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Published: April 6th 2008
Fraser Island
Dingo Tracks on 75 Mile BeachHave you managed to tear your eyes away from those fabulous photos of Whitehaven beach yet?! Pretty nice eh? But it gets even better!
We got a bit lost coming out of Airlie beach, forcing us to drive through it twice more, argh! We were so glad to get out of that place. Next stop was a money saving night in Cape Hilsborough National Park, just south of Airlie beach. We registered ourselves at Smalley's beach camp for 4 dollars each, which Lonely Planet assured us would be "jumping with kangaroos". It wasn't. But, it was a pretty nice spot nonetheless and we spent an afternoon chilling out on the deserted beach and cooked our dinner over the gas burner as it got dark. The next day we were up bright and early to drive to Rockhampton. We had planned to spend a couple of days on Great Keppel Island, but we felt we had had enough of gorgeous tropical beaches so instead we decided to head to the beef capital of Australia, Rockie. At this stage, we were starting to get itchy feet and were generally a bit sick of Australia. We felt understimulated and a bit bored and
Fraser Island
Central Station all we could think about was the huge challenge that faces us in Nepal in a few weeks. We also realised that we just didn't have sufficient funds to enjoy Australia to the fullest. We couldn't really afford to go out drinking or out for dinner so we spent most nights tucked up in bed in the Wicked van at 8pm listening to BBC World Service(where we heard the Mahon Tribunal had finally caught our Bertie, funny news to hear in Australia!). Are we turning into our parents?!
Rockie is not much of a tourist attraction, but we loved it. It was refreshing to be out of the countryside and also to get our first proper shower and flushing toilet in 4 days. We stayed at a cute campsite just outside the town. Mark had been planning this visit to Rockie for some time now and was hoping to eat beef until he hallucinated. Rockie is also famous for bucking broncos and cowboy hats, and we certainly saw many of the latter. At 7.30pm we headed out in search of a juicy steak, only to find that most restaurants had already closed for the night. This appears to be
Fraser Island
Central Station a common theme in Australia, and is another reason why we're dying to get out! Apart from Sydney and Melbourne, it is impossible to get food anywhere after 8pm. We managed to find a nice place though and Mark got stuck into a generously sized steak with pepper sauce. Not quite up to Argentinian standards, but certainly a close runner up. The next day it was off to Hervey Bay, our departure point for Fraser Island of UNESCO World Heritage fame. There isn't much to Hervey Bay really, no town centre, just a sprawling collection of retirement homes. We camped at a lovely hostel though, and whiled away manys an hour playing scrabble and checkers.
One of the most popular and cost efficient ways to tour Fraser Island is to do a self drive tour with 8 other backpackers. Basically, you're put in a group of 9 people (whether you like them or not), 2 drivers are nominated and trained on the beach (Fraser Island is made of sand, and is only navigable by 4WD), the group is provided with 3 tents, a gas burner, cooking utensils, and some sausages, and you are left to fend for yourselves for
Fraser Island
Some large barkless trees 3 days. No thanks. Mark figured this sounded like a nightmare and he had also done a ridiculous amount of driving over the last few days so we booked onto a guided tour for a little bit more dosh. It was really worth it. We had a fantastic guide and met some really cool people. Not one backpacker to be seen, well, apart from us! Our guide, Terry was a real character. None of us ever laughed at his jokes, but there was always a chorus of laughter when he had a little chuckle to himself at his own jokes. We all found this hilarious, and he thought we were laughing at his jokes, so it all worked out for everyone. We started the day with a walk through the rainforest at Central Station and Pile Valley. We were then brought to a resort on the island for an all you can eat buffet lunch. Mark gorged himself and was on a high for the rest of the day at the thought of his 6 helpings of dinner to follow later. It was all paid for, so I guess it would be rude not to eat as much as we
could. In the afternoon Terry drove us up to Indian Head near the top of Fraser Island. We climbed up to the viewpoint and watched the sharks and dolphins swim in the sea below. That is one place you really really don't want to fall into the sea! We then visited the Champagne pools, which is the only safe place to swim in seawater on the island. The sharks can't get in there, and there are no dangerous currents. On our way back to the resort we stopped off at the Maheno Shipwreck on 75 Mile Beach. 75 Mile Beach runs along the east side of the island and is one of the main roadways. It's also a runway so you have to watch out for the small planes landing. It felt very thrilling to be speeding along the beach at the water's edge in a 4WD bus! We saw lots of dingos around too which was great. They are so cute, but very dangerous, especially if you have food! That evening we had a few drinks with our new friends from the tour.
Mark and I were sharing a room with a lovely Belgian couple. They were only
18 and very cute! The guy was doing 8 months of school in Brisbane and his girlfriend had come over to visit him for a couple of weeks. We also made friends with a recently qualified solicitor from Tyrone, who is working in Jersey. He appeared to be somewhat of a raging alcoholic and had a few pints with every meal. Great guy though. Our other friend was Kim, a Canadian secondary school teacher working in Victoria for a year and then heading off to work in Egypt. So we had an interesting bunch. The next morning the clouds cleared and the sun came out to play. We walked across a huge sandblow to Lake Wabby which is being eaten by the sand blow at a rate of 3metres a year! Terry saved the best part 'til last and after lunch we spent a couple of hours at the jaw droppingly beautiful Lake McKenzie. This is one of the most impressive places we've visited on this trip. The lake is just like a huge swimming pool- crystal clear glimmering water, lapping on the shore of a perfectly white sand beach. This place is almost other worldly and EVERYONE has to
Fraser Island
75 Mile Beach come here at some stage, it's too good to miss out on. It's worth coming to Australia just to see Lake McKenzie I reckon.
