"Fraser Island stretches over 123 kilometres in length and 22 kilometres at its widest point. With an area of 184 000 hectares it is the largest sand island in the world.Fraser island is a place of exceptional beauty, with its long uninterrupted white beaches flanked by strikingly coloured sand cliffs, and over 100 freshwater lakes some tea-coloured and others clear and blue all ringed by white sandy beaches. Ancient rainforests grow in sand along the banks of fast-flowing, crystal-clear creeks."
So I hopped on a plane up to Hervey Bay. As I came out of the airport I began talking to a girl from New York. Lucy. She was looking to book on to a tour to Fraser Island, so I told her where I was staying and that she should just book the same as me. So she did. We met for some lunch and then spent the day on the gorgeous beach, and by the pool. And then we had a meeting about our weekend. We would be given a 4x4 truck to drive round the island ourselves for 3 days and 2 nights. Camping. The guys running the show were a bit odd to say the least. One was so sunburnt and had the funniest sunglasses mark on his face. He was well stroppy and kept talking about losing our bond (our deposit). Pretty much anything we did wrong and it'd be goodbye to $60. There were 20 of us and we got randomly put in to two groups. Luckily me and Lucy were put in the same group as we were hoping seeing as we'd made friends. Team A. Team B. We were Team B. Us two and 8 Germans. I have no issue with that although I think they could have mixed it up a little. We were sort of left out from the start as they spoke alot of German to eachother. After our meeting we had to sit with our group and get our shopping list sorted for the weekend. This is where I could see there would be a struggle over the wknd. We were given a suggested list to get from the butchers, which pretty much gave us a bit of everything to bbq. Easy. But no. The Germans decided it looked like too much so instead we individually had to tell the self acclaimed leader of the group what we wanted. I struggle with picking what Macdonalds happy meal to have, so choosing what meat I wanted over the wknd was ridiculous. I opted for some chicken in the end. Other people we putting hands up for 1 sausage, 1 burger. It was so ridiculous. Then they proceeded to work out exactly how much each person owed. So I was a bit stressed before we even left. Especially as Team A had chosen the suggested shopping list and were done an hour before us! Then we went to get groceries. Me and Lucy were given the job of getting apples, which we even got wrong. We got half of one brand and half of another, but that annoying 'leader' sent half of them back saying she didn't like red apples. Jeez. That evening was a relaxing one as we had to be up and ready for 6am.
So up early doors to pack up and meet the weird men running the trip. We had to check all our equipment and get taught how to pack it all up. Then we got talked through the itinery. "You WILL get in Lake Mackenzie and you WILL have a swim". This is what the guy kept saying. "Then you get to the shipwreck and you WILL take pictures and you WILL have a good time". Ok buddy.
And then we were off to catch our boat to Fraser Island. I could tell it was going to be filled with laughter as we sat in the truck with the silent germans. Silent or talking german.
Our first stop on the island was Lake Mackenzie. Where we DID have a swim. It really was like something you see in brochures and expect that it's been photoshopped. But this was real. It was so beautiful. Completely clear, with the sun making it sparkle. Coincidence of the week happened here. Val ran over to some girls she's hung around in Noosa (on the coast somewhere) which was a bit of a coincidence anyway, but it turned out that one of the girls was who I sat next to on my flight from Singapore to Sydney 2 weeks before. Smallllllll world when you're travelling. Anyway some guys had a Christmas hat so we stole it for some pics. While all this was going on, me and Lucy hung around with Team A. They were much more fun and we wondered if there was any way we could maybe just go with them. It would be a tight squeeze though so we left it for now and figured we'd all be hanging round the same places anyway. But on the way to another lake I heard Team B talking about doing something different and not staying with Team A.
"Guys can't we just all stay together. Just because we're in 2 different cars it doesn't mean we have to plan different routes. Why don't we plan it altogether?" Wow. Brave person speaking up like that huh?! Ahh shit it was me. There I stood in front of 8 pissed off germans disagreeing with everything I was saying. I absolutely HATE confrontation and have zilcho argument skills. So they disagreed but I found myself pushing it. I'm not paying all this money for a trip that i'm not happy on. I didn't see a problem with all staying on the same route. But no. That was final. The germans wanted to plan their own time without everyone else. Me and Lucy joked about having the least amount of charisma ever. Anything we would have suggested would have been ignored to be honest. Anyway we didn't hang around talking about it for too long as we had to keep moving. We'd been told we had to stop driving by 5pm and be at the campsite.
We just made it there on time. But once again the germans wanted to do something different. They wanted to carry on driving to a different part of the island. It wouldv'e taken about another hour and a half. Something me and Lucy wasn't really happy about seeing as we'd been told not to. That's just the goody goody two shoes in me I'm afraid! So we said we were staying with Team A, who gladly adopted us! We took a tent and I grabbed my pre-ordered bit of chicken and we happily waved them off, secretly hoping they'd get bogged in the sand on the way. So there we were, setting up our tents, and bbqing our meat etc. We went down to see the lake which was tea coloured. It had tea trees in it. So I had a dip hoping it would be good for my skin! We had to watch for dingoes as they were known to eat scraps and even attack people. So all toilet stops were in a group. And I won't go into the amount of creepy crawlies in the toilets because this post is already looking a little long. As we walked to the loos we made loads of noise as we were told it frightens off snakes and dingoes. Either that or we were being made to look really stupid stamping along and shouting 'lalalalalalalalalalalala'. That was me. "LALALALALALALA". Stamp stamp stamp. So then we spent the evening chatting as it got dark and we felt like we were being eaten alive by whatever was eating us. Can I just add at this point that everything in Oz is bigger. The flies. Bigger. And the buggers bite you as well. Even through my leggings! After a tiring day we clambered in to our tents for some sleep. Or not. It's pretty hard to sleep in them! Poor Val (from LA) had a terrible cough so she was suffering from that all night. Didn't help the sleeping situation. Hope it's better now Val!
