Sorry for the suspense guys, I know Mum and Dad have been waiting patiently for me to add my next bit in, but I've been doing so much lately that it's hard to make yourself get on the net!

Well on the 7th October I left beautiful Noosa on the Oz Bus and was heading for Rainbow Beach and looking forward to a few days of relaxing on the beach, but someone didn't like that idea and decided to make it rain! When I arrived at Rainbow Beach I bumped into Paul and Jo who were just about to get on the bus that I had been on from Noosa, and were going to Hervey Bay to do Fraser Island. They suggested that I come along with them, so I did. It was quite a rush, as I had to check out of the hostel (after only checking in five minutes before), change my bus and rebook the dates I was going to do Fraser Island. It all went smoothly though, and so it was back on the bus and onto Hervey Bay. I was so excited, as I was a bit worried about doing Fraser on my own incase I ended up with a bunch of weirdos for 2 nights, which I seem to attract on this trip!

We arrived into Hervey Bay in the afternoon and we stayed at a hostel called Palace Backpackers. It was quite nice and the rooms were a good set up, with their own bathroom, kitchen and living area. Hervey Bay itself though is completely dead! People say it's a place that old people go to die! lol. That's exactly what it's like. We had a run to the bottle shop to stock up on drinks for our time on the island, and yes my choice was Goon again (not sure why I keep drinking it, but it's so so cheap.) We then had quite a chilled night, and was able to pay $10 and get all you can eat Dominoes pizza, which was delivered to the hostel. When it finally arrived I have never seen people move so fast. It was so funny, loads of hungry, broke, backpackers just racing for the food! One of the guys (Phil) provided us all with a bit of entertainment by having a bet with the other guys to see who could eat the most slices of pizza. Why men have to do these crazy things, I will never know! Most of the guys dropped out at about 8 slices, but Phil carried on and on and on. It was painful to watch, as he looked like he was going to be very ill, but so funny. He ended up eating 16 slices of pizza!!! He didn't look too good, but said he was fine and apparently does these eating competitions quite regularly. After the entertainment, we just relaxed in the tv room and had an early night, as it was an early start the next morning to get ready for Fraser Island.

We had to be up at half 5, as there was only 1 shower and quite a lot of girls in the block! We then had a talk at half 6 and watched a dvd to prepare ourself for what we might encounter on Fraser. We was also taught the Dingo position! This is what you have to do if you come across a Dingo; you have to cross your arms and put them across your chest. None of us were convinced that this would stop the Dingoes attacking us though. It was then time to go and get our camping equipment for our self drive. On Fraser you can either do a guided tour or a self drive. I chose the self drive, as wanted to have the true experience of camping! (I couldn't have been thinking straight when I decided this, for reasons that I will go into a bit later.) When we had packed the van up with all of our stuff, we made our way to the port to catch our ferry over to the island. It was quite a smooth sailing, much to my relief, but was a bit dissapointed as didn't see any whales or dolphins. I am still yet to see anything like that here!

When we arrived it was time to experience 4 wheel drive! Very exciting stuff! Lets just say it is an experience I will never forget. There are no real roads on Fraser, it is either driving on the beach or the most bumpiest dirt roads I have ever been on in my life. There were 7 of us in our car; Paul drove and Iain was the navigator! There was then us girls in the back! Yeah thanks for that boys. When you are sitting comfortably in the front seats it's great, but it's totally different in the back. I literally kept coming out of my seat.

Our first stop was a place called Lake Wabby and it was beautiful. There are sand dunes going down to it and the sand is just like powder. As the weather wasn't great I just had a little paddle with Jo, whilst we wathced the guys see who could run down the dunes the fastest without fallen head over heels into the lake! Boys will be boys!

After this it was time to make our way to our first camping spot. We were driving for quite a while and when we asked them, the boys said they knew where to go, even after we said that it was in the other direction. Did they listen to us though? No. We ended up driving quite a few K's in the totally wrong direction. They were not happy when they realised they were wrong and had to turn around. All of us in the back were very pleased with ourselves and they didn't speak to us for a while, it was very amusing.

