Rise before the sun, van is packed, car is ready to go, quick breakfast, goodbye to Aunty P, and on the road again before the Brisbane peak. Over the Gateway Bridge in record time and off we go!

The Glass House mountains appeared sheepishly on the horizon, scattered through the flat farmland and forests, and slowly grew and grew until we found ourselves staring up at these giants. Our impressively early departure, meant info centres were not open, but we used some of our "go and get 'em" spirit to do a self drive tour. This resulted in us circling, a few u-turns down dead end gravel roads, and an incursion into private property before we left the area defeated, and googled images from the lookout we had tried to reach. A quick pit stop in Gympie, before heading to the coast. Bern hoped to catch a glimpse of Darren, or perhaps a close relative, and SUCCESS..... we found a great coffee over the road from Hanlon Arcade!

A few days in Rainbow Beach, Inskip Point, and Tin Can Bay were had preparing ourselves for the unknowns of Fraser Island; Sand driving; tides; dingos; inclement weather....

My irrational (or not) fear of taking my wonderful family, and all of our worldly possessions into a place with all of these dangers was getting the better of me. And me being as experienced at four-wheel driving as a chimpanzee in a smart car, I was slightly hesitant. But a few days of comfortable campsites, running (including winning 1st male in the Mothers Day Classic, and a rice cooker on the raffle!), fish and chips, and exploring the local scenery including the impressive Carlo Sandblow, eased some of these worries.

We had studied the tides, booked some dingo proof accommodation, asked a few pertinent questions about tire pressures, and googled the hell out of sand driving, but the key thing that was really the clincher, that really calmed my worried soul was..... A $10 white shovel from Mitre 10!

So off we went, boarded the ferry at Inskip Point, onto the beach, around Hook Point, and up the beach highway!

Beach driving is fun, slightly hesitant at first, but the low tide sand is packed down nice and dense, so I slowly built up the speed and confidence. You see a lot of interesting things driving the beach highway; dingos sunning themselves in the middle of the road, dingos prowling and even mating, flocks of sea birds resting, birds of prey circling, a yacht in the throes of being washed into the beach, a yacht beached at the high tide mark, hooligans forgetting to brake for a creek crossing, a 1940's ship wreck, fisherman set up in the middle of the 'highway', a jeep bogged below rocks on a rising tide, a plane landing and even an RBT!

We set up camp at Cathedral Beach about 60km north of Inskip Point on the eastern side of the island. A great spot hidden behind the dunes amongst the she-oaks, and conveniently encircled by an 8-foot high electrified dingo fence (it should be noted that this fence DOES NOT stop goannas!).

Our first proper day on Fraser Island, we woke to a blue bird day with not a whisp of wind in the air. The scenic drive past Lake Wabby and the Stonetool Sandblow was a nice way to acclimatise ourselves to island driving. Single track, lumpy and bumpy roads, steep climbs, no passing, large rocks, roots and deep sand. The kids fell asleep - Bern and I did not. We whipped over to Kingfisher Bay Resort to see how the other half live, and back south to the magical Lake McKenzie.

This lake is almost impossibly beautiful, pure white sands, crystal clear and clean fresh water, surrounded by wild untouched vegetation. We had perfect temperatures, no wind, and very few people, adding to the experience. Theo and Archie just loved swimming here, splashing, and running in and out of the water, and on a trip with relatively few showers, this was a dream!

Day two involved trying to swim as much as possible to try and match our Lake McKenzie experience. We headed north along the beach past Indian Head to Middle Rock and the champagne pools. Gorgeous rock pools that fizz and bubble just like an overflowing champagne glass. We had a great swim and splash but grew nervous about the return trip with the rising tide, so we headed south again for relax at the camp. An afternoon swim at Eli Creek, and a quick drive out to Lake Allom to see the turtles finished off our second day of gorgeous weather on the island.

The winds picked up and the sky became overcast for our last day on Fraser. Another swim at Eli Creek was called for mainly by Theo, who doesn't appear to register cold from hot, just fun from not. We managed a trip over to see the west coast, and back up to Indian Head to see the clouds and storms starting to roll in and the winds pick up for our farewell.

Luckily we managed a mainly dry pack up and hit the beach for low tide. A very different drive going south with blustery winds and dark ominous clouds building in the direction we were travelling. Plans were to head to Hervey Bay, but a wet weekend, and advice from the local police officer at the RBT stop that there was some petty crime there, we reevaluated and decided to go west to Roma, just 600 km away.... Luckily Roma has a Park Run!