We arrived at Rainbow Beach (aka Rainbow Island, Paradise Beach and Sheona's many other names for it) safe and sound for our 3 day self-drive safari to Fraser Island, the world's largest sand-island. In the afternoon we met Merv who gave us a briefing on what to expect on the island and we were split into our tour groups. Ours consisted of Dave and Marianne (Scottish couple, very nice to hear their Scottish accents), Cara (from Germany), Laura and Alexa (Stoke-ville and around), Robyn, Chris and Gill (Canadians). That night was St Patrick's so we consumed some beer with green food dye in it to make it nice and healthy :-)

The next day we were up early to pack up our rather large 4x4's collect our food and be warned that we're going to get sand in places that we never even knew existed... We also met Jim (South of England), our last A-team recruit. A quick briefing to the drivers regarding Merv's expensive trucks and we were off! I took first drive down to the ferry, the driving experience was a little weird, especially with a fully laden, top-heavy truck! The group infront of us got a puncture from driving on the tarmac! Our car was behind and we were pointing and waving trying to tell them they had a flat tyre and when they went round corners the truck was pretty much on 2 wheels! They just waved back to us and smiled! Eventually they pulled over and we all watched them change the tyre. Good team building.

A short ferry ride and we were on the beach! After a quick stop to get out to push (the truck actually wasn't in gear) and a brief foray into the ocean (it came in through the windows) we made it up to Indian head, some 100km away at the top of the island. The sea is way too dangerous to swim in due to the strong rips, sharks, sea snakes, jellyfish and other assorted niceties. We just made it to our campsite for the night before the tides made beach driving a bit too dangerous. We were warned about Dingos, spiders and snakes as we arrived, but after some drinks and a hearty dinner we were happy campers sitting around the campfire!

The next day our itinerary took us to the wreck of the SS Maheno and Lake MacKenzie. The road to the lake was the most serious off-road that we encountered, driving through the rainforest, but was really good fun. I drove there and Sheona drove back. The lake is infused with tea tree oil and is fresh water so we all took the chance to freshen up and have a swim. We camped right by the beach in the evening and the remoteness of our location began to sink in but just added to the whole experience.

Our final day was spent on the "short" walk to Lake Wabby which wasn't as nice as Lake MacKenzie but was well received after our dune hiking inland! Dave and I were running down the sand-dunes into the water by the end of the walk! After that all that was left for us to do was catch the ferry back and drop off our trucks and equipment!

We had heard that the self-drive tours were really good fun and gave you the freedom to explore the island at your own pace. The only possible downside was that it was a bit of a monopoly as to who was in your group. Sheona and I will both tell you that our group was easily the best! We were a group of people who all got on well, who were all travelling around for reasons other than to just sit getting wasted all the time and that made the experience all the better!

-B