We probably stayed a little longer than we needed to at Hillsborough whilst we reviewed the remainder of our trip and also our location. We were still up pretty far North so decided that a long stint in the car to a little seaside holiday town of 1770 and Agnes Water was the next stop. Recommended, we rolled up to the best spot to go in the area and arrived at 6pm. Normally this would have been stressful but given we are now pretty adept at this whole camping game we had the tent up, all our stuff organised and were sitting down to a roast chicken dinner we had whipped up on the Webber, within 60 minutes of us arriving. The night was an early one for the boys as they were knackered from the late nights at Hillsborough and Fi and I chilled with a G&T whilst listening to the multiple radios blaring out the NRL grand final between The Cowboys and Brisbane Broncos. Not really caring who won we did decide to sneak up to someone who had brought with them a 60 inch TV and set it up outside their caravan and watched what ended up being a pretty exciting game with the Cowboys winning it in extra time. 1770 was a town named after James Cook stopped the Endeavour during his trip up the coast when discovering Australia and the place was pretty nice. The boys got the fishing rods out and caught some whiting but they were too small and spent much of the time running away from a big Pelican that was harassing anyone on the beach who was either fishing or coming back from a fishing trip with a boat. He was pretty forward and actually chased Harry until Harry threw his rod at the bird and ran screaming up the beach. An image that still brings a smile to our face when we think back on it. Agnes Water, a town about 3 kms south had a beautiful bay that was patrolled and we got our first taste of surfing during our trip. Bailey and Harry took to their body boards with relish and we spent the next two days down at the beach riding the "monster" waves whilst whooping and hollering all the way into the sand. It was a lovely place and one that we would put in our top 5, in terms of location. A bit sad to leave after 3 nights we got one last fish off a jetty and tangled the handline before heading to Bundaberg to get the battery on Meg looked at properly after our "assertive" discussions with Ford in Mackay. The next day, after a pretty big drive we pulled into a caravan park which we found on Wikicamps as being "excellent". It was at this point we suddenly realised that the comments must have been written by those more into "grooming" than caravanning. The place was full of permanent residents of single men with a very Rolf Harris'esk auro about them so we made sure the boys were within arms length at all times and we didn't let them go to the toilet without either Fi or I there. The other residents where single ladies who all owned very very small dogs that yapped constantly at each other from across the park with the women talking to their dogs in a squeaky baby voice "Milly, no barky barky at the other doggy Milly….Milly! stop barky barky at the silly brown dog, he's just so naughty isn't he Milly….Milly, no barky barky…."….God help us!! We got out of there as soon as possible and went on a tour of the Bundaberg Barrel, the Ginger Beer factory and tasted 21 flavours of soft drink which had Bailey and Harry looking like they'd just been on a 3 day bender on methamphetamine by the time we left. Getting back to the camp site the wind started blowing and eventually got up to 40 knots overnight which was not the best considering we were staying so close to the beach that we were getting ocean spray from the waves smashing mercilessly against the rocks. Fi and I got zero sleep as the wind was lifting the annex of our tent off the ground and threatening to tear it and the tent to pieces. We took it off and packed up at about 3am then went back to bed and lay there waiting until dawn so we could wake the boys and put everything in the car and get the hell out of there. As soon as the boys were up we packed up, bid Gary Glitter and his mates goodbye and took the car for a service and got the battery looked at. As we suspected, it was knackered, so got a brand new one fitted and hit the Bundaberg Rum factory for a tour. It was cool and we learnt a great deal about the Rum making process. A bit of molasses, some yeast and some water, a bit of filtering and some secret sauce and you have a bottle of Bundy. Fi and I got to taste some of their top end rums and the boys got some soft drink to taste for free.

The plan was Fraser Island so we made our way to Tin Can bay for a stopover before we moved to the Island. The rain started hitting us and given we had had no sleep the night before and the sugar from the 21 flavours had turned our lovely boys into ASBO candidates we bit the bullet and pulled in and took a cabin rather than put the tent up in the rain and the dark. A last minute lecture to Harry about lying through his teeth and Bailey to stop leaving his thongs at every place we stop at we fell asleep in the lovely laminex, faux wooden shack that served as an $80 night for us but worth 10 times that for we got some much need rest before the big test of Fraser Island.

