I have finally found Paradise

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So after my chilled out period in Caloundra I am back on my travels again. And once again heading north towards hotter climates. This time I have a different passenger along with me … the Old Dear aka ‘mum’ has joined me. So I am now on my best behavior and curbing my drinking habits, and looking forward to some good wholesome home cooking. A day after picking the old dear up from Sunshine Coast airport we headed north to Hervey Bay which is the gateway to the world’s largest sand island known as Fraser Island.
We had to be there before 3pm to sign in for the briefing, and it suddenly became clear that each team of 11 people, who had never met each other before, was going to be given a large 4 x 4 vehicle, had to organise all their own food and drink. I was the nominated main driver, and mum the responsible person in charge of maps and tide times etc. We bonded with our group during the evening, and all had to get up a stupid o’clock in the morning to check over all the gear, and leave for the ferry to the island. We had been subjected to hours of lectures, warnings and videos of how to do everything correctly or ‘you will lose your bond’!! Mum was the only one with a credit card and so hers was put on the form which worried her somewhat as there seemed to be a million and one ways to lose the bond!
We arrived on the west coast of the island around 11 am, to cloudless blue skies (sorry England)and did the necessary settings on the vehicle for driving in extreme sand conditions. We set off and drove to the Central Station, where we had a quick walk around some of the rain forest and learned about all the logging trade that went on there in the mid 1900’s.
We then headed off for Lake Birabeen and it soon became very clear, very quickly what we had let ourselves in for!! From here the fun really began as we headed through the dense forest and the most amazing deeply rutted tracks with shifting sands that just gave the vehicle a life of its own. We now all understood the reason for all the warnings and videos as at no time did we actually manage to reach, never mind exceed the speed limit of 35 km per hour, due to the sheer amount of holes, large tree roots, and places where others had got stuck now being like quicksand, and despite all of this I was having the time of my life, while everyone else was clinging onto whatever they could and bouncing around in the back, trying to stop everything from falling from the roof space on top of them!
We arrived at Lake Birabeen to find the most beautiful clear aquamarine coloured fresh water and pristine white sand beach all around it. It was amazing to look at so we all decided to jump in for a swim. Mum was blown away by the sheer beauty of the place and was one of the first in the water. We enjoyed the place for an hour before our ‘responsible person’ had to call us away to leave for the next destination of another perched fresh water lake, Lake Boominjin, deeper into the island.
It took a fair while to get there and was completely different, due to the tannin in the lake and surrounding soil which gave everything, water and sand a reddish- brown colour. We stopped here for a light lunch and no sooner had we got the food out of the 4 x 4, we found we were entertaining some 4 legged dinner guests in the form of Dingoes! Fortunately there was a fence between them and us in the picnic compound. So after stuffing our faces with sandwiches we drove off in the direction of the east coast. We had driven all of 5 mins when the video info suddenly became very useful again as we found ourselves up to our axles and well and truly stuck in the sand. I couldn’t understand or believe that I had got stuck and with all of us crawling under the vehicle trying to clear away the sand with hands and shovel, going back and forth we were still there after half an hour, before Wolfgang had the sense to check our wheels. It dawned on us that the other team had unlocked the differential on our wheels while we ate lunch in an effort to slow us down, the gits! As soon as we sorted this small technicality out we were off and running again, all of us covered in sweat and sand! I had about another hour of fun, windy, bumpy, slippery and awesome driving till we finally found ourselves at the bottom of the main highway, which is a 75 mile long beach running up almost the full length of the island. This took most of the day to cross the island and time and tide were beginning to run tight. I finally gave up the driving to let someone else have a go, grudgingly, as no one else had wanted the responsibility or worry of driving until we hit the beach, as they were all too much in awe of the stuff we had just been through.
After all the driving experience I have had in Porsches, Ferrari’s, tanks, etc this rates right up there with some of the best and most exciting driving I have ever done and we rarely got over the speed of 35 k’s an hour!
This beach is the first highway I have ever been on that is shared by fishermen, aircraft and an old ship wreck. At last we could get some speed up and although the limit was 80 km, you don’t usually have to spot for fresh water ‘wash outs’ crossing your road to the sea causing us to have to seriously slow down to go through them for danger of tipping the vehicle.
We eventually found a camping zone to pitch our camp on the dunes right on the beach just as the sun was setting, and the self nominated cooks took over, and the drinking began. To say that this camping area was short on amenities was a slight understatement, as we had no running water, lights and had to dig our own toilet, but this all added to the unique experience of living on a remote island. The Irish girls, with the aid of the 4 x 4’s headlights produced a great dinner and we all partied late into the night, with me and a couple of the girls being invited down the beach to another group who were also partying at another camp site. I finally crawled into my sleeping bag at about 3 am which is quite late when you have no lights, music or electricity to keep you amused, and I was in no hurry anyway as I was sharing a very small tent with the two other guys in the group, and didn’t really fancy playing ‘spoons’ all night (I was in the middle!) The next morning came all too quickly and as usual I was last up but satisfied when we saw that the sabotage Pam and I had done on the other groups tent as revenge had caused their tents to collapse in the middle of the night, much to everyone’s’ amusement during breakfast.
