So, after 3 hours of next to no sleep, I set foot in hervey bay. It was roasting hot even at 8am in the morning which didn't blend well with how tired and disgusting I already felt. I got a free lift with the hostel van with a girl called Charlotte who's friend is in podiatry too apparently. It's amazing the conversations you have in 5 minutes. The hostel was called Palace hostel, and was the best hostel so far purely because I had a whole room and a double bed all to myself. I went straight to bed and fell into a coma for three hours before getting up and setting off to explore hervey bay. Another three hours and getting stupidly lost and burnt I felt it was time to meet the rest of my crew for the Fraser island tour. I was nervous as I had a feeling that the people I would be travelling with would determine whether the trip would be a right laugh or a absolute nightmare.
An ex-druggie looking man as lean as a whippet came out and introduced himself as Dubsy (renamed N-dub by us English) and put us in our groups for the jeeps. I landed myself in a group of 7 in total: 4 fun English girls from Suffolk and a Danish couple who's names I couldn't pronounce for the entire trip. That evening, the Danish couple hadn't arrived so we were yet to meet them until the day o the trip. These were now the people I was going to travel, eat and sleep with for the rest of the Fraser Island tour. The girls (Grace, Liz, Poppy and Rachel) were on a gap year from cheese making (according to Grace) and I easily relaxed with all of them immediately. There was three other trucks other than ours out on the trip. Jeep group 3 contained a mad bunch of 5 lads (ben, kyle, neil, kev and justin) and a girl (sam) from Canada and a geeky guy (Tom) from Norway. They were an entertaining lot and we spent most of our time with them during the trip. The other 2 jeeps had a mixture of Icelandic, Swedish and english most of which were moody or kept to themselves.
That evening we headed over to woolworths, the local supermarket, to do the shopping for the next few days on fraser island. I hate food shopping and doing it with 4 strangers who all had different tastes was no exception. It didnt help that we were buying for 2 people that weren't even there. We spent an hour shopping for 7 people for 3days which wasn't bad going really. Sandwiches, BBQ, and pasta. Simple backpackers food.
That night we made the sandwiches for the next day and hung around with the canadians for a while who were in the same block of rooms before hitting the sack early. The canadians on the other hand had different agenda and stumbled through the door at 3am and playing the 'animal noise' game, something they found hilarious, something I didn't, especially when it was a half 5 start in the morning. I took it upon myself to tell them to 'pack it in', a phase that they had never heard before and just made them laugh more. Tough night.
Half five came around and the girls decided that since they too had hardly any sleep, to wake the lads up in style. By banging the crap out of some saucepans outside their bedroom door. If I wasn't in the shower, I would've applauded them. In fact, it was probably the only thing that got them up that morning.
We ha to sit and watch this safety DVD on driving and camping of Fraser island which is hard do on little sleep before dubsy walked in and informed us that one of the dorm blocks had been broken into that night (the one with our precious sandwiches in) which meant the police had to complete an investigation before we were allowed to head off to the island. I used this time to print out a copy of my drivers licence (thanks dad) so I could drive the 4x4 when we got there. God help us all. It was only me and one of the Danish couple who could do the driving since everyone else was too young (you had to be over 21) and because I was able to drive the Australian way, on the left, I had to drive from the hostel to the ferry. Just before we left dubsy yelled out if anyone had left a box of goon out the front of the hostel. As no-one else claimed it, I was quick to swoop in and claim it as ours. A four litre box of goon is exactly what we needed to make this trip from a good one to a great one.
Setting up all out stuff I climbed into drivers side and adjusted the seat so my stumpy legs could actually reach the peddles. I felt like I was in a tank. The clutch was sticky and the steering was heavy and the suspension was clunky. It was sooooooooo much fun! I was so nervous about driving again after 3 months, especially a bunch of strangers, but it felt like I'd never stopped driving. Like riding a bike, as they say. The troop of 4 jeeps made our way down to the ferry and made the half an hour journey to Fraser island, the only island to be made entirely out of sand. When we landed, we were greeting by thick dense jungle and, you guessed it, more wet weather. With my Singapore poncho on and strapped firmly into the drivers seat we took off down the beaten track into the thick mass of trees. The roads were bumpy, pot-holed and full of slimy mud but the four wheeled drive setting on the jeep made light of the rough roads and just made it all the more fun to drive. I was in my element.
First stop was central station, the area in which the original buildings were set up for the workers on the island. The area was shimmering with different shades of greens and browns with a perfectly clear river running through the middle. The towering trees were overwhelming, standing tall and strong, some being there on the island for thousands of years. Nothin man-made could ever be this beautiful. I even appreciated it in the pouring rain.
After a quick ganders around it was back into the jeep for another bumpy ride to the a small area with a grocery shop and a bakery so a water refill. It was the half an hour drive on the perfectly clear white beach to the springs. The drive was fast and weaving, having to be careful of the crashing waves on the beach in case it got into the engine. It felt like a 10mike hike to the fresh water lake in the intense heat but when we got there we here greeted by the most breath taking sight. A powerful wind from the sea had cause a wind tunnel pushing inland leaving a vast landscape of sand dunes that sloped down to the fresh water lake below. I had read somewhere that it is the only place that pure sand gives way to solid dense jungle. The sight is more impressive than it sounds.
