Blog : hervey bay and frazer island

The Hervey Bay bus station was in the middle of what looked like a combination between the interchange park at home (the one with Matalan and the pet shop and that) and also some where American... It had s***ty shops and a big target supermarket and department store and stuff... My first impressions of Hervey Bay was that it was going to be the quaint fishing village type place i had envisaged!! Across the road from the Greyhound stop was a load of backpacker and hostel mini busses, although ours Palace wasnt amongst them, so i had to give them a call and get them to come and get us!!

When we got to the hostel, about a 15 minute drive - so wed have been screwed walking! - it was a bit shabby and run down but we didnt have to pay for the nights we were staying there on either side of our frazer trip so not too much complaining!! We checked in and they managed to get us a room all together, although more bloomin bunk beds! In getting used to the top ones now but this one had no side rails so i couldn't volunteer and KV got the short straw! We only had about an hour or so before we had to got to reception and attend one of our frazer island briefings and meet all the others on the trip...

At the briefing we were confronted with literally 15 European girls and about three boys and a Danish mum and dad with their daughter, about my age (made me think of when dad joked about coming with us! We wouldn't have looked out of place here!!) so i was originally thinking it was going to be a misbalanced trip but the briefing started we were all told about food that we needed to take, booze and the dreaded "extra costs" which were millions!! $100 for this, $60 deposit for that an a recommended $30 food and drink shop each! At which i got a bit annoyed and when the bloke was telling us to w sensible and shop in big groups all i could think was no way, i hate having to share food t the best of times, especially with about ten other people and working out who ate all the biscuits on the diet day and everything!! Our saving grace was that KV was going to turn veggie for the trip so the three us didnt want to pay for other's meat! After the few minute talk we all got shuttled busses to the bottle shop and we brought some red goon (classy!! Not) and we treated ourselves to a case of cider, yummy!! Then next off to the supermarket we went and we had to be really sensible shopping, as we didn't want to spend too much but we were all shopping on empty stomachs! Dangerous!! We did well though, and a managed to get everything including stuff like toilet roll, for $20 each.

That evening we spent packing our day sacks with a few bits and pieces and clothes for the three days... Wed had several warnings about how the frazer sand ruins clothes and also about cold evenings and as none of us wanted to pay $10 to rent used sleeping bags we all packed leggings and jumpers galore!

The next morning we were up at 5am, yes i was ridiculously grumpy! We had to be checked out of our rooms by 6am and ready for our next briefing, which turned out to be an hour video about to drive in sand and how dangerous dingos are and what to do i you see one... I slept through most of it but was rally annoyed theyd made us get up so early when we could have watched it at the day before a breifing! It was a really conducive way for friends too, not! I was so grumpy and sleepy and anti social and the girls wernt to much better so everyone probably thought we were right mardy mares to begin with!! Finally we packed up the cars - we were in number two, behind the guide with Sam and Lisa, the cutest couple in the world, Dutch Steph and Swedish Ronny... Poor old Sam was the only boy and he was immediately nominated as the first driver in the car full of us girls and promptly we all fell asleep before wed even made it to the ferry crossing!

It took about 45 minutes on the crossing to get to the island and it looked huge from the boat! I didnt really know too much about Frazer before our trip so im not sure what i was expecting but what we saw certainly wasn't the picture id had in my head! Frazer island is the largest sand island in the world and has an uninterupted 75 mile stretch of beach... Pretty long!! Along the east coast of the island. There was no phone signal in the island and we were all told to put any valuables inside sealed sandwich bags and out of sight to keep them from getting stuffed up with the sand that was soo fine and clearly would get in every nook and cranny and skrew up electricals!

