Sand is your friend, not your enemy!

As my dear wife mentioned in the last blog we had booked up a trip to Fraser Island (the world's largest sand island) leaving from Rainbow Beach the next day.The hostel was cool and full of a great bunch of people, which was a relief as this was our first dorm experience!!

A little apprehensive as I had put myself down as a driver of this huge 4WD truck to tackle the unexplainable amounts of sand (which we were to find out would get to places we didn't even know we had!) we went to the initial briefing about the trip and what to expect and my mind was put to rest.

We were put into groups of 10 - Me, Lizzy, Cam and Alice from Newcastle, Emelie x 2, Sandra, Elin and Gill from Sweden and Matt from France, we also very quickly named the truck Gladys, no idea why!We turned out to be a really good group and all got on well and were very efficient! For one of the first times in my life I was deemed the responsible one - I think this was due to age rather than behaviour.The next morning we had a very full on briefing from Merv, the stereotypical Aussie guy who had a strange hat and a missing tooth, on how to drive on the beach and how to control the trucks in the sand.After the briefing we set off and got on our way to the barge to get us across to the island and to be let loose on our own for 3 days with a shovel (!), some tents, a stove, our food and a lot of cheap wine which I soon discovered is referred to as "goon" - thinking this was because you turn into a goon when you drink it but I was corrected by Merv who told me its actually due to the aboriginals drinking wine from flagons!!We managed to get 8.8 litres of red wine this time for $22, which is an all time cheap record, after the first 2 tin cups full it doesn't taste too bad!The 8.8 litres was just for Liz and I so being good and bad we had some left (bad due to taste and good due to being able to have a glass of "wine" with our food in the evening).

We cruised around the island and negotiated some VERY tricky ground to get to Lake McKenzie for a well earned swim (and wash) before heading to the camp site to set up before dark and to get the stove on the go.We consumed a lot of "goon" and headed to bed with full bellies and having had my first outdoor experience of needing the shovel - not great but very character building.

We woke early with a busy day planned to get to Lake Wabby and Indian Head on the island for our next swim (and wash) and also for some great photo opportunities.The walk to Lake Wabby was long but definitely worth it as the dunes on the way and the lake were awesome and a lot of fun.Headed back, had lunch and swapped drivers to get to Indian Head.Great views and a refreshing climb and then back to a new campsite for night 2.Lots of dingoes wandering around but as long as we didn't encourage them they would be fine and we had a really good laugh again.We played a big game of bunnies that had everyone in absolute stitches that wore us out and so bed beckoned (we were also quite drunk!)

On our final day the tides were pretty high so we couldn't drive until 12.30pm so had an amble down to the ship wreck on the beach and back which was a lot further than we thought but good to clear the head.We set off on the way back to the barge to get back to the main land and to have a very well earned shower - my god it was nice, despite having very little hair, it was still full of sand and even in my new beard!

Burritos for dinner with the team and a live band at the hostel then bed and up early to get to Brisbane for the night before a well earned relaxing 2 days at Byron Bay.

We're both very tired but we have had a brilliant few days.

Sam