We arrived at Hervey Bay ready to start our camping trip in Fraser Island. We had our briefing and met our group, thankfully we got a brilliant group. There was 8 of us altogether, Me, Arber, Sam & Nick, two Irish Guys- Mark & 'Gerry from Derry' and two Swedish girls Lyn & Hannah. After hiring our sleeping bags, us complete with all of our luggage piled into a 4WD to go and collect our camping equipment. We loaded our van perfectly thanks to Arber and made our way to Woolworths to do our food shopping for the trip. 8 People shopping for 2 nights was definately a little bit of a disaster as we bought so much, 10 loaves of bread, 10 cans of beans, 50 sausages, 20 burgers, 5 bags of pasta and a kg of butter! After stocking up the van with all of our food (which by the way also consisted of 90 beers & 6 boxes of goon we made our way to the ferry with minutes to spare.

We were the first car out of three to enter Fraser Island- the biggest sand island in the world. Being driven on the sand was definately a bumpy experience. Our first stop on the island was the Maheon Shipwreck from 1935 which was pretty amazing. There was literally sand everywhere and at the wreck we were knee deep in sand. We drove past the Rainbow Sand rocks and found a camp site for the night, a spot just on the beach. After setting up camp we decided to go and see Lake Allom- although we never quite made it that far. A German guy from one of the other 4WD's drove us and despite his need to always be in charge we didn't get there with enough time before sun down. We did however see some amazing sandblows. After eventually finding our way back to camp we started to prepare burgers for our dinner. Arber cooked us a brilliant BBQ for us. We had such an hilarious night belting our songs around the campfire.

The following day we woke up at 6am after a disrupted nights sleep as I was paranoid of being attacked by dingos which are all around the island. The tent itself was pretty warm and comfy. We made our way off the beach pretty early to avoid high tide and went towards the Champagne Pools. We went for a swim there and the water was freezing but thankfully the sun was out. The pools themselves were really nice with rocks surrounding them. From there we drove to Indian Head where we walked to the top to do some whale watching. We saw loads of dolphins coming in our direction and some sting rays. It was really lovely to see them in the wild! We walked back down Indian Head where we took the 4wd to Lake Wabby another bumpy journey with Gerry calling 'heads' everytime we flew over another bump.

Lake Wabby was absoultely amazing- it was beautiful as it had sand dunes surrounding the sides. All of the guys took it in turns to find various ways to slide down the sand dune into the lake from sliding on a body board or just racing down into the water quite funny to watch. The water was pretty cold so I decided not to go for a swim. On the walk back from Lake Wabby the funniest thing happend, we saw two dingos in the grassland & everyone panicked as we had been told many different horror stories about them. Gerry & Mark two big Northern Irish guys were completely petrified so much so they nearly ran straight for the bush shouting 'somebody call the ranger'. It was funnier still as they had been taking the mick out of the safety instructions given by the ranger- they were the first to cross their arms & panic at the sight of them!

We left Lake Wabby at dusk making it pretty difficutlt to find a camp on the beach after ages of everyone trying to organise the cars as a windsheild we set up camp and started cooking our pasta & sausages for dinner. Quickly after setting up camp we realised that we had set up very close to dingo territory, there were soo many dingos walking into camp so much so that I could barely sleep paranoid of being attacked in the night. The rain poured down that night so not only was I scared of being attacked we got soaking wet in our tent!

The following morning we woke up a little wet & saw how close the dingo footprints were to our tent I was pretty glad to be leaving after that! We packed up camp and made our way Central Station to cook breakfast and then to Lake Mackenzie which was also amazing. It looked more like a beach then a lake with sand surrounding the crystal clear water. We spent a few hours relaxing by the sand & catching up on some sleep from the night before. We left Lake Mackenzie and departed for the barge where we returned to Hervey Bay. It was so nice to sleep in a bed back at the hostel & have a hot shower.

We had a nice lie in the following day & did not feel guilty at all as there was absolutely nothing to do in Hervey Bay except chill out in the hostel.

Arber:

The experince has to be one of the best and pictures and descriptions will not do it justice !!

The driving was really fun and all credit to our drivers who rocked there was this one bump however that resulted in two swedish girls and an eski full of beer flying into the air and crashing back down lucky the swedish are hard wearing and the beer was OK.

Marcus the German guy was a tad scary and bore an unhealthy resemblance to the dude from the autopsy show but the least said about that the better.

This trip was as amazing as it was only because of the group we had - "The dream team" You guys will live on in our hearts forever with a special mention to the creation of the square only those in the square know of its existence and it is to be used wisely as it is a source of great power!!

And for the record I was not scared of the dingos, more a heightend sense of things (Brownie points if you can guess the quote) i stood there with a knife at the ready, just in case...

Katie was scared beyond belief and they were really intimidating at night and just to try to make her feel better i made her a fence next to our tent to keep the dingos out although if you ask the Irish they will tell you they made it but it was another great night fuelled by Katie's sound traveller amongst other things and a bonding strenghtened by fear of dingo attack.

P.S the hostel in Hervey bay was wicked it felt like a little flat share so definetaly stay at Palace if your in Hervey Bay!!