14 March 2009

The four of us met early this morning to meet Adan, the man we had hired the 4WD from. We went over to his 'yard to read through our contract before we went. It was quite scary and seemed like he would make us pay for every single thing if something went wrong. We had to leave a $2000 bond in case something did happen.

We were told that the worst thing to do would be to drive through saltwater, and therefore we should head over to Fraser around midday, when the tide was lower and we could drive along the beach. However when we went to collect our permits from the office the lady said we could go over then (about 10am), so we did. Unfortunately when we got over the Fraser Island and onto the beach we realised there was hardly any beach to drive on as the sea was still in quite a bit. We had no choice but to drive through the sea as there were a lot of trees on the other side. Then we had to attempt to remove all traces of the saltwater with our bottled water and wet wipes! Not a good start...

Natalie and Catherine shared the driving between them and me and Jess were very grateful because we're not sure we could have done it. The beach driving was ok but the inland tracks on the island were really tough. The worst was when we met other cars on the single track and had to reverse without getting stuck. The girls definately did a great job, especially when 11 people out of the car approaching were watching. It was really bumpy and me and Jess had to hold on to handles in the back, but it was so much fun.

Today we visited Lake Wabby before heading to the beach to set up our camp. We were really pleased with our efforts (see photos!) and sat down ready to cook our spaghetti for dinner. However we realised that Adan hadnt given us a saucepan so we had to walk along to the next camp to borrow one. We were very lucky as the boys there not only gave us the pan but also the leftovers of their dinner - ravioli. That made a nice starter for us. After dinner we got a bit scared because Jess thought she a dingo (dangerous wild dog). We calmed down a bit and went up to the sand dune to look at the stars. We've never seen more stars in the sky than we did this evening and it was really amazing.

However our mood was dampened slightly when Jess whispered that there was a dingo next to her! We all said we should stay still but in the panic we just ran up the sand dune to get away from it. Luckily it seemed to walk off down the beach and away from our camp but we were all very scared.

15 March 2009

We woke up this morning to the sounds of the sandflies trying to get into our tents. The sandflies are really really bad on Fraser Island. They're really big and land on you and bite quite hard. The mosquito spray we brought doesn't seem to stop them and Jess got bitten really badly here. We were quite glad we were only staying for 1 night and not for 2 like most people on organised tours.

Today we visited Lake Mackenzie which was really beautiful. You can't swim in the sea on Fraser as there as sharks and jellyfish but the lakes are so nice you wouldn't want to anyway. We also went to another lake (can't remember the name!) before setting off on the journey back to the ferry. It was quite a stressful journey back as we were running late to drop the car off and had realised the roof rack had broken during some bumpy times on the inland tracks. However when we got back Adan said the car was ok (Jess had had to charm him while we went to fill the car up with petrol) and we got our bond money back.

We were really pleased we got to visit Fraser Island despite our planned trip being cancelled, and probably had a better time just the 4 of us than we would have in a group of 11 people we didn't know. Jess was pleased to get off the island though and away from those sandflies!