We packed everything back into the truck and got underway up to the top of the highway (beach) to Indian Head. None of us could believe just how long this beach was, it would take about an hour and a half to drive its full length. The view from the top of the Indian Head cliffs was truly magnificent. As we stood there we saw turtles, loads of huge black Manta rays, a school of dolphins, and several Tiger sharks (this is the main breeding ground for Tiger sharks in the world). We were warned numerous times throughout that these waters although appealing looking was amongst the most dangerous water in the world with man eating sharks, lethal jelly fish and strong rip tides. Not a place for swimming then! However, a half hour stroll further up the beach beyond took us to a fantastic place called Champagne Pools, where the water breaks and fizzes over the wall of rocks and created a great natural pool, where it was safe to swim. On the walk back to the vehicle we also saw whales in the sea. Mum could not believe the contrast between the floods at home and the vast and diverse beauty of nature here in Oz. We only had to wait for 30 mins to get on the road again, as it had been covered by the high tide for the past 4 hours!
Our next destination was back down past the wreck of the old passenger liner called ‘Maheno’, to a place called Eli Creek, which was the largest fresh water creek on the island, big and long enough to body surf (float) down, which Tess and I did a couple of times. Our second night was much further down the highway again, with the same level of amenities as before. Our team (self proclaimed A Team) had now become an extremely efficient machine, with everyone performing their own roles according to skills. Raphael, Wolfgang and mum erected the tents, the girls began cooking and Pam, Bronwyn and I drove off into the sunset to find somewhere to wash the dishes ready for tonight’s meal. An hour later, having gone inland, got totally bogged to our axles again, we arrived back in pitch blackness with the same dirty dishes we had left with, covered head to toe in sand again, and bearing in mind we were not supposed to be driving on the beach after dark! Washing dishes has never been so hard, the poor girls set off to the shark and jellyfish infested waters edge to wash the dishes by moonlight, where every wave had its own agenda to relieve us of as many plates, mugs and cutlery as possible, as things got caught in the tide and kept washing away as fast as they were cleaned.
We had a great meal with poor Wolfgang having to eat out of the frying pan as his plate had indeed escaped into the wild blue yonder. We all stayed up drinking under the stars sitting on the sand admiring the Milky Way high above us. This time though we were all in bed (or in my case the 4 x 4) by 11 pm!!
Once we were all packed away and had recovered from the cold night, we went to our first destination of the day which was Lake Wabby. This was a 2.5 km walk through the rainforest to get there, but once we arrived we were met with a magnificently green lake surrounded on three sides by rain forest and on the other side by a vast sand dune which fell right down to the lake’s edge. We were all surprised by how beautiful and yet so completely different again from the other lakes that we had seen so far on this island. We all spent a bit of time wearing ourselves out running up and down this steep dune (even Mum), and trying to coax the catfish to come and nibble our feet at the water’s edge. Apparently this was meant to be a strange and good sensation, but they had more sense than to come near my feet!
Leaving here, our next stop was the famous Lake Mackenzie, and it was now Wolfgang’s time to drive except he thought he was in the Paris/Dakar rally and forgot there were 8 worried people bouncing around in the back trying to hold body, soul and contents together.
Lake Mackenzie was truly what post cards are made of! I’d seen so many pictures of this place and expected so much, but it exceeded all expectations and left both me and mum completely breathless. I had never seen anything so beautiful as this area. The sands were whiter than white and the water went from crystal clear to deep blue in three magnificent bands of colour. Mum and I went for a walk around the lake just taking in the incredible scenery, and being amazed that although this is one of the top tourist destinations and most photographed spots on the east coast of Australia, there were hardly any people around and it seemed so natural and unspoilt.
After a few grumbles and groans about having to leave such an incredible place, it was back to Wolfgang’s rally driving for the last stage back to the ferry, where we celebrated the last few days with the remaining beers and a sandwich while waiting for the ferry to collect us.
On returning to Koala’s and getting all the equipment and vehicle checked back in, we did get our bond back..phew! Mum did have to bribe the guy with two beers to ignore the loss of Wolfgang’s plate!
With the amount of food we had left over we decided on a last supper in the form of a huge banquet back at the hostel. While we ate we all commented on the luxuries of life such as hot water, toilets, tables, chairs and eating meals without the taste of salt water and sand in every mouthful! All this aside we all agreed we could easily have spent a week on the island, as it was just the best experience we had ever had. It’s just a shame I will have to suffer it all again in 2 months time with Martyn, Lewis and Ria as I show them around it all. This life as a traveler is sooo hard …not!
I have been so impressed with this Fraser Island, its now the best place I’ve ever been to, and I thought I’d seen enough sand traveling up this coast, but this island has more sand on it than I have ever seen in my whole life, and that’s saying something considering the amount of beaches I’ve been on in the last 9 months!!

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Photos

Lake Birrabeen
Our first perched lake

Our first nights dinner
Raphael doing his cordon bleu stuff

75 mile beach
Also the main highway on the island

Tess and Janette at Indian head
Our gorgeous Swedish girls

Indian Head
So clear and inviting but oh so deadly!!!

Champagne Pools
The only salt water we were allowed to swim in

The 'Maheno' ship wreck
The bloody things you have to look out for on the road now a days!

The irish mob
Pam, Mirriam and Bron

Comments

[Juan]

It´s simply amazing. I would like to be there with you mate. Enjoy for all of us ;-)

[Eva]

Some Handsome Fellow...
...is taking the photo, should that be?? The lakes look lush, much nicer than our manky english ones, full of bum nuggets and scum.