Hervey Bay and Fraser Island

Sunday 17th October - Friday 22nd October 2010

Hi everyone!

I'm going to try and remember Fraser but it feels like so long ago we were there! But thanks to the jounrnal Lucy got me, hopefully I won't forget anything!
We arrived in Hervey Bay early Sunday morning after getting the 13 hour night bus! It actually wasn't as painful as it sounds (it was pretty cold though. J) and it saved a night's accomodation. Our hostel is reall nice, it's called 'The Woolshed' (thank god its not like the one in Cairns!). It's rustic, quaint and cheap so its perfect! We went for breakfast at a place right on the beach called 'Enzo's' which was really nice and not over-priced (this is a first!). The beach look beautiful but it is significantly cooler down here than up in the tropics! It's hoody time until about midday! Although we are tired we went hunting for Fraser tours and although we didn't get much sleep over the last few nights with living on the boat and getting the night bus we booked a 2 day trip for Monday and Tuesday. We really wanted to the whole 4x4 and camping experience but it seemed so expensive compared to the guided tours and we really can't afford to do the most extravagant tour everywhere we go just because' that's what everyone else does'. We were also worried about sharing a massive deposit on a vehicle with 6 other people! If some excitable 19 year old german kid had have broken the car and lost both our ($200) deposits I would not have been happy! So we went for a 4x4 guided bus tour which included a night in the resort and all our meals for the 2 days.
We got up early on Monday got the ferry across the Fraser which only took 20 minutes and we saw another turtle! We got on our 4x4 bus with our guide Cameron who was a legend and drove to Eurong resort. Because Fraser is 98% sand and 2% rock obviously all of the roads ar pure sand. They are very bumpy and skiddy so it's part of the fun just travelling round the island! We got to Eurong on the other side of the island for a brief stop, then headed off to our first point of interest, Wabby Lake.

All of the lakes on the island are at the basin (top) of the island and are basically just collected rain water. The island then acts like a giant sand filter and the rain water seeps through the sand over decades even hundreds of years and flows out of the bottom through creeks in the forest floor. This is the purest fresh water in the world but it cannot be bottles as the island is listed as a natrual heritage site, so the water just flows into the ocean.

In order to get to Wabby Lake, you have to travel along '75 mile beach' (which is actually 90km). The beach is beautiful but there is no one sunbathing or swimming. This is because it is pretty much the highway for the island and vehicles are constantly tearing up and down it! There is no one swimming because of the sharks! (white tip reef sharks, bronze whalers, tiger sharks, hammerheads bull sharks and yes, great whites are some of the species up here during whale season. as they feast on the whale calves. J) Flying along the beach was awesome! The bus went right into the surf and all you could see for miles ahead and behind you was the beach, the longest beach I have ever seen! We got to Wabby but had a 45min walk through the rain forest to get to the lake. The views were amazing along the way and we saw a huge lizard (like the one on my shoulder in Maggie island!). When we reached the lake it looked amazing! Huge sandblows (dunes) stretched for miles and lead directly into the deep fresh water lake. We sunbathed here for a while and walked up the dunes to see the views of...more sand dunes! an idiot tried to sledge down the dune into the water but no one told him that sand was different to snow and it didn't really work!

In the afternoon we went to the 'wispering creek'. This was a walk through the rain forest along the creek. It was called the wispering creek because you didn't even know there was water there! You couldn't hear it, even though it was flowing pretty quickly, as there are no rocks, just a sandy bed. You could hardly even see it because the fresh water was so clear! We walked along trying to avoid the funnell web spider nests and other places creatures lived (it was creature city down there!) and huged a 1000 year old tree! We saw a dingo on the way back and a cub!Aparently they have a bite like a pitbull and do attack humans (nine attacks on humans in the last 4 years, including the death of a 9 year old. J) but Cameron said that if you stand up tall, wave your arms and bark at them you should be fine...cheers Cam!

On Tuesday we were up early again and once again travelled along the beach to Eli creek. It's so good having Cameron explaining the history of the island, I feel like a right geek but I'm quite enjoying 'the w***er bus!' (cheers Alex). Eli creek was beautiful, we walked through it against the current from the ocean which was very hard! It's amazing how much water these creeks pump into the ocean! The water was so clear and we were just sipping it all the way up, it tasted better than any bottled water I've every had! We also went to Indian Heads. The highest point of the island which is a great viewing platform. Joe was desperate to see some sharks!We sat right at the edge of the cliff on the rocks and the views were amazing.

On the way back down the beach we stopped at the Maheno shipwreck. The history of the shipwreck was intriueging and it looks so amazing just chilling on the beach! On the way back to the resort for lunch we saw whales out to sea. The mother was teaching the calf how to do tail slaps and we just wathced it from the bus, amazing! Then, 2 minutes later we watched fisheman cathc a stingray! Quite an eventful trip back for lunch! In the afternoon we went to Lake McKenzie. I really got the wow factor! White sands (not quite as flour-like as Whitehaven but still very white!) and turquoise water, very beautiful. It was also amazing going for a swim and not getting salty! You could literally drink the water whilst swimming! We spent a while sunbathing at McKenzie the got the ferry back to Hervey. We saw wild kangaroos on the bus back to our hostel.

We just chilled out on Wednesday then went whale watching on Thursday. I was so excited! Unfortunately the weather was crap and it was freezing out on the boat but it didn't stop the whales! A mother and calf came right up to the boat and swam underneath it! The baby was trying to do fin slaps and they were quite happy with us watching them. They are huge! I really wanted to see one of them breech which apparently they do quite a lot but they didn't that day, never mind! It was still good to be so close to them! (The whales were hump backs. they travel to the coast of North Queensland from the Antarctic once a year for the wamer water! They give birth to their calves up here too which is what attracts the Great Whites up from Southern Australia! I wanted to see an attack. J)

We saw Macca again who has now made it to Hervey but we got the bus to Noosa on Friday to stay with Sam and Hayley!Loved Fraser and whale watching...roll on the Sunshine coast with the Wellars!!!

Lots of Love,

Elle and Joe x x x