After arriving in Hervey Bay and checking into our excellent hostal we were on the hunt for a good trip out to Fraser Island. We chose a two day one night tour which would be leaving the following morning. Pick up was early and we were bussed down to where we were getting the barge that would take us over to the island. Fraser Island has the title as the largest sand island in the world and it's full of unique sights.

Once we had landed on the island we were met by our bus and guide for the two days and were immediately off on the very rough single track sand roads that we would be used too by the time we left two days later.

Our first stop was to 'Central Station', which was one of the first settlements of European people when they came to start logging on the island. Not much remains but the area is used to display information boards on the Islands history and ecology. A lot of emphasis is put on the Fraser Island Dingo, which is the purest breed in Australia as they have never cross bred with other domestic dogs. They arrived originally with Asian traders and although they were domesticated soon bred into the wild and now live mostly feral lives. There have been a couple of incidences over the years where dogs have attacked children and taken babies so there is now a push to stop people from feeding the dogs to discourage them from coming close to people. The island rangers even sling shot hard objects at the dingos to teach them to be afraid of humans.

Our next stop was to lake Birrabeen, one of the two blue lakes, the other being the more famous Lake Mackenzie which we would be visiting the next day. All the lakes on the Island are perched, meaning that they are rain fed and there are no rivers leading into or out of it. It was suggested by our guide Warren that we might like to swim in the lake but although the sun was out there was a fresh breeze blowing so Paul and I decided against it.

After an hour we were back on the "roads" and taken to our hotel resort where we would be having all our meals and staying the night. Lunch was buffet style which we took full advantage of before it was time to pile back into the bus for the afternoons sights. Warren took the bus and us on to the beach were the going was a lot smoother, although we all noted that the tide seemed a bit high to be driving on. We were assured it was actually low tide but it was particularly high at the moment in general. About 10km up the beach and we parked up. From here we started climbing inland into bush but soon emerged on a very large open area of sand called ………. Walking across this stunning bit of scenery was hot going so when we arrived at a lake we didn't need to be invited twice to take a dip. The water was surprisingly bracing but very refreshing so most of the group dunked themselves briefly then sat on the sand to dry off for the rest of our time there. On our way back to the bus on the beach some movement was spotted in the undergrowth which turned out on some creeping inspection to be an echidna, which is a porcupine like marsupial. A very rare sight we were told by Warren so we were suitably chuffed with ourselves.

Retuning to the bus even Warren was mildly alarmed at the speed at which the beach was being reclaimed by the waves and reported that we would have to cancel our promised trip to the southern part of the beach where dingo sightings are common, and return straight to the resort.

That done we spent the rest of our evening hanging out in our nice double room, having our buffet dinner and later participating in a quiz at the bar with a few others from our group.

The next day morning we were off to the famous Lake Mackenzie where we were rewarded with gorgeous weather to make the most of the charms of the clear lake and white sands. It was a fairly busy beach full of young tourists and with the hot weather it felt a little like laying on a popular beach in Spain for a hour but it was pleasant and relaxing.

The long drive took us back to the resort in time for our final meal, an early lunch, before we were to be driven up the beach again to see the last of the sights. When we took the tour we were expecting to see the wrecked ship …….. that sits in the surf, Indian Head which is a beautiful lookout spot, Rainbow sands where the sands show a variety of colours, and …….. Creek which is a large fresh water creek that runs into the sea. Unfortunately Warren told us that due to the high tides the access to the north part of the beach where all these sights are located was out of bounds to the tour busses and had been for several weeks.

Instead we drove as far north as we could and visited Rainbow Gorge where there we saw some other examples of differing coloured sands, and the compacted plant matter that makes up the watertight bases of the islands lakes. We spent an hour of so having a look around before returning to the bus. Enroute to catch the barge we had a little look at another small creek and a brief stop at the resort. The barge took us without incident back to the mainland by early evening and we were bussed back to our hostel.

We decided to make a complaint to the tour company for having been miss-sold an incomplete tour but initially our chances of compensation didn't look good as they'd have a get out clause printed in their brochure relating to "changes in itinerary due to changes in conditions". We wrote a strong worded email however and argued our case and eventually got 20% back which we figured was a fair result!