Luckily we made it to Rainbow Beach in time for our briefing, and we were both pretty relieved that our stupidity would not prevent us from doing the Fraser Island trip! We were put in a group with 2 other couples: Kayleigh, Jerome, Chris, Hollie and then two german guys Roman and Gerome. The briefing consisted of mainly advising us how to be 'Dingo safe' and letting us know that there wouldn't be any showers or proper toilets for the next 3 days, much to my horror, it was going to be like the jungle all over again! There was also plenty of "I'm not going to tell you what to do, but....Don't go in the sea, don't sit on the car bonnets, don't feed the dingos, don't climb on the shipwreck"' etc etc.

Once we had sorted the important things like, how much alcohol we wanted to order (including the compulsory boxes of goon) we spent the rest of the day getting to know our group, packing for the trip and enjoying the last shower for 3 days!

After finally realising the severity of the flooding round Rockhampton (up until now we had just thought it would clear, or wasn't as bad as everyone was saying), we accepted we would not be able to get our next bus to go north to 1770. Instead we just had to suck it up and book a flight from Brisbane that would take us to Airlie Beach in time for our Whitsundays trip, and it was important to act fast as every man and his dog was doing the same thing in Peterpans. So having booked that, and Jonny's dad kindly agreeing to plead with Greyhound whilst we were away on Fraser to let us double back on ourselves, we were able to relax in the knowledge that we would still be able to go North when we returned from our trip (or so we thought at the time).

Early next morning we were up and loading the trucks with all the camping gear and food. The trucks were pretty rickety and old school and it was a tight squeeze to fit the 8 of us in with all of it! We had a very quick lesson on how to drive a 4 by 4 jeep and how to drive on the beach (I was pretty nervous as it was an absolute monster compared to Colin) Despite the rain we had had in the last few days, Merv assured us that it wouldn't rain solidly for the next 3 days, so although we were somewhat skeptical about this, we set off, with Roman and Gerome cracking open their first goon bag straight away!

We got the ferry over to Fraser and then had a long drive to Lake McKenzie which was our first stop. It was a really bumpy ride and we were all getting thrown around so much in the back seat that we started to worry what we had let ourselves in for. We were also somewhat concerned that the back door of the jeep might fall off at any second! All the jostling round was no good for our bladders and our whole line of tagalong jeeps had to stop so all 30 of us could go to the loo in the bushes. That's when we realised just how well we would get to know each other on the trip!!

We arrived at Lake McKenzie which was stunning and all stripped off to go for a swim. No sooner were we in than a big black raincloud headed straight for us and the heavens opened and we got drenched, leading us to think that we would not be dry again for the next 3 days!

Our next task was to sort out lunch, which was a bit of a palava as we had been given a meal plan telling us how to ration the food out between the 8 of us for the next 3 days, but some of us were more keen to stick to it than others! That plus the rain plus limited implements, being wary of dingos and having no facilities for washing up etc made it a somewhat stressful experience!

Back on the road again and this time it was Jonny's (who Roman had christened Von Bommel due to his likeness to the Bayern-Munich mid-fielder) turn to drive! He had a couple of teething problems (ie not being able to put the jeep into neutral) but other than that coped well with all the uneven bumpy roads in the heavy rain! We stopped at a creek to go for a walk but everyone was less than enthusiastic about this because of the rain! The majority of the group (but not the drivers obviously) was also 3 sheets in the wind by this point, having been on the goon for most of the day!

We arrived at the 'camp' (just a stretch of beach with a few tarpaulins up and a dunny with no roof and full of spiders) with enough time to erect the tents, which me and Jonny managed to do without falling out(!) and then as the rain had eased we went on to the beach to play footy. No sooner had we picked the teams than the heavens opened once again! We ran back to the camp to discover that all the groups had already started cooking dinner and we were well behind: cue a lot of stress as we tried in vain to erect a shelter to cook underneath, which basically involved the more determined members of the group wrestling with a giant tarpaulin in the pouring rain! In the end we just squeezed our way into the communal kitchen area and had to beg a cooker off another group, as ours had gotten too wet and sandy to be able to light! Luckily though, Roman (up until now he had tried to keep it on the down low that he was actually a chef) pulled it out of the bag and cooked 8 steaks to a turn (one even had a fine coating of sand) and with Jerome making a gourmet salad we were well underway! By this time, the other groups were way ahead of us in the drinking stakes and we could only really watch as they did the limbo and karaoke (both of which I am woeful at) and generally got hammered!

Around midnight we spent a good hour looking for Gerome, who none of us had seen for ages and at last sighting had been pretty worse for wear. As we had heard horror stories about people being found washed up on the beach at Fraser after going for midnight swims, we thought we should find him. Some of the guys did the whole 'macho' thing and went off to search the beach. Jonny stayed behind with the girls to search the tents, but ended up saving the day by finding him curled up in no other than.... His own tent. (Roman had already assured us he had already checked their tent and he wasn't there). Enough said.