We drove in convoy through really sandy tracks, just like at Whaddon, although at least our cars had seats and belts rather than the rickety deckchair and helmet that Suzu the Sazuki had to offer! we came to what called central station, which was where the logging workers pulled all of their cuttings to a long time ago, there was loads of story boards and the guide was trying to tell us about something to do with nature, that was probably really interesting, but just at that point, still only about 9am so i was starving too, the heavens opened and it shat it down for about 30 minutes and with sandy/rainforesty floor and flipflops and knowing your at the start of a three day tour with showers we all over reacted a little bit dashing around looking for shelter and huddling together under trees with big leaves! Wet hair and grubby feet did not help with my grump either and quickly the lovely straight hair was thrown into a standard travellers French plait and he flipflops were chucked in the car somewhere!! It was quite a suprise to see the rainforest on Frazer, especially growing from a sandy floor and the guide told us all about the seven out of nine deadliest snakes that live on the island and the dinner plate sized spiders so i was hopping from foot to foot not wanting to touch the ground and generally looking like the biggest london girl in the world! Whoops!

We got back in the cars and drive to lake Mckenzie next which we all thought about the one and only maccers at :) the lake was cool, it was fresh water so you could actually drink it but given that i would have gone in and weed in it if it hasn't been so cold and drizzly, i wouldn't put it past others to think the same thing!! Not very many people went swimming as it was freezing! And coincided with lunch time so we all say inside the dingo railed lunch pen and gobbled our four bean and beetroot mix wed made the day before in Tupperware boxes and shares the two forks we had and ate our rationed slices of bread! After wed scoffed we went back to the lake which was really beautiful, it was massive and had a white sand beach surrounding it! And there looked to be a model shoot just up the beach from us with proper skinny modelly girls so it gave us something to sit and watch for a few mins before the girls were inspired and started to recreate their own shoot with a little tree half in the water!

Back to the car and we went to another lake that was a bit of a walk away, a 5k circuit from the cars and back but boy was it worth it! The lake was huge and so clear and fresh again, which was nice and tempted me in because a) it had warmed up significantly, b) is got a sweat on, on the walk and c) you don't get the disgusting salt residue stuck all over you from fresh water! The lake was surrounded by huge white sand dunes that little kids were rolling down, although i watched a documentary about a girl paralysing her self doing it so i didn't fancy risking it and just trotted down holding my beach bag to the lakes edge. It was funny though because as they were quite steep you pretty much had to sunbathe standing up you were at such an angle! The sun was quite strong so on the factor 30 went but the sand we were lying on was so fine and was easily whipped up by the wind we were covered all over in sand sticking to the cream almost instantly! So back into the water we went... I had a quick wee as well, but kept quiet about it as people were swimming and trying to rinse their hair in the same water and everything s io thought they were better off blissfully unaware!

On the way back from the lake a couple of the lovely welshy girls got chased by a dingo which sort of threw us all out a bit because we were yet to see one or realise quite how viscous they really were... Bless the girls, apparently they did what the safety video that morning had said, cross your arms over your chest and back away slowly, instead of what our guide had said... Be very aggressive, make loads of noise and DONT run! The girls came screaming out into the beach and poor Ronny from our car was in tears, it was all drama! Stress reliever cigarettes were needed all round for them!

Next stop was camp and id sort of forgotten that we were camping and suddenly wasnt looking forward to putting up the tents in the semi darkness so it was a nice suprise when we arrived to our stretch of completely deserted beach that there were tents ready waiting for us, although after wed had a look at them i kind of wished wed out them up ourselves...they were those dark and damp and smelly permenant tents that have sand all in them and a puddle by the door and the zips don't work very well and you feel very exposed to the creepy crawlies and snakes and dingos of the forest! The first tent we decided wed baggsy had a massive spiders web in the top and after a few second of KV being inside and realising this, she knocked the whole thing over which had us in silent tears of laughter for ages. The ranger already thought we were complete pussys running away from big mothy flies that kept biting us and treading really lightly and quickly whenever we had to walk through long grass so we thought this might be the last straw for him, us chucking the tent over! We all had a moment though were we looked seriously at each other and pretty much all at the same time said yep im sleeping in the car! It would be so uncomfortable but wed be safer there from any animally things and dingos!! Id managed to fall to sleep earlier in the afternoon in the car whisky we were driving along the super bumpy sand tracks, with the cold boxes being thrown everywhere in the back! And after all it couldn't be worse than the tents and we really didnt want a repeat of the embarrassing fiji moment when we had to move rooms and sleep three in a bed because we were scared of the "friendly house spiders"! We didnt tell anyone our plan incase a) anyone else wanted in - there wasnt space in our car, wed alread shotgunned the seven available seats, three in the front, but with the gearstick and handbrake to negotiate or two sets of two si GLA seats with half a metre between each so when you pay across them your bum bowed and hit the disgustingly sandy floor or you had to stuff loads of backpacks underneath you (not always yours and i was scared to lie on someone else's sunglasses or something and break them! And b) because technically you weren't allowed to sleep in the cars, it had on our little driving contract thingy that it would invalidate the insurance. So we certainly didnt want to shout about it!

