Before Heading to Rainbow beach I made a quick 2 day stop in a little town called 1770 as there was something I wanted to do.The Scooteroo is a relatively new concept in Australia, it is basically a company which takes 50 backpackers out on Harley type bikes, the give you a leather jacket to wear and a helmet with flames, cover you in fake tattoos and like a proper biker gang you ride around the coast all afternoon.I had a great time! The bikes were easy to ride and didn't go that fast but we all still had a laugh especially because it was a lot of peoples first time driving a motorbike. Anyway after arsing around on a motorbike for the day and then drinking around a camp fire that night it was time to head to Rainbow beach to join my tour around Fraser Island.

I didn't have a clue what to expect when I arrived to into rainbow beach- all I knew is the odd snippet of what people had told me.I would be going on a 3 day 2 night tour of an island named Fraser, I would be travelling around by jeep and I would be camping, but what I didn't realise is that Fraser is so much more than that.

I arrived into rainbow beach by greyhound which dropped me right outside my hostel named Dingo's where they allocated me a room and told me to make sure I attended an induction session on the following day.I immediately made friends with two lovely girls named Kandi and Robyn and was so pleased that they were going to be on the same tour as me, that night we drank cider and played cards until it was time to sleep.The following day I woke early and went to my surfing lesson, I wasn't overly impressed with being reunited with a wet suit again but as soon as we got to the beach and our teacher drove us by jeep all the way to the far end I realised I couldn't care less if I had spandex up my bum because I was on such a lovely beach (named rainbow because of its multi-coloured sand - red orange yellow and purple) and I was going to be surfing with dolphins! Yep that's right at the far end of the beach the dolphins enjoy surfing in on the waves and I was going to be doing it with them! I'm not the most natural at surfing but after 2 hours I was standing up and surfing in on every other wave I caught - I was so pleased with myself and when I started getting tired I was content sat on my board watching the dolphins enjoy themselves in the waves just like us.

I got back to Dingos just in time for my induction session where I was happily told I would be in a jeep with Kandi and Robyn along with 3 other girls and 3 boys. We listened intently to our safety briefing - you will realise how intently later when I mention the "dingo stance" and then got to know each other over dinner.

The following day and it was that time, it was 7am and time for the adventure to begin, we all mucked in with packing our jeeps with camping equipment, a cooler of food, an even bigger cooler of booze and making sure we had everything and then it was time to set off.We were in the biggest jeep which had a driver however 5 other jeeps followed us which were driven by the backpackers who volunteered, after a short drive to the water, we caught the car ferry over to the Fraser, before the ferry journey was over I already knew I had struck gold with my group - everyone was already having a laugh, it was like we had known each other for ages!

Fraser is the largest island made of sand in the world and because of this it has a beach which is over 120 kilometreslong! And so why would you build any kind of road when a perfectly flat path of sand surrounds the island? I loved driving in-between the trees and sea on the lovely beach, as Dave (our Aussie driver) told us stories and interesting facts on our way to one of the most beautiful lakes in the world - LakeMcKensie!

When we got out of the jeep and walked through the trees no one could quite believe what we were seeing as we walked from the shade into the sun and our eyes landed on the lake.I later learnt that due to the island being made of sand and not dirt the sand acts as a filter and that's what creates the perfectly clear drinkable water in the lake.The lake is just stunning, like something from a painting especially because there was no wind to make any of the plants move, it was quite literally picturesque.The water was cold but none of us cared as we all jumped into the lake and floated around for half an hour before lunch which consisted of us all making a mess trying to make sandwiches with only one knife and no plates (it wasn't until later that we found our utensil box ha ha) The only other thing we needed to do that day was find and camping site at the other end of the island and pitch up for the night, usually you camp on the beach but the guides predicted rain - which decided to lash it down a couple of minutes before we got to the camp site.By the time we parked up the site was soaked and so were we as we all dashed under the shelter of the outdoor cooking area.

