Thursday 16th July

After leaving Noosa last weekend, I bussed up to Rainbow Beach, which along with Hervey Bay is the main gateway to Fraser Island. So from Rainbow, I set off on my 3-day, 2-night tour of Fraser.

Fraser Island is a national park, and is the largest sand island in the world, it is also the only place in the world where rainforest grows on sand. The beach along the eastern side of the island is essentially a road, with two-way traffic; 'roads' linking the few villages, campsites and attractions on the island are almost entirely of sand, so 4wheel drive vehicles are ESSENTIAL for driving on the island.

We were briefed at the hostel and shown two fairly frightening DVDs about the risks and potential hazards of driving on sand, then informed about the accident three months ago in which a group of backpackers rolled their car, two died and two were paralysed, all very sobering. H&S stuff out of the way, we were put into two groups, twenty of us all together, one group for each car. We did group shopping for our meals (ARG, no wonder they all fall out over the big brother shopping task, it was a nigtmare and nearly had me running for the hills or being a right b****, straight away!).

The next day we were taught how to pack all our stuff on top of the roofrack to make the van stable and sent off.. I was first to drive! Was great to be beind the wheel again and very cool to be in control of such a powerful beast! Very slowly accorss the soft beach in 4WD and onto the ferry for the 8min ride to the island. There was a short stretch of beach then onto a rubbly jiggle rattly inland road to avoid the impassable beac bit (which, incidentally, a group tried to drive round the day after we arrived there, their car got swamped by waves, cut out and they had to be rescued and have a new car shipped out to them, at THEIR cost!!). We stopped for lunch and saw our first dingo (!) so beautiful. They are wild on the island and posters everywhere warn not to leave food scraps etc for them, and if they attack, to 'defend yourself aggressively'.

We then barrelled north up the beach (this was nerve wracking, sand is such an unpredictable surface to drive on and so many potential hazards like waves hitting the car [risk losing our deposit on the car if there is evidence of driving in salty water], freshwater creeks [they can have washed out high banks, that are invisible until you hit them], very soft sand [makes the car swerve and skid] and hidden rocks [BUMP!].. I actually didn't enjoy the first day driving much, not until the second day when I was more used to it). So north up the beach, to see the wreck of the Maheno, a rusting hunk of a ship remains jutting out of the sea, daylight was fading, the seaspray was misty, it was very impressive and atmospheric. The SURF... it was fabulous, 6 or 7 high waves stacked up behind each other, rolling in from 100s of metres out and just awesome to watch. Camp for the night was a patch of sand by some trees one dune in from the sea, we cooked pasta by torchlight then sat on a tarp on the beach and gazed at the entire sky filled to the brim with the southern hemisphere stars.. then bed at 9pm, and our sleep was lulled by the booming of the waves just metres away. Unforgettable :)

Morning was 6am and a clear orange sky, we loaded up the cars and were on our way south again to Eurong, the main village on the island. Our insurance only allowed us to drive on the beach 2hours either side of low tide, so we had to be off the sand by 9am. From there we headed inland along narrow, hilly, lumpy, skiddy, bumpy, off-roady tracks to Lake McKenzie- PROPER off-road driving! The lake was stunning! The clearest turquoise water I have ever seen, with soft white sand on the bed, but freezing cold..as I discovered only after I chucked off all my clothes and RAN in!! Arg!!

We later headed to Central Station, an old forestry camp site, where we BBQd and walked and set up camp and drunk some goon before another night in the tents, this time under tall tall 100m trees. It rained a little overnight, but our third day was as gloriously sunny as the two previous (we were SO lucky). We headed north again up the beach to walk 30mins inland to another lake, Lake Wabby this time (should mention that you can't swim in the sea off fraser island as there are SHARKS so lakes are the only swimming option for unwashed, stinky campers!). This lake was less clear than McK, but surrounded on 3sides by eucalypt forest, on the forth by a massive sandblow (dune) that is slowly engulfing the lake.. at one point is almost vertical and a well known site for sand-surfing and bunda-jumping (jump as far out as you can over and over again, you go so FAR because of the steepness of the slope down and land in soft soft sand, so fun!). There we passed our non-beach-driving time, ate sandwiches out the back of the vans on the beach then sat and watched the waves and reflected on our time, it was the perfect end!

I spend two further nights at rainbow beach, the second at a lovely hostel called Pippies, which was SO homely and welcoming and provided free dinner and breakfast, I reccommend! Then I got on the bus to Hervey Bay.

My first three hours in Hervey Bay were spent in a&e, getting my arm checked out and X-rayed and poked and prodded. The verdict was an inflamed tendon or tendon bundle or sheath and the prescription to keep wearing a tubigrip, taking nurofen and trying to rest it. Same as before! But atleast I didn't have to pay for it this time, visits to the emergency department of a hospital are free for medicare card holders..a very useful piece of knowledge and one that I will certainly be putting to use should I need medical attention again! So now I'm in Hervey Bay, which is nice, with a soft beach and some cool shops (which were just a bit too tempting and warrrented a few purchases on the credit card, but no-one is perfect, I needed these things!). Tomorrow I am off to Bundaberg, to stop there for two nights and to go look round the rum distillery and the ginger beer factory that it is famous for, with free tastings at the end of the tour... whee!!