We all cooked big dinners on the bbq after the tent/car decision was made and instead of having to explain the fact we were actually eating chicken burgers, even though yes we were vegetarians and yes we do also eat fish and kate sausages too we just anyone that asked they were veggie burgers! Much easier! There was a lot of s*** banter about us eating lentils and some of the boys thought it was hilarious to call us it instead of London 1, 2 and 3 (which is very normal! You meet so many people and never remember their names so everyone gets called by their country or place they're from - flitton didn't cut the bill unfortunately!!) I was in charge of burger cooki g on the bbq and made a nice big vegetarian sized fuss about the flat grill being cleaned of all meat juices before i could possibly put our -chicken- burgers on! The guide also had s*** chat for vegetarians! Australian humour clearly doesn't stretch that far to the unheard of concept that some people actually don't eat a char-burnt lump of cow from the barbie! And i also did baked bean warming duty so just stuck them on the side of the hot plate which everyone thought was hilarious, but it worked!! Warm beans and tin spaghetti all round! KV was on potato cooking duty and Al secretly cleaning all of the plates and cutlery we were going to use and keeping us all topped up on delish apple cider for the evening! Three yummy cans each, pushing the boat out!

After dinner we all sat around in the pitch black in our makeshift kitchen/dinning area and chatted and had area drinks which was nice. And it helped the big group bond together and we all swapped the usual small talk about where youd been, where you were going and where you went to uni etc! We found another couple of people that we had mutual friends with which just makes the world feel so small. These were even discovered without the help of Facebook! Crazy!!

We had been continually warned about the dangers if dingos, especially at night or on the dark beach and the eternally grumpy guide told us we much always go around in groups in the evening... So we did weeing on mass, all with torches and clacking dingo sticks together to make noise and scare them! We all broke the seal far to early in the night and the poor boys who had first offered to escourt us were dragged down to the beach with a gaggle of mildly hysterical and terrified girls to pee! Bless the boys they counted us onto the beach from the little path and back off again, with one at the front of the line and one at the back and they stood with their backs to us whilst we were weeing, guarding us!! At one point in the evening there was a line of about 14 girls all hip to hip, weeing at a slight angle to counter the wind blowing and passing loo roll down the line and sharing sandwich bags stuffed with all the used paper! It was funny and would have made a hilarious picture but i think the boys knew we would all absolutely kill them if they even just turned round (not that 14 girls weeing is an enticing sound to want to turn!) wed have killed them, let along started clicking away with a camera!

We sloped off to bed relatively early, about 11:30 but it felt much later after our 5am start and the pitch blackness outside and we all piled into the car and started the layering up process and working out who would sleep where...i wanted the three seats at the front as there was only a small gap in between them, but after laying my roll mat out perfectly i was far to scared to lie over the handbrake in case i clicked it off and we rolled into dingo territory-the forest opposite the beach! So i had to swap with KV for the desperately u comfortable back two seats. We cleaned our teeth leaning out of the window, shutting it and turning the torches out the second we heard any rustling or sounds, people or otherwise as we definitely didnt want to draw any attention to ourselves in there! Before going to sleep we all closed every window and made sure that the doors and back door was fully locked and that nothing could possibly get in. Unfortunately that did also mean that nothing could get out, including the massive farting attack that we all had after our four bean mix lunch and Al and I's baked bean on toast breakfast... The car absolutely honked and we all couldnt help but slip them out!! Im sure at one point the air was actually hazy!

