Sadly we had to leave the Rodgers family to head for Hervey Bay, for our Fraser Island 4wd camping trip. When we arrived at the hostel we were met by our group for our first briefing the day prior to the trip. We were sent off food shopping for our supplies for the next three days, which consisted of mainly bread and cheese, with a few burgers thrown in. Once the shopping was out of the way, we headed to an Indian restaurant recommended to us, however it didn't live up to expectations. (The quest goes on to find a good Indian in Oz).

A 6am start on day one of our trip was required to meet our tour guide, Dubsie, who was a real character with a broad Ozzy accent and liked to use the 'f' word at least once in every sentence, who gave us our second briefing on Fraser Island itself (the largest sand island in the world), driving the Toyota Landcruiser 4x4's and the dangers of Dingo's on the island. After we got the trucks loaded I took the first driving duty to the barge that would get us to the island. We landed at Kingfisher Bay and took the rough sandy tracks to Central Station, situated in the centre of the island, where we took a walk through Wanggoolba Creek and read about the history of the island. After lunch we visited Lake Wabby, which was located inland at the end of a sand blow, a desert looking area leading to the eastern beach. It was a bit of a hike, and didn't help that Aimee had to do it twice after leaving her flip flops at the start! We paddled in the lake along with the catfish, and then, taking in the sun, fell asleep on the sand dune for a while. We then headed to camp just off the eastern beach, where we were given a more in depth talk about the facilities, or lack of them for the lads (a shovel and in Dubsie's words 'the only time you'll ever have a sh*t with a view like that' however there were close moments where some of the guys nearly out caught out by passing aeroplanes!) Aimee was only too delighted to discover that the ladies had use of a portaloo. Dubsie talked more about the Dingo's which we soon understood he wasn't very fond of! Now we were armed with Dingo sticks and rocks to defend ourselves if need be!

Although hot in the daytime, the nights were very cold dropping to 4/5 degrees, and we ended up wearing most of the clothes we had to keep warm at night. Our first BBQ helped warm us up, along with goon (dirt cheap boxed wine), beers and lots of hovering over the kettle! We were later joined by another group who were camped just down the track, and we had a good laugh playing a few games of uno and cards, before heading for the beach to look at the stars, the sky was so clear you easily see the Milky Way and shooting stars.

Neither of us slept too great because of the hard ground and Aimee's fear of, spiders, snakes and now Dingo's! We had another early start on day two for our trip up the length of the 75 kilometer beach where we all took turns to drive. We got to visit the Maheno Wreck (an old hospital ship from world war 1), the Pinnacles and Red Canyon, which are sand cliffs made up of 72 different colours. On our way to the north of the island Dubsie was the first to get stuck in the sand. After all his talk about how not to get stuck, he wasn't best pleased, although it provided some good entertainment for us while trying to get him out!

We had lunch at the very north of the island at Champagne Pools, where we took a dip in the rock pools on the beach. We also took a walk up to the headland called Indian heads, where we got a glimpse of sting rays, hump back whales, dolphins and even a tiger shark in the clear waters below. On our walk back to the trucks we saw a surfer in the water, being surround by a couple of sharks, not that he seamed too bothered, as he knew they were there before he went in! We finished the day at Eli Creek, a fresh water spring starting 20k inland and deep underground. It lead all the way to the eastern beach and we took the opportunity for a wash in some fresh water. Our second night at camp brought our second BBQ of the trip, although this time we remembered the garlic bread. It was even colder than the first, but some of Dubsie's story's about previous trips and their mishaps kept us entertained before some more star gazing before bed.

Aimee awoke nice and early to watch the sun rise with some of the other guys, while I took all the sleep I could get. After packing up camp we headed to Lake Mckenzie where we spent our last hours on the island, sun bathing and swimming in the crystal clear water. The lake was huge and was at its highest level for 20 years. It stood 200 meteres above sea level and was made up of rain water only. We had some lunch before heading back to Kingfisher Bay along the bumpy sand tracks to the barge. Once back on the mainland we took advantage of an internet connection before we even made it to a hot shower (priorities all wrong there!). We spent the rest of the evening with the group eating pizza and swapping photo's and videos from the last few days. We were lucky to have a great group of people from all around the world to share the experience with and also shared the 12 hour bus journey north to Airlie Beach that night with a couple of them too. We were really sad to leave Fraser Island but look forward to our next adventure, sailing the Whitsunday Islands...