Fraser Island

Again there was no lay-in for us as we had to be up and checked out by 7am ready to pick up our four wheel drive and camping equipment. But not before paying the Hostel a further $6 to look after our bags for 3 days! It feels like we're constantly being charged for extras when we've paid loads...

so we checked our cutlery, food and tents and that the 4wd had no obvious damage, signed our lives away, left our details and were then ready to watch instalment two of the safety video which showed us how to dig our vehicle out of the sand if we got stuck, yet again about those dreaded Dingo's and all the different ways we could lose our $100 bond! Then it was off to catch our boat over to the island.

So the group... there was a Swiss couple Caroline and erm I forget, we'll call him Speedo's cos that's what he wore!!! A Dutch couple Tomika and Mark, French and Mexican couple Aurora and Marcus, Irish couple John and Shirley and then Heidi a German girl. Shirley John and Heidi were fine, and the dutch couple but being as there were so many nationalities and people speaking in there own languages no one really got on amazingly...

Any way, our first stop on the itinerary was Basin lake. Shirley was the first to take the wheel and coped really well with the sand tracks but we did get stuck when we were forced to stop to let someone pass and had to dig our selves out. We weren't stuck for long though and carried on to central station where we then got out and took a 30 min walk to the lake (easing us in!!!) and on arrival saw the clearest blue water we had ever seen (well so far anyway) then from there it was off to Cornwall beach where we were to set up camp for the night and eat lunch. After eating though we went on another walk to lake Wabby. We were told by our map that we had a few minutes walk but it actually turned out to be an hour up and down sand dunes about 8ft high (you'll see from the pictures when i put them up) and the sand stretched for miles! After finally making it to the lake it was worth it, what wasn't was the long walk back! By the time we got back to camp some of the others had set up the tents and so we got started on the 'goon' (cheap Aussie wine) and played a few drinking games followed eventually by dinner and the sighting of a Dingo trying to make a getaway with our rubbish bag! After drinking far too much we eventually fell into our sleeping bags, not moving to go to the loo all night for fear of being eaten by a Dingo!!!

Day two of Fraser Island was just as beautiful. We visited the Mahemo ship wreck from 1930 something and then drove down to Indian Head to look for whales and sharks from the cliff top... I'm sure i saw some sharks through the waves but you all know what my eyesight's like! After lunch we then had another long walk to the champagne pools, as if we were to have driven there we would all have lost our $100 bond!!

Day three and it was time for me and Hayley to get behind the wheel... John the Irish guy convinced us to give it a go, even after all the stories we told him of our bad driving! Hayley went first pulling out of our camp and driving along the shore until we reached Happy Valley where we went for a walk down the creek. (It was too cold to float down, as the itinerary suggested). I took over next driving again along the shore (apparently too fast!!!) and then up the thin dirt tracks for two way traffic. Controlling the w4d here was quite hard and i could feel the thing slipping in the sand as i had to manoeuvre round passing and stopped cars, but thankfully I didn't hit any phew! after getting through that though I handed it over to Shirley again and it was off to Lake McKenzie. This was the bluest water you had ever seen. Crystal clear bright blue and beautiful. The sun was out but the wind was cold so dangling my toes in was about all I could muster as the water was like ice. John ran in just so Shirley could get a pic and looked almost blue himself when he got out! Speedo's took a dip too and Hayley took the opportunity to take a sneaky pic of him in his lovely attire!!! This was our last stop though before heading off back to the dock to catch out boat again and then drive the 4wd back. Honestly I cant describe how beautiful the lakes and views were, you'll have to wait for the photos...