The main reason we came to Hervey Bay was actually to visit Fraser Island which is the worlds largest sand island and is situated a 50 minute ferry ride from Hervey Bay. Fraser Island is about 180 miles long by 50 miles wide and is totally comprised of sand, but its also the only place on earth where rainforest grows on sand! This makes Fraser unique because one minute you can be walking on a golden sandy beach, then strolling through a tropical rainforest or swimming in a crystal clear lake. It also has Australia's purest breed of Dingo's because the island is totally isolated from the main land. Fraser is also VERY remote, with no facilities outside of a couple of main resorts on the island so you have to take everything with you, including water. You even have to dig your own long drops as there are no toilets! Priceless!!!!!

To have the best experience of Fraser Island you have to camp there and this is what we planned to do. As well as this, Fraser has no paved roads as everything is sand tracks so its strickly 4x4 territory so we also had to hire one of these. We went with a company called Aussie Trax who did a 4x4 and camping package where we got a Suzuki Jimmy 4x4, tent and all the other camping equipment we'd need for 4 days / 3 nights on Fraser. After a very thorough briefing on Tuesday night we had to be at Aussie Trax at 6am the following morning ready for our adventure.

We picked our 4x4 up at 6am, loaded it up with all the camping equipment, water, food, clothes and some sleeping bags we brought ourselves and the headed to River Heads to get the ferry at 7:15am. The crossing was nice and smooth and we also took the chance to film the start of our Bear Grylls funny video which we made while there and will put this on the blog soon :)

Once we got on Fraser we hit our first bit of sand driving. OH MY GOD!! The first part was a really steep climb and then so up 'n' down for ages that we started to panic. We expected sand tracks but not sand tracks with 2ft deep of sand and pot holes which we needed to fill in to get over! They say there is a 35km speed limit on the inland tracks but we were averaging 15km as it was seriously heavy going, but after an hour we made it to Lake McKenzie. WOW just WOW! Lake McKenzie is a perched lake which means there are no streams/rivers flowing into it and its just filled with rain water, plus the sand filters the water so its crystal clear. Amazing to see, proper tropical paradise stuff! After spending over an hour here we headed of again towards the coast and another lake called Lake Wabby. The tracks this way were even worse with masses of sand which we nearly got stuck in a few times. Em also had to do the first reversing on sand as we caught another car coming towards us, and as all roads are single track we had to reverse a long way as we were going uphill. Anyway, we got to Lake Wabby fine and while having lunch next to the car we had a 2ft long Goana (big lizard) rummage round by the car. Awesome!! However, it all went a bit wrong here when we realised Aussie Trax hadn't packed us a stove so we had no way of cooking!!!! GRRR!! When we finally got some phone signal as its limited on Fraser we got a call to them and they brought one out and left it by our car, but it ended up not working properly. It got a can of soup tepid after an hour on full power so that shows you how crap it was. They also then failed to leave us a replacement stove the next day so we ended up not being able to cook properly the whole time, gutted!!!

Anyway, back to the good stuff. After a 1.2km trek through the rainforest we got to Lake Wabby and its MASSIVE sandblow. It was like being in the Sahara with all that sand, and the lake itself was awesome as again it was a perched lake so totally clean. Really step drop into it so we spent a while there before heading back to the car and then towards the beach where we camped for the night just behind the sand dunes at Cornwells Beach Camp Site. Now, this isn't a campsite as such but on Fraser you can camp anywhere on the beach behind the dunes so the bit we went was deserted except for us. We got the tent up without instructions easy (yey) but while cooking dinner on our pathetic match/stove Andy spotted a Dingo walking towards us! We both crapped our pants and jumped in the car while the Dingo came right up to us before wandering back into the forest.....luckily leaving our boiled steak behind as even he didn't fancy it! We were both a bit freaked out then but got through the night fine. One thing as well is that on Fraser at night it is totally black, no lights at all so you don't realise how dark it is. You can't see your hand in front of your face, but the up side of this and being so far from a city is that there is no light pollution so the stars are sooooo bright and you can see the Milky Way! AMAZING!

We got up at 6am and watched the sunrise over the beach together (awwww) before heading up the beach right to the top at Indian Heads. On Fraser the main beach is actually a highway during the day with an 80km speed limit because the sand is hard where the tide has gone out, but you have to watch our for creeks coming across the beach as they can be deep, so you get out and walk across to check the depth before going through - Eli Creek being the worst about 1ft deep and 15m wide but very fast flowing. Anyway, once we got to Indian Heads the sand was really soft and deep so we put Rhino (our name for the 4x4) in low range and plowed on through without getting stuck!!! We then carried to Waddy Point which was rubbish and not worth the 2hr round trip + hike (naughty lonely planet guide) so back to the Champagne Pools. These are saltwater pools you can swim in (like large rockpools) but we were running short on time so decided not to have a dip, instead watching Humpback Whales in the distance!!

This is when we had the scariest experience EVER!! On our way back from Indian Heads we were expecting a 30min trip back to campsite before high tide as thats what it took us in the morning. Now, the rental company and guide books say to avoid the beach 2hrs either side of high tide and this was at 15:30 so we had to avoid the beach between 13:30 and 17:30. Simple eh?? NO!

At 12:45 we came down from Indian Heads to the biggest shock of our lives as the beach was gone!!!! The tide was already coming so where the beach before was about 50m wide was now only 15m but 10m of this was knee deep sand which you can't drive on, and the remaining 5m being soggy sand right next to the breaking waves. Totally terrifying!!! We could barely keep the car moving as it was just too soft and the waves were coming up right next to us, but we didn't have room to turn round and the next campsite was 12km away. This meant the next 30 mins and 12km was the most terrifying experience of our entire lives as we both really though the car was going to get stuck and then taken over by the Pacific Ocean. I know that sounds dramatic but it has happened to lots of people and we couldn't believe it was happening to us, but thankfully we made it to another camp area at Wyuna Beach and quickly dived behind the dunes to safety. PHEW!! It was only 13:30 but we were then stuck here for the day because of the tide and its gets dark before it goes out again and you can't drive at night so we had to stay the night.

A cold dingo free windy night later we headed back down the beach to Eurong 55km away. On the way we stopped at The Pinnacles which are multi coloured sand cliffs like you get in a glass bottle, followed by the Maheno Shipwreck. This is a Fraser Island icon right on the beach and was great to look round for a bit before heading to Eli Creek where we had a paddle in the freshwater creek. We stopped at Eurong for petrol (thank god as no where else had it on the island and we were down to 1/4 tank) and some sugary treats to help treat the shock from yesterday, before heading further down the beach to the inland track at Dilli Village. THANK GOD WE ARE OFF THE BEACH!!! We drove inland to Lake Boomanjin where we camped for the night in a fenced ground so didn't have to worry about dingos in there. Lake Boomanjin is the largest perched lake in the world and is also stained red by the sap from the trees growing in it. Apart from the noisy ass backpackers and our rubbish stove which insisted on bursting into flames every 5 minutes (not good for a gas bottle) it wasn't a bad night.

Our last day started early as we headed to Lake Bennaroon but couldn't stop there as it was hiking only, followed by Lake Birrabean. As we were the first people there we found loads of dingo tracks on the beach!! As we had made pretty good time we decided to head back to Lake McKenzie via Central Station so spend a few hours relaxing at last before heading to Wanggoolba Creek Barge to get the ferry back home at 14:30.

WOW! What an experience the last 4 days has been! One of the highlights of our time in Oz and one of those experiences which we will both remember for ever. Amazing!