January 23rd - 27th Hervey Bar / Fraser Island

January 23rd

It was a long journey from Brisbane to Hervey Bay.We arrived at the hostel in the evening and even though we were supposed to be sharing a dorm, we ended up having a triple room for just us which was cool.They also had an all you can eat pizza deal for $10 each…..I naturally made sure I got my moneys worth!

Just as the sun was setting, all of a sudden the sky was filled with thousands and thousands of bats flying overhead.It was insane how many bats there were, they were all you could see in the sky and it lasted for a good 30-40 minutes.The video below should give you an idea of what it was like: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4xOlYhqBy0&feature=related. Although there were even more when we were there so our video is better.

January 24th

Exciting times - Fraser Island today!! We were up at the crack of dawn for our 4x4 briefing.After a safety video and stuff we were split into our groups and shown to the 4x4s.Our group turned out to be awesome, we had 3 French people Cedric, Chloe and Benoit all from Grenoble in France which is near where we went snowboarding, 2 English girls Monika and Sophie and 2 Dutch people, Marije and Martijn.

Our first stop was the depot where we all packed the vans with tents, cooking stuff, tables etc, then we were off to the supermarket to get food for the next few days.Bar a terse few words over how much bread was needed it all went smoothly and we were off to the ferry port about 15 mins away - $25 each for 3days food wasn't bad.

The journey over was very nice and apparently there are often dolphins and manta rays just of the coast - needless to say we didn't see any.As soon as we got to the other side we were off! The road's immediately turned from gravel to deep sand and it was proper off-roading time!We passed a few people who had gotten stuck and continued on our way to Lake Wabby.

After a few hours of some serious off roading we made out way to the lookout point. It was about a 25 minute walk down through the forest to the lake and then down a huge sand dune to the water.It was baking hot so the water was a nice relief.We chilled there for a while before heading back to the van for some lunch and then we drove off to explore the east coast beach.At one point we managed to get stuck in the sand and so we all had to jump out to try and dig out way out of it……I say all…..Laura stood there and took photos just so we could document the occasion!! It took us a little while to get out, and by then the other vans from our hostel had caught us up.When we got to the beach it was plain sailing all the way and all 3 vans were in sort of convoy.

All of sudden the lead van stopped up ahead, so we pulled in next to them.The lead van had a puncture and as the third van pulled in we saw that they had a puncture aswell!For the first group this was a massive problem as they had already punctured one of their tyres earlier. Having no spare tyre meant that they were pretty much screwed.To be honest, I couldn't have cared less about the other groups and was just eager to get going again so our group could set up camp. And besides, there were some idiots in the other groups who were clearly crap drivers and some who had been drinking throughout the day! (It later emerged that someone had spotted on of our convoy drinking alcohol on the ferry, reported it, and so the police were on the lookout for three palace backpacker vans the entire time!)

After a lot of umming and ahhing as to where we should actually set up camp (we'd managed to drive past our designated area) we found a small, slightly sheltered, patch of beach to stay. It wasn't the best place, but by the time we had got there it was dark, and we weren't supposed to be driving at night, so we made do.We got the tents up pretty quickly and started cooking some food.It took a while cooking dinner, so after a cheeky beer or two everyone was shattered and went to bed!This was after we had spotted a few shooting stars mind.

January 25th

Due to tide times, there were only certain windows in the day where we were able to drive on the beach.This meant that we were up, tents packed, breakfast eaten and on the road again by about 7am.I took the first driving shift of the day.It was pretty cool driving along the beach so close to the water.We couldn't really go fast though as hard sand could quickly give way to soft sand and send the car toppling, but still it was such good fun.First stop of the day was the Maheno ship wreck:

"The word Maheno means 'island' in Maori, which is the native language of New Zealand. The Maheno was built in Scotland in 1904 and was the world's first ever triple screw steamer, weighing a massive 5323 tonnes. It also held the blue ribbon in trans-atlantic crossing for several years after she was launched. The Maheno was then used as a hospital ship in WW 1, following which it was purchased by a Sydney shipping company who planned to use it between Sydney and New Zealand. After several years of this trans Tasman journey the Maheno was sold to a Japanese shipping company, that at the time were running very low on funds. The company made the decision to sell the huge brass propellers from under the still-working Maheno. The reason behind this was to fund the towing of the Maheno by a ship named the Ottawa back to Osaka, Japan. Once in Japan the Maheno was to be melted down and be sold as scrap metal. It was on this journey that the Maheno was hit by an unseasonal cyclone off the coast of Fraser. Luckily, there was only a skeleton crew on board. Some of the stories of the ship washing up on Fraser tell the tale of the Japanese crew being too afraid to get off the vessel after hearing of the cannibalistic traits of the local Aborigines. Attempts were made to refloat the Maheno unsuccessfully and eventually it was left abandoned on what is now known as 75-mile beach."

