Hey y'all just got back from Fraser Island, who knew hiking and swimming in lakes would become one of my new favourite past times! Previous to this
a quick overview of my week has been the following; I Touched down in Brisbane, like the clever clogs I am I booked the wrong night in my hostel which resulted in me sleeping in the airport all night which was a rather soul battering and uncomfortable experience! After this mini disaster I did actually stay in Brisbane for a night, however it should possibly be renamed brisbore as there's nothing to do there other than visit botanical gardens and I hate to be all 'travelled' but I'm kind of over those now! As much as I love city's being a backpacker in one is a different matter, I swear people's favourite game is let's walk into the backpacker when she's luggin' her life on her back! Such fun.
Anyway stayed at noosa for 3 nights which is another nice, fairly quiet surf town in which I did the standard go out immerse myself in sunshine and goon! The 3rd day I visited Steve irwins zoo, it had to be done in true Ozzie tourist fashion! The place is beautifully set out so whilst walking round it feels like a bit of a jungle, in no other place can you cross different continents so quickly! we fed elephants, watched the crocodile show in which the snapper snapped up a pigs head whole in one gulp! Other activities included getting as many selfie with animals as possible, unfortunately a lot of them weren't willing to co-operate!
But back to Fraser Island, spent 2 nights 3 days of the sand island.. And when they said it was a sand island they weren't lying! In fact I'm currently sat on a normal bus and it feels odd that I'm not sat literally jumping up and down off my seat and getting chucked from side to side over massive sand June's and rainforest coated areas.. seat belts were most definitely a must! The island is massive I was expecting my little Fijian islands again, but no, no! To give you some idea it has a 75 mile long beach of which we drove up and down waves crashing along the side, this bus was like a chitty chitty bang bang car with all it's multi-functioning purposes! The first visit was to lake Mckenzie, all of the lakes are created by fresh water.. However they are very acidic, but came in useful to wash your jewellery ha! Our tour Guide then I'm pretty sure decided to punish us from making the most of all the free food took us on a rainforest trek although this one had a pathway so compared to the actual scars I've been left with from Fiji this one was a doddle! Some pretty incredible trees and alot of scary spiders lurking in there though!

The second day was action packed to thee max, we began by visiting the pinnacles which is a beautiful two tone natural sand formation! This was shortly ruined however when we got off the bus so that our bus drive could mount the rocks and drive over them safely so we watched from the sidelines until this Ozzie comes driving alot full pelt towards us, my first reaction was to jump into the dunes ASAP I barely got my second foot up when he wizzed past shouting 'your bus drivers blocking one way and now you f'in stupid women are blocking the other'! So in my most refined English accent of course I just shouted back 'you w***er' ! We were all nearly flattened pancakes and dingo lunch! After that little catastrophe we headed up to the serene champagne pools which were beautiful don't get me wrong but with the word champagne in, I was under the impression I'd have some sort of topless waiter serving me champers whilst I sat in a hot pool! This was not the case however, instead and probably much more suitably it was a little Rock pool/ swimming pool created by the waves crashing over into a hollow rock formation which created bubbles hense the name of its origin! The views to it too, were incredible.. The beaches here are amazing though you're told not to go into the sea as there's so much wildlife lurking close to shore! In fact we climbed up Indian head cliff which is where captain cook is said to of sailed past and seen the aborigines, thought they were Indians which is where it's name came from. But yes, there at the top we saw 2 big manta rays, dolphins and a shark. So I was fine to not enter those waters!

On the bus on the way back we came across a 'bloody dingo' trying to jump into a back of a 4 by 4 ..to which it did, well I've never seen a fat women run so fast (unless there was cake) she came striding up the beach going mental at this thing her fishing rod flying at it as well as other wobbly parts, corrr she wasn't having any of it shouting and screaming. Considering the horror stories I've heard on the island about some of the dingos I wouldn't of fancied picking a fight with one, but it was extremely enjoyable to watch!

In the afternoon after a massive picnic, we visited the famous maheno shipwreck which was huge an had been there since just after the First World War! We then continued to Eli creek which is a fresh water stream that flows into the sea, we swam up it with the current I felt like I was on the rapids at centre parcs, little kids even had there lilo's! Because the water was fresh water too you could even drink from it.. It actually tasted really nice even if I did feel like bear grills! As if the day couldn't of peaked and got any better it was topped off by tea and chocolate biscuits in my bikini on the beach, us English girls were lovin' that one... Don't think it gets better than that! However we did go watch the sunset after and then retire to the hotels hot tub before dinner, ha it really is a hard life sometimes...Deffo didn't feel like a backpacker that day!
The third day I'm pretty sure I trekked through the Sahara desert and reached a mirage of a watering hole, although I was informed it was called lake wabby. Right in the centre of the island.. We walked through more jungle rainforest this time I crazily did it with out any shoes... To Reach this massive deserted stretch of sand in which right on the edge of this desolate land was a beautiful lake that was at the bottom of the most giant sand hill I've ever seen! There we swam and sunbathed, I didn't last long in the water after seeing some of the size of some of the big fish! The trek back took ages too, honestly I don't think I've ever been such a keen walker in my life.. Possibly a new hobby when I'm home?! ..pahhh who am I kidding! After doing a bit of paddle boarding too, it was time to do the great bumpy road trip again rocking around until we got the ferry ... And that my friends is pretty much my Fraser adventure! Minus the amount of food I ate which I'm mortified about but when it's free, you don't say no, the silly songs we've sung on the bus, the appalling jokes our tour guide told and of course the drinks, drunk. Now doing a few quick one night stops up the east coast until Whitsunday's so will inform you of more afterwards in a week or so.. Until then ciao :)