Fraser Island

After leaving Noosa, we got the Oz Experience bus on the short journey up to Hervey Bay, the gateway to Fraser Island. This was another short trip on the bus so it wasn't much different to using the Greyhound. We had a good driver on this one though, Forrest, who proceeded to tell us loads about Fraser and what to see and not see. We also passed by a small town called Rainbow Beach which is slowly becoming more and more of a tourist destination. So called because of the multi coloured sands, it also has my favourite dreamtime story.Basically, the story concerns a woman who is married to an evil aboriginal chief who has a magic boomerang which is full of evil spirits which help him control everyone. His wife is very unhappy and everyday sings to a rainbow that comes to comfort her until her and the rainbow fall in love. (stick with it, it's a myth) Anyway the woman eventually decides to run away from her husband and is running along the beach when she hears her husband chasing her and throwing his boomerang. She calls to the rainbow for help and he appears at her side and blocks the boomerang, but the collision destroyed the boomerang and kills the rainbow who dies on the beach, staining the sand different colours.Great story that one, I have tried to pick up some of the dreamtime stuff as we travel round, some are completely bonkers and some are quite cool like that one. But anyway, back to Fraser…..;

Fraser Island was named after Eliza Fraser, who was shipwrecked along with her husband and eventually landed on the island. After 6 months, she was rescued and as the lone survivor told lots of tales about what went on and how ghastly the aboriginals were to her. It all seemed fairly far fetched, but it made her a star at the time and the island was named after her. As for the island itself, its basically a giant sand dune being constructed almost wholly of sand, it's a truly stunning place and is a great spot on our travels….in fact I'm sure I will still be finding sand from Fraser in places for weeks and months to come J. Despite, being made of sand, there are a huge amount of plants living on the island and the centre of it is a large rainforest area complete with huge trees all around you.

We had booked on a self drive tour of the island, which is the most common way to get round for most travelers. Basically, you are given a Toyota Landcruiser 4x4 and up to 11 people squeeze into it for the 3 day tour of the island. Then, after a short safety briefing you are all let loose under your own steam. The landcruisers have been modified and they have 2 rows of benches along the side and 3 seats in the front, so as you can imagine it's a tight squeeze when they are full and not the most comfortable. Luckily there was only 4 other people in our truck so we had a bit more room. We shared with 2 young English lads who were on a break before starting uni and 2 Americans who were late 20's. It was a good mix because you hear all sorts of horror stories about getting a crap group. One couple on the Oz bus with us were lumped together with 6 20 year old Canadian lads who just drank the whole time…. Including while driving.Drinking was certainly the main activity on the island (it is built of sand after all) but at least our group generally waited till the afternoon and our campsite, certainly not while driving or planning to drive.The driving was a lot of fun, there are "roads" across the island, but these are basically sand tracks rather than roads as there is no tarmac on them. You can also drive up and down the main beach for mile after mile as the sand is well compacted.

There are some must see sights on Fraser, Lake McKenzie being the standout of them all. It's a huge freshwater lake in the middle of the island and looks gorgeous. It also has some of the purest sand in the world, being 99.9% silica so it's a white colour rather than yellow and it doesn't get hot in the sun. Its odd swimming in freshwater when you know you are on an island in the middle of the sea, but all the lakes are freshwater and great to swim in, if a little cold this time of year. You aren't allowed to swim in the sea around the island at any point because it is a tiger fish breeding ground and also has some of the roughest seas and strongest rip currents on the Australian coast. Unfortunately, as there are lots of sights to see, you have to keep moving from 1 sight to another and it can feel a bit like you are being shepherded around at times. The sheer volume of jeeps whizzing up and down the beach always remind you that you aren't exactly alone on this idyllic island. The other highlights on the island that everyone goes to were Lake Wabby; a huge, deep lake that is gradually being overtaken by a sand dune that juts out of it at a sharp angle. You walk across huge sand dunes for about 5km to get to it,…. Or go the slightly longer, but easier, way round through the forest like we did.We also went to Eli Creek, which is a large freshwater river running across the beach and the wreck of the Maheno. A large passenger ship that was beached there in the 1930's. It's little more than a shell now, but it still looks pretty impressive nonetheless.The highest point in Fraser Island is called Indian Heads (no idea why though). It's the remnant of a volcanic plug that was on this site, so is the only part of the island made of stone and is the starting point for the formation of the island. The view from up here is fantastic and also slightly vertigo inducing as it is a sheer drop off the edge. Last but not least, was one of our favourite sights, Lake Garawongera. Not because it was the prettiest lake, but the most exciting drive to it. By the middle of day 2, we had seen a lot of the things in our itinerary and were looking to do something different to the other tour groups. We picked this lake as it was fairly central and easy to get back to our campsite from. What we didn't realize is that it's not on most people itinerary because the drive is frankly mental. It's a road that isn't used very often and has become very twisty and haphazard. At some points we were leaning well over to the side and felt like we would tip…it was a whole lot of fun. Everyone took turns driving so we all experienced it. Once we got to the lake it was practically deserted with only 2 or 3 walkers around which was much more like it. It was also a bit different too the others as there were reed beds in it, and as they died off it created sediment at the bottom, it made the water look light brown - it was like swimming in a cup of tea.

The camping was another novelty of the Fraser experience, the first night we stayed at an aboriginal camp which was anything but authentic. However it was quite nice to set a proper fire and we were able to sleep in a big gazebo thing overnight, rather than have to set up our tents. It was alright but I got bitten to pieces by mossies and Emma got woken by a mouse running over her foot! The 2nd night, we did actually camp at one of the sites which are all just off the beach and shared by all the groups. We had a great laugh at this campsite as a load of Swedish people were celebrating Swedish new year by dancing round a wooden cross, pretending to be ducks, singing a song about poor ducks who have no ears and have no tails! Very very random, but lots of fun. However, on a sad note, this was the final night for my camera…it had been sick for a little while and wouldn't close without some persuasion, and it finally gave up the ghost on Fraser. Everybody say Aaahh! We left Fraser aon the 3rd day there, passing by Lake McKenzie once more for a final dip before heading back into Hervey Bay. There isn't a lot in Hervey Bay although it is quite large town, but we were grateful for a quite night to take the opportunity to clean our clothes which were now riddled with sand. Our hostel, Next Backpackers, was easily the nicest we have stayed in while in Oz and comes highly recommended, and so do the Oyster Bloody Mary's that they sell in Hoolihans bar which I also tried that night - Yummy. Its was a few quite pints, before getting up ridiculously early once again to get the Oz Experience for the long journey north to Airlie Beach, including a night on a cattle ranch which was definitely an experience……………