After a quick stop for some photos I drove all the way up to Indian head which is a lookout point on the headland.It was a little walk from the beach but the views from up there were incredible.

Our next stop was the Champagne Pools; so called because when the waves crash onto them it looks like its bubbling and frothing like……champagne!It was another scorching day and since we weren't allowed in the sea due to it being inhabited by sharks and jelly fish (there were literally thousands of jellyfish washed up on the beach and floating in the sea, and some were huge!), a nice dip in the cool pools was fantastic.By this point time was getting on and with not too much time left before we had to be off the beach we drove back down to near where we camped the first night.On our way we stopped off in a little holiday village to fill up with water and have some lunch. We even managed to spot a huge lizard type thing and some kookaburras but sadly still no snakes.

This time the site we had found was better than the first night. There was a lot more grass which made putting up the tents easier and we were more sheltered making cooking easier.

After a bit of down time we all helped but up the tents and chipped in to cook pasta bolognaise, was delish! However, we all nearly had heart attacks when after dinner we were all lying around staring up at the stars when all of a sudden there was a rustle next to us.I shone my torch to where the noise had come from low and behold saw two pairs of beady eyes. Dingoes! We had been warned about them as they have slowly become used to human presence on the island and are used to finding food left over at campsites. Still they can be dangerous; a few years ago a boy had died after being mauled by some of them.Anyway, you've never seen 9 people jump to their feet and scramble away so quickly!! Everyone made as much noise as they could and the dogs just ever so casually sauntered off. They were probably thinking 'bloody lunatics….why are they dancing around like that!'.

January 26th

We were up early again after another sweaty/sandy nights sleep.As usual the sand-flies were out in force.They were huge (emphasis on the huge) flies that land on you every two seconds and bite.They were even biting through clothing so you can imagine that the air was pretty blue that morning. I swear at one stage we had managed to kill about 100 of them.

Anyway, we were up early today so that we could make our way back inland to the pride of Fraser Island, Lake Mackenzie.I took over driving as soon as we started to head inland so that I could indulge some hardcore off roading, which was absolutely amazing. I ended driving for quite a long time as it was about 12km inland and you really couldn't go much faster than walking pace for a lot of it.

At one point I saw a car up ahead at a crossroads and as I came round the corner it turned out to be a police car who waved at me to stop. He'd only stopped the car to breathalyze me hadn't he! Not gonna lie, it was pretty cool I'd never had one before. Laura even managed to blind the policeman by getting a photo.

After more off roading later we arrived at the Lake Mackenzie car park. When we finally got down there the views were incredible. The clearest bluest water we'd seen matched with the whitest sand ever. It was another scorching day, so within minutes everyone was in the water cooling off.We stayed there for a good 2-3 hours playing in the water and laying on the beach before heading back to the van for a quick bite to eat.

By this stage the trip was coming to and end and it was time to head back to the ferry. Back at the depot we unpacked the van before heading back to the hostel.Again we went for the all you can eat pizza for $10 except this time we only paid for one person while we both ate of the same plate (we weren't the only one's doing this!).With it being Australia Day, we were all going to go out for a drink after dinner. To everybody's amazement all the pubs closed at 10pm, so after roaming the streets for a while we all headed back to the hostel and went to be

January 27th

We woke up pretty early again to say bye to the French guys in our group and planned to meet up with them in Airlie Beach.We then had to pack and check out.

Most of the day was spent sleeping in the TV room on the sofas as our Greyhound wasn't until 8.50pm in the evening.

The journey was just over 12 hours to Airlie and we both managed to get a bit of sleep in between watching episodes of Entourage and trying to make ourselves warm because of the bloody air con on the bus.