With the breaking of dawn we repacked the trailer and car to be more efficient for our sand driving and set off to Woolworths for last minute supplies. So confident of our ability to catch fish we only took enough dinner for 3 nights of the 7 we were camping there and extra lemons and foil for all the ocean creatures that we were going to haul up from the sea. If it all went horribly wrong then we could always fall back on the last remaining 8 packs of Weetbix we picked up in South Australia….. Fi was still feeling the effects from the lack of sleep and we made our way to the ferry, picked up the tickets from the office and drove the 15 km to Inskip point to get the ferry where I got out and dropped the tyre pressure. Getting back in the car, Fi exclaimed that the ferry ticket was now missing that we had picked up 15 minutes prior so we spent the next 30 minutes looking for it, conscious that the tide was now turning against us and the hard sand on Fraser was fast receding. With no luck finding the ticket it meant a journey back to ticket office at 30kmh as putting the tyres up to the right pressure would have taken too long and we eventually got onto the ferry 1.5 hours after we had planned. Taking a deep breath, we followed everyone off, drove the 20km along the beach to the entrance to our camp site and then got bogged up to the axel in sand……hmmm…. Luckily some really friendly chaps came past and helped us out. In fact 3 cars stopped and helped as the first one got bogged trying to pull us out before another guy stopped and asked if we had a snatch strap. "Yep" I said, and proudly pulled out my fluro orange strap and showed him. The guy just looked at me then went to his car and pulled out a very much larger and stronger strap and explained that we should just put ours back. I felt like the kid in the change rooms changing into my swimming costume next to the boy who had matured a lot earlier than me, so I slunk away to the car to take instructions on what to do to get our car and camper trailer (aptly named "Sand Anchors" on Fraser Island) out of the sand. When eventually we did get it out, we found our campsite, opened the dingo proof fence and sat in the car for an hour whilst we waited for the rain to stop before putting up the tent. Fi was dark as Kahmal about the fact we were here as she wanted an extra days rest at Tin Can bay so we all just took her lead got the tent sorted, dinner done and went to bed. With the weather a little bit better the next morning we took off early with a much lighter car and toured the lakes on the Island. Fraser was stunningly beautiful. With only single lane sand tracks to get around and a 4wd as the only allowed vehicles on the island we drove through the forest looking at the beautiful scenery and lovely lakes. The jewel in the crown of the inland lakes, Lake McKenzie was teeming with backpackers and Chinese tourists so we wandered down, took a photo then left to get the car onto the beach and do some driving. It was fantastic. We visited the Maheno, on old wreck and spoke to some wily ol' fishermen who taught us how to find pipi's (small clams) hidden in the sand to use at bait, and then stopped on the way back to the camp to ask a guy dragging a bag along the sand about what he was doing. He was looking for sand worms and showed the boys how to do it. We felt that we had now progressed past our L plates and were well into our P plates for fishing now that we could source our own bait. Dilli Village, the camp ground we were staying, was lovely and we stayed for a couple of nights waiting for Troy and Racquel, our friends we met in Bowen, to join us for our Fraser adventure. We spent the second day at Fraser fishing ALL day. Catching some little swallow tail dart fish and some small sand whiting it was clearly not enough to feed the family, but we had such fun doing it. You really do feel you are the only people on the island, such is the scale of the long 75 mile beach, that you just drive to a spot that looks promising with a gutter developing from the waves and throw the rods out. The odd 4WD will pass by but apart from that you are all alone. This was really cool until we saw our first dingo!!! We didn't see it until the dog was about 10 metres away. Harry, after being given about 2 hours training on what to do when he sees a dingo completely did the opposite and started screaming and pointing which attracted its attention. Panic ensued as it trotted closer to us and then Harry got a hit on his line and was torn between pulling his fish in or being mauled to death by a rouge native dog. We decided the sand whiting was the priority so he wound it in and we backed away to the car with a fishing rod dangling some dog food behind us as the dingo upped his pace in our direction. Luckily for us, another car came by just in time to distract it and we managed to get into Meg, fish, rod and all….phew. Afterwards, we made our way to one of the only café's on the island for a much deserved flat white and a shared donut for the boys then went to meet up with Troy and Racquel who had got to the island and were down the beach a few km's away putting their own rods into the water. The next few days were magnificent. Fraser Island is truly a special place. With sub-tropical rain forest in the centre, fresh water streams and lakes with brilliant white sand and wildlife everywhere you feel you are completely alone most of the time. The beach driving, with the waves crashing next to the car a few metres away as you cruise along the hard sand at 80kms looking for the next gutter you think you'll catch some fish or looking at the sand formations and high cliffs on the land side. One of the highlights at Dilli was in the early morning of our last day there when Troy and I took the rods out at 5:30am, just as the sun was breaking, and took to the beach. There wasn't a single person or car or sound and we just chilled out for 30 minutes before a dingo suddenly appeared next to our bags. Wary of these guys since our last encounter we kept the rods in and calmly kept on with our business but watched for any sort of behaviour that would indicate we'd have to make a quick exit. The dingo stayed with us for an hour. Coming as close as a metre from us and just sitting there, waiting for a spare fish or food scraps. Given we weren't allowed to feed them, for good reason, we didn't encourage him. You would have thought it was a domesticated pet, so calm and relaxed, he was playing in the surf between me and Troy fishing or just sitting up on the sand watching us as the sun was coming up and the surf was crashing and we were catching fish. A magical experience which I will never forget. The remaining days were spent fishing in the morning for tailor with Troy then heading out in the middle of the day with the boys to collect pipi's, fishing for whiting and bream and then getting back to our camp at night and enjoying a quiet (not so quiet on the first evening…..) Rum or Gin then into bed to repeat the process. We met some wonderful people, like the two massively overweight bogans who taught me how to cast my rod properly and bait up a pilchard. They chucked us some bait and gave us a few of their undersized fish when we didn't bring up a decent bag ourselves on the first day we were staying at Dundabarra and told us to "fillet em' on the f*&ken beach now mate before the f&*ken ranger gets here." Their advice proved useful on the last day when we managed to fill our bucket with tailer and some big whiting and we all had a delicious fish breakfast before saying goodbye to Troy and Racquel and getting ourselves ready for the Gold Coast then New South Wales. This was a place which we would definitely come back to and one that I really hope the boys remember fondly.