From the car, we sat and watched the huge dingos (warewolf sized) jump up on the tables where wed had dinner and literally lick the bbq hot plates clean, they made this terrible screaching sound as well and looked so vicious even when they were play fighting with each other and we saw them prowling around all of the tents that everyone else was sleeping in, obviously trying to sniff out food and mark their territory. It was really scary and blimey i was glad to be in the super uncomfortable car with the by plastic seat belt bits stuck in me at all angles!

None of us slept very well and were all awake at the crack of dawn as the sun rose early and obviously the car did t have curtains and was ridiculously hot and sweaty, especially in all our layers and the windows closed. A few people were also getting up from their tents reporting s*** nights sleeps as well and not even being fazed by us lot being in the car in sleeping bags and what not! By the sound of it we'd had just as good nights rest, they had all gotten in the wrong tents and the girls had wanted to sleep with a boy each to protect them and so theyd squashed into the tents and all been too close together and someone slept with their pillow in a puddle and another tent zip didnt work so two girls had slept (or not) terrified all night that the entire contents of the forest would walk in and eat them!

We all started eating breakfast and i had a bit of a brainwave that we could use the bbq hot plate with a little bit of marge to make toast instead of having to have bread and everyone was asking what on earth i was doing and what could a veggie want with a bbq in the morning for breakfast, did i have bacon? But they all followed suit soon enough!! And we had pretty nice toast that was more like French toast, smothered in Nutella! Literally everyone had brought a pot with them! The travellers answer to their chocolate fix with no melted bars or stckyness on your coolbag!

We were all breakfasted, packed up and id had my first ever poo in the wild (yes in day light and yes i dug a little hole and then burried it - i was desperate ok!) and everything by about 8:45 but were told that because of the sea level we wouldn't be able to drive on the beach to our next destination until 10 or 11, so the three of us set off on a little walk which ended up being huge to the bakery at the only holiday resort on the island to buy another loaf of bread so we didn't have to ration our last loaf out quite so stingily! I might have also had a cheeky donught that was annoyingly not worth the gazzillion calories in it! But oh well, i live and learn! (Pretty much my motto of the whole trip!) the walk all the way to the bakery ended up taking almost half an hour and we were suddenly terrified when a group of cars just like ours, with palace hostel tours written on the side bombed it past us and we thought wed been left!! We did tell the rest of our car where we were going and also not to go without us, so we got a wriggle on and headed back to camp, but we forgot our dingo sticks so KV had to run back for them! N the brisk walk home we started singing at the top of our voices, really old nineties hits to scare any dingos away from us as we suddenly felt quite vulnerable on the beach with noone else about!! We were belting out any song or chorus we could think of and doing all of the accompanying dance moves! Tradgedy, 5678, hit me baby one more time and stop right now all got a look in! We walked past a police station half way back to camp that also had a toilet and the girls were busting and i thought it was silly to waste the opportunity to have a wee without grass and sand poking my bum or splashing on my feet! So we all went in but were terrified of the dingos so we were singing really loudly and although we checked the toilet for any huge spiders or anything else we still all peed with the doors open with one standing guard for the others just in case we needed to make a quick mid wee dash away from something creepy or crawlie! We even toileted we with the doors open when other people came into the cubicle, although we did briefly stop singing!! We ran back from the police station to the beach clacking our dingo sticks and screeching to keep any of them away from us, just as our cars drive right up next to us and picked us up, dingo sticks and all, which weren't small, about a meter each! Phew we hadnt been left! But the whole group did all just drive to the bakery and stop and pick up their own fresh loaves! So we felt a bit peeved at the long walk, but at least it had maybe burnt off a tenth of my donught or something?!

