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7th - 10th September - Rainbow Beach and Fraser Island, Oz
It was another early Greyhound on the 7th to get to Rainbow Beach ready for our trip to Fraser Island the next day. Steve and Agnes were with us to as they were also booked on Fraser for the same dates as us.
I was slowly starting to dread our trip to Fraser as the weather was still awful and we had heard a lot of horror stories from people who had been stranded there during thecyclone the previous week, such as the sea coming through the windows as they were driving and they couldn't get to safe camping grounds and trucks falling into wash-outs.
We got to Rainbow Beach and checked in the hostel, Dingos. Tha tafternoon we were all split into groups for our trip to Fraser and then had a briefing regarding our next 3 day trip to Fraser.
Basically for those who don't know, Fraser is an island we get to drive round on the sand in a 4WD with a group of about 9-11 people. At the briefing we were told all about the 4WD and the wash-outs, which are where the water runs from the island into the sea. If the weather has been bad (which it was!) the wash-outs can be really deep ad you have to keep th wheel straight, slow down and hope for the best. This is where i started panicking as due to the bad weather, a group the previous day had landed nose first into a wash-out tipping the car and causing $4000 worth of damage. despite it not being their fault. We seen pics of the damage to the truck and one of the girls that had been in the car was staying at the hostel and was covered in grazes all over her face as she hadn't had her seat belt on as the car tipped over.
Over group only had 9 in and consisted of me, Si, Agnes, Steve, Toopay, Siabhan, Natasha, Katjche and Nadine. After our vriefing we were told to figure out who would be driving and let them know for insurance purposes and put our order in for alcohol and they would have it ready for the morning.
Very early the next morning after free pancakes we were all assembled infront of 4WD ready for a further breifing and ready to pack the top of the truck with everything we needed for next 3 days.
The weather was glorious and everyone was in high spirits as no one really wanted to camp in bad weather. We then had to pack the truck with all provided campingequipment, food, drinking water, cutlery etc chuck all our bags up there and all the ale. The drivers then had a further briefing (only Si and Steve wanted to drive after hearing bout the previous group!) and ten we all piled inotthe truck armed with our map of the island, and tide times to be escorted to the ferry for our adventure. There were 5 trucks in total.
Fraser Island was the best trip we've been on since getting here and the weather was gorgeous for it. Si drove first, we went through a few hair raising wash-outs when we first got onto the island which were huge but after that it was great. We visited Lake McKenzie firsh which was huge with aqua blue water. We weren't able to spend as much spend as we wouldv'e liked as we had to get to a camping ground before high tide.
Imingine my horror when the only campsite we could reach had no facilities! Nightmare! We arrived at Poyungan Campsite about 3pm and set about putting up our tents etc. we then poured our first drink and walked the short distance to the beach to sit on the dunes andwatch the tide come in.
We set about cooking tea just as th sun was going down and had to connect the flourescent light to the car battery to see! We had music to as truck had ipod connectors, we just had to startthe engine for 30mins after every 90mins of music. We also had a little visitor while we were cooking dinner.... A DINGO! We'd been warned about the dingos on fraser and even shown a hilarious video of what to do if we came across any. For those of you who don't know, dingo's are wild dogs despite looking like a cute dog. In our breifing we were repeatedly told not to feed them, to keep all food, cooler boxes etc in the truck as they are quite vicious and if you are caught feedign them there is a hefty fine.
We spent that night playing cards and getting to know each other, then had an early night as we wanted to be up early to seethe sights of fraser.
Next morning every was happy to report they had not had any encounters with any dingos during the night however we had all been freezing! we had breakfast, packed up camp and set off for our first sight, Eli Creek. Its a gorgeous creek that you can swim up and float back down in the crystal clear waters!
Next stop Maheno Wreck which is said to be the oldest wreck i nthe world (however not too sure how true that is!) This wreck was great as it is actually on the beach so you can peek inside the porthols for some great pics - i got carried away again!!