Next morning there were a few sore heads and I took the graveyard slot and did the first shift at the driving. (this was after i had repaid the favour Jonny did for me in the jungle but the less said about that the better) Driving along the beach was a really good experience although difficult in the soft sand as it pulls you along in a zig zag. Also because of the rain, there was a lot of freshwater running into the sea to drive through, felt line something off top gear, ha!

First stop was Eli Creek (or 'hangover' creek) which is a shallow but fast moving stream which pulls you along (freezing but really fun). Then we checked out the Maheno shipwreck, then drove to a picnic spot for lunch where we saw the BIGGEST golden orb spider (seriously it put the BeeGees up me haha!!).

Later in the afternoon we went to the Champagne pools which is the only place you can swim in the sea on the island, (if you don't die by slipping on the rocks first). We were slightly put off by the warning that there had been a lot of stingers spotted in there that day, so we only really dipped our toes in!

Next we headed to Indian Head which had amazing panoramic views of the island and we were really lucky with the weather, so that plus having a can of cider made it quite a contemplative experience! On the way back to camp we had a brief stop for our guide to show us all the mussels living just beneath the surface of the sand, and then again at Eli Creek to wash off all the sand and sun cream! Normally none of us would dream of washing in there but we couldn't get in there fast enough!

That night Roman pulled it out of the bag again by cooking up a chicken stir fry and the whole process was much less stressful than the night before, proving that we must be camping pros by this time! We played a few drinking games although the vibe was definitely more chilled, and we ended up in bed a bit earlier, just before the heavens opened again! The biggest and loudest thunderstorm I have ever heard ensued, and lasted the whole night, with a thunderclap waking us up at one point! Also not good for needing the loo in the night, when the toilet tent has no roof!

We awoke next morning to the news that we would be heading straight back to Rainbow, as the lightening made it too dangerous to do the walk to Lake Wabby. The guide also casually informed us that all the roads in and out of Rainbow Beach were flooded and we would not be able to get out in the next few days (slight problem that we needed to leave by Wednesday morning at the latest to make our flight we had already booked.)

Once we made in back to Dingos and had a much needed shower, the topic of conversation amongst everyone was how we were going to make it out of Rainbow Beach. For some people it was more urgent than others, and they paid AUD 100 for a 4x4 to take them along the beach to Noosa, where they would hopefully be able to catch a bus to Brisbane to get a flight wherever.

As we didn't have to leave until Wednesday, we played the waiting game a bit to see whether the water levels would go back down. On Monday we bit the bullet and paid AUD 70 each to reserve a seat on the sunset safari bus the next day to take us all the way to Brisbane. As it was a jeep bus that would drive on the beach, we were guaranteed to make it to Brisbane, in theory! So we went to bed on Monday night feeling fairly content that we had everything sorted!

How wrong we were - we woke up the next morning to the awful news that Toowoomba had had an 'inland tsunami' with several being dead and more missing. Worst still, all the water was heading downstream to Brisbane which was suffering from heavy rain, flooding was imminent and all residents were being told to evacuate. Watching the news channel solidly all day whilst waiting for the bus was pretty depressing and made us wonder whether it would be safe to go to Brisbane at all. Needless to say the bus didn't run, and was rescheduled for 3am the next morning, with no guarantee of getting to Brisbane but with the promise of 'we will try'. Meanwhile, people in Rainbow were panic buying and the supermarket shelves were empty, we had the feeling the end of the world was nigh!

At 2.45am on Wednesday we piled onto the sunset safari bus, praying that we would make it to Brisbane airport so we could fly the hell out of all the mess. The first leg of the journey was an hour through the rainforest on a bumpy track in the pitch black, which was really disconcerting I was sure we were going to die. By the time we got on the beach it was much smoother and starting to get light, although the foam coming off the sea was at times up to the windscreen and looked like snow! It was pretty surreal driving through it listening to 'I like big butts and I cannot lie' (our driver was slightly crazy!).

We made it to the ferry crossing at Noosa at 5am as planned and although the river banks were flooded, we were able to make it across, which was the first big hurdle overcome! On the other side were some other buses which had made it up from Brisbane that morning, giving us high hopes that we would make it after all.

We finally arrived at Brisbane airport mid-morning (after a brief stop when the tyre on the bus burst and the driver had to change it -not what we needed), and all flights were running normally so we would make it to Airlie Beach in time for our Whitsundays trip after all! We spent a few hours hanging around at check in (where I fear we may have looked like tramps because Jonny was sleeping on the floor). Once we had checked in we had a celebratory and fully deserved Burger King!!