I had a go driving then and it was just like whaddon so i found it pretty easy, although i did t like the thought of having six other lives in the car and a $200 insurance bond we wanted to have returned! It was very cool cruising along the beach though with rainforest on one side of us and sea on the other! I was a little bit naughty though and overtop both boys driving in the other cars because they were going soo slowly and the guide was going i to the distance! So it felt pretty good blasting past two boys with my arm resting out the window being cool! We drov to a couple of different little stops including Eli Creek which was a little river that wound through the forest and onto the beach which was super cold and clear although in places it had dirty scum/froth on the top from where a big wave had leaked in, so i didnt fancy swimming in it, although some people did! Then with Al and KV having a go at driving we went to a big shipwreck high was from years and years ago and although it had been bombed to bits, it was still standing and pretty magnificent! And we also went to coloured sands which was a little stop off where the sand was white and red in big layers or stripes on piled sand rock, it was quite cool and we all took loads of pics here of posing and generally being silly!

We stopped for lunch (more bean mix, tinned tuna and potatoes) and then carried of towards Indian head which was a big cliff that stuck out obscuring the beach and into the sea, it was quite a steep walk up the rocks to kept to the top and obviously as fully prepared hikers we all did it in flip flops with our big full water bottles! At the top there was amazing views across most of the beaches and out to the very deep and choppy sea surrounding the island... The guide told us that in the olden days aboriginal people were pushed to their deaths by the workers that chopped the trees, that was a pretty horrible thought! But we took some nice pictures and had a little walk around, being careful not to get too close to the edge as i definitely didn't want to slip!!

From indian heads we jumped into the cars again and drove round the cliff to another spot called champagne pools. These were giant rock pools next to the sea that had massive waves crashing in over the top of them, making the water all foamy and presumably look like champagne! When we were walking over the board walk down to the rocks before getting in, we could see lots of people in the pools with santa hats on, which made us all laugh because it doesn't feel like christmas at all, especially in the heat!! It was really difficult to struggle across all the sharp and slippery rocks to get into the pools which were actually pretty cold and the wind just picked up as we were getting so we were covered in goosebumps! I went to the back of the pools where the water was warmer and you could lean against the edge and be rocked by the waves, much smaller by the time they reached us! The girls went right to the front where the waves were crashing over the top of the bigger rocks and throwing them across the pool, we got some good pics that look like they're on a water slide at a theme park with their arms in the air and a massive wave above their heads!! The only down side of champagne pools was that the water water was salted, meaning we all felt a bit gross and tight skinned, covered on salt, but we drove back towards camp next and stopped off at Eli creek so we could quickly splash our faces clean.

Dinner at the camp on the second night was not quite as tasty, tomato pasta with bbq-ed corn on the cob (which was good!) but we had to smother the pasta in ketchup to make the cheap sauce taste acceptable! But we did make loads so there was plenty for lunch the following day, as we finished the bean mix! We all sat around chatting and drinking goon again but we were quickly circled by dingos, looking for scraps of dinner and at one point they jumped up onto the bbq whist we were all pretty close still and started licking the grill as someone hadn't put the lid on! Yuck! All of the girls were screaming and the boys running around trying to be macho and scare them off, even though the guide had warned us of agitating the dingos which could make them aggressive towards us! It definitely cemented our thinking to sleep in the car again, even though it was so uncomfortable! But earlier in the day the window in T-Rex (the name of our 4x4 car) had broken and gotten stuck down... It was fully open and suddenly in the dark with all of the dingos roaming around we felt a bit vulnerable so the guide helped us attach a bit of tarpaulin in between the door to cover up the gap. I was s***ting my pants because in the back off T-Rex near my seat was the cool boxes and all of our food which the dingos would probably be able to smell...arghh!! So we used a towel as well to try and block up the window a bit more and make it impossible for dingos to get in and keep the cold night wind out!

