Hervey bay and Fraser Island

Picture - Sunset on Fraser Island


Hi you guys,





The next installment in the blog story unfolds…





The next place of interest on our travels was Hervey bay, or at least the area you reach from here (Fraser Island). We had already booked the tour for the trip so it was all sorted when we got there, accommodation, trip details etc. All we had to do is get some snacks and booze and we were sorted. We spent 2 nights in Hervey bay waiting for our trip to Fraser to begin. Pretty boring place actually, not much to do, but we made the most of it, obviously. The evening before we set off, we watched a brief video about how to be dingo safe and how not to drive on the Island and we were put into groups of 10 (probably the best group actually as the other two groups were either all German bar one Irish lad and another group who had to cough up 300 bucks for some girl smashing the car up, Haha!!).





We set off to the ferry early in the morning in convoy, made a quick pit stop at the shop for last minute snacks and stuff and then we were on our way. When we arrived on the island it was weird, we drove off the ferry and we were straight into the rough and tough off-roading on the sandy tracks. I was designated primary driver so I would drive the 4x4 first and would drive to and from the ferry port (get in!!). The tracks inland were pretty crazy, massive divots everywhere and big bumps to try avoid. Treacherous, but lots of fun!! Well I say avoid but everyone in the car was like judging the size of the bang in the back of the car on a rated scale. So some times you would try to maneuver a big bump but safely obviously, didn’t want to be losing our bond that quickly. The first stop on our travels was to Lake Mackenzie. It was just truly beautiful. We all got on our bathers and jumped straight in. It was freshwater too so you didn’t have to worry about getting salt water down your throat. The water was really clear and you could see underwater for miles. After we all got dried off and got back in the car (driver change over to Dave too). We then drove for a while through more crazy inland tracks until we reached the beach. Wow-a-wea!! But the beach only had a 50mph speed limit, ONLY! What fun, ragging down the beach in a Toyota Landcrusier. We drove some way before stopping at a shop/bar, for a swift schooner (3/4pint). I then got back into the driving seat for some more outrageous fun. Started off badly though. We came out from the track that drove up to the shop and took a hard left back onto the beach driving. AND... All of a sudden the car just started bumping around really hard; the people in the back were absolutely flying around (shit scared). 11/10 on the bump scale. We were only traveling maybe 20kph and we hit an area of sand that collapses away as there is a creek underneath. Everyone in the back got pretty scared of driving for a good 15 mins afterwards. Pretty funny Simone and I thought. :) . Oh well on with the driving. Getting some good speed up on the beach; it was brilliant. Funny also as there were signs everywhere saying watch out for planes landing on the beach. So everyone’s going mad looking for the landing planes.

We eventually found the area we were going to camp for the evening and found some other groups there too. Pitched the tents, cooked some food and cracked open the goon (Ozzie wine in bags, usually comes in at least 4 litres bags for like 3-5squid - lethal)!! We all joined in playing drinking games pretty early on so some of the group was smashed before we got started on the night. The rest of us carried on relentless to the effects of the lethal goon. Getting wrecked and doing funny stuff like mooning the other groups for dares (also other stuff, ask me about some other time).

The next day we woke up really early to make sure we beat the tide. The guy back at HQ told us to ‘stay the hell out of the sea water’, very stern about it too. So we had to make sure you set off before a certain time to ensure no sea water gets on the car at all. We were driving for a while and the tide was just getting closer and closer. Eventually we got a little bogged in deep sand so we all walked the last 200 metres for the sake of the car, narrowly just avoiding the sea water, Hooray! We got to the lookout just in time and had a quick walk up to the head to check out some dolphins/sharks that can be seen in the water. We stopped there for a while, but I was desperate for the toilet so I made my way back down to the car to get a shovel and toilet paper. In the mean time Simone and the group spotted a huge pod of dolphins (possibly 20-30), bugger! Oh well. I had a little mini animal (dingo) adventure of my own instead. I went into the sand dunes to go to the toilet and while I was mid action, I spotted a lone dingo approaching me interested in what was being produced. I obviously wasn’t too happy about the wild dog coming towards me, so I hit the sand with the spade and distracted it for a while for me to finish up. I then filled in the hole and the bloody thing was trying to dig up the hole, so I hit the floor again in order to stop it. It did stop it but it keep trying to follow me all the way back to the car, in the end I ended up running back with it chasing me, luckily there weren’t more around.

After checking out some other sea features we started heading back down to see some other sites that we had driven by on the way there. We stopped off at a huge beached ship wreck, a lovely freshwater creek (saw a massive eel, Simone got scared) and a few other cliff features. After a hectic day of site seeing we found another nice area to camp in. Set up camp and had a similar night as before with not so many drinking games and a little less rudeness going on.

The next day we headed to another lake (Lake Wabby) but never made it because it seemed too far to reach. I had a great drive up a long crazy hill anyway, ruts and bumps everywhere. We then headed back to Lake Mackenzie but never made that either because there was a bloody bus blocking the track so we couldn’t get through. We wanted to see the lake in the sunshine as we had all seen photos in the sun. When we saw it, the weather didn’t give us the full potential. So we thought we would go back and check it out in the sunshine. So not arriving to our second lake of the day, we finally made it the third try, Lake Billabean. Possibly just as nice as Mackenzie just not as busy, so maybe on the whole as good. After drying ourselves we made our way back to the ferry. What a shame, but hey we all had a really good time, would love to go again, maybe another day.

Also another thing to add was the sea looked so inviting to swim in but doing so would be very dangerous. As there are sharks, fire coral (gives 3rd degree burns if touched), undertows and strong currents. I heard of loads of people swimming in there when they were drunk, idiots. Thought passed my mind, but was straight out at the rate it came in.

On the whole we both had a great time on Fraser Island. Weather could have been better but, hey, we were lucky as the days before and after the weather was just so much worse than we endured.

Peace out and speak soon.

Hope all is well back in the UK