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Published: February 4th 2009
After our insignificant couple days in Hervey Bay, we headed a couple hours south to Rainbow Beach and Dingos backpackers. We met back up with Chris and had to attend our introduction meeting for our 4x4 safari to Fraser Island. At the introduction meeting they split us into different groups since there were 53 people from the hostel they were sending out to the island with us. They split us into a group of 11, the group we will share our 4x4 car with. We could not have been luckier, because we by far had the best group. It was the trio, a bunch of Brits and a Swiss girl. Everyone seemed really cool, which is essential because you trust these people to not be out of control and crash the car so you don't have to pay a lot of money. Lots of people get injured on the island because they drive too fast and flip their vehicle. I did not want us to be us!
That afternoon, we took the free hostel bus up to the Carl Sandblow in Rainbow Beach. It was pretty amazing. It looked as if we were in the Sahara desert and the sand
was so still and calm. We would walk and our footsteps would be the only marks on the whole thing. If this was any indication of what Fraser Island was going to be like, it was going to be awesome!
The next morning we were up and going early, ready for our 4x4 adventure. It took about two hours to learn how to load our car, get driving instructions, learn our itinerary and get going. The head of the tour did a great job of scaring us from driving too crazy and crashing our car- and then we were off.
We loaded our car onto the ferry and 15 minutes later we were on Fraser Island. Fraser Island is about 120 km long. It was inscribed as a World Heritage site in 1992 and the island is considered to be the largest sand island in the world. There are lots of beaches that you can only drive on during low tide and we weren't allowed to drive on two hours on each side of the high tide for fear our car would be washed away in the ocean. When we arrived it was still high tide so we had
to take the inland road to our first destination. The inland road was nice and bumpy and an immediate introduction to our off road adventure.
Our first destination was Lake Mackenzie. The freshwater lakes on Fraser Island are some of the cleanest lakes in the world. It is a "perched" lake sitting on top of compact sand and vegetable matter 100 meters above sea level. The beach sand of Lake McKenzie is nearly pure silica and it is possible to wash hair, teeth, jewelry, and exfoliate ones skin. The road to the lake is one of the best 4x4 tracks on the island and it was definitely quite fun to drive on. I tended to panic a bit when we were driving at first because I didn't quite know if I could trust the drivers yet, but James (our first driver) did a great job and didn't go too crazy, but we did manage to catch a bit of air over one bump. James was our champion driver of the trip and could get us out of any sand we were stuck in and safely maneuver the huge van filled with all of us! We arrived alive and well
and made some sandwiches and went down to the lake. We couldn't eat by the lake because there are so many wild dingos that would fight us for some food so we decided the picnic tables away from the water would be better. The lake itself was gorgeous! Bright blue water and white sand and it was really nice to be in a freshwater lake instead of the really salty ocean.
After Lake Mackenzie it was time to start our drive to set up our camp that night. All five cars from the hostel decided earlier on a place we would try to meet at so we could all camp together that night. We were planning to camp near the shipwreck and ended up meeting up with all the other groups there. This is a major landmark of Fraser Island. The S.S. Maheno was originally built in 1905 in Scotland as a luxury passenger ship for trans-Tasman crossings. During the First World War the ship served as a hospital ship in the English Channel, before returning to a luxury liner. In 1935, the ship was declared outdated and on June 25, 1935 the ship was being towed from Melbourne
when it was caught in a strong cyclone. A few days later, on July 9, 1935 she drifted ashore and was beached on Fraser Island. It is pretty crazy to be driving along the beach and then hit the giant shipwreck all rusted and half buried in the sand. We spent some time there checking out the wreckage and then followed the other groups to set up camp. We pulled our 4x4 car up to a sand dune and set up shop. We pulled all the stuff off the roof of the car, set up all the tents and pulled the food they provided us down and started to make dinner. Our group did an awesome job of all working together and there were never any slackers that just sat around.
That night, we pulled out the ever famous goon box and played some games with the other groups. For those of you that don't know the joy of goon, it's an Aussie slang term for boxed wine. It is cheap and they make it in all sorts of flavors (my favorite is fruity lexia). We even nicknamed our group "Dunes and Goon" because of the great fun both
provided on the island. We spent that night looking at the amazing stars, making friends with the other groups and trying to ward off dingos when you walked away from camp to find a bush to pee on. It was a great night making new friends and having fun.
The sun woke us about in our sauna of a tent the next morning at 7:30am and needless to say we were all slow to get going in the morning. Since we had to wait till about 2pm for the tides to go down, we couldn't drive for a while. We eventually managed to pack up camp and take a nice walk to Eli Creek. Eli Creek is the largest creek on the east coast of the island with a flow of 80 million liters per day. There is a boardwalk for visitors to reach the top of the creek and swim or ride down the creek if they wish. The water was cold and refreshing. A great bath that's for sure!
At 2pm, we packed up our gear and drove up the beach further to Indian Head lookout point. From the lookout you could see both sides of
the beach and watch below for sharks since the point is a popular shark breeding ground. Unfortunately we did not see any sharks, but it was beautiful nonetheless.