It was back on the road the next day in our beloved Wicked van. Poor little yeti had to be brought to the mechanic as it was taking 10 (or more) turns of the key to get her started each time. A little bit of TLC at the garage and she was back on the Brucie (Bruce Highway) in no time. Next stop was Noosa. Ah Noosa.... What a place. If only we could afford it! Noosa is an incredibly classy town on the East Coast between Hervey Bay and Brisbane. It's very different to anywhere else we've been in Australia. It just exudes affluence. Mark was in heaven taking photos of all the beautiful houses and boats. It's the kind of place where people have a speed boat parked outside their multi million dollar and glass balastrade-d home. Right up our street. We camped at a very expensive holiday park and wandered around all the trendy restaurants in the evening trying to find somewhere we could afford! I have to say, we were very
Fraser Island
75 Mile Beach tempted to splash out on a slap up meal at many of the sophisticated eateries with their glass walls and crisp white interiors, overlooking the beach. We went to a place called the "Lebanese Shack" instead, very far away from those out of range restaurants and had kebabs. We had planned to rent surf boards here, to put our newly acquired skills into practice, but the rental prices were through the roof, so we had to lie on the beach for a few hours instead. It's a hard life! We also popped into Peter Lik's photographic gallery. Lik is a very well known photographer, especially in Australia, and nearly every nice photo of anywhere in Australia has been taken by him. We lusted after a $2,000 framed picture of the sails of the Sydney Opera House. We told the lady who was running the gallery that we'd be back in 10 years to buy it. She told us that if we want it we must buy it now as it will be worth $15,000 in ten years. Time to leave Noosa I think. We made ourselves feel better by deciding that the residents of Noosa must have a really hard
Fraser Island
75 Mile Beach time living there... their skin must get burned from the sun shining down on them everyday, they probably go blind from the sun reflecting off the bright blue sea, they have to work too hard to pay for their houses, they have to starve because food is too expensive.... sounds like a nightmare!
We were back on the Brucie early the next morning and bypassed Brisbane, headed for the Gold Coast. We stopped off at Wet 'n Wild water park outside Surfer's Paradise and spent half the day scurrying around like kids, rocketing down water slides and lazily floating in rubber tubes. We motored on to Byron Bay where we were going to stay for 3 nights. Bryon is like a hippy version of Noosa, and is a little more affordable. Or maybe it's just that there is more choice. We stayed at a lovely caravan park by the beach and did a lot of lying about and relishing our last few days with the Yeti. After this we knew it would be back to carrying our heavy backpacks and using public transport. The day finally arrived when we had to say goodbye. We have some fond memories of
our three weeks travelling around in the Yeti. Shouting at the tops of our voices to talk to each other over the sound of the engine, being the slowest vehicle on the road (one day there was a queue of 14 trucks, lorries and cars behind us!)... happy days.
We decided that in order to get real value out of the Wicked van, we would aim to return it with a completely empty petrol tank. We had a half tank of fuel when we picked it up in Cairns, so this way, we would actually wind up getting fuel for FREE! We had a 180km journey to Brisbane and the tank was nearly empty so we headed to the petrol station and bought $5 worth of fuel (about 3.50 euros). We got about 75 % of the way and the warning light had been on for about 20 mins. So we pulled up into another service station and topped up the tank with $3 worth! (2 euros!). We were determined to get to Brisbane without any more fuel. In keeping with our parsimonious plan, we stopped at a "Driver Reviver" stand for our free cups of tea and biscuits.
Fraser Island
View from Indian Head As we approached Brisbane the light went on again and it all got very exciting. Mark was turning the engine off at traffic lights or when we were driving down hill. I was convinced that we were about to break down on the side of the road any minute, but I tried to have faith in the Yeti to get us there on an empty tank. We must have driven with the red light on for about 45 minutes so it was very very close, but we got there and handed back our Yeti with a totally empty tank. The next renters will be cursing us! We also managed to claim two free beers at the "left over" counter at the Wicked office. High Five!!!!!!!!!
We have almost reached the end of the Aussie leg of our trip. We've had a brilliant time and it was so nice to spend time with Simon and Row in Sydney and Sarah in Melbourne. We're very excited about getting stuck into Asia now, especially Nepal. It's a place that I've always wanted to visit and trekking to Everest Base camp has been a dream of mine for a long time now. It's
Fraser Island
On Indian Head going to be really tough but we're looking forward to taking it nice and slow and enjoying the company of the Sherpa people along the way. We're hoping all that hard work at high altitudes in South America will pay off. Next stop Hong Kong!
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Gregory
non-member comment
It really says a lot about the price of restaurants in Austrailia when the only one you can afford is called the Lebanese Shack!