We left Yeppoon and drove to Hervey Bay. When we arrived on our beach front site the boys went straight down on the beach and played around and had a swim. We soent a lovely evening watching the sunset over the gorgeous water. The next day we went for an explore around Hervey Bay, what a beautiful area! On our tour we saw a fantastic 'big person' park so we stopped to have a play. There was a big, tall climbing frame that led up to three, big enclosed metal slides. They were very fun. Then we went back to the van for lunch. Later that afternoon the boys went to the pier and jumped off the side and did backflips off it. When we got back to the van we went for a late swim.

The next day we got up very early and caught the ferry over to Fraser Island. On the ferry we parked our car and went upstairs for the hour long trip. When we arrived on the island we drove along sandy tracks through beautiful, peaceful rainforest to Lake McKenzie.

Lake McKenzie is a big lake that is pure rain water and the water is SO clear, blue and still. It doesn't drain away because the floor of the lake became sealed with leaf litter over thousands of years and acts like a giant plug.We swam there for a while, then we went to Central Station, an old township and rainforest where they used to log ancient trees. Some of the trees were used to build the Suez canal and the London docks after the war. We walked around on a board walk next to a creek that was so clear it looked like there was no water in it at all, and we saw trees that were 3000 + years old, some of them taking 4 or 5 adults to hold hands around it. They only stopped logging it in 1992 when Fraser Island became a World Heritage area. Then we drove down onto to the beach and drove along it a long way to Eli Creek. The beach is like a 4WD highway. It is a fast flowing spring-fed creek that people are able to float down. Because it was shallow we really needed a floating ring or board to float down nicely. We just walked down, it was freezing cold anyway! As we got back to the car we saw a plane land on the beach nearby. After that we went to a shipwreck. called the Maheno. It was amazing to see such a big ship, once a cruise boat, on the land. We had lunch on the beach up further, then went for a swim in Champagne Pools. They weren't very clear as that end of the beach was unfortunately full of red weed.

We drove back down the beach and had a look at the sand dunes and Wabby Lake but sadly we didn't go down because we had to get back to the ferry on time.

It was a nice trip home on the ferry because we could watch the sunset.