We tumbled into the lake which was so refreshing after the long walk. Us girls and the canadians made up two sides for a game of water rugby. I stupidly did not have the bikini for such rough behaviour so I held back. The only time I did try and tackle someone I ended up clinging onto my bikini and scratching the hell out of one of the Canadian lads on the neck. Nice. Sorry Kev. Poor Rachel also got head butted and chipped a front tooth which was pretty hilarious for everyone but her but she quickly got over it and carried on with the game. Her nickname was Chipper for the rest of the trip. We didn't want to get out partly because we were having so much fun, partly because we didn't fancy the bloody long walk back in wet clothes and partly because the horseflies were eating everyone alive, especially poor Rachel. These flies were huge, as big as my little finger and were extremely persistent. No matter how much we battered them they would still fly away 5minutes later to seek they're next victim.
I let the Danish bloke drive back to camp and he got stuck in the soft sand at the first opportunity which made me secretly smug. The camp tents and kitchen trailer were already set up from the group before us so we dumped our stuff, quickly changed out of our sandy clothes and set about cooking our 'BBQ' which consisted of a giant grill that took ages to cook anything. We naturally broke out the free box of goon to keep ourselves occupied in the meantime. By the time the food was cooked, I was pissed as a fart but appreciated the sausage sandwich all the same. We saved the rest of the sausages and put them away safely away from the preying dingos and went to the beach for an old fashioned game of dares. As far as I remember, there were the bunch from jeep 3 and us girls. By the end we had three streaking bodies along the beach, a lap dance, snog, as well as divulging all sorts of secrets that you would only ever tell a stranger when drunk. I luckily managed to avoid most of the worst penalties mainly because my drunkness turned me into a giggling mess, putting the spotlight onto other people rather than myself. As the night wore on however my innocent laughing fits turned into agressive lashings. At one point I told all the canadians lads that I 'f**king hate men' and I told one in particular that he should 'lighten up' (sorry Kyle). I fell onto my camping mat in the soggy tent at god knows what time and fell fast asleep before anymore damage was done.
The next morning we were woken up by dubsy pretty worse for wear. The goon is not pleasant for the head. We had pancakes for breakfast and we gathered round to reminisce about the night before, most if which I'd forgotten due to the copious amounts of alcohol. All in good fun though I thought. We got a couple of dirty looks from some of the others that weren't involved but I'm sure they were just jealous that they're night wasn't as fun as ours. grace had lost her camera the night before and had spent the morning looking for it before finally finding it in one of the cooler boxes full if watery ice. It miraculously still worked. You know it's been a good night when you find your camera in a cooler box.
After breakfast and cleaning up camp we set out to drive down the beach once again to see a shipwreck, colourful sand cliffs and a giant rock pool that was protected from the stingers and predators of the sea. I let the Danish guy drive as I was in no fit state. Despite the heavy night I was surprisingly upbeat and found the scenery too beautiful and uplifting to be bogged down with a hangover. The swim in the cool salty water of the rock pool followed by the stunning views from the top of the shear cliffs certainly helped keep me awake. On the way back to camp we stopped into a perfectly clear river to swim in and to clean off all the salt water. It was freezing cold but the water was some of the cleaner on the island, raising to the surface through volcanic springs and purified by the fine sand over thousands of years.
By the time I made it back to camp I was bushed. It was nice and easy pasta for tea and I found myself once again doing most of the cooking and washing up. At least the Danish helped cook this time. After dinner everyone was branching off and I decided to walk along to beach, look at the stars and listen to the waves. An hour later however I was woken up by one of the English girls. I had fallen asleep, out cold, on the beach. It was a marvel I wasn't savaged by the dingos. I made my way further down the beach to find that a few other camps had joined ours. Three of the canadians had settled in with the girls they had met on the first night. The rest of us sang songs to a guitar and talked about all sorts of crap that you do when overtired and tipsy. Bed pretty early but manage to stay awake later than most (probably because of my beach power-nap) and discovered Grace had pulled an adorable Swedish bloke called johnny.
I awoke after what seemed like minutes later to dubsy banging on saucepans like a marching brass band. No cooking today so it was wheetabix for breakfast with cold pasta made for lunch. I annoyed the girls by sticking my bananas in the cooler box and stinking everything out but I didn't care since I had done most of the work in the camp anyway.
It was off to lake makenzie today for a quick dip and lunch before home time. The lake was a giant puddle with no rivers feeding into it, just thousands of years of rain water caught in this beautiful valley. We attempted to make a 15-man pyramid in the water, just to discover that it's definitely harder than it looks. My beloved aviators broke on the way home which annoyed me slightly by I was just too tired to care too much. In all honesty I'm surprised they lasted that long. I drove home back to ferry and then back to the hostel. I was shattered beyond believe. I was shocked that people trusted me to not fall asleep on the wheel.
We finally got back to the hostel, all sandy and tired but happy to be back. I went and got some more sunglasses and did some much needed washing. I swear my towel was so dirty it was growing it own ecosystem. That night i put my name down or all you can eat pizza hut which hit the spot nicely. I amazed everyone by eating 10 slices but for me it was a typical habgover day of eating. There were about 5pizzas left over after everyone had tucked in so we nabbed them and put them in the fridge for lunch the next day. The lads amazed me that evening by hitting the drink yet again and taught me several drinking games which, of course, got me smashed. Being one of the last to go to be once again made me wonder how I was still able to function. After setting my alarm for the next day, I thought about the five hour drive to noosa the next day. The bus leaves at half ten. A small lie in I suppose.