Monday 6th May and Road Trip number 3 begins, this time with 1 Canadian (Brodie), 1 Swiss (Stefan), 1 German (Lisa) and me J First up is food shop! Second stop is fuel. And then we set off headed to Noosa which is a cute little town with a river running through. We camped in a scout camp which was actually closing down the following day so it was only $10 and there was only another couple on the site too...our own private site. It was wet that day, so the man showed us where we were allowed to put up our tents as he didn't want the grass to be ruined. We cooked some good food, had a nice cuppa tea and then headed off to the town for a couple of drinks. We started in a bar that was giving away a free burger & chips when you purchase any drink after 8pm - get in, dinner number 2 J Of course I couldn't refuse free food. Stefan's friend came to meet us in the pub. She had been studying English in the town for about 2 months. She ended up taking us to the backpackers hostel across the road. It was wet t-shirt competition for men as well as women this time...what an experience! Goodness people really don't care sometimes, just stripping off in front of a load of strangers. It's so odd people can be so confident with their bodies and what's worse is that the guy who was most arrogant was actually from England. Oh dear, what an embarrassment. Never mind, it was quite a laugh. We headed back to the tent at about midnight.

On the morning of the 7th we rented 2 kayaks- something different to do and a nice way to see the village! It did rain on us a couple of times whilst we were out but we soon dried up. We saw some awesome pelicans chilling on the beach. This was the first day the guys picked up on my ditsyness...(even though I did actually say this as a joke but somehow it seems to have stuck with me) "aw cute those pelicans are beautiful, the baby pelicans have to grow lots"...to which Brodie responded "Kelly, they're segals!" Still haven't lived that one down. Then I end up spilling milk in the car whilst the lads treated themselves to some fish & chips. OPSY! It wasn't my day, as I ended up losing my water bottle too that day and then it decided to pour on us again as we were walking along the coast in the 'National Park'. It was worth the walk as we got to watch the sun set from the rocks and watch a storm in the far distance. It was cool. We ended up driving north a little before stopping off at another scout camp. This camp was class though and the owners actually let us stay in their dorm room...a bed for the night with a kitchen from just $10 per person GET IN! We did get lucky at the end of a bad day. I headed to bed early that night I was so tired.

I started the morning with a run around the camp and a few of Davinas abs J We set off at half 9 (I wasn't in the best of moods this day for some reason I must have got up on the wrong side of the bed but I recon Brodie set me off as we ended up waiting for him to have a shower which took over 20 mins so we were all sat in the car ready to go when we had planned to leave at 9am!) We visited a sandblow in Rainbow beach. It was pretty but rather windy so the sand was really hurting my legs when we were taking silly photos on the mountains. Stefan went off and attempted to take some snazzy photos (he's a professional photographer). There was a butchers in the town so we decided to have a BBQ for lunch. I had a sausage and a chicken leg whilst the lads went all out with burgers, onion, fried egg. I must admit it did look pretty impressive! They would have paid $30 dollars for that in a pub so they were quite happy. Lisa had her vegetarian BBQ which consisted of mushrooms, zucchini and peppers. After visiting the visitor information centre we decided we would head to Fraser Island from Rainbow beach the following morning so we bought a pressure gauge and a permit to drive on the Island which was $42.50. We set up camp in a bush camp at Inskip Point (the very tip of the main land where we could catch the ferry the next morning. It was so windy that evening we tried using our car as a shield but it was still really windy and cold. We all just wanted to jump into bed so we didn't even bother with dinner, we set up camp and went to sleep. Brodie slept about 2 hours because the wind kept him up. I woke up with breathing difficulties as I was sleeping on really uneven ground. Stefan got wet as the guys tents were not water proof! I think Lisa was the only one that slept longer than 4 hours that night. But we were all excited for Fraser the next morning so we were up and packed by 8am ready to start the day. We drove up to the Ferry and decided to jump on it at 8am despite the fact that our tide leaflet said low tide wasn't until 11am. We managed! The ferry was $100 return for a short 10 minute journey (Yea, rip off, but I guess that's how they make money and still much cheaper than booking a Fraser Island tour which would have cost $350 for 3 days, 2 nights). I'm so glad we decided to go ourselves in the 4X4, it was so much fun discovering the Island ourselves, getting lost and getting stuck going through water that was too deep for poor old TufTuf to handle. The engine cut out 3 times that day going through water but luckily the first time this happened we were with another car and the guy showed us what we needed to do to start it again. As soon as we stopped for lunch at one of the lakes, it decided to rain on us. The lads refused to let it get them down so they ended up standing outside in the rain peeling potatoes and cutting onions for a travellers 'fried breakfast' (bacon and hash browns). Lisa and I sat in the car eating our porridge laughing at the lads getting wet outside. The lake wasn't very impressive so we went to find camp at Central Station. We were told that we needed to get a camp permit for each campsite we stayed at so we decided to walk to the Central 'Village' to make a phone call with the pay phone as none of our mobile phones had signal (I put Village in speech marks because it was simply 3 wooden huts, 1 with tolietts and the other huts were empty!) The walk took about 20 mins and ended up being a pointless walk as the pay phone cut out on me when I tried to pay over the phone - it was a mission to pay, you had to set up an account with them first with name, address, contact numbers etc before you could even pay. We didn't have enough change to stay on the phone that long so we walked back to the site and just hoped that no rangers would come and check. We had some dinner and a $1 shower. Stefan, Brodie and I ended up messing around in the dark light painting with his very expensive camera. The stars were shining bright so we tried capturing them as well as the impressive trees that stood so tall. We attempted light painting "Road Trip 2013" 4 times, but each time either Brodie or I messed up the numbers. Brodie did the 2 the wrong way and I ended up doing the 3 the wrong way. Despite one of the numbers being the wrong way, it still looked impressive! I'll make sure I get the photos of Stefan to add to the blog, they look incredible.

