We have all just returned from our trip to Fraser island, it was great fun and we will definitely all sleep well tonight!

We checked into our tour organisers hostel on Sunday night and were sent out to buy food to take over to the island with us for the next few days. We also had to pack a small bag and leave our big ones at the hostel as they wouldn't fit in the cars. While eating our tea, Fee, who we met at the hostel in Noosa, walked by our apartment! It turns out she was booked on the same trip as us so it was nice to already know someone.

The next morning we had an early start as the alarm went off at 5.15am so we could check out and wartch the 'Fraser Islabd safety film'. It was mainly about driving 4x4s on Fraser and all the risks involved, I think it just put everyone off driving! There were 24 of us on the trip in total plus our guide, split into four cars. Our car consisted of us four, two German boys called Patrick and David and another English girl Chloe. Five out of the seven of us could drive so we split the trip into driving half a day each. Our car had the most people in so it was a bit squished with three people sharing the front seat, the person in the middle didn't really even have a seat! We drove over to the port and took the car on the ferry over to Fraser island. Fraser is a national heritage site and is the largest sand island in the world. It is one of the only islands to have a rainforest grow on it through the sand. This is due to the volume of freshwater under the island, kept in by the salt water of the sea around it. Our first stop was to drive over to a huge freshwater lake, where the sand in the lake could be used to clean jewellery up, exfoliate your skin, wash your hair in, or clean your teeth with. We had a little pamper session! We then drove over to a site to have our lunch. Driving around took longer than I thought, partly because the island is huge, but when driving around the soft sand tracks, it was really hilly and really took all the cars had. It was a lot of fun though. It felt as though you were driving on ice, just a bit bumpier! After lunch we went for a little walk around part of the rainforest. We then went on quite a long drive and drove along the main beach. The beach goes on and on, and is treated like a road with speed limits and cars have a right of way over pedestrians. It was so good to speed along the beach with the waves crashing alongside the car. We drove to another area of rainforest which we had to walk through an see the the sand blowout. We came to a huge sand dune, it looked like we were in the desert! A little further along we had to climb down the sand dune to reach the lake at the bottom. The sand was so so hot and burnt our feet, it was really painful! We had been told not to run down the dune and jump into the lake as there have been a lot of spinal injuries by people doing that here, but it was so tempting! Instead we all shuffled along as quickly as possible to get to the water! It was heaven for our feet when we reached the lake! We stayed here a while, the lake contained huge catfish and little fish that come and eat the dead skin off your feet, like the fish spas they have a home. It was very a very relaxing end to our spa day! We then had to walk the 45 minutes back to the cars to drive to our camp for the next two days.

The camp was also home to loads of massive flies! They were so annoying and came out early in the evening and in the mornings. They did bite but didn't leave a mark or itch like mosquitoes, but loads would just swarm around you, which made cooking and eating more difficult as we were all doing a chicken dance to keep them off! As the flies subsided and it got dark, we chose our tents and used the bbqs at camp to cook our meal. We then spent the evening chatting, drinking and playing card games. There were no showers at camp, so we had to go without for a few days. There were also no toilets, so at night we had number ones in the sea, then for anything else, girls could use the tiny portaloo tent, while the boys could go dig a hole! Or, as most preferred, we would just wait until the next day to frequent one of the island toilets.

The next morning we awoke to fight off flies and get ready for the day. Out first stop was at Eli creek where fresh water flows out to the sea. It was like a natural river rapids so we could float down to the sea and then sunbathe by the sea. The water was so clean, apparently you could drink it, but it was freezing cold!
From here, we took another long drive to reach our stop for lunch where we could buy a chip butter! We haven't had chips for so long, they tasted so good! We then drove onto Champagne pools, where water forms in small collections in the rocks and we could sit and chill in. Some pools were so warm, it was like taking a bath! Next, we drove to Indian head where we had to get out and scramble up some rocks to reach the cliff top. From here we could see stingrays in the water. After a photo session here, we climbed back down and drove over to a multi coloured sand rock formation. On the way some fishermen stopped us to show us some turtles in the water swimming along. The next site was to see an old ship wreck that has washed up on the beach. It is all broken up now as the Australian airforce used it as target practice, although only two of the hundreds of bombs they dropped actually hit the wreck! We retuned to the creek from the morning, purely to have a wash in some fresh water and get any salt off, before returning to camp for another evening. Later on, a dingo was wandering around camp, so we all went out on a dingo hunt but it wasn't to be seen again!
The tents at camp were big and nice but I don't think any of us got a good nights sleep, as the roll mats we used were pointless and it got really hot!

Today we got up, cleaned, packed up camp and left to drive over to lake Mckenzie where we spent our entire morning. It was a sister lake to the one we visited on the first day, so the sand exfoliated us, so we had a good clean here! After our last lunch we had to drive back over to the port to take the ferry back to the mainland. We were all sleeping on the ferry, we were so tired out from all the nice beaches and lakes we have seen and sunbathed at. It is a difficult life sometimes(!)

We are all staying at the hostel in Hervey bay again tonight and are having an all you can eat Dominoes pizza night which should be a nice way for the whole group to end our trip. It also meant we could have a well needed shower!

Tomorrow we are moving on to Bundaberg where we are staying with Haddon's (our host in Barraba) brother, Hugh and his wife Liz for a few nights which I think we are all looking forward to.

Amy. x