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After Rainbow Beach we headed a further 2 hours up the coast to Hervey Bay. We booked ourselves into the Woolshed Backpackers, it was a great place to stay. Me, Ross and Jen all had single beds, a great change from bunk beds. The first night we had the room to ourselves and took full advantage of the tv/dvd in the room. We took a trip to the local Woolworths to buy some cheapo noodles and then to the bottle shop to get some cider to enjoy whilst watching some DVD's.
We booked our 2 day guided tour to Fraser Island at the hostel and headed there on Friday. We were picked up at 7.30am and headed for the local ferry to take us on a 50 min cruise to Fraser Island. There was 17 people in our group and our fantastic tour guide Alex. I learned a valuable lesson in the first 5 minutes of being on our bus (well if you could call it that, more like a 4WD lorry!), do not lean too close to the window! Fraser Island is the largest sand island in the world and is obviously a very bumpy ride! I managed to
crack my head off the window twice! Anyway, our first stop was at Yidney Rainforest where we took a 20 minute walk. Then we set off for Happy Valley where we stopped for an all you can eat buffet. After lunch we set off along 75 mile beach. Our first stop was at Eli Creek, the Pinnacles, then the Maheno shipwreck (built in Dumbarton) and then onto Indian Heads (amazing views from up here). On our way back we stopped off at Red Canyon.
We headed back to Happy Valley to settle into our room. Bring on the goon! We had the room to ourselves again, noone would want to share with us goon drinkers anyway! We didn't have any glasses so being the classy bird that i am, i simply drank it straight from the box! Then Jen had a better idea, pour our water out and put it in plastic bottles. We met up with the others and had steak for tea, not too bad, and then set off goon in hand down to the beach to go snake and dingo hunting. Didn't see a single thing so we headed back to the bar and drank some
jugs of beer.
The next day we were up at 7.30am again for breakfast and day 2 of our adventure. We started heading along 75 mile beach again, when we stopped and a pilot got on our bus to tell us about a fantastic trip in a 14 seater plane to see the island. My hand was the first to go up, i definitely wasn't missing out on this! Jen decided she would love to do this too but noone else on our trip wanted to do it so another pilot said he would take us on his 6 seater plane instead. Best $70 i've spent! The plane was rather small as you can imagine. We took off from the beach and flew over the island seeing the amazing sandblows, Lake Wabby and Lake Mackenzie.
Once we were back on the bus we headed for Lake Wabby. We took a 2km over the sandblows. Basically this is a moving sand dune, sand is blown over the years and covers everything, even the trees. Lake Wabby will be non-existent in about 80 years cos the sand will end up covering it. Me and Ross took another 40 minute return
75 mile beach
Fraser Island walk up to a look out point and got an amazing view of Lake Wabby. Next stop was Rainbow Gorge. This place was pretty amazing. So many different colours of sand and one huge sand dune! Ross decided he would scale this 'mountain' and then roll back down! He had to stop half way up for a breather and then again at the top before his mammoth decent! Pretty funny to watch! Final stop of our trip was Lake Garawongera. Another beautiful lake but it started to rain so most of us headed back to the bus. I was really looking forward to this lake too, cos there are freshwater turtles and i wanted to see them.
Almost forgot to say that i saw a dingo! It actually walked up to the bus, they are definitely not shy, but i wouldn't get too close. Got to remember that they are wild dogs. A kid was actually mauled to death a few years back on Fraser Island by a dingo.
A lot of people don't rate Fraser Island too much and say that its over hyped but i had an amazing time here and would recommend it to anyone.
Eli Creek
water was pretty cold, luckily i'm tall, i didn't get wet I'm glad we did the guided tour rather than doing it ourselves.
Also, we went sea kayaking at Rainbow Beach. We were meant to see dolphins, but did we, no! We did sea a few huge turtles though!
In Bundaberg just now. Went to the Distillery yesterday which was pretty good and got to sample the rum. It was alright but think i'll stick to my vodka, goon and cider for now! Heading to Rockhampton this afternoon.
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Christine
non-member comment
what is goon?
hey sounds like you're still havin a fantastic time. Lovin your blog, what memories you will have if you ever come back!!! Dyin to know what goon is tho??? XX