On Friday we planned to walk an 18k trek along the Great Walk but Lisa wasn't feeling up for it (bad head) so we ended up driving the route instead which was still a good laugh. We visited Lake McKenzie which is the most famous lakes on the island. It was beautiful with lush white sand and apparently it's meant to look like glass on a calm day. Unfortunately it was quite windy that day so we didn't get to see that. We also later discovered that the water in the lake is notorious for being great for your skin and hair and cleans jewellery...shame Lisa and I didn't actually go in as we didn't take our bikinis OPS! Still, we walked half way around the lake and chilled on the beach for an hour or so. The lads ended up bullying me and I ended up buried in the sand...I was covered from head to toe (Thinking about that I am still to get them back on this). It was good fun messing around anyhow. Lisa was brave enough to let Stefan drive the car along the tracks but he didn't quite get that you couldn't just drive straight and that it wasn't a normal tarmac road...all the roads on the island are dirt tracks, muddy and bumpy. Only 4x4 cars will survive on the island. We were proud of TufTuf as he made it through the 5 day Fraser Island journey even though he is 20 years old. Go TufTuf. We had to plan our day on the low tide as if we wanted to visit anywhere, we had to make sure the tide was low enough for us to pass the rocky sections of the beach. We didn't make it in time past the rocks on Friday night so we ended up setting up camp in one of the camp areas just off the beach. It was a cool little spot, shaded and alone...with a few dingos! We had a good night, drinking, chatting and messing around on the beach. It was a good location because the mosquitos don't get me in windy locations, so I loved being by the beach. We felt like we were the only people on the island. The stars in the sky were incredible; you could see the milky way too. The sound of the sea was amazing, the insects were so noisy, and the birds wake you up in the morning...ah man, good times, even if a little sandy, and you have no access to water or toilets! Everything is made better with Tea and TimTams though J ps. Double choc TimTams are by far better than the original and they must only be eaten one way - with a cuppa tea!

