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| rainforest walk near central station |
Woke up and met everyone at 6:30am but there was a group of guys who got their dorm broken into while they were sleeping and the robbers got off with passports, cameras, money, etc. The theif also came into the dorm Glen and I were staying in, and I was awake but just thought it was someone coming in late to sleep... he just stood in the doorway until one of my dormmates shifted in his sleep and the guy got out of there. Thank God because we were charging my laptop/ipod/cellphone right near the door oh jeez that would have been so bad.... So everyone was freaking out for a few hours. Luckily, the cops came and they found some of the stolen things stashed somewhere, but one guy still has nothing. After all that drama, we loaded into four 4 wheel drive trucks (there were 23 of us) and began the drive down to the ferry barge... well, almost. One of the trucks got into an accident (the gears weren't working) and a car hit it from behind. The truck was fine and so was everyone in it, but the other cars hood was totally smoooshed. So, we had to delay getting on the ferry for another hour and a half... so dramatic...
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| dingo! |
Finally we got over to Fraser and dropped everything off at our camp. Fraser Island is one big world heritage site, and the largest sand island in the world. Driving on the island is really cool, well, I didn't drive but it was almost like driving in deep powder... you had to deflate your tires a little bit to get traction and it got pretty deep at some points. It was right by the beach, and a bunch of tents were set up before we got there. We then drove to a trailhead that led us down to Lake Wabby. Is is perched below a big sand dune, so you could run down the dune and into the lake... really nice. A bunch of cockatoos were hanging around the lake too... weird to see when you usually only see them at the zoo/exotic pets but here they're just like crows hanging out on the sides of highways and on telephone wires.
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| view from indian head |
After Lake Wabby we drove back to our camp, cooked dinner and sat around chatting with everyone and drinking goon (cheap boxed wine). From the beach you could see sooo many stars it was awesome, but whenever you ventured out to go pee/go on a walk at night, you had to bring along a "dingo stick" aka a long branch to ward off dingoes in case they got too close...they really don't seem to bothered by humans and got pretty close but not aggressive or anything, we saw one outside out tent while we were sleeping... searching for scraps I guess! Saw quite a few on the trip...
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| champagne pools |
The next day after sleeping horribly (the guy in our tent snored like a freight train... all night long) we all got up super early to drive up to Indian Head at the top of the island. It took about an hour and a half to get there, but the sights from up top were beautiful. You could look down and see sting rays, turtles and dolphins from the top of the hill... so cool.We then drove out to my favourite spot on the island... the champagne pools. They were right on the edge of the ocean and were made from the waves crashing against the rocks and forming these little swimming holes, they were really pretty. From here, we drove back down the beach, stopping at the colored sand formations and the shipwreck "The Mahano" and onto Eli Creek, which had a nice boardwalk and the water was surprisingly quite cold! After a long day (we left at 6:30am and got back just after 5pm), it was back to the campsite for dinner, goon, and swatting flies.
The final day, the group got packed up and we drove out to Lake McKenzie, a popular spot for tourists because of its white sand and clear blue waters. Unfortunately, it was cloudy for most of our time up here, but the sun did manage to come through so we could see the real life picture of what we saw on all the brochures. Back down the the barge we went and back to the mainland to the hostel for one more night. Tomorrow we head out for Airlie Beach, where we will be taking a sailing trip around the Whitsunday Islands!
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| lake mckenzie |
**The tour company we went with for our Fraser Island trip was Palace. We got it from Indie Travel in Byron Bay, but you can also get it from Wicked Travel down there too. The price was $299 per person, plus $60 for park fees, petrol, and insurance. If you decide to go with this company, they also offer a Fraser Island + Free Canoe Bush Trip in Noosa + Whitsundays Sailing Trip = around $650, but that doesn't include the park fees so it ends up being maybe $700-$750. We didn't get it as a package and we didn't go on the Noosa Canoe Trip, and we ended up paying about $700ish for both. The trips are quite pricey when you add in all those extra park fees you have to pay, but I guess they are once in a lifetime things to do and I'm glad I got to experience them, though I don't think I would do them a second time if I come back to Australia. I'm not sure if there are any cheaper options for these things, since everyone on our trip was backpackers. If you go to Fraser Island, make sure to bring:
- a flashlight
- long pants for in the mornings when the flies are everywhere
- closed toe shoes for the walks... flip flops get annoying when they flip sand up at you
- don't bring anything you don't want to get sandy... there is sand everywhere
