Fraser Island

Three days. nine people cramped into 5 ton of Japanese steel

And the the Fraser island adventure is over to. 3 days, 2 nights with 8 strangers jumping around a sand heap. I huge, beautiful sand heap.

Day 1. The beginning

The first day started at 0545. At 0600 we started packing all the stuff into the back of out brand .. erm “new” Toyota Land cruiser. And at 0800 after a short final briefing and a lot of information on how to best loose your bond we set out toward the ferry.
The ferry is a landing craft so we had to back the car onto it, no problems so far except a hard thud when the back of the car hit the deck. But not hard enough to dent anything. So far so good.

The ferry ride is 20 minutes and then we are of on our own. The first leg went to Central station in the center of the island. There we had a stop to gather some firewood, and try to loose the other Koala cars. No fun driving in a convoy.

From Central Station we drove on to Lake Wabby.

This lake is shrinking and will soon disappear. The sand dune is filling it up.

Then it was time for some beach driving.

We drove north toward Indian Head witch was the target for our first day of driving.
On the way we stopped at the remains of the Maheno grounded there in 1935

We drove all the way up to the head but decided to backtrack to set up our camp. So the first night we camped about 6 km south of Indian Head. Just of the beach.

Here we had dinner. Steak, and partly burned, baked potatoes. And we got visited by a few of the islands, not always so, friendly dingos. There were at least two circling us for a while. But the campfire and the use of the headlights on the car made them keep their distance. The closest one was about 4 meters away on the closest.

We went to bed quite early, and we could here them sniffing around outside our tents.

Day 2. Indian Head and down the beach

We woke up early and cleaned out the campsite. Wanting to go north before heading south again we started early, just as the tide as making it’s way out. So we were almost in the water a few times.

We drove all the way up to Orchard Beach and did the dishes and had breakfast. First we tried to get into the campsite just around Indian Head. But got stuck for the first time. But after some pushing we made it out. Then we got stuck again trying to get up from the beach towards Orchard Beach. But a empty car, and a high speed start with Michelle behind the wheel got us up.

On the way back we stopped at the Champagne Pool. The only place on Fraser Island where you can swim in saltwater with no fear for sharks. It’s a small rock pool.

Then we drove back down to Indian Head and walked to the top. From the top of the cliff you have a great view in every direction. Out at sea we could see the whales blowing. And right below us we saw a school of fish and two sharks. They looked small, but the we had a look at the people one the beach, and the looked small to. So I guess they were at least 2 meter long.

Then we raced on down the beach. We went of the beach for a while to visit another lake. Which I don’t remember the name of.. HELP 🙂

The last stop the evening was Rainbow Gorge. The valley was not to interesting, but some people in my car found out that rolling down the steep sand dune was a lot of fun 🙂

We set up camp on the beach this night as well, just north of Eulong. This place was more crowded that the first night, but not packed. A Ranger visited us that evening and made sure we were behaving 🙂

That night we had “quality” burgers and hot dogs. And a lone dingo visit. We went to bed early so that we could catch the early morning low tide (and we were all tired 🙂 ).

Day 3. The lakes

The last day we headed south before we went inlands getting a look at all the beauty full lakes down there. The first stop was at Teathree Lake where we did out dishes and had breakfast. The lake is very shallow and have a slight tint of brown in the water. This comes from the Tea three trees around the lake. You could taste it and feel it on your skin when you came up after a swim. It as very refreshing.

After that we hurried on to Lake Birrabeen. This lake is very similar to Lake McKenzie. It has bright white beaches, and crystal clear water. We only had a short stop here since we wanted to visit Lake McKenzie and we were starting to run out of time. As stated a bow Lake McKenzie is a very nice lake. But quite crowded, everyone goes there.

After that we headed back to the ferry which left the island at 1400. On the way back we spotted some dolphins to.

Back at the koala we quickly emptied and cleaned out the truck, making it ready for the next group leaving the next day.

The it was time for a cold shower. and a good meal before the group started to disintegrate. Two of the people in the group left the same night, the rest of us broke up today. But I hope I’ll see at least some of them again later when they come down to Sydney again.

Today Noosa

Today I’m in Noosa. Haven’t seen much here and are probably not going to see much either. Tomorrow morning I leave for Surfers Paradise. The journey is getting close to the end.

Keep reading Surfers Paradise @ Trekkers