Hi everyone,

Firstly I think this blog should probably come with a health warning…we've been to a lot of places in the last few days so this may take a while!!

I think last time we wrote we were just getting ready to go to the Bundaberg rum factory.We did a tour of the factory which took a couple of hours but it was really interesting.Our guide took us through the whole factory and all the different stages of rum production, with free tasters at each stage (liking this).The factory is huge; they produce something silly like 2 million litres of rum a year - only 25% is exported; most to New Zealand so it turns out the Aussie's are perhaps bigger drinkers than we thought! Also discovered they sell rum and coke on tap here - yet to try but sounds kind of cool!

After we left the factory, we headed down to Hervey Bay, checked into the hostel there, had a bit of a wander, couple of beers, nothing too exciting then hit the sack ready for our 6am (ouch) start the next day.Slightly dubious about Syd, our tour guide (who had taken well over half an hour to get 10 people to sign a sheet of paper the previous evening) we checked out the cars we'd be driving on the island (that big pink Toyota in the pics) and headed via the supermarket (a 2 hour ordeal thanks to Syd!) to the barge that would take us over to Fraser Island.

Just to fill people in about Fraser; it's the world's largest sand island, measuring 120km/15km and is the only place in the world where rainforest grows on the sand.It is classed as a world heritage site and is famed for its many different coloured lakes (due to the natural dyes that come from the rainforest) and many different colours of sand - up to 80 shades or something like that, so anyway…

Naturally with our luck with the weather over the past week or so, the first day on Fraser turned out to be quite a subdued affair.It went something like this…get in car, stops raining, drive to sightseeing opportunity, get out of car, tips with rain, get in car, stops raining….you get the idea.Unfortunately since Fraser is a national park, cover from the rain is few and far between so we just got really really wet and made the best of it! First stop was the island's main camping station where we went for a walk through the rainforest with Syd explaining what all the different types of plants were and scaring us s***less with the number of different killer spiders/snakes etc etc that have made Fraser their home!Next stop was Lake McKenzie, a completely crystal clear lake, where we went for a swim (in the rain). We then visited Lake Birrabeen, this time a bright yellow colour - weren't so keen on swimming in this one! After setting up camp in the middle of the forest (with the rain and the spiders and the snakes) we had a rather soggy BBQ, a few drinks and headed to bed.

The next day it didn't rain…not once..thank god as I think about half our group would have been looking for the next barge out of the place!! It was Martin's turn to drive the big pink car so we piled in after breakfast and headed out through the rainforest to the main settlement of the island Eurong, where we hit the beach.Martin seemed to be handling the 4x4 pretty well until it came to getting over a 2m sand dune - after about 5 attempts and getting stuck at the top even Syd had a go and failed miserably! (martin was very happy about this) video to follow.First stop of day 2 was Rainbow Gorge, a massive sand-blow with loads of different coloured sands which stretched for miles further than we were prepared to walk!

Next was Eli Creek, a freshwater river where we had a bit of a paddle up and down..then went clam picking a bit further up the beach - the clams make little bubbles in the sand so they're easy enough to spot, its just a case of digging them out!After our spot of 'fishing' we moved onto the wreck of the Maheno; a shipwreck from the early 20th century.The wreck used to be a luxury ocean liner until it was caught up in a tyhoon and washed ashore where a few years later the Aussies let rip, using it for target practice for their army in WW2!We headed inland further up the coast to visit lake Allom, a blood-red coloured lake, where there are loads of freshwater turtles swimming in the shallows.Back onto the beach and we travelled up to Indian Head, the most northerly point of the island where vehicles are allowed to travel; a short walk over the headland took us to Champagne Pools, so named because of the bubbles that the waves make as they crash over the first line of rocks nearing the beach.Because of the number of sharks in the sea, this was the only safe place on the island to swim in saltwater - naturally we felt obliged to take advantage!On the way back to the cars some of the group wandered up to Indian head via a rather steep set of rocks, where there was a rather hairy cliff edge over the other side - we could see Manta Rays swimming in the sea below from the top of the cliffs.

We spent the night on a camping ground near the beach with a nice local dinner of spag bol (seems to be a favourite with the group trips in Oz) and cooked off a few of the clams that we caught on the beach earlier - very tasty too! Too much $10.99-a-box wine made for a slightly better nights' sleep than previous and we got up early and drove down to a walking track that would take us to Lake Wabby.The lake is ¾ surrounded by Eucalyptus forest and the other side is a massive sand blow - possibly the steepest beach ever!Walking across the top on the way down to the beach was like being in the middle of a desert - rather surreal! A couple of lazy hours later we stopped for lunch in Eurong and headed back to Lake McKenzie to take advantage of the fact that we finally had real Australian sunshine!

After a quick trip on the barge, then a drive back to the hostel, we met up with the rest of the group in the evening for some post-trip drinks and photo sharing (just in case you were wondering why we had so many!!)

Getting up early for a road-trip to Brizzie tomorrow and finally a bit of koala action (fingers crossed!)

Love Katie and Martin x

(koala count: 0; Cassowaries: 0; Emu:2; Kangaroo: 1/16th ish)