There's not much to do in Hervey Bay, just sit and wait until you can go to Fraser Island or shower after you come back. Our day in Hervey Bay was spent sitting around and food shopping, not very exciting at all. The next day we were up at 5am and our Fraser Island adventure began. We had to watch a safety video and pack the cars up so we didn't actually get onto the island until around 10. You have to be 21 to drive the car which meant that we had to sit as passengers for the whole thing, but it was still really fun. On the first day we went to Lake Wabby, chilled in the sun for a bit and then headed to our camp site. We kept stopping and getting out to be shown different "bushtucker" I think that I'd be able to survive for an extra couple of days if I got lost now. We tried some kind of grass and were shown the different types of plants to eat and how to find oysters in the sand- I wouldn't go as far as eating those though. Our tents were all set up and were pretty big, the camp had a really cool unit with all the cooking stuff you could possibly need. We tried to wait until it got dark before we started cooking but gave in and had a brilliant barbecue a little earlier than expected. Out of the 8 person group, we were the only ones to bring alcohol with us and so it was just us drinking with our tour guide that night, everyone got involved in the drinking games and dancing though. We headed over to the beach for a bit and looked at the stars- I'd never seen so many stars in my life!
Day two and I was up early but missed out on sunrise by 15 minutes, it was nice to chill on the beach for a while and watch the waves with noone else in sight. Our first stop of the day was to get out of the car and onto a little aeroplane where we got a 20 minute tour of the island. It was pretty awesome and an amazing start to the day, we even saw a pack of 4 or 5 whales swimming about in the ocean! Back on land we went to Eli Creek, the biggest freshwater creek on the island, which pumps out over 60 million litres of freshwater a day, straight into the sea. We walked up the creek and got a bit wet and were able to drink the water whenever we felt like it. Next, we stopped at the Maheno ship wreck, it looked really cool and had been gradually sinking into the sand for the last 100 or so years, it would have been in a lot better condition but when it got washed on shore the army and navy used it for bombing practise so there's not much left to it. We stopped by the Champagne Pools but it was a bit cold and overcast so we then moved onto Indian Head. Apparently you could see loads of whales in the distance but I hadn't brought my glasses so couldn't really see anything, but was a nice view. We drove back along the beach and inland to Lake Allom which is full of turtles, they didn't come too near us though but you saw them bobbing up every now and again, just a few metres away. It also had the fish in it which people pay ridiculous amounts to nibble at their feet, suffice to say, I stayed well away. It was dark and late before we got back into camp, we cooked a feast of sausages and burgers and not long after went straight to bed.
On day three, me and Charlie got up for sunrise and sat on the beach with a nice cup of tea, you can't get much better than that. We had to pack all of our stuff away and clean up the camp before we left and then headed to Central Station. This was where the town was set up before the island became a national park and was used for timber cutting; it was fairly interesting and we had a walk through the rainforest. The main attraction of the island is Lake Mackenzie and this was our last stop on Fraser Island. Unfortunately, we only stayed there for 15 minutes before the sun disappeared, to be replaced by angry rainclouds so we had to run back to the cars for cover. Although, it was still absolutely beautiful and a brilliant postcard picture. Our adventure was then over, it was back onto the ferry and to Hervey Bay. Once again we didn't really do anything interesting and had a relatively early night, enjoying the luxury of a bed and a shower.
We keep travelling south and the next stop is Noosa!