Once we arrived in Hervey Bay we had a really nice chilled out few days, spending the majority of the time just lazing on the beach. The beach was really quiet and beautiful, the water was calm and amazingly clear. It was nice to have a relax after the previous manic week-not that we're complaining! We stayed at Aussie Woolshed Backpackers where the people who owned it were really helpful and friendly which was appreciated, especially with the cockroach incident (We'll get to that later!) The hostel was made out of a collection of Woolsheds, and the main common area had walls lined with empty bottles, it was pretty cool. It had been voted one of the most memorable Aussie Backpackers-we definately agree!

The highlight of our stay in Hervey Bay was our trip to Fraser Island, a massive sand island just off the east coast. We decided to go on one of the many day trips over to the island. After going across on the barge from Riverheads we got on our 4-wheel drive coach and set off across the bumpy sanddunes to Woolongabala Creek. We did a rainforest walk along the creek, the water was so clear and the creek was just gorgeous. From there we headed to and drove up 75 mile beach where we saw a stingray sprawled out on the shoreline-pretty cool. Along the beach we stopped at Eli Creek, where we waded through the water, the creek is the biggest freshwater creek on the island as was another stunning sight. Before having a buffet lunch at one of the resorts we visited the S.S. Maheno and the Coloured Sands. The S.S. Maheno was shipwrecked in 1935 and is now buried two thirds of the way under the sand due to the islands growth. It was completly unlike anything you would ever imagine and we probably won't see anything like it again, it was quite special. The Coloured Sands is simillar to the Isle of Wight but there's an aboriginal love story explaining their existence.

After lunch we set off to Lake McKenzie, the best part of our whole day. This was breathtaking, it is a freshwater lake perched 70 metres above sea-level on sanddunes. The water is crystal clear blue and the sand is almost 95% silicone, so almost perfect. The water is so amazing because it is pure rain water which apparently is purified and felt unbelievable. We spent an hour swimming in the lake before catching the barge back to the mainland-we were dissapointed as we were hoping the tide would have gone out too far so that we could stay longer! Fraser Island was simply the BEST!!

We had a bit of a shock one night whilst watching tv in our room, we were surprised by a large flying brown ugly thing, which we later discovered was a cockroach!! After much squealing, flapping and laughing till we cried we managed to kill it with some bugspray-probably a whole can. We obtained this spray when the owner came knocking at our door to check we were ok as she thought we were being murdered because to the screaming-well after all it was midnight-oops!!! At least we can say we have survived a cockroach attack!!!!

Hope you like the photos!!  xxxxx