We drove into Hervey Bay around sunset once again and were confronted by a sprawling mass of neon lights epitomised by the bright yellow of McDonalds and the red of KFC. It felt great to be away from England! We found a caravan site on the edge of town and parked up for the night. As we had been driving all day, we hit the hay relatively early. The next morning we went to the Beaches hostel to use the internet to keep up to date with e-mails etc before heading off to the airport. We made a small sign and waited for Jamie (Green) to arrive on his flight from Sydney. He was really shocked to see us waiting for him when he walked through into the arrival lounge and we were really excited to see him. We left the airport and drove to the beach where we enjoyed cheese on toast and walked along the beach. We spotted a creature bobbing up and down in the sea and with the help of a local, concluded that it was a dugong or in nautical terms, a sea cow. We then drove around the town for a bit before heading back to the caravan park where we cooked dinner. After dinner, we drove up to the bowling alley and enjoyed a single game. We were tempted to keep the bowling shoes as we would have only lost of our flip flops, but we decided against it and went back to the park where we went to bed. We woke up really early the following morning as we had to get off early to make it to Fraser Island (The largest sand island in Australia and maybe even the world?!) but we found it hard as it was freezing. It probably was not that cold but we had been in the tropics for the previous 4 months so we were used to high temperatures all day every day. We arrived at Beaches hostel and were put into our group. We were put into a group of 7 that comprised of 3 19 year old girls and a 19 year old French guy, neither of whom were legally allowed to drive, so we had the fortune to be the designated drivers for the whole trip! I then went off food shopping while the others were briefed about the 4wd. About an hour after arriving, we were on our way to the ferry port, the gateway to Fraser Island!

The ferry journey over to Fraser Island was really relaxing as the sun was shining and we had a really cool breeze. We were also really fortunate when a pod of dolphins including a baby rose to the surface right by the boat so we had an amazing view of the whole family. When we docked, Jamie was the first to take to the wheel and we drove off into the bush. We drove down a single track for about half an hour before we hit the main strip, the beach. The inland track was pretty exciting as there were lots of bumps and loads of sand to dodge so we had a great time doing that. The beach was a little bit different in the fact that it was ridiculously wide (at low tide) and really flat, which enabled all of the cars to use it as if it were a major highway and drive at 80kmph. This was also fun although slightly more dangerous as there were lots of concealed inlets where freshwater streams flowed across the beach into the sea, creating ridges either side of the flow. This was a problem as some of the ridges were quite steep so we had to be careful and drive slowly to make sure we did not crash into one.

Our first stop of the day was at Eli Creek where a crystal clear stream flowed out into the sea. Despite it being really cold, Jamie and I went for a wade whilst the girls just watched. We hopped back into the car and drove up to our next stop which was the Maheno shipwreck. This wreck was right on the beach and was pretty amazing when the sea crashed into it. We then drove up past the pinnacles (large rocks that had some amazing bands of colour) and on to our camp for the night. Heather and I had turns driving on the beach during the day, but I took over the reigns after the shipwreck and steered us safely home. Although, having said that I did manage to be the first one of the group to get us bogged in the soft sand, and that was about 100m from the camp. When this happened, everyone got out, i reversed and powered through the sand in a low gear. Perfection. We arrived at base camp a little earlier than planned because we had missed out one lake, but we made up for lost time by faffing around with our tents. We managed to erect one tent but then realised that it had no front zip and no pegs to secure the frame with, so I had to run down to the office at the camp and ask for a new one. Fortunately they had one (a better one in fact) and we eventually managed to put that one up. By this time, the other groups had arrived and the sun had set, so we decided to cook dinner. On the menu was spaghetti bolognaise (a student favourite) while every other group had burgers and sausages. Everyone was really satisfied with the dinner and that put the group in good spirits for playing drinking games. Unfortunately the girls in our group decided to go to bed at 8pm so we joined another group and had a really good time until the lights went out at 10pm!

We got up pretty early the following morning and I volunteered to drive again, this time up the beach for 45 minutes to Indian Heads and Champagne Pools where the sightings of great white and tiger sharks were a possibility. We climbed up to the top of the rocks and had amazing views back down the beach, out to sea, and across the island, but unfortunately we did not see any sharks. We did however, pass a dead dolphin and a beached loggerhead turtle that was still alive despite being eaten by a shark on the way to the rocks. The ranger saw us at the scene both times and we had to convince him that we were not doing the beaching of wildlife! After taking quite a few photos we climbed back down and walked along a neighbouring beach to the nearby Champagne Pools which were named for the foam produced when the waves crashed into the rocks. The girls went for a swim while the rest of us relaxed before heading back to the car.

When we returned Jamie took over and we attempted to drive up to Lake Allom, the one we missed out the previous day, however, due to really soft sand and huge mounds, we kept on getting bogged and because there were only 6 people pushing compared to 10 in most groups, we decided to turn around and return to base camp. Annoyingly we found that our burgers had leaked all over our food as a result of the rough terrain so we had to cook them there and then before throwing away pretty much everything else, leaving us with bread for food for the next day! After lunch Heather, Jamie, Anthony and I drove back down to Eli Creek where we sunbathed, threw a ball around and swam in the creek! This was really good fun, especially seeing as we had not managed to see the lake for 2 days in a row. We then drove back with the tide coming in and made dinner at camp. The 4 of us then cracked open the alcohol and chatted for the remainder of the evening while the girls once again went to bed at 8pm.

The tents were packed up fairly early and Jamie set us on our way by driving inland to see our first lake for the day which was really dis-coloured, we think as a result of iron toxins. We were also fortunate enough to see a Dingo (wild dog) when we got back in the car. This was lucky as they can be quite aggressive when hungry. Heather then took over the driving and we travelled up towards Lake Birrabeen. She encountered some quite rough terrain but not as bad as what I had driven through on the way to the first lake after taking over from Jamie. We had taken a wrong turn and ended up driving down a really steep verge which was covered in tree roots and holes, but it was really exciting as it felt like real 4wd driving. We finally decided to turn round after we saw that the map said we were approaching terrain unsuitable for hire cars and I attempted to get back up the verge. Fortunately I kept it in first gear and we powered through.

We stayed at Lake Birrabeen for a long time as we found a really cool sand dune that we could jump off of. Heather took loads of photographs of me jumping off in a gap advert style before I exhausted myself and we returned to the car. Our next stop was the famous Lake Mackenzie with its crystal clear water and perfect white sand, reminiscent of Whitehaven beach on the Whitsundays. We played frisbee in the water for a while which was really eerie as about 15m in, the beach dropped and all you could see was a mass of black. It felt like we were swimming into the abyss. We sunbathed for a while (Jamie in the shade as he was pretty pink) and then headed off for the car ferry back to Hervey Bay. When we arrived the ferry was not there so we waited for a while and all managed to be savagely eaten by sand flies which gave us itchy bites for about a week! When we finally returned the car we had to pay a fee for apparently losing a saucepan lid, although we did not want to as the guy came out screaming and accusing us of something we had no idea about. Eventually we paid him and we went back to the hostel to pick the campervan up. Seeing as we had not had the greatest of luck with food, we decided to get a Domino's pizza as they were really cheap and we were really hungry. We spent the rest of the evening drinking in the bar and talking to the other groups from our trip before we parked the van in the shadows of the next door car park and went to sleep.

Our next entries will take on a different layout as we think it will be easier for us to write and for all of you to follow!

Alex