May 18th (Monday) - Day 78 - Hervey Bay
After a long long night on the bus we arrived in Hervey bay about half 9. We got a free pick up and taken to the hostel The place was dead. I expect mainly because Hervey bay is a staging area for Fraser Island and as such no one stays more than 1 night. We had the place to ourselves. We settled in and then went in search of a Fraser Island trip. We did not want to do a self drive (which is the most popular) so we had to find an organised one. It turned out to be easier than we thought. We booked one up quite quickly and then had nothing to do for the rest of the day. We had a good look around our part of Hervey bay and then sat on the beach until the sun went in. That evening we lounged around the hostel and didn't do much at all.

May 19th (Tuesday) - Day 79 - Fraser Island
We got picked up from outside our hostel and taken with a bunch of other people (a full double deckers worth) to the crossing. We boarded the boat and on the other side we were sorted into the day group and the 2 day group. We of course got on the 2 day group bus to find there were only 4 other people doing it - all German. The other 60 people were all doing the day tour. Our bus could hold 40 people so we had tons of room. The buses were big 4x4 buses and the tyres came up to my chest. It was huge. As the island is one big sand dune normal cars cannot get across the sand. The driver (Warren) seemed really nice (and turned out to be one of the nicest people we have meet so far in Aus). He introduced himself and before we knew it we were flying down a sandy one way track at what seemed like 70 mph - it was in fact 30 as that was the speed limit. We drove to the other side of the island and got shown around the main resort. Next thing we knew we were on the beach - the beach is called 75 mile beach - mainly because the beach stretches for 75 miles. The best way to get around the island is to drive up the beach so it has been turned into an official highway. We drove up for about 10 minutes and pulled over. The first stop was to see Lake Wobby. This is a one of many natural lakes on the island. We walked about 1.5 miles over sand dunes to reach the lake. The weather was not great and was spitting with rain for most the morning. This was fine walking to the lake. We had a good look around and were very amused by this other group who were running down the sand dunes and jumping in the lake. However before we knew it the heavens opened and we got drenched walking back to the bus. It was almost lunch time so he took us back to the resort so that we could get into our rooms to dry off and grab some lunch. Our room was meant to be a 4 bed dorm but because our group was so small we got a room per couple. So Sarah and I had the nicest dorm room ever all to ourselves. Then for lunch we had a buffet style affair and all of us pigged out. Stuffed we got back on the bus and headed for the central station area (no idea were the name comes from). Once there we did a rain forest walk in the rain. This was like no other I had done because the forest was growing out of the sand. Finally for that days touring we went up to lake McKenzie. The sun came out long enough for us to see the perfect blue water and go for a quick swim. That evening in the resort we went for some pre-dinner drinks with Warren and learnt a lot more about the place. This made us late to meet the others for dinner but they did not seem bothered. After dinner we went for a group drink and of course the German bunch went after one drink.

May 19th (Wednesday) - Day 80 - Fraser Island
It did not stop raining all night and we thought we were going to be into for a terrible day. We had a buffet breakfast and jumped on the bus. Today we were going right to the top of the island which meant driving most the length of 75 mile beach. I asked if I could sit at the front of the bus. This gave me some wicked views of what was ahead. It took us a good few hours, dodging the other cars who had no idea were they were and contending with all the streams crossing the beach. On the way we stopped to see a 1935 ship wreak. Half of which is still intact but very very rusty. Some coloured sand formations amongst other things. When we got close to the top we could see blue sky pushing through and that managed to last then for the rest of the day! We climbed Indian head once we arrived in the north. This gives you some great views of the island as well as some sheer drops over the cliff edge. Once we had seen that we drove over to the Champagne pools. This is a big rock formation that allows pools of water to form behind the rocks. We had lunch at the pools and then started to head back down the beach. Half way back we stopped at a creek and walked along the river for a few hundred metres. Then we went to rainbow gorge. For some reasons the tours tend not to come here - I don't know why it was fantastic. The sand was rainbow coloured and there was a massive dune which most of us climbed then proceeded to jump down as we knew we would land on soft sand. Once back at the bus it was time to head home. We drove the last stretch of the beach at high tide (meaning there was very little sand left to drive on). Once back at the hostel we had a very lazy night doing nothing.