When we finally got to our first camping spot at Cornwalls it was already starting to get a bit dark, so we had to work together very quickly to get all the tents up and then we could start dinner! It didn't take very long and we were soon all sitting on the sand, around our stoves cooking dinner. There were 15 of us all together and it was such a good group. The reasons for why I must have been crazy to do a self drive were just two small things. The first one is that when you need to go to the loo you aren't allowed to go by yourself, because of the Dingoes, and you need to dig a hole with a shovel and then bury it! So, whenever any girls needed to go we would all go together and whilst one was busy, the other would stand holding the shovel (ready to hit a Dingo if it attacked us) and the other with the torch scanning the area! Looking back on it now it's so funny, and after doing that for 2 days, you certainly build quite a close relationship with people, especially when you need to go to the loo and you've had a bit too much Goon! (I'll go into that later too.) The next reason is you will never get any sleep! When I've been camping back in the Uk, I've had the luxury of an air bed to sleep on, but this was real camping, so all you get is a roll mat and your sleeping bag. I didn't know what to do with myself, it was so damn uncomfortable I wanted to scream. Also, we hadn't zipped our tent up properly at the back, so there was a big flappy bit blowing in the wind and I could see right outside. I was too scared to get out and zip it up incase I got eaten by a Dingo! lol. It was lovely in the morning though when I woke up at half 5 and could watch a bit of sunrise through my tent. It was a bit worrying though, as mine and Sana's bag were outside the tent. The other girl who was in it with us said that she hadn't kicked it out accidentally when she went to the loo in the night, so the only other explanation was that a Dingo had got it's head under the zip of the tent and dragged our bags out! All I kept thinking of was that the Dingo could have come all the way into the tent whilst we were asleep! Scary scary!

We were given a suggested itinerary of what to do whilst on the island, so our next stop was Indian Head. This is where Captain Cook sailed by and saw some natives on the island and called it Indian Head, because they looked like indians. Very original. When we signed all of our forms that morning, you was given the option to drive the van if you have a driving license. I wasn't sure if I wanted to have a go, as the vans' are so top heavy, but my determination that I could do it got the better of me. When I started driving though it was harder than it looked. I never thought I hard it would be to drive in the sand. Your tires are constantly getting stuck in other people's tracks and you skid everywhere. I done quite well though, and was driving for about 45 mins. I think the girls liked me driving, as I drove quite a bit slower than Paul and everytime it looked like we were coming to a bump I slowed right down. Unlike Paul who would just keep going and send us flying. I was naughty and should have been wearing my glasses, but I drove everyone safely to Indian Head and really enjoyed it. I didn't want to drive anymore though, as it was hard work, so passed it back to Paul.

After Indian Head we went back along the beach to look at the ship wreck and it was great just to see it there on the beach. It was then time to start driving back along the beach to get to our next camp site, as the tide was coming in and you're not allowed to drive through sea water. However, when we came to our spot to get across to it there was no other way but through the sea when the wave went back out. It was a bit scary because we were told if you drive through sea water it ruins the engine and then you will all lose your $1000 bond on the car! Paul had to time it just right in order to miss as much water as possible, and he did just that. However, the rest of our group behind us just kept on coming through and got caught just as the wave came in. Sea water covered the whole of their car and we just said to eachother 'well they aren't getting their bond back!'

When we got to our next camp site, Eli Creek, the weather got even worse and the heavens opened. The boys put up the cover sheet in the trees whilst the girls put up the tents and made sandwiches! Looking back on it now it was so strange - men making shelter and women making the home and food! lol. It was about 3pm by the time we were all sorted and it was still pouring it down with rain. We had nothing to do, so I came up with the idea that we open the Goon and have a game of cards. We had a nice little set up, with us sitting in the back of the van with our boxes of Goon on the top of the van and a roll mat across our knees to act as the table for our cards. As we hadn't had a lot to eat and had been playing drinking games also when people lost a game, it didn't take very long for us to start feeling the effects of the devil juice. Especially myself. There is a picture of me attempting to climb out the front of the van to go to the loo, and this took quite a while, with several times of me almost falling out of the van. I wont go into too much detail, but I don't think I have ever been that drunk and lets just say I can't remember much of what happened! lol. In my defence, it was the Goon!!! My saviours though were the girls who were great and kept and eye on me when I was adamant that I would be safe to go off with the shovel and toilet paper, saying 'I'm not afraid of any Dingo, as I have my shovel!' Very, very embarassing! It was a good night, from what I was told and everyone took great joy in filling me in on all the blanks the next morning!

On our last day we went to a beautiful lake called Lake McKenzie. It took quite a while to get there and the journey was not a good one with the Goon hangover from hell. I even had to steal Iain's seat at the front, as was not feeling too good. What a gentlemen! When we got to the lake it was lovely, but was spoilt a bit by the rain, but we stll enjoyed it. We then had to catch our ferry back to Hervey Bay and it was quite sad to leave, but everyone was looking forward to having a shower and having a good nights sleep in a comfy bed.

Oh my god, that was the longest blog so far I think. I hope I haven't bored anyone, but there was so much to write about. I had a brilliant time on Fraser and made some really good friends. Hope you enjoy reading it everyone. Mum and Dad please don't worry about the Goon episode! lol I was in safe hands. lol

Love to everyone xx