a half later we arrived at our destination: the Coolomba sand blow, a massive scorching hot stretch of sand in the middle of the forest overlooking the Noosa lakes on one side and the beach on the other. After a succession of unsuccessful group jumping photos we sat our sand covered selves down in the shade, devouring all the food we had before heading back on the monstrous 3 hour journey home. Although, with a bit of a Shania Twain sing-a-long, ,the never ending paddling was made a little more bearable. A 24km round trip later we were shattered and in need of a swim, beer and food. And even though it rained that night lightly, we still managed to play cards and battle it out.

The 2 nights sleep that we had were not comfortable at all, with only a roll mat each and most of the night on the floor anyway it was a sleep deprived few days. This made the 6am get up on the last day a challenge but we managed and after packing up camp in 10 minutes, by 9am we were back at base and ready for the return ferry to the mainland. It was 100%!w(MISSING)orth it, even though many of the trails were closed. We met some awesome people making for an awesome time. The next group coming in weren't as lucky....

We found ourselves back in Noosa in a trance, walking around like zombies when we probably should have just had a rest and given into our stubborn selves, but that didn't happen. We met up with all the guys that night and somehow managed to make it to midnight! Tomorrow we move on to Brisbane!

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