Fraser Island stretches over 123 kilometres in length and 22 kilometres at its widest point. It is the largest sand island in the world.

The Butchulla people are the indigenous people of Fraser Island. The Butchulla people's traditional name for Fraser Island was K'gari which means paradise. According to Butchulla legend, Fraser Island was named K'gari after the beautiful spirit who helped Yindingie, messenger of the great god Beeral, create the land.

Fraser island is a place of exceptional beauty, with its long uninterrupted white beaches flanked by strikingly coloured sand cliffs, and over 100 freshwater lakes, clear and blue, ringed by white sandy beaches. Ancient rainforests grow in sand along the banks of fast-flowing, crystal-clear creeks.

Fraser's White sand was even shipped to Hawaii before the island became World Heritage listed and is now protected.

Fraser Island's World Heritage listing, ranks it with Australia's Uluru and the Great Barrier Reef. Fraser Island is a precious part of Australia's natural and cultural heritage, it is protected for all to appreciate and enjoy.

Bobbi and I had a day to enjoy the island and the facilities at the King Fisher Resort as we were lucky enough to have an additional night included before starting our Cool Dingos tour. We took the opportunity to head down to the Jetty bar to enjoy a couple of drinks whilst watching the sun set on the beach.

COOL DINGO ‘DAY 1' 4WD TOUR
Today was the day we checked out some of Fraser's coolest, sub-tropical inland sights. We met our tour guide known as 'Dingo Dave' and on first impressions you knew that he was going to make the tour fun for everyone.

First on the itinerary was the postcard favourite, Lake McKenzie, named the super model of Fraser Island with is crystal clear blue waters and white sandy shores, covers more than 150 hectares and is over five metres in depth, perched high in a sand dune and looks good in all weather conditions.

From Lake McKenzie we took a short drive into the rain forest where we disembarked the 4WD bus and took a walk to Basin Lake. Basin Lake is one of the best examples of a black water perched lake. It covers and area slightly larger than a football oval and is eight metres in depth.

From Basin lake we were on our own, Dave pointed us in the right direction and would grab the truck to meet us at the other end of the trail after informing us about the dangers of snakes and spiders we could encounter whilst in the Rainforest. All we had to do was follow Wanggoolba Creek - walk along the banks of this silent flowing creek with lush green rainforest and rare king ferns... it was simply breathtaking.

We arrived at Central Station where Davy was waiting - no trains or whistles here - just peaceful, ancient rainforest and the reminders of a former, once bustling logging camp. Logging industry stopped in 1992 but there are still areas of the rainforest that were completely untouched. We also saw the Dingo cam that has been set up around the island to monitor the Dingos and their litters.

Davy was very informative and I learnt a lot about Fraser Island and made the most of picking his brain. Two of Fraser Island's unique features are its diversity of vegetation and its ability to sustain this vegetation in sand, a soil that is notoriously low in nutrients essential to plant growth. Plants growing on the dunes can obtain their nutrients (other than nitrogen) from only two sources - rain and sand.

The dominant trees in these rainforest areas are the Fraser Island satinay and brush box. Often emerging above this 50 metre canopy are hoop pines and kauri pines as well as creepers, massive birds' nest ferns, elkhorns and, occasionally, native orchids.

From central station we continued to walk through Pile Valley we saw the giant Satinay, with unique waterproof properties that can only be found in the species on Fraser Island. Another tree, the Scribbly gum, a name given to variety of different Australian Eucalyptus trees which play host to the larvae of scribbly gum moths which leave distinctive scribbly burrowing patterns on the bark.

This is where we stopped for afternoon tea and ANSAC biscuits before heading beach to Kingfisher Resort to watch the sunset together as a group on the beach.

Day 2 of Davy's Cool Dingo Tour
An early start to explore Seventy-Five Mile Beach, the world's most gorgeous beach highway where all road rules apply, the speed limit is 80 kilometres an hour and you must give way to aeroplanes landing and taking off along the beach. The fishing is excellent, but the strong undertow and large sharks make it unsafe for swimming.

For an additional £40 we got the opportunity to take and Air Fraser Flight if we desired. I decided that as I will most probably only visit Fraser Island once in my lifetime to go for it! I volunteered to be the co-pilot and from the skies the view was unbelievable, it really put into perspective how large the island was and just how many sandblows and lakes their were on the island. The flight lasted 20minutes before we landed back on the beach to meet the rest of our group at our next location on the tour - The Pinnacles Coloured Sands.

We moved quickly onto Champagne pools, where we got to chill out in bubbling ocean rock pools a great photo opportunity!!

We drove past Indian head earlier in the morning to avoid the other tour group and decided to return after the crowd had disappeared. We climbed to the top of this rocky headland for awesome island and ocean views.

The drive along the beach in itself was amazing. We got to see Brahminy Kites soaring through the sky. Along with one of the largest of these raptors is the white-breasted sea eagle which has a wing span of two metres or more. The coloured sands of the cliffs also stood out. The colours are caused by the leaching of oxides that coat each grain of sand, causing bands of colour.

The third stop of the day was at Maheno Shipwreck - washed ashore during a cyclone in 1935, this rusting wreck is one of Fraser Island's iconic photo stops. After seeing the ship from the sky it was great to get a sense of scale on the beach.

From the Maheno we went to Eli Creek - the largest creek on the eastern side of the island with a flow of 80 million litres of water a day. Davy gave us some tubes and we got to float down the creek which definitely cooled us down!

Day 3
After saying our goodbyes to 15 members of the group the evening before we headed to explore the 'icing on the cake'.

Lake Birrabeen - after falling in love with Lake McKenzie, Lake Birrabeen allured is with its sparkling clear waters and dazzling white beaches... After I was selected as paddle board inflater along with the guys on the tour we couldn't resist a dip.

After a buffet lunch at Eurong Resort we arrived at the 'walk of death'. I was raring to go with my walking boots on and we had some bad news. There had been a dingo attack within the last hour so the island Rangers were closing off the track. Davy had to think on his feet..after a couple of calls he decided that Kirrar Sandblow would be our final destination. It was truly a great way to finish the tour! We hiked up the sand dunes and the views were incredible.

It was time to soak up the last drive back across the island in the yellow dingo-mobile. We arrived back just in time to board the 5pm ferry back to Hervey Bay. From there we were set to catch the night bus to Airlie Beach ready for our next adventure.