As soon as the rain eased everyone started putting up their tents, everyone except me, Robyn and Kandi who had made a deal with the owner to rent one of his luxury tents (it had camp beds and a light … posh!) instead of sleeping on the cold floor.An extremely well made decision the following morning when we were all hung over to hell but our stuff was still dry and we could lie in comfort as our heads pounded - unlike everyone else.That night we cooked steak and drank goon until we were trollied, that's when me and Kandi decided to walk down to the beach - ok so this is where our safety talk the previous day kicked in.You see Fraser is the home to hundreds of Dingos (hence the name of my hostel in rainbow) they are the purest breed of dingo in the world and not the safest of creatures to be around - especially after we saw the warning signs all over the island explaining that a little girl had been mauled by a pack of dingos only a couple of weeks before.Food is food to a wild animal right? I was a bit scared of the whole Dingo thing to be honest - but the safety video the day before had taught us, if ever corned by a dingo walk with confidence and make yourself as tall and big as possible.Well I was walking to the beach with Kandi - only just 5ft Kandi - I realised in my drunken state that I had to think of something to keep us safe, the video said put your arms in the air and stretch tall, but I couldn't because I needed to carry my goon bag and tin cup?! So after a few moments or possibly minutes of drunken thought I realised, if I put my elbows in the air with my arms down by my neck I could still carry my goon and make myself look bigger and beefier?!

And so the infamous "Dingo Stance" was formed - something I became known for ha ha especially when the stance was teamed with me shouting "f@#k off Dingos!!" even when there weren't any around ha ha.

Kandi and I made it to the beach without a single dangerous animal encounter and as we stumbled off of the track and onto the sand we met everyone else that had come, including drunken Adam who kept telling me he loved me and asking Kandi (his friend) what her name was?
The beach that night was a big memory for me, no pollution or lights meant the stars were out in full force, troopers lighting up the sky and the moon was shining bright too.The whole beach was lit by the moon and it made everything kind of fluorescent grey? I think it's the perfect time to use the word Twilight - we were sitting on the beach in twilight, the only noise made by us (or possibly just Adam) and the waves crashing onto the beach.What a random and beautiful night?!

The following morning I felt rough, everyone felt rough - ring of fire had polished us off but we were on Fraser and so my family of friends bundled into the jeeps and off we went to India Head.India Head is a kind of look out point where you can see Frasers magnificent coast line from, we all made it up the hill in good spirits and enjoyed the view with enthusiasm, I think the banter broke us out of our hangover mist.I loved watching the ocean, especially because I knew what it hid - Fraser is known for the fact you can't swim in the ocean around it, maybe that's why it has the most perfect lakes in the world? And why can't you swim in the ocean I hear you ask? Well its shark infested, it might sound like a line from peter pan saying I was on an island surrounded by shark infested water but it's true.There are loads of them surrounding the island - fishing in the heritage protected water.The day before we arrived an extremely large tiger shark had been spotted in the shallow water on the beach below India Head! Amazing! I loved the fairy tale like qualities of Fraser, the danger of dingos and sharks, the incredible beauty of the lakes and the laughs I had with my team.

After India head the tide resided slightly and so our jeeps made a dash for it in between waves and headed to my fave spot on Fraser - The Champaign Pools.I hardly need to explain how these pools got their names, you just need to look at my pics - ok so there are some rocks at the top of Fraser which have naturally formed a circle with lovely flat sand in the middle, when the waves rush in and hit the jagged rocks it somehow creates bubbles, ocean spray which looks like Champaign bubbles oozing down the rocks and into the pools.We had a great laugh with James' waterproof digital camera and got some amazing pictures of us as the waves hit.At one point I lay there in the salty water surrounded by cold bubbles and decided this was the best bath I had ever had - this image was slightly ruined by seeing Zoë out of the corner of my eye hopping around looking for a secluded spot to tinkle ha ha
As we got out of the pools a spattering of rain fell, nothing to make us put on coats but it did create a beautiful double rainbow! I was giddy with the perfection of the day and as we drank some cans on the way back to the camp site I watched all of Team Goon chatting and making each other laugh out loud - that day especially I was so so great full to be with my odd little group.