We spent all day Saturday morning chilling as we had to wait until midday for low tide. Yes Brodie may have read the tidal leaflet incorrectly as he told us the previous day we could leave at 8am! Ops Brodie, a little incorrect don't you think! Don't worry, we don't let that one pass either. It sure is a group full of banter J We headed all the way up the island, saw some turtles in a lake. The roads were really bumpy on this route and I was beginning to feel ill so Stefan and I jumped out the car and ran along the tracks behind TufTuf. The Island is impressive - it's got everything; sand, rainforest, lakes, sand dunes...and of course wildlife! We camped in Waddy Point. It was really quiet, only about 3 other camp groups. Saturday night was a fun night as I went in search to swap a $2 coin with two $1 coins for the showers (so stupid they only access $1 coins!) I went to the first group of campers I saw. Goodness, what a choice - 8 old, hairy, drunk men ranging from 50 to 90 years old, several with long beard (they all looked like Santa to me). Anyway, it was too late to turn back as they all saw my light so I had to address them and say hi at least. They were all so funny and so nice...it ended up being a really cool night (I went back to collect Stefan to come and join in the fun). They were telling us all about the island, gave us some mussel thing to try that they collected that day. One of the guys took us around the camp site to try to find some wild life but we only saw toads (the toads were everywhere it was crazy!) and apparently they are not good for the island. They carry a poison in their glands that is killing everything...everything that eats them! So the old man told us what we should do when we see them...he literally picked the toad up and smacked it against a tree! It dropped to the ground all sprawled out...I couldn't believe it, I had to ask if it was dead I was in shock. Ha. It was a fun night but we decided to leave the old men as they planned to leave early the next morning to go fishing! Stefan and I ended going for a walk to the beach...which we didn't quite find but ended up chatting all night until the early hours of the morning. It was really nice getting to know him more. He's a good laugh, up for anything, loves exploring and loves sport so we definitely didn't run out of things to talk about!

In the morning we headed to Waddy Point, where the old fishermen told us to go to the previous night. We climbed to the top, enjoyed the views and tried to feel the 'spiritual presence' that was around as suggested by the fishermen. It was so nice to be there with just the four of us, it felt like we were discovering places that the normal tourists wouldn't do. After saying hi to the fishermen below, we headed off to the champagne pools

We walked along Waddy Point which had great views of the island and out at sea. Stefan took some photos and some artistic ones of Brodie getting drenched by the sea..Lisa and I were quite entertained. After strolling a bit further we headed back down the hill to find our fellow aussie fishermen fishing on the rocks. They were so cool, showing us what they use and what they catch on a normal day. We then made our way to Champaign pools. These are little pools that get filled up by the sea water. It was a really pretty place so we all jumped in and had a splash about before the tourist groups came along and intruded. Every time we bumped into tour groups we were moaning they wrre spoiling the peace and enjoyment of what Fraser Island was all about. Im so glad we did it alone! After Champaign pools we went to Eli Creek and then decided to camp on the beach for the last night. Beach camping was so much fun! Sat around chatting, cooking dinner, drinking tea and chocolate, wine and beer, looking at the stars, fooling around on the beach, taking stupid photos, listening to music and of course getting scared by the dingos. There are signs everywhere on the island warning us to leave them alone and not to feed them or leave food lying around. we had about 4 dingos visit us that night it was scary! Stefan and I nearly fell asleep on the beach but somehow he spotted a dingo just infront of us so we decided to actually go and sleep in our tents so dingos dont see us at least!

Monday 13 May we spent all morning trying to dry everything as it rained all night. The boys tents were literally swimming pools. It was so funny! After deciding that nothing was going to dry after another downpour we just chucked everything in car and set off to lake Wabby. It was beautiful and the sky had cleared up so the sun made the sandblow and lake look incredible. We walked to the lookout too which was cool. I wasn't feeling too well from the bottle of wine the previous night, so I was lacking in energy until good old Brodie brought out the chocolate. Somehow it made a huge difference and I was bursting with energy so jogged back up the sandblow J It was fun. On our way back down the beach we stopped at Eli Creek. It's a little lake with a fairly strong current that takes you down to the sea so the lads and Lisa jumped in before we carried on down the beach to catch the ferry. The four of us had so much fun on the island together it was actually quite sad to leave but then we were also quite happy to get back to the mainland to clean up, have a proper shower and clear all our stuff from SAND that gets everywhere! When we arrived back first things first...FOOD! The lads and I tucked into some beef/chicken pies from the bakery. It was like eaten Heaven. Lisa grabbed a veggie burger too. After filling ourselves up we were onto jobs (well the guys were, I was so sleepy); we cleaned the car, blew up the tyres, went food shopping and headed to Tin Can Bay. The lady was lovely at the campsite, we were right next to the camp kitchen which of course we took over as soon as we got there. We managed to cover every table with all our food, dishes and electronics - just as well it's low season so there is hardly anyone cooking in the kitchen. It was a fairly early night that night, maybe midnight J just chatting with Stefan and Brodie. Lisa was enjoying her new kindle.

Fraser was awesome...