Fraser Island

Next stop was Hervey Bay. We had to stay there a night before going to Fraser Island the next day. Our hostel (Beaches) seemed to be a million miles away from anywhere which was a pain when it came to grabbing some eats. That night, we had a horrendous amount of rain which immediately started dripping through the ceiling in our dorm room. In the middle of the night, the bathroom skylight also started dripping! absolute nightmare..

So the next morning, the weather was still shocking and none of us particularly wanted to go on the trip if the weather was bad, but the staff assured us the weather would pick up during midday, so we went to our orientation at 7.30 and divided into shoppers and drivers/others. I was going to drive when we got there but chickened out in the end. Don't feel too bad about that as it was all off-road driving on Fraser!

We piled into a 4WD car, the two Sams and I, Nick, 3 Canadian girls (called Jill, Jessica and Lauren) and Raffa, and set off to the ferry. After a very chilly 40 mins ferry ride we got onto the island and the adventure began! We were on a tag-along tour, which meant we had a tour leader called Perry who led us in his car, and the other 2 cars followed. We drove through the woodland/rainforest and it was a ride and a half, made more interesting by the heaps of rain that had come down the night before!!

After an hour and a bit of jungle driving, we made it onto the beach, which was still amazing even in the horrible greyness. Just driving on the beach seemed so weird at first! We stopped for a bushwalk to one of the natural lakes on the island. Fraser, by the way, is the largest sand island in the world with over 100 natural spring water lakes on it. The first place we went was Lake Wabby which was surrounded by sand dunes, and the lake was huge and green! Didn't look very inviting, but a few German tourists in another group didn't let that stop them stripping off and jumping in!

In the afternoon, we went pippie picking in the sand (clams) and collected over 80 to cook up the next night. We then went back to the campsite for the night. Now, I've been camping before so I had an idea what to expect, but I've never camped in Winter, or on a Dingo infested island! So it was extremely cold and annoying that you couldn't go to the bathroom in the night alone because of the dingos! It was very uncomfortable night's rest so we were very glad for the next day to come.

And with the morning came sunshine! Thank God! In the morning we went to see turtles at Lake Allom, drove to the North of the island to the Champagne Pools (the only safe place to swim on the islands because there are rocks surrounding the pool), Indian Heads which gave a great view and then Eli Creek for some sun bathing in the afternoon. That night we had another campfire and Perry cooked up the pippies in an unbelieveable thai sauce - so tasty! A girl on our Fraser Trip and I also found out we went to the same college and live 15 mins from each other at home! Very weird that I'm finding these people halfway across the world!

The next day we visted Lake Birrabeen for a few hours before catching the ferry home. We would have ordinarily gone to Lake McKenzie but it gets so many visitors a day jumping in covered in sun screen etc so it needed a rest. Birrabeen was no less beautiful though with white sand like icing sugar!

Fraser was a great trip and I'm glad we did it although the camping element was tough! The views in the sun made up for it though!


Very grey first day


Sand dunes surrounding Lake Wabby


Overlooking Lake Wabby


Big Sam driving on the beach!


Looking more amazing on a sunny day!!


Champagne Pools


Sam and I


The Sams and I


Sunsetting on the beach


Epic dinner!


Lake Birrabeen