Hervey Bay to Fraser Island 3-5th Feb

Travelling north from Noosa me and Katie headed for Hevery Bay, 1 of 2 gateways to Fraser Island, the other being about an hour south, Rainbow Beach. After a night in Hervey Bay we had an early start to be ready for the mornings briefing. Here we met the rest of the group, 10 in total, 11 in the other group and planned food and alcohol for the trip. Next we travelled in the 4x4 to the depot for a small talk on how not to crash, roll the car and burn the clutch out! Unfortunetly for everyone else i missed this important briefing while out shopping for the teams food!

The ferry across the Fraser took about 40 minutes beforre we set off on our self safari across the island. The 4x4 was cosey but comfy enough. 2 seated at the front, 1 driving of course and then 8 in the back, 2 rows of 4 facing each other, usually knocking knees! Our group consisted of 10, 3 boys, 7 girls. 4 were sweedish, 3 british, 1 canadian, 1 irish and 1 german. A really nice group of people and we all got along brilliantly. So off we all set along at first a fairly steady track, only a few bumps. The island, being made of sand has dirt sand tracks to match, some of which can be particuarly unpredictable. As we got further into the island the tracks became less steady, loads more bumps and could be quite uncomfortable in the back at time. The seats lifted off the ground with some of the big bumps but a lot of fun all the same. Even better was driving the car! I had so much fun driving up the hills and bobbling along the tracks. Driving a 4 wheel drive is a completely different experience but a brilliant one. The car will withstand a lot and very difficult to roll. Difficult to get used to not changing gear so often and ensuring not to use the clutch as little as possible. The car would happily go up a steep hill in first with no clutch control needed.

So day one on the island and we headed inland to a place called Lake Mackenzie, a fresh water lake hidden inside the thick trees that make up the island. The lake is beautiful and stretches for miles. The water is so clear and graduates colour from clear to aqua blue to dark blue, really lovely. The sand on the beach is pure white and really soft, its a little paradise. Shame about the grey clouds that were overhead but can't have everything.

The weather was really varied over the 3 days. We had a lot of overcast and thick cloud, rain showers, downpours and the odd sunny spell. The nicest weather, of course was for our last 3/4 hours on the island!

The rest of the day was spent exploring Lake Birabeen, similar in size to Lake Mackenzie but not as beautiful. It might have been the rain that made me feel this way but the water was dirtier, and reeds surrounding the edges of the lake. We then headed to Central Station. An information point on the island surrounded by a small creek. Not very exciting to be honest but a dry spot for lunch. Due to the tides we had to make the hour journey to a place called Eurong. A small place consiting of a few houses and shops and the gateway to the beach. As i said we were governed by the tides as our base camp was a good hour up the beach, and the tides needed to be our for us to reach this. Driving along the beach was a much smoother experience, the only real bumps were created by water steams running inland out to sea.

Base Camp was a complete luxury on the island. Proper toilets, hot showers for $2, gas stoves and a hot plate. We camped in tents of 3 or 4 with plenty of room. We had plenty of room to pitch the tents however we all made a shocking job at it. We pitched them to face each other, socialble and all, but no body really paid attention to where anyone else was pitching their tent so we ended up having our doors on top of each other and having to climb over each others guide ropes to get in the door! Needless to say several people tripped over them many a time! The hard floor was easier to sleep on compared to camping at the everglades which was a relief as we had a lot of early starts. Camping was interesting though, no snakes but i saw my first huge huntsman and we had a couple of red back spides on the tents, a very deadly spider! That was just lovely....

Day 2 on the island meant we left camp at 6am to meet the tides. We headed North up the beach to two places, Indian Heads and Champagne Pools. The Indian Heads were a rock formation that jutted out over the land and gave lovely views across the beaches. The Champagne Pools were a good trek along a beach and around the cliff edge. The pools are natualy formed between the rocks at the bottom of a cliff due to the waves crashing over the side of the rocks. Named Champagne Pools as the water bubbles as the waves crash down. Beautiful clear pools, two large ones surrounded by rocks and warm to swim in. Again, due to the tides we had to head back to camp for 12pm which was unfortunete as we were almost twiddling our thumbs as to what to do. We were meant to have the option to sand board but due to the rain the sand was just to wet. Myself and 2 of the others took a short walk towards the sandlot, a hude sand dune stretching across the island. We walked to a large rock jutting out of the sand only for the heavens to open up and for us to get drenched on the walk back! Because the clouds were heavy too, we didn't dry out at all, neither did the clothes.

Day 3 and our final day on the island. Again, an early start for the tides meant we had to be packed up and leaving camp by 7:30am. We headed South down the beach towards Eurong stopping at the Maneno Shipwreak and Elji Creek. After reaching Eurong we were pushed for time so headed back to Lake Mackenzie to just relax on the beach and the water. This time the sun was out only increased the beauty of the lake. The water really was something else and such a lovely place to be. We left the lake and headed back to the ferry for around 2pm.

That evening both groups got together for dinner, drinks and dancing and had a brilliant time. We had all bonded so well and i had an absolutely brilliant time!