We left Noosa and headed for Rainbow Beach, where the next morning we would be departing at 6am for Fraser Island, a UNESCO World Heritage site just a few km off the coast. We had booked a 4X4 self drive tour which meant there would be 11 people to a jeep, with all camping and cooking equipment on the roof and we would head off around Fraser Island exploring this beautiful island.

As soon as we hit the beach we took an inland track to Lake Mackenzie which took around an hour. This lake is one of the reasons we wanted to come to Fraser Island, it is absolutely amazing and the water is the clearest I have ever seen. We spent a few hours here then went off to find a suitable place to camp as we had no idea how long it would take us. We found a great spot 10 yards from the beach and set up camp with another group. We proceeded with the nights entertainment of frisbee-rugby and drinking goon (a cheap, nasty wine sold in 4 litre bags for about $10). We also had to chase off dingoes which are native to the island and huge scavengers.

The next morning we were up at around 6.30am to make the most of the day. The plan for the second day is to go over "the rocks" which is a dangerous section of beach and up to see a wreck and indian head. Unfortunately the road to indian head was closed due to an horrific accident. A group of 11 in the same type of car as us, (basically same trip but different company), had rolled the 4X4 at over 100kmph and it had flipped several times. Two people died instantly and a third died in hospital the next day, the driver was a 19 year old brit who survived. (This made national news here and it looks like the self-drive trips are going to be shut down, sorry to be morose but it was huge when it happened.) So instead of going up there we went to lake Wabbi, a large lake surrounded by huge sand dunes. It took less than a minute for about 8 of us to be at the top, running down as fast as we could and hitting the water at high speed - hours of fun! Later that afternoon we found a great spot on top of some dunes for our camping spot, it was only us 11 there and it was truly beautiful. I can honestly say I have never seen stars like the ones on Fraser Island.

After packing away our gear the next morning we headed back to Lake Mackenzie for a few hours of sunbathing and playing a "diving/catching/wrestling" game of frisbee with some cool photos to show. We then caught the ferry back to dry land and took the vehicle back to the garage for inspection. We met a few really cool people on this trip so when we got back to the hostel we organised a large gathering on the green out front with music/beer/goon etc and had a great last night together. Unfortunately, I enjoyed it a little too much so when the alarm went off at 6.15am the next morning to go and "hand feed some dolphins" I was not amused!

So off we drove to Tin Can Bay, where at 8am every morning, 2 dolphins come into the bay to be fed by tourists. For a dollar you get a small fish, wade out knee deep in the water and hand feed the dolphins.

From here we headed up to town 1770 so that Vicky could go on a sunset scooter ride. Ali and I stayed on the beach and read. We stayed at another free camp that night as we were headed for Airlie Beach and The Whitsundays tomorrow.

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