Savour the Journey - Fraser Island and the Whitsunday Islands

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It is not just the destination by the journey itself that matters. I've heard this phrase a few times but don't know who actually said it. In this blog, the destinations are beautiful and magnificent but the journey we took to get there is just as much a part of the story. We've been traveling in buses or cars and planes most of this trip so this is a taste of something different.

Fraser Island is a large island about 300km north of Brisbane on Australia's east coast. It It is officially the largest sand island in the world being made almost exclusively from... you guessed it: sand. It is essentially one giant sand bank rising from the sea 120km long and 20km wide which has, over time, been colonised by plants and bushes through the process of succession whereby small, hardy shrubs grow in the inhospitable sand dunes and when they die they gradually create soil for bigger plants until, eventually, the sand can support vast ecosystems like rainforest (i did this in A-level biology - yep I'm a geek!). Consequently, the vast majority of the island is covered in dense forest and bush. It is a pretty rugged and remote place and so access to the interior is restricted to 4x4 vehicles. So 4x4 we had to take.

The car itself was huge (more like a small truck) with enough space to fit 10 people plus camping gear. The groups were put together by the tour operator so it was a great way to split the costs and to meet some people. # people in our group were suitable to drive & i volunteered first so the pleasure was all mine. It was awesome to drive this huge machine over a proper off-road dirt track, down ditches and up mounds, over ruts and through streams, speeding along the hard sand of 75 mile beach or ruggedly pushing through the deep soft sand of the interior. This was real off roading!

It was a bit hairy at points when the truck leaned over at precarious angles or feeling the back end slide as you round a corner but for the most part it was good fun. I was wary, though, of speeding along the beach. This was the scene of a crash in April when a British Backpacker swerved to avoid a wave & flipped the car killing himself & another passenger.

On our first day we battled our way inland for a couple of hours, barely reaching 20kph, before we arrived at lake Wabby, one of Fraser's many fresh water lakes. It is surrounded on 3 sides by thick bush and on the 4th side by giant sand dunes which, without the lake would have resembled the tall and winding dunes of the Sahara and slope steeply into the water. These are great fun to roll down, forwards, backwards, or sideways & land in the shallow water at the bottom. the water itself was warm but cool enough to be refreshing from the heat of the day. We spent so long playing on the dunes & the lake that we were rushing to make our allotted campsite. You aren't supposed to drive after 3 hours either side of low tide for risk of getting stranded in the sea and the tide was coming in fast once we'd made it to the beach on the far side of the island. Free from the deep boggy sand & on the hard sand of 75 mile beach - which is a recognised highway - we picked up speed, racing against the tide. But like King Canute, we couldn't halt the incoming tide & soon we had to give up & camp by the beach.

We ate BBQ under the stars & played a few drinking games. The combination of plenty of goon (cheap boxed wine) & a long day of driving was too much for me & i was out by about 9:30pm!

Next morning we drove the full length of the beach to Indian Head. This is a giant basalt stack jutting up, defiantly against the crashing waves of the sea about 100m below & offers great views of the island & coast. Flat beaches stretched away on on both sides and the clear blue sea extends to the horizon. Below we swam in the sea. It was beautifully clear and warm with large waves to play in and soft sand underfoot. Later we headed south to the wreck of the Maheno, which lies beached on the highway, where it drifted in a storm in the 1930s. It is a fascinating wreck & if it was underwater it would have been great to explore but as it was you aren't allowed within 3m of the wreck & there are too many people swarming around its remains rather than interesting fish.

That night we made our allotted campsite by the beach and after dinner a couple of us sat watching the sea. as sun set a large thunderstorm rolled across from the south, missing us by an unfathomable distance over the ocean, and we sat there with a couple of beers watching it grow in magnitude until one flash came within seconds of the last. Then as we watched, slightly to the north another of natures luminescent wonders began to rise above the horizon with a distinct curve of light against the dark sky. It was perfect. I didn't know where to look; the raw power of the storm to my right; the crashing waves in from of me; or the quiet round orb of the full moon rising over the ocean to my left. I watched in silent awe, this contradicting display of nature's power; angry violence and peaceful tranquility. Superlatives simply cannot do it justice.

