Ok, so I'm not in Cairns, I'm actually in Airlie Beach en route to the Whitsundays but this rubbish computer wasnt recognising it and kept freezing on me..plus it is really slow at recognising typing so this is going to take forever and a day!

So where I last left off I was about to depart for Fraser Island. Our group consisted of 8 girls and 3 boys. JOY! 2 German lads, Andreas and Phillip, and a French guy called Edward who I've been bumping into at every stop since Sydney which is quite random. There were also 2 Irish sisters, Mary and Sarah, and a Canadian girl called Robyn. Everyone turned out to be really nice, and we all got on well.

Basically the jist of Fraser Island is being given a 4X4, camping equipment and a map. You are given a basic route (certain lakes to see and where to camp up) but the rest is up to you! The roads (i.e. sand tracks) on Fraser Island are very bumpy and driving around them is a bit of a challenge, especially for the first driver (Andreas) who was hurled lots abuse and endured lots of girly screams - seriously thought we were going to topple over many many times.

We stopped at the first lake, Lake McKenzie, which was so beautiful, absolutely stunning! The water was freezing though so just paddling was enough for me..and it was there that we first experienced the annoying Canadian, Patrick..everything ended in 'DOT COM DOT AU DOT CO DOT UK' and he drank nothing but goon the whole 3 days, even for brekkie..for those who havent travelled, goon is basically boxes of wine (very cheap, hence drank by everyone). We then had some lunch and went onto Central Point, which we discovered was basically a bunch of trees, so yeah we left pretty sharpish for the next lake.

However, we definitely took a wrong turning somewhere because we got very very stuck up a sandy hill. Edward (Frenchy) was driving, so we all got out and tried to push, but it was all ending in tears..the van kept rolling back (cue many girly screams again) and sand was flying in everyones faces.. so Andreas decided to reverse back and basically take a running jump at this bloody hill. Tried and failed. Tried again and failed. So Philip zee German tried. And failed. I was getting all annoyed at this point and though we should just turn back and find an alternative route as we blantantly wernt going to make it. But no, Philip goes for it again. But this time, ingeniously, he drives up on the left hand side which has firmer sand..and MAKES IT!!!!! I nearly cried! He had to endure a running leap and hug from me with screams of joy and relief.

But this detour made us miss the pretty lake and we went and set up camp, whilst the other vans gradually joined up with us. Oh, we were Group A - the A Team! There were about 5 groups I think..was so much fun I can't describe how much I loved it all! But anyway..the girls cooked a mean spag bol (mmm) and we got on the goon and set up fires to keep warm and socialise. Met tonnes of people, and the guys next to us had a very drunk Finnish girl in their group. They put her to bed in their tent so she could just sleep it off..they went to check on her later and she had...pissed and puked all over their sleeping bags and tent!! HAHAH. Repulsive! So embarrassing for her.. the boys were not happy to say the least..she couldnt remember doing it the next day and I felt bad for the person who had to break the news!

The next day Laura got the driving off to a start and we went to Dilli Village which was basically a CLOSED campsite. No showers for us then! I took over the driving (yep I know) and headed to Eastern Beach (show in the pic above). It was incredible..amazing..aaah just A REAL BEAUT MATE! Driving on the sand on the beach was easy compared to the driving on the tracks so I was in for a smooth ride. We went and saw the Pinnacles (basically different coloured sand dunes) and a ship wreck from the 1930s which was pretty cool. Pics to follow of course!

We then headed for our camping ground on the beach and managed to get most people in one site which was awesome, we had dunes as wind breakers so sleeping was pretty boiling in that damn tent. But again had a fantastic night, altho I fell into the bbq (it was cold by then!) and have two parrallel 4 inch long bruises on my leg. and they hurt!

Next day we headed for Lake Wabby (after the situation of having no van as the boys stole it to go watch the Champions league final - HAHA at Chelsea by the way, couldn't be more gutted for them!!!!) which was about a half hour trek up and down massive sandunes, through the bush, knackering, but worth it. This lake is disappearing and won't be here in 10-15 years as the sand is collapsing into it so I'm glad I made the effort! People were rolling down the sand hills and into the lake..Philip the German was the funniest.. he came back up and said in his dead serious German accent 'I have appeared to have left my wallet in my back poooocket'..think you had to be there.

So sadly it was time to depart for the barge and go back to Hervey Bay. The most fantastic trip was finished off in the best way possible by seeing dolphins jumping out of the sea in sync as we pulled into Hervey. Brilliant.

We got back and had SHOWERS!!! Aaah it felt so good, so good. We had a 14 hour bus to catch at midnight so had a bit of time to kill, but we got to store our bags etc so we just chilled in the bar/watched Champions League highlights (again HAHA). The bus was soooo long, and we got here about 2.30pm, so we've just been wandering around since then..had a nice dinner..the lads are with us too which is cool so we're gonna have a few drinks tonight before preparing for our Whitsundays trip tomorrow. We're on the Pride of Airlie which holds 60 people and sounds like it's gonna be ever more fun..can't wait!

Til the next time, lots of love xxxx