After Indian Head, we headed on some soft sand (which caused plenty of fishtailing in our vehicle) to the Champagne pools. The pools are set in rocks and resemble huge tide pools. The ocean water crashes over the break and form pools that you can swim in. In good light they have a champagne color, but it was getting a bit late and cloudy by the time we arrived. We went for a short swim, but had to hurry to our next campsite because the tide was already coming up and we did not want to get stuck!
That night we met back up with 4 of the 5 cars (one was lost!) and camped out. This night was a bit more mellow and our group spent the night playing that name game where you have to say an actor and then the next person has to say an actor who's name starts with the first initial of the other actor's first name. I guess it's hard to explain via
blog, but we had about a three hour intense game. I know... quite random! The other groups kept coming over and asking us to come join them, but we were all having too much fun playing this silly game!
It was early to rise once again the next morning. It's hard to sleep when your tent becomes a 100 degree sauna first thing in the morning. We packed up our tents and camp again and this time took an inland road up to Lake Wabby. The road was bumpy and soft sand, but Haley drove and did amazing. She totally represented the girls by driving like a champion on the hard road!
Lake Wabby is the deepest lake on Fraser Island, but the sand dune located directly next to it is slowly filling it with sand and people are estimating it will not be there in another ten years. But... this sand dune provided great entertainment. We would lie down at the top of the dune and body roll the whole way down until you hit the water. It was pretty fun, but I think I was dizzy for about ten minutes after I did it. Chris did
it a couple times with a running start and gained up so much speed he would crash into the lake at the bottom so fast he messed his neck up!
After lounging out on Lake Wabby for a few hours, it was time to head back to our ferry. We had about an hour drive up the beach to catch our ferry. We had been booked on the 3pm ferry and left the lake around 2pm with the rest of the few cars. It was five minutes to three and we only had a bit more to go on the sand, when the tide started to rise. The beach became impassable and we had to head all the way back to the inland road, which meant we didn't make it back to the ferry terminal until 3:25pm. Luckily, all of us were late because of the tide and they were still able to get us on the ferry. Even the lost 5th car made it (barely) back to the mainland.
The three day adventure was a blast and we made it without having to owe any money at all (well minus $5 for one lost cup, which was
about 50 cents/person!). That night our group got together again at the hostel and had one last night with the goon box before taking off the following morning. Pretty much everyone in the group was heading north and we were heading south. In the morning everyone walked us out to the bus stop and we said our goodbyes. We really had an amazing group of people! I know so many other groups that did not have a good time because their group was full of drunks who wanted to drive or they just didn't all click. Once again, we lucked out!
We hopped on a three hour bus to Noosa Heads down the coast so we could hang out, do some surfing and kayaking and go to the Australia Zoo. We checked in to Noosa backpackers and booked ourselves on the free bus to the Australia Zoo the next morning for a full day of adventure at the zoo. Australia Zoo was opened by Bob and Lyn Irwin, parents of Steve Irwin the Crocodile Hunter, in 1970 under the name Beerwah Reptile Park. In 1991 Steve Irwin overtook management of the zoo. In 1992 the park was renamed again,
Beware of Dingoes!
This particular one was at Lake Mackenzie!becoming Australia Zoo. Currently, the zoo maintains more than 1000 animals and over 550 staff. On 16 March 2008 the Brisbane-based newspaper, The Sunday Mail, claimed there are plans to sell Australia Zoo to Animal Planet and create a $100-million Disney-style wildlife theme park. There was definitely a lot of construction going on and the part is going to be huge when finished. Currently, Terri Irwin still owns the park (widow of Steve Irwin) and you can buy tons of Bindi Irwin (daughter) merchandise everywhere!
The park is amazing though and unlike any other zoo I have been to. Their motto is "Conservation through exciting education" and they do this by providing a hands-on experience to guests of the zoo. Every hour or so there is another feeding session and constant hands on experiences throughout the day. They say that if you become hands on with the animals you will learn to love them and therefore want to advocate for the conservation of animals and their habitats. We were able to pet koalas and kangaroos and see camels, foxes, tigers and otters being fed and played with. Of course, there is their ever popular Croc show which showcases their
huge saltwater crocodiles in a Steve Irwin fashion. The trainers get right in the habitat with the crocs and feed them huge pieces of meet including whole chickens. They perfectly show the audience how a croc hunts in the wild and tell Australians of how to prevent yourself from being a victim of a croc attack. For those of you who know me, I am not a big fan of zoos, but Australia Zoo proved me wrong. The park has grown so much since I was there five years ago and I had a really good day.
We spent the next day in Noosa chilling out and going to the beach for some surf and kayak. We really liked the little city of Noosa. It was quite charming with its beaches and rivers. It is a bit more upscale, but our hostel had a cheap restaurant and there was a grocery store nearby for food. It was pretty dead at nighttime, but all in all we were a fan of Noosa!
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Nins
non-member comment
AHHHHHH
WHY AM I HERE AT WORK AT 7:35pm and you are fighting dingos!!!! send me a ticket =)