That night Adam cooked us some Asian noodles on the stove and after we had all munched our way through the lot me and James came up with something fun for us to play.So the game Ring of Fire had already been over played and me and James decided to introduce a new game - what about a game of flip cup?I have played flip cup before and it was really fun but not more fun than any other game involving drinking ha ha but for some reason this game of flip cup became monumental.

It began with our group of 8 splitting into two teams lining our cups up and battling it out.I was on the winning team which you may think is impressive but it just means that we managed to drink more goon quicker that the other team, we may not have had to do any of the funny forfeits but we did get punished by fate - the fate that I would be legless very early on in the night.
After 5 or 6 rounds our game had gotten louder and louder, to the point where other people had stopped playing their drinking games and were watching ours unfold, we were the main event as people put bets on which one of our teams would win.In the end I decided to jump up onto the table and call for the whole camp site to join in - of which many did, we ended up with trestle tables being linked up and 2 teams of 30 people all ready to play.It was the biggest and bestest round of flip cup ever!! And my team won! Woo hoo.By 10pm Team Goon as we were now called had all polished off the best part of a bag each, needless to say no one was surprised when Zoe went from tipsy one second to her head hitting the table the next, Adam was found sat in the rain upset because he had lost his tent, he was baffled when someone pointed out that the material propped up by poles that he was leaning against was in fact his tent and me and Robyn were told to go to bed but were later found crawling towards the bushes - why were we crawling to the bushes? Well I had remembered in my hammered state that you weren't allowed food in or near the tent neither fresh nor regurgitated and so yes as lady like as I could I crawled through the mud and grass and was sick in a bush.Haha!

I don't remember going to bed but right now I more than remember waking up the next morning, my head feeling like it was full of rocks and my stomach hurting.None of us ate much that morning, we all just sat looking sorry for ourselves as we swigged on large bottles of water and smiled back at our camp site of new friends - everyone now knew who team goon was but from looking at us that morning I think many people rethought the idea of joining haha.Luckily after me having a small hissy fit over feeling so crap and having to get in the back of the jeep I got in and it actually helped! By the time we made it to our first stop of the day and final stop of the trip I didn't feel too bad, granted the mini trek to the sand dunes didn't help but as soon as I saw them I was impressed and forgot about how tired and ill I was.We walked through the woods, following the winding path and after 2k we broke out into the sun and realised we were at the top of a massive sand dune? It was like a mini desert which we had to climb down, and then we saw it, the lagoon.At the bottom of the dunes was a beautiful aqua green lagoon with cold water in it which was the best way to cure a hangover I have ever experienced! I sat surrounded by black cat fish and enjoyed the relaxing time, snoozing whilst lying in the shallow water.

But soon it was the end of our trip and time to walk back to the jeeps - driver Dave had told us that it was a round trip and so we figured the path back into the woods from the lagoon must be opposite the one we came in on, so off up the sand dunes, down into the forest and then up the mountain we went but after an hour we didn't seem to be getting anywhere? Everyone began to moan and then everyone began to give up as we were told by a holiday maker (rare on Fraser but like a strike of luck we had managed to find one) we had gone the wrong way and the path was down by the lagoon?! I'm not exaggerating when I say at one point I could have lay down and given up, it took a lot for all of us to climb back up that damn sand dune, our legs hurt we were exhausted, the sun was beating down on us and we all had to deal with the after effects of a goon filled night.

Only an hour later we made it back to the jeeps on the beach, apologising to everyone as we passed them but we were the only ones to make the mistake, we had only walked 45 mins in the wrong direction, Scott's team had surpassed us and made it to the car park on the other side of the island ha ha - they had to run back and were still 1.5 hours late.

Fraser Island was amazing! And Team Goon were the highlight.Without Jess, Zoe (aka Sharon), James, Adam, Robyn and Kandi,Fraser would have just been an island made of sand - they made it the experience of a life time.A trip I can't help but smile when I think of and it's odd but I can't remember why? What was it that made me laugh so much? Why did that trip make me so happy? And why was it sad when team goon parted ways the following day? I'm not sure but I do know this, that group of people were some of the loveliest, funniest people I've met and I couldn't have asked for a better group.