21-24 January

After a long bus ride from Brisbane we spent a day in Hervey Bay - not much there really. Ed walked around the beach whilst I went to the Ian Hislop Shark Expo, a really funny/tacky exhibition about shark hunting complete with frozen sharks in a big freezer!

33 of us from the hostel headed over to Fraser Island in three 4-wheel drive vehicles. Ed & I & an Italian guy called Raneiro were the only people who volunteered to drive. Being the largest sand island in the world, I was not quite expecting the driving to be as difficult as it was. Luckily Raneiro had experience of driving on sand so we left most of the driving to him, but Ed & I did have a go. It felt like driving on ice and as though the 4WD was going to tip over, and that was just on the beach not even on the sand roads! We got stuck in the sand loads of times and all had to jump put and push (someone even lost a flip flop in the sand whilst pushing!).

Our first stop on the island was Lake McKenzie, a beautiful clear blue lake surrounded by white sands. It was really hot so we all jumped in the lake for a cool down whilst Ed watched from the sand. I stupidly forgot to put suntan lotion on my shoulders and managed to get very sunburnt. We drove down 75 Mile Beach, which as well as being a road, is also a plane landing strip so we had to keep our eyes peeled for planes as we drove along the beach. As no noise is allowed on the campsites after 9pm we set up our tents just behind the sand dunes for a bit of bush camping (i.e. no toilets, water or lights!). We were told to also walk around in pairs as the dingos have been known to attack people but I didn't think that Ed would want to accompany me to the bush toilet at 2am so I braved it myself and am still here to tell the tale! In fact we only saw one dingo the whole time we were there.

We visited a place called Indian Head - it was a race against time to get there as we were supposed to be off the beach an hour or so before high tide (any salt water on the engine and we lost our deposit). We just about made it in time and parked up with about 20 other 4WDs on the beach. We then walked to a lookout where we saw a shark and stingrays in the sea below. Most people in the group walked to a place called Champagne Pools but I decided to stay and relax on the beach. Unfortunately I couldn't swim in the sea due to the sharks and jellyfish. Later we drove back down the beach and stopped off at the Pinnacle Rocks, the Maheno shipwreck and Eli Creek. On the final day we walked to Lake Wabby - I nearly didn't bothered as I was hot, tired, sick of being covered in sand and sick of being bitten by sand flies! I decided to go though and was so glad I did as I got to swim in a lake for a couple of hours - a bath and cool down all in one! It was slightly disturbing to have fish swimming around our feet but still good fun. We stopped off for a picnic lunch at a campsite in the middle of a rainforest then got the ferry back to Hervey Bay. We were pleased when the hire people agreed that we hadn't damaged the car so we got our bonds back, and were even more pleased to get back to the hostel for a hot shower!