We took an evening bus through the night (about 12hrs) to Harvey Bay. The hostel we stayed at (Palace) was great, it was like an apartment.

We had a walk along the esplanade and found a fitness track with bars for pull ups, sit up benches and resistance machines. We had good intentions that evening when the sun went down, but it didn't quite happen. We had a meeting for the 2 night Fraser Island 4x4 tour we were doing the following day. We met two English girls, Gugs and Kat, that were in our room, and so it helped with the shopping bill for our days away. The tour driver, Paul, put us into groups of 8 who we would be travelling with for the next 3 days. We were already a 4 with the two girls, we then got put with 4 crazy German lads. We weren't too impressed initially, as they couldn't even complete the paperwork without getting it wrong.

We set off the following morning in convoy, Paul's car followed by 3 4x4's. The 4 Germans had already started drinking - it looked like it was going to be a long 3 days! We took the half an hour ferry across to the island. As soon as we reached the other side we were instantly on sand. So the tyres were deflated and we change into 4 wheel drive. The whole island is sand and inhabits about 600 people and every track is off road - either driving across the beaches, through water or through the Fraser jungles - up and over tree roots and through lots of big craters.

Over the 3 days we bathed in beautiful fresh water lakes with White beaches and yet surrounded by lots of greenery from the rainforests - Lake Wabby, Lake Mckenzie and Lake Birrabeen. We walked through the tranquil rainforests. We ran up Eli Creek just off the main beach. Cruised on the 75 mile long beach to and from base camp. Saw the Maheno shipwreck on the beach (abit of a mystery as to how it got there). We saw The Pinnacles and trekked the Hammerstone

Lake Mckenzie is amazing... it has an island that James and I enjoyed the exercise swimming out to it.. the best part of it is that we didn't have stingy eyes.. fresh water!

The back two seats in the truck were a very rough ride and made James and I feel abit ill. James didn't feel well on the trip and it certainly showed. He lost his temper with the Germans because of their driving at points. He wasn't in a sociable mood at all! I tried to leave him to it! The driving was awesome, but it was difficult driving through the mounds of soft, dry sand. I was a mad woman behind the wheel - driving through sea rivers, getting everybody wet, and trying to keep up with Paul in his much better and much faster 4x4. James really enjoyed the driving too. It is so much better than being sat in the back.

Paul was a wicked laugh - telling all the girls to run up Eli Creek until you reach the bridge, and the boys will follow, giving us a head start. It was all a trick to get us girls to plunge straight into a big dip in the creek. Two of the girls did fall and all the boys were howling with laughter. 15 young girls running in a herd up the creek looked like the Lynx advert where hundreds of half naked women run at this guy.

We stopped in tents for 2 nights and had all the necessary cooking and cleaning facilities (no toilets though, so into the bush it was!). The camp was on the East side of the island, right on the main beach, secluded by trees - awesome for midnight star gazing.

One night, James and Paul took all the pegs out of a tent with an Italian guy and Danish girl inside. They had the cheek to kick out two others girls in the dark so that they could get it on! The tent collapsed on them in full swing.. Haha!

We were surrounded by scavenging dingoes every evening - sneaking into food eskees. This Mexican guy in our camp got really drunk one evening and so he slept outside because he was being sick. He woke up to a dingo licking his face!

Hammerstone Sandblow was hills and hills of pure sand. James and I challenged ourselves to run down one side and up the other. Bloody hell that was hard! We found a piece of wood and attempted to slide down the sand dunes on it, but it didn't work!

As lovely as the two English girls were, it was like having two mums! Every decision made had a big debate before hand.. like picking some cheese from the shops, and making sandwiches, and how many sausages we should cook. It was pretty funny to watch.. we just left them to it! Kat rarely smiled and even the Germans were calling her teacher - she was always telling them what to do.. haha! We called the youngest German Super Franz.. His name is Franz and he was like an action man.. always wanting to climb and jump off things. And he wasn't very good at English so he was always smiling and nodding.. 'yes, yes!'. At the meeting we had to photocopy our driving licence if you wanted to drive, Super Franz left his licence in Germany so he couldn't drive but he kept filling in all the paperwork.. Hilarious! Oh and one of the girls is a street dance teacher, so one evening we made up and performed a dance for the rest of the group.. fun times!

Fraser Island has been the best part of Australia for me. It is out of this world!