Monday 14th July. After a hefty four hour drive from Noosa we arrived in plenty of time in Hervey Bay at the Koala's backpackers village for our pre-expedition talks. We were booked on a three day self drive 4x4 trip around Fraser Island with eight other backpackers that we hadn't met yet. We were praying for a good group, the last thing us oldies wanted was a bunch of lairy, gobs***e teenagers. We were pleasantly surprised when we were put into our group of ten, we had three couples. Steve and Nat, Nick and Sam, and us. There was two girls travelling together Lindsey and Liz, and two lone travellers Tatiana and Chris. All were late teens or very early twenties but all very light minded easy to get along with, lovely people. All were British except Tatiana who is from Germany. We watch a video on how to not get eaten by dingoes and were reminded of how to be responsible adults. When taking a poo hold onto the spade that you dug your hole with to bop any passing dingoes on the head, and couples when going to "Watch the Birds" keep one eye open. We had to supply our own food so we ordered a meat pack from the local butcher then wrote a list for the supermarket. We all piled into Shiela, (two in the front, two on the floor and six on the bed) and headed for Woolworths, over here it is a supermarket. On arriving back to the hostel the arrogant Kiwi guy that gave the pre-talk wouldn't let us park Shiela back in the fenced off area of the hostel that she was in previously. We had to go round the back to the car park. The car park was full and he said that was tough. We explained that we had been told we would have secure parking for the three days we were away. This guy was a complete arse, and was obviously getting great enjoyment out of stamping his authority and insisted that we had to park out on the road. We argued for about half an hour and finally he said we could park in the minibus spot for the three days. With Shiela safely stowed away we all had drinks, excited about our pending adventures. We woke at 6am to pack the 4x4s with the tents and camping equipment. I thought I better check on Shiela before we departed and when I did the arrogant Kiwi Neanderthal waddled up and said 'you can't park that there we will tow it'. He had no recollection of the previous nights arrangements and again insisted that it must be parked out on the road. Luckily there were spaces in the car park this morning so we parked her up and drew the curtains and put on her steering lock. All valuables went in our safe (a bullet proof ammunition case locked to the bed and floor). We loaded up the 4x4s and headed for the ferry. The 4x4s fit three people in the front and had benches down the sides in the back so with ten of us it was a bit cosy to say the least. Fraser is only accessible by four wheel drive. Arriving on Fraser island we convoyed with various other vehicles to Lake McKenzie, a huge lake with brilliant white sand and turquoise water. It was a bit like cold tap water but we all stripped off and dived in. We spent about an hour here then ate lunch. We then went to Lake Birrabeen which had a lot less people and more reeds. This lake was equally as beautiful with its sand and crystal clear waters. That evening we camped at a place called Boomanjin with three other groups from the same company. We realised how lucky we were to be in our group as one of the others was full of Irish girls and lairy blokes who spent the whole evening "oggy-oggy-oggying" and swearing in rough Northern Irish accents (the girls that is). After dinner we washed up but we had no washing up liquid so I suggested we use sand as we do this quite often. Nat was amazed by the idea and now loves sand, she washes up every night with it, washes her skin and hair and I'm sure she would brush her teeth with it given half a chance. Later on that night me and Steve were kicking the football over a fence back and forth with two of the noisy oggy oggy guys, but we were secretly trying to land the ball on the effing and blinding vulgar Irish girls heads. At one point I asked one of the girls quite politely if she was from Belfast as she definitely had a Northern Irish accent and in the sentence I received back I counted about six f***s and was under the impression she was going to knife me. Turns out she lived about ten miles outside and that makes all the difference, charming young lass who seemed to hate everything and looked like she was chewing on a wasp.. The next morning we drove to the start of the 75 mile beach and everyone took it in turns to drive the 4x4. Not everyone had licences and the beach was probably the safest place to let everyone have a go. It rained all day today but our spirits weren't dampened. It was great fun bombing along the sand and getting slidey bits as you hit deeper sand. Half way up the 75 mile beach lies the wreck of the Maheno which was a passenger liner that was being towed to Japan to be scrapped but was blown ashore. Needless to say we snapped a few photos here then drove to Indian head, the northerly most point of our Fraser trip. In good weather you can walk the cliffs and look down into the clear sea and see turtles, sting rays, dolphins and whales further out migrating up the coast. Despite the rain we all traipsed to the top of the cliffs and did see several stingrays and one turtle in the waters below us. As we were heading back along the beach soaking wet we spotted two dingoes who trotted up to the 4x4 to see if we had any food. We stopped for lunch not long after this and a couple of dingoes approached, half the group jumped into the back of the jeep. I ran towards them banging a spoon on a frying pan and they ran away. I was a little worried approaching these wild dogs as they can be quite aggressive when hungry but we weren't giving up our salami sandwiches no siree. That night we camped out on the beach and played drinking games. There was a cup in the middle that various drinks were added to and the overall loser had to drink the revolting cocktail. It turned out that I lost and drank the mixture of red and white wine, beer, cider and Malibu. Yuk yuk yuk. That night we were all sure that all food was in the van but someone left a cool box out that contained sausages and bacon for the following morning. When sleeping we heard dingoes running round the camp excitedly and at one point one leaned on the side of our tent then started digging next to it. When we awoke we found that they had opened the locked cool box and taken all the sausages , the bacon, a tub of margarine and a half foil bag of wine. We all sat round and ate sandwiches for breakfast. We packed up and drove to a place called Eurong which has the only shop on the island and stocked up on food again. We then drove to Lake Wabby. It was a half hour walk to the lake from the parking area but well worth it. A huge green lake spread before us with a steep sand dune running down to the waters edge. The sun was out today and we lazed and swam and played frisby and rounders. We had a race down the steep sand dune to the water but my body overtook my legs and I went ass over tit just before hitting the water. The sand tasted very good. We threw bits of bread into the lake and huge catfish rose up like sharks and snatched the pieces from the waters surface. We made our way back to the ferry that afternoon and lazed in the sun waiting for it to dock. When back on the mainland we drove past fields of kangaroo on the way to the hostel. When we pulled up I took everyone's camera back to the van and downloaded all photos then burnt discs for everyone while they unpacked and cleaned the 4x4. We all met for drinks and Steve and Nat and Nick and Sam left on a greyhound bus to travel to the Whitsunday's. The rest of us went to the supermarket , then cooked a tagine and had fruit and ice cream. When tucking into dessert Liz said she hadn't seen a possum yet, and with that a possum clambered along the railing to see what we were up to. She was so tame I offered her a piece of strawberry expecting her to take it with her mouth but she reached out a hand, held it gently for a second then took it and ate it. We knew she was a girl as her stomach was large and moving then a baby popped its head out of her pouch briefly. We gave her a grape but she just licked all the ice cream off it then threw it on the floor. She actually threw it rather than dropping it. She allowed us to stroke her then she came on the table and just helped herself to apple, banana and the ice cream tub lid. What a fantastic end to a brilliant trip with some really lovely new friends.