Next was the Pinnacles, where you could read the Aboriginal love story on how the pinncles got their colour. We then drove along Cathedral beach until we hit Indian Head. We all got out and did the walk upto Indian Head to see fantastic views of both sides of the coast. We kept our eyes peeled for whales but no such look. From the top of Fraser yu could see the other side of the caost but we were not allowed ot drive on that side. Afeterenjoyign the scenery we headed back to the truck had lunch and sunbathed for a few hours.
We were the first truck to get to Indian Head but as we were sunbathing the others all started to arrive and we started to hear all different stories from the night befores antcis. The Irish girls in one truck hd been arguing all night with the germans in their group as they had taken the keys of the truck so they couldn't play any music. Another car (whom everyone fell out with by the end of the trip) had gotten really drunk and one of the lads ecided he wanted to sleep in the 4WD so took all the food etc out and then closed the doors behind him. His group awoke the next day to find their entrie 3 days worth od food had been eaten by the dingo'sin the night! They had even gotten into hte cooler boxes! They couldn't ring anyone back at rainbow beach though otherwise they woul've been fined! Everyone was thankful they had not endedup in their group!
After our sunbathing session we decided we would all like hot shoers that night and real tiolets to go to. WE had heard about an aboriginal camp and so set off to find it with Steve driving however we turned down a wrong road and got stuck in the sand with the truck nearly tipping over onto its side. It didnt matter what we did we were just getting ourselves deeper into the sand. Siobhan went and flagged down a passing truck full of Aussies who stopped and all got out with beer cans, incluing the driver, to help. After surveying it they managed to push us out! Thank god! thought we were nearly having to camp there. We then set back off to find the Aboriginal camp called Eugarie. At long last we found it (thankfully as the tide was coming in fast) and set up camp. The irish girls group also came. We were met by the Aborigines who live and run the camp and they told us they only have 2 rules, after dark no spitting in the fire and no whistling as they believe that it wll bring demons to the camp. They also wouldn't alloe any filming on camera as they say it will capture their souls.
After dinner we all gathered around the campfire and the estivities began. The aborigines turned up to drink with us to and tell us a few more stories. They do a traditional traditional dance every other night for guests but unfortunately we had arrived on the wrong night. They decided to show us a farewell dance though which they normally do at the beginning and the end of their other dance. The aboriginals do not believe in dsaying goodbye only farewell as they believewe will meet again in the next life.
After their dance the Irish were drunk by then and so decided to get up and show the aborigines the irish jig, which was hilarious, an irish girl and an aborigine doing the irish jig around a campfire on Fraser Island. It then snowballed from there, as Team Finland got up and started to show a native dance of theirs when someone piped up,, "isn't that the bunny hop?" Everyone was then doing the bunny hop around the campfire. When someone shouted for Team GB to get up we made our exit to bed!
We were up early again the next morning as we had one more sight to see before we had to get the ferry back to rainbow beach at 1.30pm. After breakfast and packing up camp we couldn't leave as the irish girls truck wouldn't start, after a couple of attempts by various people Si had a go and of course managed to start it!!
Toopay from our group had a go but he couldnt see ove rthe wheel. He was from Finland, check out his photo, we nicknamed him Robin Gibb from the Bee Gees as he was always in black from head to toe with socks and sandals, bless him!1 He was also obsessed with adding salt and pepper to every meal.
Once Si got the truck started we headed to Lake Wabby which wa absolutley stunning. There were locals using boards to surf down the dunes into the lake. again we had to move on due to needing to be on the ferry for 1.30pm. when we got back to the ferry the group who had lost all their food to the dingos were there. We were the first truck onto and off the ferry but we drove straight into sand and got stuck again. now you would have thought tat the oter truck wouldve stopped to help, but know they drove straight past laughing shouting ha ha youre stcuk out of the windows! I couldnt believe it, we were livid. When we eventually got back to the guesthouse they irish girls said that that group had done the same to them when their car wouldnt start at indian head the previous day.
Anyway an aussie couple came to our rescue and towed us out, no thanks to the other group!! Next stop Brisbane!!
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