Hello everyone!!!

We landed in Hervey Bay last Wednesday, the night before going on our Fraser Island trip. A very early start at 6.00am on Thursday morning was followed by a group briefing at 6.30am in the bar where we were put into 2 groups of 10 people. As we sat around getting to know everyone we all planned are shopping for our 3 day camping trip and of course the all important booze supply!!!! The trip involved us 2 groups heading off in 2 4x4 (10 in each) and meeting a ferry over to Fraser Island, the world's largest sand island. Ian was appointed designated driver for the trip which meant he'd drive us there and back and when we'd all shared out the driving between the rest of the group if nobody else wanted to drive or found it difficult he would step in, BUT as he got around to filling a form with his drivers license details he was told he couldn't drive on just his paper license due to the fact he didn't have his pink card that was lost L.A!!! A very unhappy Ian started off the day gutted thinking he wouldn't be able to do any driving on the sand but after a quiet word with the staff they said it was up to him whether he drove on the island or not as they weren't going to be there so they'd never know so he drove on the island anyway just not on the roads to and from the ferry!!!!!

Arriving on our first day we headed onto the main road on the island, the beach!! You are given the times of hide tide so we had fairly shift it up to the Base Camp where we would camping for the next 2 nights as it was 3pm and the tide was coming in fast. Arriving at Base Camp we were met by Macca who was an absolute legend! If you can imagine Needham when he's about 50 you'll understand what Macca was like. After a briefing on the dingoes that roam around the island and deadly spiders and snakes including the Huntsman, Black Widows, Funnel Webs, Tipans, Death Adder and Golden Obe spiders that can grow to the size of you forearm (which are rare but one was spotted just 4 days earlier outside the mens loo at the camp!!!!) we put up the 2 6 man tents not scared for our lives at all! Luckily for us the groups were full of sound, friendly people and we all got on. As our first night got well under way the Goon came out, Ian started a drinking game and as you can imagine it got messy, ending with all of us heading down to the beach after lights out at Base Camp.

Up early AGAIN at 6am (which was a funny sight full of blood shot eyes) we headed out in the 4x4 and after the night before nobody wanted to drive so yes you guessed it it was left to Ian! First stopp was Indian Heads - a huge cliff at the north end of the island which looked down onto the crystal clear waters. Although the sea is very tempting on Fraser Island there is a strict warning not to swim due to tiger sharks roaming the seas and after witnessing the tiger sharks down below in the water from Indian Heads where they were chasing cute little dolphins and fish it was enough to put anyone off jumping in the sea for a cool down!!! Leaving the 4x4 at the bottom of the cliff we made our way down to the beach on the other side of the cliff for a 45 min walk up to the Champagne Pools. Stopping off for a quick dip here (don't worry no sharks here!) we headed back to the 4x4 where Ian handed over the driving seat to me!!! Not managing to crash driving down the beach and having a good time I then handed the driving over to someone else, a girl called Jade. Starting off well especially as she was only a new driver we all encourage her to have a go because of how good it was but this proved fatal because after 5 mins we nearly died!!!!!!! Seeing a large mound of sand ahead Ian adviced her to slow down as she was going fast but as panic set in she proceeded to accelarate instead of breaking!! If you have never been in the back of a 4x4 going over huge bumps at speed its like being turned into fruit salad! Apart from that little incident we arrived at our next destinations, a ship wreck on the shore then we moved onto Eli Creek a fresh water creek for another quick dip. As you can imagine that night the drinking games weren't as lively as the previous nights.

Our last day was another early start at 6am to get the tents down and the 4x4 all packed up. We headed back down the beach with Tom and Lanna driving this morning towards the first of 3 fresh water lakes the island has to offer. The rest of day involved inland tracks which were all fun and very bumpy testing whoever dared to drive on them. Our last stop of the day was to gorgeous Lake McKennize. As you can see from the pics the water was crystal clear! Managing to survive the couple of days without getting bitten by any venemous animal or toppling the 4x4 we all arrived back on the main land at our hostel. The wreckage continued that night as the group had there last night together so the jugs of beer came out followed by the drinking games then onto a club! We said goodbye to everyone in the morning and now it back to just the two of us agin but not for long. We head up to Airlie Beach today via the town of 1770 to do some cheap sufing and then when we arrive in Airlie Beach where the adventure continues but this time its on a boat. Where off to sail around the Whitsunday Islands for 2 days, 2 nights on a dive boat so hopefully we'll get to do so good diving on the Great Barrier Reef. We'll update with all the stories from that trip as soon as we get back. That's all for now, hope everyone back home is well and we're missing you all. Loads of love xxxx