The trip to Fraser island stared at Rainbow beach, a really small town on the coast that has access via a ferry to Fraser island, I chose this over the more commercialised Harvey Bay...

Anyway, basically I arrived on my own and am told to convene in the lounge at 4PM to meet people and attend the 4WD briefing, everyone frantically looks around to form their groups, which will be there Fraser island team for the next few days...I was really lucky and just fell into this group of people that was all sat near by, we quickly realised there were plenty of dodgy chavs kicking about so were keen to avoid being in their group, which turned out to be a good job really but ill get back to that.

Our group of 11 consisted of Andrea & Eva (German) Adelaide (Belgian) Geoffrey & Vincent (French) Martijn & Esther (Dutch) Sinead & Michael (Irish) Dunan (Scotish) and Myself (Australian :-)

The Ferry...

The Gang

we have a few beers getting to know each other and sussing out who's driving etc and then early to bed as were off at 7am the next day !

early doors the next day we load up the 4WD Land cruiser (big enough to fit 11) with our bags, booze, tents, food etc and have a briefing from the 4WD company, No going over 60 Kph on the sand, no driving here...blah blah blah!

anyway as we set off at literally 7.45 there is the Chav gang in there 4WD all drinking cans of beer and smoking pot...so we all have a good laugh at them and their inevitable fate...

so we set of on the ferry and are soon on the island, we hit 4WD mode and are on the sand, and with Michael our 4X4 expert we are quickly off to a good start and leave the chavs stuck in the sand and eating our dust !

we start off with a inland track away from the coast line, and head for a walk through the rain forest which was great, the rain forest on Fraser island is amazing as it is the only one in the world that has managed to grow on sand, the whole of the island is nothing but sand, so apparently is a a miracle this has managed to grow, but its there.

Jungle Life

Rain Forest

Lake McKenzie

Me and Mike in Lake McKenzie

The lake is 150 square hectares and but is only 5 meters deep, anyway its so amazingly clear and is brilliant for swimming in, so we all jump in to cool off...the lakes are the only plac to swim as the sea has Box Jellyfish and Great White sharks in abundance

That afternoon we drove back down to the beach and decided to camp within a few hundred meters of the ship wreck which lyes in the surf halfway up the island,
so we camped on the beach, and cooked up some food and had a few beers and some good laughs!

after quite a cold night in our dodgy tent ! I got up before dawn to go and photograph the wreck at sunrise, which was well worth it ! as you can see.

Shipwreck at sunrise

breaking through

the next day we visited Eli Creek, which you can jump in and float down to where the water meets the sea ! which is a good way to spend the afternoon

Cruising down Eli Creek

The beast !

We drove up to the top end of the Island and walked to the top of the cliff face, and saw Whales jumping in the sea, they pass this way for the winter migration so it was amazing to see so many jumping out of the sea as they migrated north.

The gang at Indian head

View from Indian Head

we also saw a few dingos hanging around, you are warned several times about the dingos before and during the trip, as they can kill and be aggressive, a couple of years ago they "took" a boy, carried him away and killed him, so you have to be pretty careful.

Dingo

Me

Then it was my time behind the wheel, never driven a 4WD before especially on sand, so was a bit unsure but it turned out to be awesome fun, blasting down the beach what made it even better was having Australia by the Manic street preachers on blasting out the stereo...that song was made for this

we camped again on the beach and finished off the beers under the full moon.

Camping it up

Full Moon Rising

the next day we went to Lake Wabby which is massive hike for what seems like over 45 minutes, over hugh sand dunes, seemingly in the middle of the desert with nothing but sand and the occasional sign post, we all trudged across until magnificent lake Waby appears out of no where ! surrounded by rain forest its like something out of a film...I literally dropped my things on the sand and ran down the sand dunes and dived straight in...pretty cold after walking across the desert dunes...but pretty refreshing, the lake is good enough to drink which was a good job as we'd run out of water

6 am

crossing the desert

Eva and Myself swam across the lake, and most of the others followed, I was blown away by Lake Wabby which i thought was nicer than Lake McKenzie. but sadly its vanishing and in 4 years will have been swallowed up by the advancing sand dunes for ever

Lake Wabby Sand Dunes

Drying off by the lake

After that we had the trip back to the ferry, with all the other 4X4's realising they were running late at the same time, the bottle neck of the southern tip of the island became something out of a wacky races cartoon, everyone trying to take little shortcuts, getting stuck, driving round rocks into the sea...etc...but we made it on to the ferry in time !

Cracked open a beer each as we handed back the 4X4 and settled down for a great night, Free BBQ and Beer all night in the hostel thanks to a mix up

the after party

Pi$ed as.... with Goeffrey and Adelaide

A bit sad next day for the group to break up and head our seperate ways, definitely one of the very best things I've done and one of the very best groups of people I've met!

written by  tomrendell on July 30, 2007 from Fraser Island, Australia
from the travel blog: Melbourne and the East coast
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Looks like great combo of paradise and fun Tom. Mum xx

written by  lynda rendell on August 4, 2007

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did u notice how many fins were in the surf mate? :-P I took a plane over a few years back and the aerial view of the beach from said plane was ...memorable. I stuck to the rockpools n lakes :-)

written by  Dave Leong on August 7, 2007

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