Arrived in Hervey Bay after a long bus ride from Surfers Paradise (didn't bother stopping in Brisbane). Hervey Bay is very sleepy and there's not much here at all so went out, booked my following day trip to Fraser Island (the largest sand island in the world) and went for a walk and spent that evening in. Didn't get much sleep that night as it was so hot and I kept being woken up by people with the Palace score (for those of your that don't know we beat Spurs 3-0...he he). Had to get up and meet the bus at 6.20am the next day where we were taken to the boat to go over to the island. Our trip was just for the day but there were only 9 of us so was much better as we all got to know eachother quite well and they were a lovely bunch. 1 Swiss guy, 2 aussie honeymooners, 2 wooden tops (Norskis), a retired English couple and a Canadian guy....oh yeah, and our guide little Nat. We started off the day on the island with coffee and muffins then drove in this huge 4WD bus thing through the sandy road tracks to a look out point looking over the sand dunes and Lake Wabby (think that's what it was called anyway). We all went to the lake, some of us swam in it and then we walked around 3km's over the dunes and through the trees to the beach. This was quite hard work as it was so hot. We met the bus at 75 mile beach which is classed as a road on the island and we drove along to drop the english couple, Doreen and David, to go on a 20 min plane ride over the Island. We were then taken to lunch, a nice buffet with free drinkies, and had a well deserved rest before our next stint. We then drove further through the island where we were dropped off to do a 1.8km walk through the rainforest. They didn't tell us til the end that one of the worlds most deadly snakes had been spotted there just a few days before. Kept a look out for dingoes but didn't see any all day. By the end of that walk we were in need of cooling down again so were taken to Lake McKenzie (see picture above) for a swim. The water is super clear as it's spent 80 years filtering down through the trees and creek and the sand was the whitest I'd seen. Apparently the water is ph5.5 so really good for your skin and you can exfoliate yourself with the sand as it's so fine and pure. Cooled right down by this point as it got quite cloudy but was very welcome as it'd been so hot. After the swim was more coffee and cakes (mmmmm) and then a trip back to get the boat. We arranged all to meet for dinner that night in an Irish pub down the road and also met up with our tour guide who was fabulous. Can't rate this trip high enough really. Met some lovely people and Nat gave us so much interesting info. about the aborigines and the plants and wildlife I'll be boring people with it for ages. Couldn't get myself on a bus for the next day (today) so having to stay in crappy Hervey Bay another night til I move on again.