During our second and equally uncomfortable night, there was a bit if a comotion, which i managed to sleep through but apparently a dingo had come into one of the tents and at breakfast time when we were first told the story, the dingo had trod on her leg but by lunch time the girl had been mauled and pulled from the tent, with one of the boys having to 'dive and rescue' her! But still, not very nice to wake up to pretty much a werewolf in your bed! So all the girls ran out screaming and chose to sleep the rest if the night in another of the card!

In the morning we were all woken up early to go to one last lake before heading back to the ferry and Australia main land. We were on the road (if you can call a sand path an the beach that!) by half past nine and heading down to the toilets and little holiday resort in Eurong again. I had woken up feeling really bunged up, the start of a summer cold :( and quite tierd so after queuing for a while for the ladies, whilst everyone did the same stinky business after two days(!) i nipped into the bakery and got a latte, soy and everything, perfect! It was so got though and in sure M always tells me that its good to drink something warm when its hot out to regulate your body temperature or something, well it didnt work and i was drinking the incredibly bitter coffee whilst sweating out in the face!! Sexy watery top lip and everything! The coffee was incredibly bitter though and i think i must have woken up quite dehydrated as almost instantly the coffee gave me an incredible migraine which was blindingly painful and just behind my eyes, stopping me from seeing properly so i couldn't volunteer to drive or anything for another turn. Most of the morning on Frazer was a blur for me as all i could concentrate on was the headache. I slept at the lake and tried to rehydrate myself as much as i could but it would not budge. It was that horrible pain that just randomly gives you goosebumps and the s***s, which was interesting being nowhere near any facilities, only the great outdoors! Needless to say that my first alfresco poop was by no means my last!!

We got on the ferry at about 2pm and promptly most of us fell asleep on the vaguely comfy sofas on the too deck for the 45 minute ride back to Hervey Bay. When we got back we had to unpack all of the cars and recheck-in and then i just flopped into bed for an hour or so thinking it might help my headache. I had a nap and then a cold shower which helped make me feel a lot better in myself, not sweaty or suncreamy and with clean hair! We all signed up to the pizza night along with the majority of other people from the trip which was nice as we ha no food left to cook dinner and id missed lunch because id been asleep so i knew id be hungry when tea time came!

Next up, i went to visit Audrey and her family, the wife of one of my granddads friends from his RAF days. Mum had pounced it on me before wed left for the island tour and i hadn't thought about it much until i got out i the shower. Mum had looked at her house address in comparison to my hostel and worked out that we were pretty close and would i please go and visit to her as her and nan write to each other every year at christmas. Mum had given me the telephone number and without really very much more thought i just hit dial and it started ringing...then i panic-ed wondering how i would introduce this random situation and when Audrey answered i babbles about being granddads granddaughter and could i come and visit her! But she was absolutely lovely and said yes and i walked over to her house and met her, one of her daughters plus hubby and a next door neighbour who were incredibly hospitable and fixed me up some juice (an extreme rarity as a backpacker!) and even some Pringles - perfect :) she told me about her late husband and showed me some piccys of him with a very young looking granddad, with a full head of hair!! We had a nice talk about our family and hers and all about my travel plans, which they were very sweetly interested in! Being in Audreys house was the first time id really felt christmassy as its so hard to imagine santa when your sweating in 35C+ but she had all the decs up and cute wrapped up presents. We had a really nice little christmas drink before i had to go back to the hostel in time for pizza night and we all wishes each other good xmas's and New Years and that... In the car on the way home (i got a lift because it was dark) i thought how bizzare it was to be on the other side of the world yet so close to someone that knows my family! Not such a big world to travel after all!!

Pizza night at the hostel was good, there was soo many dominos, i think for $10 each you got a pizza and a half and we quickly snaffled a load of the veggie ones and popped them all in tupperwares for breakfast and lunch on the greyhound the following day! I spent the evening packing up my bag and chatting to home and i had a very grannyish early night as my headache was still there in the background and i wanted to feel fresh the following morning, to check out at 9:30 and jump on the bus down to Noosa and jack (lovely jack from work and his family who were were going to stay with for a few days).

I'll update you again soon!!