Fraser Island

Sun 4 Feb 2007 34 °C

This morning we met up with everone from our group. It was a group of 9 people made up of 5 swedish boys, a couple from Leicester, me and Steph and we were to be together for the next few days camping and driving off-road in our own 4x4 on Fraser Island (the largest sand island in the southern hemisphere).

I was one of 3 desinated drivers for the trip. So after we'd packed our truck with food, tents etc we set off with the other 2 trucks to catch the ferry over to Fraser to start our journey.

One of the first thing everyone noticed was the huge marsh flies everywhere, they're about 2 inches long and give you a nasty bite - there were thousands of the buggers. As we found out later they disapear after sunset and that was always a welcome relief.

Our first stop on Fraser was Lake McKenzie, this is a fresh water lake which is naturally infused with teatree oil. My skin and hair felt really conditioned after! After spending too long at the Lake it was a race to get to our camping spot on the beach before high tide...but we made it and put up our tents in semi darkness, then me and Nicky cooked steaks in pitch black and pouring rain.

We only got the truck stuck once on our way to the Lake, I think we were driving too slowly so the wheels just sunk in the soft sand. All out to push... it wasn't me driving that time!

The next morning after brekky, we packed the camp away and walked to the Maheno Ship wreck, which has been washed up on the beach. From there we drove to Eli Creek, this is a like a small stream, the water is about thigh deep and if you just float in it, it carries you all the way to the ocean. We spotted a python and huge spiders by the side of the water.

The beaches on fraser are full of jelly fish so you can't swim in the sea which was torcher at times because of the heat, although we used the sea to wash our dirty dishes and going to the toilet meant digging a hole...nice, especially with the marsh flies around!

Back in the truck and my turn to drive, we went to Indian Head. This is where I saw my first wild dingo. It was so bold, came really close to us and no amount of shouting, clapping or shooing scared it. I loved driving the truck on the beach, occasionally hitting soft sand and washouts. I drove about half of the 75 mile beach to Indian Head.

On to Dundabera to fill our eski's with fresh ice and drinking water then on to Lake Wabbi to camp for the evening. The sky was really clear and the stars were sooo bright, I've never seen anything like it. I could have just laid on my back all night looking at them, it was really breath taking.

The next morning we walked to Lake Wabbi. We'd been advised it was an easy 20 minute walk. It took an hour walking over very hot sand dunes! Think someone was pulling our leg! I loved the isolation on the dunes, it was so quiet and you could see forever. After that walk in such hot conditions Lake Wabbi was so welcoming. Another fresh water lake, this time with turtles and catfish swimming about. After a couple of hours here we took the alternative walk back through the rain forest and back to the truck.

Dropped the truck off at the hostel, unloaded and caught the bus to Airlie Beach.

I loved Fraser Island, the landscape is so different from what I've seen so far, it's completely untouched. Unfortunately we didn't get a particularly good group, with most of the conversation being in Swedish and the couple from England always cozying up, it was down to me and Steph to make the best of it...and we did.

Packing our truck for Fraser Island