We got up early the morning after staying at Rainbow Beach and grabbed a quick bit of breakfast before waiting at the bus stop outside our backpackers for our Fraser Island bus.

After a few minutes our huge 4x4 bus pulled up on its big offroad wheels and we hopped on, grabbing 2 of the last few seats left on the 40 seater. We picked up the final passengers from around town before driving a few km up a peninsula from Rainbow Beach to the point where we caught the barge to Fraser Island.

We cruised across a sandy beach, bypassing a huge queue of 4x4s waiting for the barge, and onto the barge itself, before it carried us across the short channel to Fraser Island itself.

Once we got off the barge our driver started his commentary which lasted for the whole tour and was incredibly informative and interesting, giving plenty of history and facts about the amazing 125km long sand island.

We started our journey by crusing for miles up the long, sandy beach stretching the length of the eastern side of the island. With the rough waves washing up on the shore to our right and the hardy seaside plants clinging to the dunes to our left, it was a cool road to follow as we overtook loads of 4x4s on the island for camping and fishing trips.

Our route at times involved detouring from the beach to climb steep tracks through bush-coated dunes to avoid obstacles on the sand. The most interesting of these obstacles was the expanses of rough 'coffee-rock' which, despite looking like dense, dark rock, was actually hard-packed ancient plant matter.

Our first stop was about halfway up the island at one of its resorts, where we got a short break for tea and muffins. After that we carried on north up the beach as far as The Pinnacles, vividly coloured sand cliffs formed where hard compacted sand of various hues had been exposed when the soft sand blew away from on top of it.

From the pinnacles we turned and made our way back down the eastern beach to our next stop, the rusted wreck of the Maheno, an old passenger liner which had been washed up on the beach decades ago whilst being towed to Japan to be scrapped. Only the front half of the ship remained as the rest had been destroyed during bombing exercises by the air force, and what was left wasn't in great shape after so many years in the sea and wind. The thickly rusted skeleton of the hull did look very striking though with the waves washing around it, against the bright blue sky.

After checking out the wreck we were back on the bus to continue south down the beach to our next stop, Pancake Creek. This was one of a number of freshwater creeks which flowed out from the water table and down to the sea. Lucy and I followed a boardwalk up the creek then rolled up our shorts and took off our shoes to wade back down to the beach in the cool, crystal clear water.

After drying our feet in the sun we got back on the bus to go back to the resort from earlier where we were treated to a big buffet lunch.

After lunch, the bus took us inland on the island. The transition from the dunes with their scrubby, hardy plants as we moved inland was amazing, as the plants grew taller and denser around us the further in we drove.

Eventually we were driving along narrow, steep-banked roads graded in the sand of the island, in dense, ancient looking rainforest. It was incredible to think of the thick forest with its incredible ferns and tall, old trees all growing in what was basically a massive sand dune. It was a fantastic first-hand example of plant succession at work and a really unique environment to be in.

After some time winding through the rainforest, past deep Jurassic Park-looking valleys, we arrived at Lake McKenzie, a perched lake sitting a couple of hundred metres up in the dunes in the middle of the island. With no inlets our outlets, the lake is filled only by rainwater which is prevented from draining by the compacted plant matter below its bed.

The lake was stunning as it was surrounded by incredibly pure, white sand which was almost 100% silicon. Renowned as an exfoliant, we wasted no time in slathering the wet sand over our skin to make it lovely and smooth. I also swam out into the lake which was quite chilly but still lovely.

Once we had chilled out at the lake for a while it was time to move on, and we travelled with the bus to an area called Central Station, in the middle of the rainforest of the island. Originally the hub of logging operations on the island, the area shows little of this past, and we spent our time here on a walk through the rainforest admiring the incredible plants such as elkhorns, big bright green epiphytes growing on the trunks of the tall trees around us, strangler figs and incredible ferns, some of which would have been around in the era of the dinosaurs. One of my highlights was seeing a creek which ran through the rainforest , making absolutely no sound as the water flowed over the smooth sandy bed.

After looking around Central Station it was time for us to make our way off the island. We drove back out of the rainforest to the beach and made our way most of the way down the beach, before having to turn inland and take an old logging track through the bush to the south of the island, where we got the barge back across and were eventually dropped off in Rainbow Beach.

We were pretty tired after a busy day, but the tour on Fraser Island had been great, letting us see loads of the incredible island and providing us with great commentary.

We spent most of that evening faffing about with laundry, involving a trip to the local laundrette to use their drier as the hostel's was broken, then got an early night.

The next day we were back on the road after breakfast, taking the road back west to rejoin the Bruce Highway before heading north again. The highway took us through fields of sugar cane as we made our way to our next stop in Bundaberg, home of the famous (but not very good in my opinion) rum and ginger beer. We were stopping here as I had arranged through the travel agent in Rainbow Beach to finish off my PADI Open Water diving certification with a dive school in town.

Driving down the main street into town, it reminded us very much of America with its strip malls and widely-spaced shops and fast food eateries. Having arrived quite early, we parked up in the town centre and grabbed a coffee at a cafe before wandering the main streets a little, picking up some bits and pieces in the ubiquitous More Store-style shops which populated most of the centre.

After that, we made our way to a suggested campsite near the town centre, just off the main street. I had arranged to meet the diving instructor Julian at the dive shop that afternoon so we got the van parked and I walked round to the dive shop, having to wait on the porch a little while for Julian to return from a morning dive.

Once he was back, I finished off the theory parts of my certification, then we headed down the road to a local pool to complete my last few pool-based exercises. By the time we got finished up it was late afternoon, so I walked back to the campsite to find Lucy.

For dinner that evening we just wandered across the road to a Red Rooster fast-real-food place where we got a massive roast chicken with mashed potatoes and gravy, before retiring for the evening.

The next morning we were up fairly early to get the van packed up, then drove round the corner to the dive shop. I met the other dive instructor there, a really nice German lady called Dagma, and after getting our equipment sorted out and loaded into the dive shop's old and very ropey looking minibus, we headed out of town, with Lucy tagging along as well as two other guys who were doing a separate dive course together.

We found out on the way to our dive site that the reason the van looked so ropey was that it had been completely submerged during the recent bad flooding in Queensland, and that the old dive shop had been completely wiped out in the floods as well. This wasn't the first story we would hear about flood damage on our way north, but each one amazed us with the scale of the flooding and the damage caused.

After driving 15km or so out of town to the coast, we got set up at our dive site and completed a couple of exercises on dry land before making our way to the water. I had two dives to complete with various exercises ot perform to become certified, and Dagma and I spent the next few hours completing all these.

It was quite interesting entering the water from the rough volcanic rocks at the dive site, Barolin Rocks, and swimming out through the surf, as I had only ever entered from a boat before. The dives went fine and I managed to complete all the exercises, then we spent the majority of the last dive swimming around the area. Compared to the reefs teeming with life I had dived in Fiji, the area at Barolin Rocks wasn't mind-blowing but the main reason for being there was to become certified, which I had done.

After our diving we got out of the water and retrieved Lucy from her bench where she had been sitting in the sunshine reading while I dived, packed up the minibus and went back to the dive shop. We sorted out the last of my paperwork back at the shop and then I was all done, a certified diver and feeling quite chuffed.

With all the diving done, it was time to carry on north to our next stop, not far up the road. We spent the rest of the afternoon driving, before arriving in the tiny coastal town of Agnes Water in the early evening.