Camping , 4x4s, Kangroo steaks, Dingos and dear lord, SO much sand!!!!! Thats pretty much a summation of the last three days of my life and i have to say some of the most fun of the trip so far!!!! it was awesome!! started way too early for my liking on wednesday morning when we were roused from our comfy beds at 7 am to be driven down to a garage somewhere here in Hicksville to go pick up our 4x4! the garage itself was a pretty amusing thing to behold - run by a delightful character by the name of Bob! now bob was by no means your ordinary mechanic in fact he looked more like a salty ol'sea dog with tattoos of TINA across his knuckles and LUCY on his arms (cant decide if one was his mum or whether he just really regretted having one of the tats done!!) and one leg considerably shorter than the other!!! our car, a ferocious 4wd that went by the name of Vera due to the fact that even through you weren't turning the whell it kinda veered all over the road a bit - safe! was loaded up with food bags and a helluvalotta Goon (vvvv.cheap white wine from a box!) and 11 unsuspecting travellers! it was the four of us girls, 2 v.nice Canadian guys, a loverly well brought up english lad, two southern fairies, the token foreigner from Spain and the token Psycho in the form of a huge and hugely obnoxious Israeli woman!!! so off we trundled to the barge port and bonded over a fondness for Tim Tam biscuits (similar to Penguins) and as ever the lads found common ground by kickin a ball about! Amber had the honour of being the first behind the wheel of the lovely Vera as we disappeared into the sandy tracks of Fraser island it was ace!!! took a walk to the most beautiful island lake - Basin lake which was literally just turqoise water, white sand then rainforest which was completly secluded! it was so beautiful! after a quick swim - not all willingly swam the Canadians decided it would be really fun to throw all the girls into the lake! we headed back and drove up the beach to set up camp after the tents had been set out all the boys promptly left to play footy on the beach while the women folk sat around the cooker making lunch and cups of tea! shameful stereotyping!!! In true stef styley i managed to be the first ne to fall off my little camp chair spilling tea all over myself as i went!! I knew it would be me!! i hadnt even had a drink!!!! it wasnt too long though before the goon was cracked open and everyone started to get a bit silly!! Todd disappered with a box of wine and returned 'drunk off the stars' a little while later, Lucy made the choice between sleep and vomiting by retreating into the tent, the psycho israeli made a horrible casserole and a lot of mess, although i apparently ate about three helpings something which i have very little memory of! we all went to look at the stars and got very sandy - I tried to teach a 6ft something Canadian, Colin, to scrum - why will i never learn that rugby, me and alcohol is never gonna be a good plan?!?!?!? Bizarre Needless to say the itinery that claimed we should leave the camp by 8 am the next morning got abandoned very rapidly although i did wake up at 6am when Holly got chased by a dingo while attempting to go to the loo!!! bless her she ran away which according to the dingo experts is like the worst thing you can possibly do!! woopsie!! I sat up and watched the sunrise over the ocean which was one of the most amazing things i have ever seen it was so beautiful - bloody cold though!! -got some great photos! also made lots of cups of tea for everyone and ate tim tams! Most of the group woke up about 11 o'clock by which point we were naring high tide so couldnt head north along the beach instead we headed south to lake Wabby another fresh water lake surrounf by rainforest on one side and sand sune on the other although the walk to the lake was ardous with hangovers and hungry bellies!!!! Agian all the girls got thrown in and the boys splashed around including pouring water all over me while i was sunbathing asleep with the back of my bikini unhooked so there was nothing i could do about it!!! Psycho Israeli struck again by bossing everyone around at lunch and generally being an utter knob, at which point i took myself off down the beach for fear of hitting her!! After an interesting lunch of s***ty frankfurters and beans we finally headed north to Eli creek where Amber and I went for a little meander and a gossip then up to the Indian Heads to camp for the night. Had some yummy steaks and fajitas although being gullable i was lead to believe that the steaks were kangaroo!!! they were actuallt just rump but i still stand by the fact that they didnt taste like normal steaks!! After that pretty much pass out from exhaustion and annoyance at the sheer wierdness of Mo the psycho Israeli who i'm convinced actually has serious mental problems!!!!! although somehow i ended up in the tent that was on a hill and woke up hidiously early squished into a corner of the tent and freezing to death!!! got up watched the sunrise again and made tea again!!! fortunately the psycho decided she wanted to drive the truck!!!! BIGGEST MISTAKE EVER!!!!! we had stalled about 15 times before we even left the campsite and i realised we were in for an interesting drive when we tld her to puch the clutch in and she pressed the break pedal!! unfortunatly i had the luck of being in the front seat!! within ten miunutes my nerves were in tatters as she drove along the beach frequently missing the gears and hitting huge dips and then swerving for no apparent reason literally nearly toppling the car at which point i could no longer bear it and had to get out of the front seat, my blood was actually boiling! to my amazement she continued to be allowed to drive until she got us stuck in the sand so deep that it took all of us twenty minutes and a lot of pushing to get the truck out. needless to say i was not a happy bunny by this point!!!! thankfully amber took over the wheel and i relaxed immensely and slowly the colour gradually returned to my face and i managed not to have to hold on so tight to the dash that my hand had become stuck in a claw like grip!! so yeah that pretty much ruined my morning! got better though as we headed to lake McKenzie which was again stunningly beautiful! had a nice swim and a sunbath and fortunatly psycho Mo found some othe psycho israelis to talk to! comment of the trip though had to be : Mo - 'Tel Aviv has a really good nightlife' Matt - 'yeah the sky is lit by the light of tracer bullets' controversial but extremely whitty i think! after the lake we headed back to the barge and to civilisation of hot showers and toilets that don't require a shovel! last night we all went out for dinner (unsurprisingly Mo the Psycho chose not to join us - what a crying shame!) and then to the pub in all i had a wicked few days and the group with obvious exception was really cool and w got on really well and had a lot of fun! bring on the Whitsundays!!!!! love you all loads just glad i survived really!!!! xxxxxxxxxx steffie