Well! Helllooooooo again!

I have just returned from a 3 day trip on Fraser Island, and it is easily my favopurite place so far! Absolutely GORGEOUS!

It's the largest sand islandin the world, the whole thing is sand, there's like rainforest growing on sand, massive sand mountains/dunes, miles and miles of beaches and it's just amazing! However, after living on a beach for three days, everything is filled with sand. Though thankfully not my camera. I just had my first shower in 3 days and the amount that came out of my clothes was ridiculous!

We had a 4 wheel drive, and there were 11 of us in the group. A really good group! Loved everyone, apart from Sebastian (however you spell it!). He's french and possibly the most arrogant man I have ever met, and one of the sorts of people who just disagrees with everyone for the sake of it, and always thinks he's right! But apart from that, everyone was sound! 5 irish, 4 English, 1 French and 1 Swiss. And 3 Louises!

First day we had to get up for all our briefings and explanations etc at like 6am (Monday). they literally off loaded SO much information on us about 4WDs that we pretty much forgot as soon as we waled out of the door. And they gave us a big long list of stuff we weren't allowed to do - certain bits of the island we can't drive on (which we did, and it was VERY rough! literally like ledges and dips 2 or 3 ft high), times that you can't drive on the beach due to the tides (we drove outside the times everyday), don't drive on tarmac once you've let your tyres down for the sand (we did), don't change gear when you're stuck in the sand (we did), and all the rest of it!

Was amazing though! the island's "roads" are all sand. Was a bit tricky to drive on at times, but we never got badly bogged. We got stuck about 10 times, but nothing we coudln't reverse out of, pile everyone out and go through again. We saw alot of people fully stuck in the sand!

First day, we went to see the famous Lake MacKenzie, and it is beautiful! One of the top ten beaches in the world. Perfect white sands, and turquoise waters. You can't swim in the sea on Fraser - the seas are shark infested. The island is one of the biggest breeding grounds for tiger sharks in the world, and loads of people saw them literally just off the beach. I didn't though!

We got lost after Lake Mackenzie, but managed to get on the highway after driving round in a massive loop. The highway is the eastern beach. normal road rules apply (and police do check the road!), but it's just miles and miles of beach. Amazingggg! All the jeeps say hello to one another, and you're just cruising along next to the waves! On the beach there is a shipwreck which we saw. Pretty cool, but I thought it would be bigger than it was! I think the pics make it look bigger! (And don't worry, I have HUNDREDS!)

We set up camp in our tents, and ate BBQ stuff for tea! Then all went down to the beach for a few drinks. Massive group of us! Turned off all the torches, and the amount of stars is crazy! There are so many over here anyway, but there was no light pollution at all, and no cloud cover, so the last few dqays the stars were super amazing! Lol. Saw lots of shooting stars too :)

Next day, we forgot that were were only allowed to drive on the beach (the highway, the only way to get anywhere!) between 6am and 8am, and we left at about 7.45am. Managed to drive for about half an hour before freaking out and getting stuck and wondering what to do! The tide comes all the way up the beach in some parts and the car company told us that if we got too much salt water on the vehicle, we'd be fined. So we parked up for a bit and luckily a guy and his son who lived on the island passed us on the way to go fishing. He gave us some tips and helped us take the air out of our tyres which helped a lot! And he let us follow him! A lovely man! He said high tide was at 10.30, so the company must have been covering themselves by a couple of hours! The sand was a lot harder to drive on as it was so soft, but we made up to the top of the island in time (well as far to the top as our insurance allowed us!). The car was VERY hot and giving off a very strange smell because of hammering the revs up in second gear for like an hour! That's the only way to get through soft sand, and there was a lot of black smoke coming out of the back of the car!

But we trekked up to Champagne pools, which is just a load of pretty rockpools you can swim in. Spent some time there, before walking back to go up Indian Heads. It's a big cliff, and from the top you can see all sorts of stuff in the water - famously the sharks. We didn't see any, still! Saw some big manta rays, some turtles, and some dolphins!

Visited Eli Creek, which is a little, very clear creek, stream thing, that everyone walks down like a road! Nice, but nothing spectacular!

Headed back to camp then, and managed to get everyone up, fed and packed up by 6.45am! We headed down to Happy Valley, but managed to go completely off the track we were supposed to and ended up at this random lake that no one ever seemed to visit! Was nice though! But we were just way off track and the track was really rough - there were many occasions where wheels came off the floor and there was a lot of bouncing around and hitting heads off the ceiling!

After about 2 hours of being off track, we rejoined the beach to visit Lake Wabby. This was absolutely stunning too! Maybe my favourite place apart from the main beach! The sand dunes were HUGE, and plummeted straight in to the lake, and when you climbed to thye top of them all you could see was just like desert. The water was like a green colour because of the surrounding tea trees and there were loads of fish! the sand is really soft and the water is loverrrrly!

Then headed back to the barge to the mainland! :(

Wicked trip, great people, would love to do the whole thing all over again, the place is stunning! Saw lots of dingos, and spiders. Oo and I got bit by a spider! Haha. I was lying in bed and was awoken by a sharp pain in the leg at about 1am! I was half asleep so rolled on to my back and then I got another one in the stomach! I'd been bitten, but it wasn't itchy or anything, it was like a burn and swolen feeling, but there was no swelling! The pain went off after about 15 minutes thank god, but I was having a right old panic! haha! Then one of the other girls had the same thing the next night, it's such a strange feeling! Was very concerned in the middle of the night though - Fraser Island has 11 of the 12 most poisonous spiders in the wolrd - haha!

All was good though! Think I'm gonna travel on with a few of the crew, heading south again tomoro, but don't know where! And meeting up with Bugz on his way home for Chrissy. Bye now!xx