Fraser Island

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We were up at the crack of dawn not out of eagerness but as we had been promised free pancakes by Luke the organiser of the Fraser Island trip. On a round the world trip of this length it's hard to say anything for definite but we would have to say that the pancakes have been the single biggest disappointment of the trip. Anyway they got us out of bed. After checking out the 5 teams of eleven assembled in the car park, we were introduced to our Toyota Landcruiser. Apparently she had been rolled three times previously in Fraser (Good track record so).

The first task was to check all our camping equipment, then load it on the roof and then check our food and alcohol was correct. The whole process took a number of hours but with Ronan on the clipboard we got through it fairly quickly. After that we had to examine the vehicle and it's shocks for dents and cracks and mark them on a diagram. As I said the jeep had been rolled three times so a giant X through the whole diagram would have sufficed. After the drivers were brought up to speed on driving on sand we piled into the Landcruiser. It was a case of three in the front and 8 in the back with Jimmy driving.

The fleet pulled out of the carpark. All of them that is except us. We ground to a halt at the carpark entrance. Apparently being driven over sandunes by backpackers for months on end can make the gearbox a little fussy. Luke soon had us back underway and after a short drive we were at the barge/ferry terminal. After a ten minute journey we landed safely on Fraser. We were the first off the barge and inevitable within 30 seconds the first to get stuck in the heavy sand. But with 8 young folk in the back of the car it didn't take long to get us back underway.

Just to clarify for the uninititaed - Fraser Island, is the largest sand island in the world at 1630 km² (Thanks wiki) and has only on sealed road ( It just about qualifies as a road). The idea of the trip is to drive around the beaches visiting some of the natural beauty spots on the island for three days and camp at night. It's also famous for it's large dingo population but more on that later.

After freeing ourselves from the sand we crossed the island and were soon on an inland dirt track that didn't make for the easiest of driving or the most comfortable of seats if you happened to be in the back of the jeep. Our first stop was Lake McKenzie. It is a "perched" lake sitting on top of compact sand and vegetable matter 100 metres above sea level which is why it doesn't simply dissappear through all the sand. It was stunning to look at and even nicer to swim in. Even the light drop of rain didn't affect the experience. After our dip we had sandwiches for lunch and were soon on the road (Beach) again.

Our next stop and the last of the day was the impressive Maheno Shipwreck. While being towed in 1935 from Melbourne to Japan for scrap metal it was caught in a strong cyclone and was beached on Fraser Island. It even served as bombing practice for the RAAF during World War 2. Needless to say it's not in the best shape these days but is still an impressive sight along the beachline.

The plan had been to camp with some of the other groups but they all seemed to be running behind us, so we stopped not far from the ship wreck to make camp. While some of us put tents up the rest got dinner on the go and a canopy up as rain seemed to be threatening. Rain would have been a blessing if only to combat the sandflys who were eating us alive. Despite a small fire (due to a faulty stove top) dinner was soon ready and steak was on the menu.

After dinner we cranked up the stereo and the party started. After a variety of drinking games the first recorded “Fleadh Ceol” (Compliments of our Ipods) ever on Fraser Island took place followed by some classic Dubliners tunes to sing along to. As the evening wound down (A little earlier for Roman than the rest of us) we noticed some unwanted visitors at the camp. A dingo eyeing up the leftovers from the dinner. The lads took great pleasure chasing the bewildered animal off. After that we all hit the hay.

The next morning the heat had us out of our tents very early. We discovered that the dingoes had returned in the middle of the night and made off with our meat for our meals for the day. The Manchester lads were in the depths of despai r over the prospect of a vegetarian stirfry for dinner and certainly no longer fans of dingoes. We had scrambled eggs for brekkie and packed up and got back on the beach.

Our next stop was Indian Head. After parking the jeep we had a dip in the sea (Not really supposed to what with the large shark population and the currents) which was beautiful although we stayed well into the shore. We climbed up Indian Head to get spectacular views along the beach and into the sea below where sharks are often spotted. The ones we saw were fairly small but the views were amazing.

The weather was beautiful and we decided to walk over to the Champagne Pools. These pools are the only place that you really should swim in the ocean on Fraser. They are a spectacular collection of natural rock pools that turn a frothy white when the waves crash in over the sides (Much like champagne).

The walk was long in the hot sun and we were only too happy to jump in the pools for a cool dip when we got there. The pools were really busy and absolutely beautiful. Bizarrely on the walk back to the car it began to rain. No sooner had it stopped raining than the sun was back beating down. We stopped at a shop (there are only a couple on the island) and picked up some supplies and had our lunch.

After lunch it was off to Eli Creek the largest creek on the island. We walked to the most accessible part of the creek along the boardwalk. Apparently when water levels are high it has a flow of 80 million litres a day and its possible to float back to the the bottom of the boardwalk. We jumped in but had to be happy with walking back down along the river spotting some eels as we went as the waterlevel was low.

We set up camp near Eli creek and then prepared our veggie stirfry which turned out to be delicious. Obviously neither of us had anything to do with the cooking. We sat around under the canvas and had another little session with singsongs and card games. One of our neighbours, Magnus the crazy Norwegian came to visit with his girlfriend and soon joined the party. After a great night, (Probably too great for Jimmy) we hit the hay (This time making sure the food was safely locked away).

The heat the following morning was unbearable in the tents as were the sandflies, so we were soon up and about. Once we had eaten and taken the camp down we headed off. We were due back on the mainland on the 12.30pm ferry and as we had a bit of time drove to Lake Wabby. After a 45 minute walk along a boardwalk we reached the spectacular lake.

Lake Wabby is surrounded on one side by the massive Hammerstone sand blow and on the other side by a eucalypts forest. After a quick dip and the lads had raced down the sandblow a few times we headed back and started for the ferry. Unfortunately as we had learned over the previous days tide times come into play when driving on the giant beach that is Fraser Island and we weren't able to drive direct to the Ferry with the time we had.

We decide to try an inland track and go around the tides. This was a bad idea as we painfully learned bouncing along in the jeep. On the atrocious dirt track we ended up driving for a hour in the wrong direction before returning to Dilly Village ( A tiny university outpost on the island) for directions. We were soon back on the beach after our failed cross island excursion. Still our luck wasn't as bad as one jeep who had got a puncture. After lending them our jack we drove to the the ferry. A hundred yards from the ferry we became stuck and after one last push we were all on the ferry and on our way back to the mainland after a incredible three day adventure on Fraser Island.

Next Stop Surfers Paradise...

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Comments

[Ronan]

Now i know why i haven't been readin this!
Big man, Sounds and looks like your livin' the dream out there and everywhere else you have been. Just sorted my own trip to Aus in August - flying into Melbourne on the 4th but you'll be back over here me thinks by then. Maybe not?! Still with IPHA - they've taken my soul! - but it's going ok. haven't seen anyone from our course in a long while but that was always me in anyway. I'm sure they're all grand. Anyway i'll leave you to it and get back to reading about more about your trip. It sounds epic! Well done.