We got up and started our drive up the coast to Hervey Bay, where we would cross over to Fraser Island for three days. We spent the afternoon at the beach again as the weather was still lovely and continued the relaxing as we knew it was going to be a hectic three days ahead!

At 5am the next day we woke up and set off for our briefing. For the next few days we were hiring a four wheel drive car, so we needed an hour safety briefing before the keys were handed over. Fraser Island can only be accessed by 4x4 cars and we decided against a tour, and instead to go it alone. After a scary safety video, we were handed the keys by an incredibly happy German man who worked at the hire company and we were off!

We boarded our barge and sailed over to the island. The trip nearly began with disaster when we were disembarking. We had to reverse off the barge and as we were halfway off the barge, it moved further from the shore meaning we had to speed off before we fell into the water! Thankfully, we made it and continued inland to our first stop - Lake Birrabeen.

Birrabeen is a freshwater lake (like all lakes on Fraser) and it was a nice quiet stop for a swim before heading to the tourist hotspot of Lake McKenzie. McKenzie is arguably the most beautiful lake on the island (all the postcards feature it) and its super clear blue water makes it easy to see why. We happily splashed around for an hour to cool off from the bumpy roads. The lakes on Fraser are fantastic, but the real fun comes from the driving! We were happily bouncing around the sandy tracks and through huge muddy puddles from lake to lake, but when it came to getting out lunch out, we realised our food wasn't made of as strong stuff as the car and had exploded all over the boot of the car! We washed the car out and binned the spoilt food and made our way to the eastern beach a bit more carefully than before.

The first night on the island was spent camping just off the beach near the township of Eurong. We went through our usual nightly ritual of drinks and cards, with a couple of interruptions from curious dingoes. We had been warned to chase them off if they came to close so we had a great time scaring them away. After a few hours of playing cards in the dark, we decided to give up and we went to bed.

We headed back inland early to get to Lake Wabby. This lake is full of catfish which eat the dead skin off your feet. They didn't seem that hungry so instead of the relaxing time planned pampering our feet, the boys decided to roll down the very large, very steep sand dunes a few times into the water. Next we headed back to the beach and went further north to Eli Creek for a dip in the icy cold water there.

Just north of Eli is the Maheno shipwreck which is an old trans-Tasman liner that was washed up during a cyclone in the 1930's. We spent a while walking around the ship (which is conveniently located in the centre of the beach which is also the main highway on the island!) until we decided to head to the far north of the island to camp up by India Head to enable us to get there in the early morning. We camped up for the evening once again, but were soon under torrential rain! He had to retreat to our tents for the night which meant a very early night in a very leaky tent.

We headed straight to India Head in to the morning, but high tides prevented us from getting there. As we had to take the car back that day, we decided not to waste time waiting and instead head back inland to Lake Allom to a little visited lake on the island which is home to thousands of little turtles. We watched the turtles for a while, and then decided to spend our remaining time of the island back at Lake McKenzie to relax for the remainder of the day.

Soon it was time to head back on the barge and we went back to the camp site in Hervey Bay ready for a good nights sleep! Sadly, the weather had a different plan and we were met with torrential rain once again. As we couldn't put the tents up in this weather, we took shelter in the camp kitchen where we spent our final night as a group drinking and playing cards once again. Around midnight, the rain stopped and we were able to quickly put the tents up and head to bed, determined to get to some sleep before the rain started again.

We headed out early that morning to catch a bus back south to Surfers Paradise, our last stop in Australia. We had to say goodbye to everyone again which was a real shame. We had had such a great time travelling as a group again and were particularly grateful to Ramon, Danielle and Luke for letting us hitch a ride with them up the coast.