Our last day on the island was spent lazing by Lake Mckensey with its beautiful clear water that shone several shades of blue in the bright sunshine. There were plenty of people there when we arrived but they soon seemed to depart and we almost had the place to ourselves, relaxing on the crisp white sand under the blazing sun or playing in the warm water.

We caught the ferry off the island in the afternoon and, after saying goodbye to the people of our group in one wild after party back at the hostel, my & Jake caught a 13 hour overnight bus to Airlie Beach ready to board our boat for our sailing tour of the Whitsunday Islands.

We boarded our boat at about 4 in the afternoon - which seemed a little late in the day for me since we'd effectively lost a whole day - & set sail for the Whitsunday Islands. the Whitsundays are a group of islands about 500km up the coast from Fraser Island, south of Cairns. Our boat was a former sailing Yacht, painted bright red called the Maxi Samurai. It looked pretty small & could just squeeze on 20 passengers & 4 crew but after a few days on board i grew a bit of an affinity towards it.

Because we'd set off so late we were treated to a magnificent sunset on the way to our first stop, as the dying light refracted through the upper layers of atmosphere & shone bright Orange to deep red before disappearing altogether. Brilliant sunsets, I came to learn, are mandatory in the Whitsundays.

That night we played a few drinking games (Its the only thing to do at night!) and sang a few songs under the stars as we all got to know one another. we were lucky, i think, in that we got a great group of people on our boat & i got on with them all.

The next day we started early to reach Whitehaven beach before the day crowds. This is the beach that the Whitsundays are famous for and it is easy to see why. I've been to quite a few superb beaches in the past few months but i can safely say Whitehaven in unparallelled in its beauty. The place is quite simply stunning. The sand feels like fine flour under your toes and crunches softly as you step on it. To the left there is a shallow inlet where stingrays swim openly around your feet when you wade there. We spent the morning relaxing there under the warm sun before moving on to a little cove where we got the chance to do some scuba diving and snorkeling. We saw a small reef shark, a stingray, as well as a few other crazy & colourful specimens including clown fish (Nemo). This is how we spent the rest of the afternoon, snorkeling or relaxing on the beach... it's a hard life!!

That night we ate steak & fed any left overs the huge fish that circled the boat - giant trevallys and large batfish - and played more drinking games. including one where i had to drink goon through a snorkel... seriously horrible, you actually can't breath until the drink is gone!!

Unsurprisingly I was feeling somewhat worse-for-wear the next morning but a good hangover cure is jumping in the sea with a huge tank strapped to your back and by 8am we were back in the water for another dive. This time we could hear the distant calls of passing humpback whales, although I couldn't see any, and saw a school of about 8 or 9 massive parrot fish - so called because they have a large beak which they use to eat the coral. These things were munching their way through a huge amount of the reef, making an audible crunch sound as they did so. I always thought damage to the reefs were caused mainly by humans but these things were going through the coral like an industrial logging company! It was nuts.

On the way back to port the wind picked up and we turned off the motors and got the sails working. It is amazing how quiet it is after the engines are finally turned off and also how swiftly and efficiently the boat moves through the waves. When the wind really filled the sails the boat listed over at seemingly perilous angles to the water but this is all part of the game, no matter how scary it seems to the unsuspecting passengers! It was great fun.

It was a shame to leave the Whitsundays, it was probably my favorite place in Australia so far.

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Comments

[Jo]

Sounds like a great trip.
We were thinking of doing a similar trip over the December holidays. Can I ask you a few questions. How did you travel from Brisbane to Fraser Island? How many days on Fraser Island? From Fraser Island to Whitsunday Islands was an overnight bus. Did you get any sleep? How many nights on Whitsunday Island.