The Adventure Continues...: Fraser Island!

We just got back from a 3 day/2 night tour around Fraser Island and it was awesome! Fraser Island is the largest sand island in the world and the only place in the world where a rainforest has grown on petrified sand. Neat-o! Since the entire island is sand you must have a four wheel drive vehicle to go on the island hence the 4wd tour. We opted for a tag-a-long tour which means we got to drive one of the SUVs behind the guide. Basically there were four Toyota Landcruisers each filled with eight people and we took turns driving around the island following our guide. Our group consisted of us, Matt from NYC (first American we have met!), Rafael (a German who worked in the finance industry and had a month off to travel between switching jobs), Yon (a young German boy who is here working on his holiday work visa, mostly working fruit picking), and three French girls who kept to themselves the whole trip.

The first day we loaded up our Landcruiser and headed for the island. We got on a ferry to the island, which was Mark’s second time on a car ferry (the first time was a couple weeks). Yippie for new experiences! Once the ferry pulled up to the beach we began to drive off the ferry and within two minutes we were stuck in the sand! Rafael got it stuck, but had us out in a matter of minutes, pretty impressive! We drove all across the island and then to Lake Mackenzie. The lake has no tributaries so the water is land locked; it has a layer bed of bedrock underneath preventing water drainage. Lake Mackenzie was beautiful, white sand beach with crystal clear water. We swam for awhile even through the rain which it made it all the more magical.

After swimming we headed back to our campsite. Along the drive back we saw some dingoes. I was pretty surprised how skinny they were, and how harmless they looked. But, then I remembered the old saying “The dingo ate my baby!” and I quickly kept in mind how dangerous they can be. The campsite was just a short walk to the beach, but unfortunately you can’t swim there because there are a ton of sharks. Since two groups the size of our group leave every day the campsite is pretty full of people, something like 160 people were at the campsite. The tents were already set up and they had a few big communal areas with stoves and tables to cook. We grabbed our group food and started cooking dinner and playing cards. We had our first experience with “goon.” Basically the cheapest alcoholic drink to buy is goon, goon is bagged wine. We ordered a bag and started on our bag. EVERYONE had a bag of goon and soon enough people were dancing on tables and hollering like it was a college frat party… bring on the old days! There was a communal area that had lots of lights and loud music they called “club dinkys.” I should mention the entire camping area has a fence around it to keep out the dingoes. Apparently a couple years back a guy had too much goon and walked off the campsite with a bag of chips and chocolate in hand. Needless to say he was brutally attacked by the dingoes, but lived to tell the tale and has appeared on TV shows for living through the attack. Cray, Cray!?

The guide told us not to keep any sweets or food in the tent because the rats will chew a hole through the tent to get the food. YIKES! Bears, elk, deer… okay sure, but rats.. sick! There was a hole in our tent from what I presume was previous rats on the hunt. We covered the hole, but that didn't stop me from waking up every hour freaking out and turning on the flashlight to check for rats. You can imagine my excitement when I heard the French girls in the tent next door screaming in French. The next morning I find out they saw the rats and they were MASSIVE… they have a burrow right behind our tent! Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!

The next morning we awoke to a group of girls looking for a guy on their tour. The group had an early start since it was last their day and the guy never showed up. This led to a full on island search. The guides didn't seem to be worried at all; they were acting all nonchalant about it, not even looking for the guy. From guide experience, Mark and I nearly had heart attacks when we lost a kid from our tour on Fremont St. in Vegas and there weren't even dingoes or sharks to be worried about there. Rafael suggested to the guide we start our day since the missing guy wasn't on our tour and the guide agreed and off we went. I was astonished that nobody was super concerned about this, I assume it happens quite often. (I have a feeling the goon has something to do with it) Later, they found the guy 55 kilometers away, he got in an argument with some people at the beach and just started walking and didn't stop. Hell of a walker!

We spent the morning checking out a shipwreck. The shipwreck is right on the beach and it was pretty cool to see. After that, we headed to Eli Creek. Eli Creek was a natural fresh water spring. We filled up our water bottles with fresh water straight from the creek, how neat! The water was freezing, good for drinking, cold to swim in! Then we floated down the creek where it ended at the beach. After hanging out at the creek for a bit we went to the highest point on Fraser Island, Indian Head. We did a short hike to the top and took in the awesome view. They say sometimes you can see sharks in the water, but we didn't see any. After Indian Head we headed to Champagne Pools. Champagne Pools are natural tide pools, little saltwater pools surrounded by rock walls. Everyone swam for a bit before we headed back to camp for night two. That night we hung out by the fire and played a lot of cards. We also walked out to the beach. It was beautiful. You could see a million stars and hear the ocean crashing. It was a definite highlight of our trip.

The last day we did a hike to Lake Wabby. Lake Wabby was a lake half surrounded by forest and the other half by sand dunes. It was a neat walk out there through the forest and then over sand dunes. We swam for awhile and enjoyed our last day on Fraser before heading back to the main land. I got to drive a bit, and may have gotten it stuck, but got us out! Mark loved driving. He drove in the sand, ponds, through the forest, and even through a bit of the ocean when we were leaving. It was a fun experience and I am glad we did it! Next stop: The Whitsunday Islands!