Wednesday 28 August 2013 – Fraser Island

Well, what a great day we have just had!  We had an early start today as we were being picked up at the front of the caravan park between 7.20 and 7.30 for a full day trip to Fraser Island.  I set the alarm on my phone last night for 6.30 this morning, after trying it out first, but woke at 6am anyway, so we were out the front at the designated time.  But not before farewelling our neighbours for the last week – Taswegians Pauline and Terry from out of Burnie.

We were picked up at just after 7.30 by Fritz (an Austrian), who picked up us and another couple from our park – Betty and Graham - who we later established knew Maureen and Bill Mumford (former Newsagents/Tattslotto people from Newborough), after having met them on travels a couple of years ago.  They regularly keep in touch by email.

From pick up we were taken to a bush caravan/backpackers park down towards the marina, and into a divey looking office, very disorganised, extremely casual and Grants description includes – ‘it looked shonky!’  Here we – along with eleven others – were ushered into the ‘office’ to pay the balance of the tour costs, then we were divided into two groups and directed into two Land Cruisers – each seating seven – with the three in the back seat with very little leg room.  Our car full comprised us, Pauline and Graham and three young German backpackers: Flo (male – short for Florian) who has been here in Aussie for eight months, Martin (a mate of Flo who only arrived a week ago and is in Australia for two months) and Ava (ready to start Uni in Frankfurt in October and travelling on her own).  The Germans (Don’t mention the war) were great fun, spoke very good English, and insisted on sitting in the back for the first stint.

Our driver/guide was Chris (Male) who was as Okker as you would find and had all the Aussie sayings you could imagine, was a very knowledgeable and funny man who had us all laughing frequently.  He referred to the Germans as ‘The Germans’ or the ‘Wunderbar set’ and told jokes about Kiwis, Iraquis, Afganis, Germans, Chinese – get the idea – very politically incorrect.  I did say to the Germans at the end of the day that their knowledge of Aussie idiom, slang and swearing would have doubled today – and it would have!  Fritz drove the other vehicle and travelling with them was Nick the token aborigine.  I’m not sure what his role was with the tour company, but after I chatted with him at morning tea time (he was very political and bitter about the police, Government, etc), he sought me out at lunch and at a later stop to continue the chat!

We drove to the barge departure point, the vehicles were driven onto the barge, along with lots of others, then we went on and at about 8.30 we set off on the 6km cross to Fraser Island.  It took about 35 minutes, and we were off!!  Well, we thought the roads in Africa were bad, but these were worse.  Of course Fraser Island is a sand island, and the sand has an extremely high proportion of silica, making it very fine (like powder) and unsuitable for much, but it is good for cleaning jewellery, so after an extremely rough ride in very deep sand, we came to a perched lake – Lake McKenzie.  A perched lake is one situated above sea level (this one is 100 mtrs above) and is fed only by rain.  No creeks run into it.  So of course I cleaned my rings and they came out sparkling!  We had morning tea there.

Lake McKenzie

From there we drove onto the 75 mile beach and drove pretty well the full length of the stretch at 70 – 80 kph right along the waters edge, seeing Yidney Rocks and the Pinnacles before stopping at the wreck of the Maheno, stranded there in 1935.  From there we continued along the beach to Indian Head and the Champagne Pools where we had lunch – lovely salad rolls we made ourselves and beer and champagne – and yes I did have some – 3 glasses in fact! (Just those skinny plastic flutes).

 Driving along the beach

The wreck of the Maheno

 Indian Head

That was as far as we could go along the beach (rocky outcrops) so we turned around and went back almost the whole distance, until we came to Eli Creek.  But just before we got to Eli Creek we saw our first dingo – a young one by a bit of a creek.  We were at Eli Creek for about half an hour, and after we left there we saw another dingo right up near a fishermen (there were dozens fishing), loitering to get his catch or his bait or whatever.  It was right out near the waters edge.

A young dingo

From there we made our way slowly back to the barge for the return to Hervey Bay.  The return road was terrible, huge holes, deep sand, etc.  But we made it back to the barge, left there at 5 and were back here at camp by around 6pm.

We had a really great day, drove around 270km in total, have arrived home cramped, weary but satisfied with the experience we have had today.

We did swap around with the seats, so all had our share of the cramped conditions, saw some badly bogged vehicles – one was being dug out when we passed going one way, and was still there an hour or so later.  Lots of private 4x4’s go over there, and have no idea of how to drive the conditions – ‘shit for brains’ as Chris referred to them all day.

All in all, money well spent.