Next morning we were up at 4.30am. Our itinery told us we had a number of things to do and places to drive to before 1pm as that's when you have to stop driving on the beach! Also, we'd arranged to meet Team B so that me and Lucy could get back to our seats in the truck. Ok so we were half hour late, but do you really think they waited for us?! I was really glad. Even though we were breaking all the insurance etc of the car we were in, at least we'd be having a good time. So off we went. Bogged once. Bogged twice. Bogged a 3rd time. It's crazy. The truck just kept getting stuck in the sand. The general routine of being bogged was everyone out the truck, dig as much sand from the tyres as possible, and then pushing the truck as Sarah (the best ever driver) hit accelerate. One time we were almost giving up and wondering what to do when a ranger came along and pulled us out! Even though we were told we weren't allowed to do that or we'd lose our bond. Bond shmond. We were bloody stuck!!
Driving on the beach was fun. Julie had a go next. A lovely girl from north Germany. Can't be many Germans in Germany at the moment. But she did a grand job and got us to the wreck. Not much to say. It was cool. A shipwreck. I have no statistics i'm afraid. So we had a quick browse and then went walking down this other stream thing. Then back in the truck and off to find Lake Wobby. On the way we got bogged again. A passer by asked us what tyre pressure we were on and was shocked at what we'd told him. Apparently too high. He told us to let air out. But we'd been told to keep it at 28 or we'd lose our bond. Bond Shmond. We were bloody stuck! Sure enough we were off and didn't get bogged again. Lake Wobby was absolutely stunning. It was a bit of a walk to get to. Through some woods. This is where we saw the ridiculously big hairy spider above. Lake Wobby was like waling into a scene from Laurence of Arabia. Just stunning sand for miles. The sun was still out and the lake was sparkling and we were all happy cooling down as it was so hot. We soon made a move when we saw the huge black clouds being blown over our way and the distant rumbles of thunder. Great. Just as we got back to the truck it started to rain. Lola and Gabriel (a lovely couple of Belgium) got in the car with the germans (who had showed up there at the same time) so we were even again and we were off to find our camping spot we'd spotted before. Trouble occured when our now softer tyres went over a rather large log. "Hssssssssssssssssssssssss" was all we could all hear and we stopped, all thinking about our definite losses of our bond. The boys took over, although you can never tell if boys actually know what they're doing or they just like to pretend! We were in a thin bit of the woods, a burst tyre, in the rain, hanging round with God knows what deadly creatures. Oh and then the storm set in. And then there was the 8 or so trucks behind us. One lad came forward, and we thought he was going to offer us a hand, but instead he asked if we could possibly move out the way. "Where the f*** too?". I didn't say that. We all thought it though and told him we'd be as quick as we could! And the boys did well and we were off
We found a small camping area on the beach and set up camp in the storm. Under some trees which I wasn't too sure about. Are tents lightening proof? Lola and Gabriel took hold of dinnerand made a gorgeous spag bowl under the ground sheets in the rain. Reminded me of a time in Brittany when my dad did the same - everywhere we gooo, always take the weather with you! Private family joke. Although not that private.
We pretty much went straight to bed. We were knackered and it was storming so much we couldn't really sit outside. I needed the toilet but didn't want to get struck by lightening or attacked by a dingo so I used my extraordinary bladder skills and held out to the morning.
Another early morning and we headed back to Lake Mackenzie as it had been our favourite part. Although this time the sun didn't want to play and it was pretty grey. We hung around the lake for a while all chatting (Team A plus me and Lucy - team B was off doing something german) and then made our way to the port where a load of other tired looking people were also waiting for the ferry.
As we drove back to the hostel on the other side we went passed a field of Kangaroos. I hadn't seen one yet so got a bit excited. As we backed in to the car park, the weird guy with the sunburn looked the truck up and down and said something about the back being bent. Loss of bond for sure. Everyone thought it was gone anyway for whatever reason. But it wasn't! No1 lost a thing. Actually we had to pay $10 for a damaged frying pan, which the germans claim they knew nothing about but they let me and Lucy off our dollar seeing as we didn't eat any of the food or drink any of the alcohol we'd put money in for. Thanks guys. Too kind.
That evening me and Lucy went for pizza. Most of Team A were going on a night bus up t'north. I chatted with Julie, who it turned out was heading to Brisbane on the very same bus as me the next day.
I had such a wicked wknd. That's not sarcastic at all. It was tiring and eventful but how boring would this post have been if I'd just told you about the sunshine and beautiful scenery and sunbathing. Yeh. Dull. Fraser Island was fun and I made lots of friends which is always nice. We all planned to meet up in Sydney for New Year. That evening I had the best shower and best night's sleep in the history of showers and night's sleep.
