On our first night at Rainbow beach a group of us from our hostel headed up to the sand blast to watch the sunset...it looked like huge meadow of sand that rose up into massive sand dune you could slide down! After deciding the sand cliff didnt look too daunting we decided we'd give it a go to get down to the beach...we were soon descending a near virtical sand wall which was quite easy on the way down as you could simply slide on your bum! Unfortunatley we were soon to learn that the only way back up was the way we came, so the ascent began! This really took its toll on your legs...for every 2 steps you took up you took one down again...there was a few moments when Rich had dramatically decided we were actually stuck and that he couldn't possibily make it up....but eventually we did, and just in time to see the sun set! It was absolutely gorgeous and well worth the climb!

Rainbow beach was our stop over to make our trip to Fraser Island...A group of ten of us got given a tank of a 4x4, food, camping gear and enough goon to drown in and were sent over to an uninhabitted island for 3 days! There are no roads on the island only tracks- deep sand divets tracks to be precise...oh and the beach to drive on! So as you can imagine it wasnt long before the 8 passengers were behind the car (the car which we were Soon to christen as Nelly by pouring goon all over it) pushing with all our might to get the bloody thing out of a pile of sand half way up the wheels! We'd heard loads about fraser island but never imagined how crazy the tracks would be....people were stuck all over the island...not to mention the ones that had driven into trees or toppeled upside down! It was well worth the drive though (And getting covered in sand up to our waists) when we reached Lake Macenzie! This is one of the most famous fresh water lakes and is complete with beautiful white sands right in the middle of the wilderness! So after an afternoon of cooling down and chilling by the lake we decided it was time to head out and find our campsite for the night. As we left the lake we came upon a load of stationary cars... we soon discovered why, alot of the cars that were atempting this mammouth hill couldnt make it and were simply rolling back down! So our only option was to take a MASSIVE run up and shout at the top of our lungs 'GO NELLY GO!' while stranded travellers from other cars not quite so sucsessful cheered us on! It was an epic journey but we made it to our campsite and set up for the night. Most of the people were in bed by 9 but us and a couple of Irish guys stayed up and made a start on our goon supply in preperation for the following night where we were sleeping on the beach and therefore had no rangers telling us to be quite by 9pm! After a hard nights sleep-literally physically very hard-the mats offered little back or bum cushioning, we jumped back in Nelly and headed for the beach.

Rich has displayed some expert driving and balls of steel as he navigated his way through the inland track, but as we made it to the beach Shell decided her time had come, she jumped in the drivers seat and we made our way up to the Maheno wreck...after some exploring and a dip in a natural creek to cool off we found the perfect spot to set up camp and call home for the night. It was like something from shipwrecked, we were set back from the beach over a little sand dune in the shade! After our camp was set up 'Home sweet Home' we all headed out on the 40 minute walk back to the creek to cool off. We spent the afternoon floating down the creek and drinking the fresh mineral water (apparently it was the cleanest mineral water you can get but we went up stream of all the swimmers just to make sure we didnt get any unexpected treats!) After our swim we headed back so chef hump could get started on our dinner!

We all tucked in to our dinner and then started on a debatable game a German girl came up with (After a few more glasses of goon we thought it was the best games ever invented!), it wasnt long before we realised we werent alone!.....DINGOS! They were everywhere and not as scared of us as we had hoped, so after a quick dash to get all our dinner stuff in the back of the truck we got our dingo stick at the ready and kept our eyes peeled...well apart from the goon haze.

The next morning was a slow one and once we had all emerged we soon realised that the other camps had already packed and gone! We all opted for a slower start so a full cooked english breakfast was decided! Unfortunately the breakfast may not have been the best idea as then we were cutting it pretty fine to make it to the next lake and back to the ferry and unfortunatley Nelly had other ideas! We pulled up at the lake to the smell of smoke coming from under the front tyre...after a call to the mechanics we were soon back on our way but had missed the final lake! We all made it back to the mainland and got away charge free which was good news so planned a final night out with our lovely group as a farewell....once speaking to a few friends who were with absolute dribbles we realised how lucky we were!

The next morning we all got packed up and headed for the bus to take us to our next stop...Noosa!